Slough House

London Rules / C08

Chapter 8

Book 5 Part Two 6506 words POV: Catherine Standish, River Cartwright, Emma Flyte

Summary

Catherine Standish shows Jackson Lamb the BBC footage of the alley in Slough where Dennis Gimball has been found dead, and Lamb treats the killing as confirmation that his theory was right. She texts River Cartwright and Louisa Guy to come back, lists the afternoon’s failures — unarmed operatives sent to watch, the Park left uninformed, Emma Flyte detained in a chair — and suggests bypassing Lady Di and taking the matter to Claude Whelan. Lamb prefers to wait for reports. Upstairs, Roderick Ho is woken from a dream about his girlfriend Kim by Flyte’s arrival, and she begins questioning him.

On the road back to London, River and J.K. Coe argue about the paint tin Coe knocked from the scaffolding; Coe has already tipped off a news site and destroyed his phone, and argues that the Park will blanket any suggestion of Service involvement and that the tattooed man makes a convenient scapegoat. In the van near the university, Danny hears from An that Gimball’s death serves the plan whether or not they caused it, and recalls how Kim was used and then killed. Louisa and Shirley drive back from Birmingham and work out that the second crew left when the news broke. Flyte establishes that Ho gave Kim access to the Service Archive. At Slough House, Devon Welles arrives alone, the team reassembles, and Coe names the next stage: seizing control of the media. Lamb tells Welles to invent a story that will get him into the Park.

Beats

  • C08S01 · Catherine Standish — Catherine Standish watched Jackson Lamb take in the BBC footage of a scaffolding-clad alley in Slough, where Dennis Gimball had been found dead, and texted River Cartwright and Louisa Guy to come back. She made tea, catalogued the afternoon’s failures — unarmed desk operatives sent to stand around, the Park left uninformed, Emma Flyte cuffed to a chair — and suggested bypassing Lady Di and taking the whole business to Claude Whelan. Lamb preferred to wait for reports. Then someone entered the building below.
  • C08S02 · Roderick Ho — Roderick Ho was asleep at his desk, dreaming that Kim’s tangled credit card refunds had been a ploy to buy him a present, when the octopus watch on his wrist emitted a kerthunk that turned out to be the door opening. He woke, wiped his mouth, and gave the woman in the doorway his second-best smile. He recognised Emma Flyte from the trouble earlier in the year, when he had climbed out of a window to avoid being shot. She said, “This Kim. Your girlfriend.” Then: “Let’s start with her.”
  • C08S03 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright drove Ho’s car back towards London just under the limit, arguing with J.K. Coe about the paint tin that had killed Dennis Gimball. Coe had already phoned a news site anonymously and destroyed the phone. He argued that Slough House was never sent anywhere, that the Park would blanket any suggestion of Service involvement, and that the tattooed man made a ready-made scapegoat. River, who could still see the tin falling, would not accept it. He sped up as police cars passed in the other direction.
  • C08S04 · Emma Flyte — Emma Flyte worked through Roderick Ho’s account of his girlfriend. He had told Kim he worked for a bank, then told her he was a computer ace, then fixed her credit card troubles and restaurant frauds because she was his girlfriend. He described a night he could not remember, after which Kim said he had told her secrets. Flyte established that Kim was a name, a false address and very little else. Told the woman was Chinese, Ho corrected her: she was Korean.
  • C08S05 · Danny — Danny sat in the parked van near the university with Shin and An, asking how Gimball could be dead when they had not killed him. An said the plan called for a populist leader to die, and one had, and that nobody would believe coincidence, so the plan worked regardless. Danny thought about Kim, the pills she had slipped the target, the document she had helped steal, and Shin finishing her at home. Twice they had failed to kill Ho. He resolved to act if there were further derailments.
  • C08S06 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy drove back from Birmingham with Shirley Dander, who could not see how Gimball had died if the terrorists were in the van she had chased off. Louisa teased her about the monkey wrench and about the ordinary citizens she had probably terrified, then reasoned it out aloud: the van had left the moment the news broke, because only one politician needed to die. Shirley agreed, and called it shit hitting the fan. Louisa let her claim a yellow car.
  • C08S07 · Emma Flyte — Emma Flyte pieced together how the Service Archive had come to exist, a transparency-era project assigned for maintenance to Slough House and therefore to Roderick Ho, and asked whether he had given his ongoing work product to Kim. Ho said she was his girlfriend. Flyte asked whether he had given his girlfriend state secrets. Ho leaned back in his chair and asked what he had done now.
  • C08S08 · Catherine Standish — Catherine Standish watched Devon Welles, one of the Dogs, arrive alone at Slough House and trade insults with Lamb. River and Coe came in and admitted they had seen only one man, tattooed, following Gimball into the alley. Louisa and Shirley arrived. Welles wanted the afternoon rewritten as a lockdown; Lamb deduced he was covering for Flyte and for his own career. Asked what came next, Coe said: seize control of the media. Lamb told Welles to invent a story that would get him into the Park.

