Slough House

Joe Country / C03

Chapter 3

Book 6 Part One 8086 words POV: River Cartwright, Catherine Standish, Frank Harkness

Summary

River Cartwright arrives at St Leonard’s chapel in Hampstead for the funeral of his grandfather, David Cartwright, dressed as if for a part he has not rehearsed and nagged by a dread he cannot explain. His mother, Isobel Cartwright, comes by taxi from Brighton carrying a single lily. In a taxi across London, Catherine Standish hears Jackson Lamb joke about funerals and say that the new recruit Lech Wicinski was found with child pornography on his laptop, though the investigation is ongoing. At the graveside Isobel lays the lily on her mother Rose’s stone, and River remembers that his father, Frank Harkness, took Isobel’s heart and traded it to David Cartwright for favours. A man in a parked car shows a Dog a CIA pass, watches Diana Taverner and Oliver Nash arrive from a limousine and says he is collecting faces. River watches the arrivals with his mother, who teases him about Taverner and Louisa Guy. Louisa remembers a voicemail from Emma Flyte, who has lost her post, and thinks about Min Harper’s missing son. During the service River sees a figure under a tree, and it is Frank Harkness. River vaults the grave and gives chase; Harkness throws him off and drives away. Lamb says Harkness came for something else.

Beats

  • C03S01 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright woke on the Wednesday of his grandfather’s funeral with a Sunday-night dread he could not account for, and dressed as though for a part he had not rehearsed. He thought of David Cartwright’s last year, when the old man’s talk had lost its anchor, and of Rose, who had always known what her husband did. The day had no borders. Then his mother arrived.
  • C03S02 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright waited at the roadside end of the gravel drive at St Leonard’s while his mother Isobel arrived in a taxi hired on the south coast, holding a single lily. She complained that his size was ageing, and he admitted he had told her eleven sharp for a service starting at a quarter past, to deny her an entrance. He was glad of her company, and they walked round the side of the chapel together.
  • C03S03 · Catherine Standish — Catherine Standish shared the back of a taxi with Jackson Lamb, who asked how she wanted to be disposed of and then told her that Lech Wicinski had been caught with child pornography on his laptop. She insisted the man be treated as innocent while the investigation ran. Lamb accused her of hitting the bottle. She resolved to buy another on the way home and hoped the funeral would pass without gross moments.
  • C03S04 · River Cartwright — At St Leonard’s, which River Cartwright thought of as the Spooks’ Chapel, he walked with his mother past the plaques to those who had not come home. Isobel laid her lily on Rose’s grave and said it was for Rose. River lied that there had been glimpses of his grandfather to the end. He thought about Frank Harkness, who had stolen Isobel’s heart and traded it for favours. Then he saw Diana Taverner step out of a limousine.
  • C03S05 · Frank Harkness — Frank Harkness sat in a parked car with his hazards flashing, seeming to talk into a dead phone, and showed a passing Dog a CIA identification card. He watched Diana Taverner and Oliver Nash leave a limousine and reflected that the chapel was a security nightmare, and that one well-timed intervention could take out the Service’s top tier. He was not there to pay respects. He was there collecting faces.
  • C03S06 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright stayed with his mother where they could watch arrivals without having to acknowledge anyone. She mistook Diana Taverner for a romantic interest, criticised his suit and his wage bracket, and invited him to confide in her; he said he was not gay. Louisa Guy waved and went inside. Frost jewelled the headstones. When Lamb and Catherine arrived, Isobel recognised Lamb at once, and River led her in past the waiting grave.
  • C03S07 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy remembered Emma Flyte’s voicemail, in which Flyte said she had told Taverner to fuck off and was looking for a new position. She watched River loiter with his mother and thought how differently things might have gone for him. She turned over Lucas Harper, Min’s seventeen-year-old son who had left home, and Clare Harper’s fear, and her own regret at missing Min’s funeral. The organ began, and River passed with his mother.
  • C03S08 · Frank Harkness — Frank Harkness, ninety per cent sure he had photographed the face he came for, put his phone away and walked into the graveyard, where the Dog on duty nodded him through instead of challenging him. He put names to Jackson Lamb and his slow horses, judged that David Cartwright would have had the Dog on a charge, and stood over the open grave. He thought he had at least outlived the old bastard, and tossed his burning cigarette into the hole.
  • C03S09 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright sat through a service whose music his grandmother had chosen years before, aware of his mother’s wooden manner and of the thirty or more mourners he did not know. Diana Taverner nodded to him; Lamb appraised Isobel as though vetting a contact. When the coffin touched the earth River looked up, and in the far corner of the graveyard saw a figure on a bench beneath a leafless tree. He blinked, and it was Frank Harkness.
  • C03S10 · Catherine Standish — Catherine Standish watched River Cartwright vault the grave and run, scattering Diana Taverner, the vicar and Oliver Nash, who went over a headstone. Isobel stood unmoved. Taverner asked Lamb why she sensed his hand in it; Lamb said Harkness was a professional who had come for something else. Catherine asked whether it had been River’s father, and Lamb admitted he had spotted Harkness behind the tree earlier and assumed he was urinating. Louisa wished she had worn other shoes.
  • C03S11 · Frank Harkness — Frank Harkness knocked down the Dog who had checked him and reached his car, thinking that seeing his son help carry his grandfather’s coffin had been worth the bad tradecraft. River caught him as he crouched, and Harkness threw him. He was behind the wheel before River was up, but River landed on the bonnet and they stared at each other. Harkness braked hard, tumbling River onto the road, then drove off to disappear.

