Slough House

Joe Country / C04

Chapter 4

Book 6 Part One 6999 words POV: Louisa Guy, Roderick Ho, J.K. Coe

Summary

That afternoon Jackson Lamb holds what he calls a postmortem in his office at Slough House, mocking River for leaping the grave. He says Harkness’s CIA identification cannot be legitimate, sets out his four Fs, and sends Roddy Ho to trace the car from Hampstead’s cameras while River, Louisa Guy, Shirley Dander and J.K. Coe work through planes, trains, ferries and bikes. Lech Wicinski is told to sit in his office and is reminded of the allegation against him. Louisa follows Catherine Standish and asks her to put a leave request before Lamb; Catherine agrees, with a barb about being the buffer between Lamb and the rest of them, and Louisa says only that she needs time to herself, having decided to find Min Harper’s missing son. Catherine takes the forms to Lamb, who signs them and says he is keeping River in place because dangling him will bring Harkness out. He says Harkness has the blood of his joes on his hands, and Catherine warns that he will get River killed. Downstairs, Roddy finds footage of River clinging to the moving car, with the number plate legible, and emails a screenshot to Shirley. Shirley traces the hire to an office in Southampton: an Audi taken out by a Jay Featherstone on a Canadian passport. Coe, running face recognition over yesterday’s ferry arrivals, gets a match to Harkness and shows it to River, who confirms it. A second Annex C match follows. Louisa leaves on leave.

Beats

  • C04S01 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy sat through Jackson Lamb’s postmortem in his crowded office, where Lamb mocked River’s leap, doubted Harkness’s CIA paper and set Roddy Ho to trace the hire car while the rest worked through planes, trains, ferries and bikes. Wicinski was told to stay in his office. Louisa asked Catherine Standish to push through a leave request. Afterwards Ho lifted the number plate from Hampstead footage, Shirley Dander traced the car to Southampton and a Canadian passport, and J.K. Coe matched Harkness’s face on ferry arrivals.

People

  • Jackson Lamb — Runs the postmortem, assigns the search and keeps River in place as bait.
  • Catherine Standish — Takes Louisa’s leave form, gets it signed, and warns Lamb he will get River killed.
  • River Cartwright — Mocked for the leap; confirms Harkness’s face on the ferry footage.
  • Lech Wicinski — New recruit kept in his office, who denies being a paedophile and warns Roddy about whistleblowers.
  • Diana Taverner — First Desk, who shot River a look at the funeral and now commands the Park.
  • Oliver Nash — Chair of the Limitations Committee, whose suit was torn at the funeral.
  • Shirley Dander — Traces the hire car to Southampton and remembers Marcus in the office where he died.
  • Louisa Guy — Takes leave to look for Lucas Harper, without telling Catherine why.
  • Roderick Ho — Hand bandaged, who breaks into Hampstead’s camera data and finds the number plate.
  • Emma Flyte — Confirmed gone from the Dogs, having refused Taverner.
  • JK Coe — Runs the face recognition program and matches Harkness among Southampton ferry arrivals.
  • Frank Harkness — The subject of the search; drove the car hired in another name.
  • Marcus Longridge — Shirley’s former office-mate and partner, killed in that office.

Places

  • Slough House — Lamb’s office and the slow horses’ rooms, where the postmortem and the searches happen.
  • Regent’s Park — The Park, which keeps its own recognition software and bins Slough House’s post unopened.

Lines worth keeping

“I’m not the one played leapfrog with his dead grandpa.” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb opens the postmortem by needling River.

“He’s got the blood of my joes on his hands.” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb explains to Catherine why he will not leave Harkness to the Park.

“Funny how they’re joes once they’re dead.” — Catherine Standish, Catherine’s reply to Lamb’s talk of his dead staff.

“You’ll get River killed.” — Catherine Standish, Catherine warns Lamb about his plan to dangle River.

“That’s what everyone says. Right up until somebody blows the whistle.” — Lech Wicinski, Wicinski answers Roddy’s confidence that no one will find out about the data theft.

“Refer to Annex A.” — Narrator, The face recognition program’s message when it matches Harkness.

Threads

  • Plants: Harkness hired the Audi in Southampton as Jay Featherstone, on a Canadian passport.; Coe’s program makes a second Annex C match, to a young mercenary in a black polo-neck seen on the same ferry footage.; Wicinski warns Roddy that someone will blow the whistle on Service data theft; Roddy has been stealing camera data.; Lamb keeps River at Slough House because dangling him will bring Harkness out.; Louisa takes leave to find Lucas Harper, with snow forecast.; Catherine’s boiler request will be binned unopened by Regent’s Park Finance.
  • Payoffs: River’s leap onto the moving car yields the number plate Roddy lifts from the Hampstead footage.; Emma Flyte’s voicemail is confirmed: she is gone from the Dogs.; Harkness’s photographing of faces at the funeral is matched to the ferry arrival footage, and River identifies him.
  • Continuity: Wicinski has been at Slough House less than a week.; Roddy’s right hand is bandaged from a mousetrap he found in Wicinski’s bin.; The Hampstead footage covers a four-month timespan across thirty-two camera feeds.; Shirley punched a nightclub manager earlier in the week, since her anger management sessions ended.; Louisa’s trousers are torn at the knee and River’s knees are scraped from the funeral.; The service and burial happened that morning; the postmortem is that afternoon.

Characters

Places