Slough House

Spook Street / C11

Chapter 11

Book 4 Part Two 6219 words POV: Shirley Dander, Catherine Standish, Louisa Guy, River Cartwright

Summary

Shirley, working late, sees a Google alert carrying a phone video of a crash on Pentonville Road: a blonde woman with a gun, an unarmed man who may be River, and a shot fired before the footage collapses into pavement and feet. Louisa leaves for the scene; Marcus notes the second man resembles that afternoon’s intruder. In Lamb’s office, Catherine and Bad Sam Chapman ask whether a Cartwright-era project caused Westacres, and Lamb refuses to take it to Taverner or Whelan because the Park may be covering its own tracks; he sends Catherine to fetch the O.B. Shirley, meanwhile, confronts the silent Coe over what he told Lamb, and gets a knife at her throat for touching him. The questioning of the O.B. revolves around Les Arbres and Project Cuckoo, a scheme to raise children as something they are not, and around the American who proposed it. At the crime scene Louisa meets Emma Flyte of the Dogs and names Patrice as the gunman, warning that he may kill Cartwright next. River, held by Patrice, is taken across London to the Embankment, where Patrice asks about the dazzle ship. The chapter ends with the O.B. naming the American as Frank, and, pressed on what Frank had on him, saying “Isobel” and weeping.

Beats

  • C11S01 · Shirley — Shirley updates her wall chart — days without Ho being a dick, always set to zero — and sees a Google alert carrying phone footage from Pentonville Road: a crash, a blonde woman with a gun, and a man who may be River. Louisa, feet in a washing-up bowl, pulls on socks and leaves for the scene in the rain despite her injuries. Marcus notices the unarmed man in the clip resembles the intruder from that afternoon. Shirley stays behind and decides to find out from Coe what he told Lamb.
  • C11S02 · Catherine — In Lamb’s office, Catherine and Bad Sam Chapman press him on whether a project David Cartwright set up more than twenty years ago could lie behind Westacres. Lamb will not take it to Taverner or to the new First Desk, Whelan, arguing that the Park may be cleaning up its own mess. Chapman raises Catherine’s past as Charles Partner’s assistant and she recalls the Dogs’ interrogation after Partner’s death. Lamb orders her to fetch the O.B. for questioning, and she goes.
  • C11S03 · Shirley — Shirley confronts Coe in the darkened room he shares with River, demanding to know what he told Lamb, and rips the earbuds out of his head when he ignores her. He comes to his feet with a knife under her chin and tells her never to touch him. Marcus appears in the doorway and talks him down; Coe will lower the blade only once Shirley says she is clear. She says it, and finds the trickle on her jaw is sweat rather than blood.
  • C11S04 · Catherine — Catherine stages the O.B.’s questioning in Lamb’s office, placing a chair centrally and moving lamps so the light falls around him rather than on him. Lamb tells him the man he shot was posing as his grandson and came from Les Arbres, then names Project Cuckoo and accuses Cartwright of running it after everyone else refused. The old man’s answers circle the subject without landing on it, and Catherine resolves to see the day through and then leave Slough House for good.
  • C11S05 · Louisa — Louisa nearly drives past the turn for home but makes it and reaches Pentonville Road, where police have closed the scene and nobody is in custody. A wet, bruised blonde woman approaches her and is identified by Louisa as Emma Flyte, lately of the Met and new to the Dogs; she confirms River was in the struck car and that the man who took him is called Patrice. Louisa warns her that Patrice tried to kill a former spook that day and may kill Cartwright next. Flyte answers that it did not look to her as though that was Patrice’s plan.
  • C11S06 · River — Patrice moves River by taxi from King’s Cross to Great Portland Street and then by tube to the Embankment, keeping a hand on his shoulder and the gun out of sight. River decides not to run, because he wants answers about Les Arbres, about the commune and about Bertrand. When the questioning goes too far Patrice hits him and passes it off to bystanders as claustrophobia. After a phone call Patrice asks him what the dazzle ship is and where to find it.
  • C11S07 · Catherine — The O.B. names the American as Frank and describes him bringing Project Cuckoo to the Park, being sent away, and later turning up at his Bayswater house at the end of summer. He says Frank believed in Cuckoo as the only possible direction, and that this faith was why the Agency got rid of him. Lamb presses him on what Frank had on him and why he funded the colony unofficially, while Chapman and Catherine both tell Lamb to stop. The old man says “Isobel” and begins to cry.

People

  • Shirley Dander — spots the Pentonville Road video on a Google alert, then gets a knife at her throat from Coe
  • JK Coe — refuses to answer Shirley, then holds a knife under her chin until she concedes
  • Jackson Lamb — dismisses the Park and Whelan, then interrogates the O.B. about Cuckoo
  • Sam Chapman — pressed into service as Lamb’s questioner and gentles the old man
  • David Cartwright — the O.B., demented former spymaster who shot an intruder and now recalls Frank and Cuckoo
  • Patrice — the gunman who abducts River and asks him about the dazzle ship
  • Emma Flyte — Dogs officer at the crime scene who gives Louisa the name Patrice
  • Diana Taverner — named as still holding Ops, discussed only
  • Claude Whelan — named as the new First Desk, discussed only
  • Frank Harkness — the American who proposed Project Cuckoo, named by the O.B. but not present
  • Bertrand — named by Patrice as the man whose passport River is carrying

Places

  • Slough House — the office where Shirley, Marcus, Louisa, Coe and Lamb are working late
  • Les Arbres — the French commune Lamb names as the source of the intruder
  • Regent’s Park — the Park, headquarters, where Lamb refuses to take the theory

Lines worth keeping

“You don’t touch me” — JK Coe, knife under Shirley’s chin after she rips out his earbuds

“Either he knows more than he’s pretending or less than he should.” — Jackson Lamb, on the O.B., before ordering him brought in for questioning

“Patrice tried to kill a former spook today. So whatever you’re doing to find him, do it faster. Before he kills Cartwright too.” — Louisa Guy, warning Emma Flyte at the Pentonville Road scene

“There is always a plan” — Patrice, answering River’s question on the steps above the Embankment

Threads

  • Plants: River appears in a phone video being taken away at gunpoint, and a second citizen video is later uploaded.; Coe’s knife, and his rule that he must never be touched, mark him as the most dangerous person in Slough House.; Marcus’s money troubles are set out at length, with no solution offered.; Lamb proposes that the Park may be cleaning up its own mess rather than being a victim of it.; The O.B. names Frank and ‘Isobel’, linking Project Cuckoo to River’s mother.; Patrice’s question about ‘the dazzle ship’ sets the next rendezvous.
  • Payoffs: Marcus’s recognition of ‘the joker from this afternoon’ on the video identifies the gunman as the man who later takes River.; Coe’s earlier remark about being tied to a chair and having his toes shaved is shown to be grounded when he draws a blade.; Louisa’s torn jeans and hurt legs are accounted for in-scene by a crowbar attack on her ankles that same day.
  • Continuity: It is past home-time on the day of the Pentonville Road shooting; the Westacres bombing is recent and still dominates the news.; Lamb’s office holds Lamb, Catherine and Bad Sam Chapman; Coe is summoned there and returns downstairs.; Catherine was Charles Partner’s assistant and was interrogated for hours by the Dogs after his death.; David Cartwright shot an intruder posing as his grandson the previous night.; Diana Taverner is still Ops; Claude Whelan is the new First Desk, and Lamb mentions an unidentified person Whelan sent to Slough House (‘Grendel’s mother’).; River had spent the day in France.; The fluid on Shirley’s jaw after the knife is sweat, not blood.

Characters

Places

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