People

  • River Cartwright — Slow horse and the dead man’s grandson; chief mourner, who chases Harkness from the graveside.
  • David Cartwright — River’s grandfather, the O.B., a retired spook being buried beside his wife.
  • Isobel Dunstable — River’s mother and David’s daughter, wintering in Brighton, who arrives with a single lily.
  • Jackson Lamb — Slough House’s head, who rides to the funeral with Catherine and treats it as an outing.
  • Catherine Standish — Lamb’s assistant, who shares his taxi and defends Wicinski’s presumption of innocence.
  • Lech Wicinski — New Slough House recruit, accused over child pornography found on his laptop.
  • Roderick Ho — Slow horse whose office Wicinski has been assigned to share.
  • Shirley Dander — Slow horse judged too volatile to share an office with the new recruit.
  • Diana Taverner — Newly appointed First Desk, who attends the funeral and is blamed by River for his exile.
  • Oliver Nash — Head of the Limitations Committee, who arrives with Taverner and falls over a headstone.
  • Louisa Guy — Slow horse and River’s friend, who attends for him rather than for his grandfather.
  • Emma Flyte — Former head of the Dogs, who left after refusing Taverner, as her voicemail explains.
  • Min Harper — Louisa’s dead partner, whose son has gone missing.
  • Clare Addison — Min’s widow, also called Addison, frightened by her son’s disappearance.
  • Lucas Harper — Min’s seventeen-year-old son, who has left home taking his savings.
  • Frank Harkness — River’s father, an American spook who watches the funeral from a car and a bench, then drives away.

Places

  • St Leonard’s — Discreet brick chapel in Hampstead, known as the Spooks’ Chapel, with a graveyard at its rear.
  • Slough House — MI5’s dumping ground for disgraced officers, where River has been exiled.
  • Regent’s Park — Service headquarters, where Emma Flyte was booted out and where Taverner now runs First Desk.

Lines worth keeping

“Mondays are bastards, through and through; Thursdays are waiting days, neither one thing nor the other.” — Narrator, Opening of the chapter, on the day of the funeral.

“We’re spies, Standish. All kinds of outlandish shit goes on.” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb explains in the taxi why he suspects David Cartwright may have faked his decline.

“He was here collecting faces.” — Narrator, The man in the parked car, after watching Taverner and Nash arrive.

“But at least I outlived you, you old bastard” — Frank Harkness, Harkness at the open grave, throwing his cigarette into it.

“Why do I sense your hand in this?” — Diana Taverner, Taverner confronts Lamb after River vaults the grave.

“It was Frank Harkness.” — Narrator, River looks a third time at the figure under the tree.

Threads

  • Plants: Harkness is in London on false CIA paper, photographing the Service’s senior figures, and says that if he sees River’s face again he will take action.; Lamb says Harkness was at the funeral for something else and that they should be bothered by it.; Lech Wicinski’s case is unresolved: the laptop is incriminating but no charge has been brought.; Emma Flyte has left the Dogs after refusing Taverner and is looking for a new position.; Lucas Harper, Min’s seventeen-year-old son, has left home and Clare Harper is frightened.; Lamb suspects David Cartwright may have faked his dementia, and came partly to confirm he is dead.
  • Payoffs: Lamb’s joke about someone jumping into the grave is answered when River vaults it.; Harkness’s fake phone call and ID at the roadside pay off when the Dog nods him into the graveyard.; River’s unaccountable dread resolves into the sight of his father at the graveside.; Catherine’s resolve to buy a bottle returns as the taxi moves off, with the taste still in her throat.
  • Continuity: The service is set for eleven; River tells Isobel eleven sharp and she arrives at a quarter past, forty-five minutes early.; Isobel brings one lily, which she leaves on Rose’s headstone.; Thirty or more mourners attend; the ground is frozen and the grave is newly dug beside Rose’s.; River’s knees are scraped when he tumbles onto the road.; Taverner is newly appointed First Desk; Nash chairs the Limitations Committee.; Lamb carries a small bottle rather than a hip flask, and drinks in the taxi.

Characters

Places