Slough House

Joe Country / C11

Chapter 11

Book 6 Part Two 6669 words POV: Louisa Guy, Catherine Standish, Lech Wicinski

Summary

Lucas, a teenage boy hiding in a shed above the estuary, tells Louisa Guy and Emma Flyte what he saw at a corporate party at Caerwyss Hall shortly before New Year. Smoking on a kit-room roof, he watched drunken men in evening dress fire a crossbow at a target in the cobbled yard, and saw that one of the party was a royal. Later the same men brought out a girl in a silver dress, laughed at her two wild shots, tied her to the target, gagged her and taped a pumpkin to her head; a bolt then took flesh from her arm and she was led away weeping. Emma asks why he never went to the police and Louisa answers: the men included a royal and a former Home Secretary. In London, Catherine Standish fails to persuade Lech Wicinski, whose face has been carved with the word PAEDO, to have the cuts treated. She argues with Jackson Lamb, who admits he telephoned Wicinski’s fiancée and now believes someone outside the Park fitted Wicinski up. Lamb gets from Wicinski the name of his Park contact, Richard Pynne, and of the name he had run through him, Peter Kahlmann, then leaves him a silver-handled razor. Louisa, out in the snow after a noise, finds only a fox; Lars, a hired man, breaks a stranger’s nose on the track; and Wicinski, alone in the bathroom, lifts the razor.

Beats

  • C11S01 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy sat in the dark shed and listened to Lucas describe the night before New Year at Caerwyss Hall, where he had smoked on a kit-room roof and watched a party of drunk men fire a crossbow at a target in the cobbled yard. He named the man who had fired and, worse, the royal standing among them. Emma pressed him for more, and Lucas said the men had gone inside, and then come back out with a girl.
  • C11S02 · Catherine Standish — Catherine Standish found Lech Wicinski lying between two desks with the word PAEDO carved into his face, and failed to persuade him to have the cuts seen to. In Lamb’s office she argued the case with Lamb, who admitted he had telephoned Wicinski’s fiancée, and who now suspected a third party had fitted Wicinski up to hide something else. She left him pouring whisky from a teacup, asking what he meant to do about a man who was now one of his.
  • C11S03 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy listened as Lucas described the rest of the night: one girl in a silver dress, five older men in evening wear, the crossbow put into her hands and her two wild shots laughed at. Then they walked her to the target, tied her to its struts and gagged her, and when the pumpkin would not stay on her head they taped it there. Lucas said he should have done something; Louisa told him it would not have gone well.
  • C11S04 · Lars — Lars walked down through the snow towards the estuary, past the car he had disabled and past shuttered shops, thinking about a job sold to him as in-and-out and about the fifty thousand pounds someone was paying to keep a silence. The bruise from the woman’s headbutt still marked his cheek, and a second woman, blonde and capable, had since appeared. Farming country, he reflected: gunshots would not trouble anyone here. Ahead on the track he heard voices.
  • C11S05 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy heard Lucas out: the bolt took flesh from the girl’s arm, the men laughed, and five minutes later the weeping girl was led away. Emma said any normal kid would have gone to the police, and Louisa explained why this one had not, since the men he saw included a royal and a former Home Secretary. Then a soft padding came from the track. Louisa signed Emma to stay with the boy and went out alone.
  • C11S06 · Lech Wicinski — Lech Wicinski was lying on the floor of Shirley Dander’s room when Jackson Lamb came in, kicked him and poured him whisky. Lamb asked about his meeting with a man from the Park, and Wicinski named Richard Pynne, said he had been looking for information rather than giving it, and admitted he had run the name Peter Kahlmann. Lamb made him take the plasters off, studied his cheeks, and left him a silver-handled razor he wanted back.
  • C11S07 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy moved through the trees towards the noise, thinking of the monkey wrench she had lost in the snow and of the rule that any stranger in joe country was a hostile. She gathered stones from the frozen ground, certain the deliberate rustle was a man with a gun, and readied herself to lead him away from Lucas. Then a fox trotted round the corner with something in its mouth, glanced at her and passed.
  • C11S08 · Lars — Lars came upon a man and a woman arguing beside the track, and the man demanded to know what he was looking at. Lars asked whether they had seen two women and a teenage boy, was told to walk somewhere else and asked whether he was foreign. He apologised for the man’s nose, broke it, showed the woman how to hold his head up, threw her mobile into the woods and jogged on down the track.
  • C11S09 · Lech Wicinski — Lech Wicinski stood in the Slough House bathroom and looked at his reflection, where the letters on his cheeks rearranged themselves and still read PAEDO. He considered hospitals, doctors and the police, considered growing a beard, and considered the blade in Lamb’s razor. He remembered Lamb’s phrase about a third way, and knew he could not live with the word carved into his face. Then he lifted the razor and did what he had to do.