People

  • Jackson Lamb — Head of Slough House; reads Gimball’s death as proof his theory was right, then turns the day’s mess into a plan to get himself into the Park.
  • Dennis Gimball — The MP found dead in an alley in Slough, named on social media before any official confirmation.
  • Catherine Standish — Slough House’s office manager; runs the office, counts off the afternoon’s failures and presses Lamb to tell Claude Whelan.
  • River Cartwright — Slow horse driving Ho’s car back from Slough; quarrels with Coe over the paint tin and cannot accept the cover-up.
  • Louisa Guy — Slow horse returning from Birmingham with Shirley; works out why the van left when it did.
  • Emma Flyte — Head Dog, released from the chair; comes to Slough House to interrogate Ho and keeps the afternoon to herself.
  • Claude Whelan — First Desk at the Park; the man Catherine would rather tell the truth to, bypassing Lady Di.
  • Diana Taverner — Head of Ops at the Park, called Lady Di here; the person Catherine wants left out of it.
  • Shirley Dander — Slow horse returning with Louisa; reminds everyone that her wrench throw stuck in the van door.
  • Roderick Ho — Slow horse and computer specialist; woken from a dream of Kim to find Flyte in his room, and admits giving her access to the archive.
  • Kim Park — Ho’s girlfriend; questioning establishes she is a name, a false address and a honeytrap, and the crew say Shin killed her.
  • JK Coe — Slow horse; knocked the paint tin off the scaffolding and argues the Park will bury the truth about it.
  • Shin — Leader of the killing crew; the one who finished Kim and who twice sent men after Ho.
  • Danny — Crew member who questions the alteration of the plan and resolves to take action if there are more.
  • An — Crew member who explains that a populist leader has died, so the plan has worked whoever killed him.
  • Devon Welles — A Dog and Flyte’s colleague; arrives unannounced and alone, wanting the afternoon rewritten as a lockdown.
  • Zafar Jaffrey — The other potential target; photographs show his aide, the man with the face tattoo, at his side.

Places

  • Slough House — MI5’s dumping ground; Lamb’s office on the top floor, the stairs where Welles arrives, and the rooms upstairs.
  • Regent’s Park — The Park, Service headquarters, which Lamb failed to inform and which everyone expects to bury the affair.
  • Birmingham — Shirley’s “Brum”, where the van of gunmen was parked outside Jaffrey’s meeting.
  • Abbotsfield — The village the crew shot up; River and Coe wonder whether the tattooed man was one of that crew.

Lines worth keeping

“Fuck me. So that happened.” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb’s reaction to the breaking news on the BBC website.

“But everyone’s favourite Europhobe just made a hard Brexit.” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb, on the manner of Dennis Gimball’s death.

“I said I wasn’t going to shoot them.” — J.K. Coe, Coe, splitting hairs about what he promised River before Slough.

“That’s not really a defence, though, is it? More an admission of guilt.” — River Cartwright, River, on Coe’s excuse for the paint tin.

“Ethical behaviour’s like a vajazzle on a nun. Pretty to picture, but who really benefits?” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb, deflecting Welles’s suggestion that he might lecture on ethics.

“Seize control of the media.” — J.K. Coe, Coe, naming the next stage of the crew’s plan.

“It doesn’t matter.” — An, An, when Danny protests that they were not the ones who killed Gimball.

Threads

  • Plants: Catherine texts River and Louisa to come back, and reports that Louisa and Shirley are on the road.; Catherine presses Lamb to bypass Lady Di and take the affair straight to Claude Whelan.; Lamb says it is not as if one of their own killed Gimball, and is cut off by someone entering the building.; Ho’s dream supplies the shape of the honeytrap: Kim’s refunds, her poor luck with retailers, and the money he moved for her.; Coe insists the tattooed man is a ready-made scapegoat for a death the Service will want blanketed.; Danny worries that the plan is being altered, and resolves to act if there are further derailments.; Louisa’s theory that the van left because only one politician needed to die, and that the crews may be one crew split in two.; The Service Archive, an unbuilt transparency project parked on Slough House and therefore on Ho, which Kim had access to.; Welles arrives alone and off the record, which Lamb reads as a man covering for his boss.; Welles is told he must invent a story that will get Lamb into the Park.
  • Payoffs: The paint tin Coe knocked from the scaffolding is confirmed as the cause of Gimball’s death.; Ho’s dream of Kim’s credit card refunds resolves into Flyte’s interrogation: the refunds were the work he did for her.; Coe’s earlier promise not to shoot anyone is quoted back at him as an admission rather than a defence.; Shirley’s wrench throw and the van’s sudden departure are explained by Louisa’s reading of the timing.; Lamb’s question about the gun from the afternoon is answered: it is in his desk drawer.; The tattooed man Catherine found in photographs beside Jaffrey turns out to be the man River fought.
  • Continuity: Timeline: the evening of Gimball’s death; River and Coe are driving back to London, Louisa and Shirley are still on the road.; Slough House is supposed to be in lockdown, a point Welles makes and Lamb waves away.; Emma Flyte was held cuffed to a chair and released, and has not reported it to the Park.; Ho’s car is on the motorway with River at the wheel while Ho himself is being questioned upstairs.; Kim is Korean, not Chinese, and gave a false address; Ho knows almost nothing else about her.; The crew is down to three: four companions, less Joon, who died outside Ho’s house.; River and Coe were unarmed and saw only one opponent; the tin’s lid stayed on when it landed.

Characters

Places