People

  • Lucas Harper — Teenage boy hidden in a shed above the estuary; witnessed the crossbow party at Caerwyss Hall and tells Louisa and Emma what he saw.
  • Louisa Guy — Slow horse sheltering in the shed; questions Lucas and works out why he never went to the police.
  • Peter Judd — Chief executive of the PR firm Bullingdon Fopp and a former Home Secretary; named as one of the party guests.
  • Emma Flyte — Former Met officer keeping watch with Louisa; pushes Lucas for details of the night.
  • Catherine Standish — Slough House’s conscience; tries to get Wicinski medical help, then argues with Lamb about who fitted him up.
  • Lech Wicinski — Analyst whose face has been carved with PAEDO; refuses treatment, then is given a razor by Lamb.
  • Jackson Lamb — Runs Slough House; admits telling Wicinski’s fiancée and works out the carving was misdirection.
  • River Cartwright — Slow horse in Wales, telephoning in reports and finding no sign of Louisa.
  • JK Coe — Slow horse named by Lamb as not being on the premises.
  • Frank Harkness — Named by Catherine as the man who stamped dog dirt into Lamb’s carpets and walked away.
  • Roderick Ho — Traced Wicinski’s meeting with a man from the Park.
  • Lars Becker — Hired man working in the snow; had disabled Louisa’s car and later breaks a stranger’s nose on the track.
  • Richard Pynne — Wicinski’s contact at the Park, met in a pub off Great Portland Street.
  • Shirley Dander — Slow horse whose room Wicinski has been sleeping in.
  • Martin Kreutzmer — The name Wicinski ran before his life fell apart; the request came back flagged.

Places

  • Caerwyss Hall — Welsh estate where Bullingdon Fopp held a corporate party before New Year; its yard and the kit-room roof are the scene Lucas describes.
  • Slough House — The run-down offices where the slow horses work; Wicinski has been sleeping here, and Catherine keeps her room here.
  • Regent’s Park — MI5 headquarters, which sent Wicinski to Slough House and where Pynne works.

Lines worth keeping

“In joe country, any stranger was a hostile.” — Narrator, Louisa works her way through the trees towards the noise she has heard.

“You’re all fuck-ups, Standish. The manner of your fuck-uppery’s irrelevant.” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb dismisses Catherine’s question about why he never wondered what Wicinski was sent to Slough House for.

“The message was ‘paedo.’ What do you want, pictures?” — Jackson Lamb, Lamb explains what last night’s attack on Wicinski was meant to say.

“It wouldn’t have gone well. There were five of them. And they were drunk.” — Louisa Guy, Lucas says he should have intervened at the target.

“The letters glowed scarlet in the mirror. They were radioactive. Toxic spill.” — Narrator, Wicinski looks at his carved face in the bathroom mirror.

“Give Lamb this: the fat bastard knew what he was talking about.” — Narrator, Wicinski, holding the razor, concedes Lamb’s point about a third way.

Threads

  • Plants: Lucas saw a royal and a former Home Secretary at the crossbow party, which is why he never went to the police.; The girl shot in the arm was led away; what became of her is left open.; Lamb leaves Wicinski a silver-handled razor with a fleur-de-lys and says he wants it back.; Wicinski ran the name Peter Kahlmann through Richard Pynne and it came back flagged, which is all he can think of that preceded his fall.; Catherine tells Lamb to call the joes in once Louisa has been found.
  • Payoffs: The story Lucas began the night before is finished here: the girl, the crossbow, the pumpkin, the bolt.; Lamb’s reference to a third way, other than stitches or surgery, pays off when Wicinski opens the razor in the bathroom.
  • Continuity: Wicinski has not eaten since yesterday lunchtime; Catherine taped cotton wool to his cheeks and gave him painkillers.; Lamb drinks Talisker from a teacup, keeps his shoes off and smokes continuously.; Lars disabled Louisa’s car and still carries the bruise from her headbutt.; There were five men in evening wear at the target; Lucas puts them at fifty or sixty.; The chapter ends with Wicinski lifting the razor; the text does not say what he does with it.

Characters

Places