Slough House

Joe Country / C12

Chapter 12

Book 6 Part Two 9218 words POV: Shirley Dander, River Cartwright, Emma Flyte

Summary

Shirley Dander drives Ho’s car into a snowdrift on a buried lane, abandons it and walks uphill. J.K. Coe reaches the barn on the hillside and finds a man leaning against its outer wall; the man is Cyril Dupont, a mercenary Coe recognises from a ferry-terminal watchlist. River Cartwright walks the coastal path and telephones Lamb, who is outside visiting an old friend and reports only that Wicinski cut himself shaving. At the shed, Louisa Guy and Emma Flyte conclude that the prince’s involvement has kept the Park from responding, and agree that Emma will walk into town for the police; Louisa proposes swapping coats. Shirley takes speed and spots a roof beyond the trees. At a gun emplacement River is met by Frank Harkness, who has been paid to silence Lucas. Emma is punched, held at gunpoint and questioned, and gives up the shed. River makes Frank throw his Glock over the cliff, refuses his offer of work and shoots him in the boot; Frank feints, they fight, and afterwards only one figure is left. Shirley charges a barn with a plank and finds a woman in wellies who offers her toast. Anton, the third mercenary, searches empty barns. Louisa moves Lucas further along the estuary. Emma, marched back with stones in her borrowed coat, strikes when the man’s phone rings; there is a small sound, and then nothing.

Beats

  • C12S01 · Shirley Dander — Shirley Dander took the turn-off too late, drove Ho’s car into a snowdrift and possibly a ditch, and sat for five minutes before wrestling her way out into snow past her knees. She flung Ho’s Metal for Muthas cd across the field, slammed the door and set off up the incline on foot, a short dark figure on a white canvas, to see whether Coe’s farm buildings could be spotted from the crest.
  • C12S02 · J.K. Coe — J.K. Coe walked towards the barn marked on his phone, preferring the cold because warmth made him sleepy, and warmth had once left him strapped to a chair in a plastic-clad room. He noticed that Cartwright had disappeared behind him. The barn was more solid than its outline on the map, with holes in its roof, and as he came on it he saw a man leaning against the outer wall, watching him approach.
  • C12S03 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright walked the coastal path with aching legs and got enough of a signal to telephone Lamb. He reported that they had found where Louisa dumped her phone but not the phone itself, and that she might have gone dark without the Park knowing, since the distress number goes to a recording. Lamb said he was outside, visiting an old friend, and that Wicinski had cut himself shaving. River rang off and walked on to the coastal path.
  • C12S04 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy and Emma Flyte, back at the shed, agreed that no help was coming: the prince’s involvement explained the Park’s silence, and they were on their own unless Lamb got his act together. Emma proposed walking into town to the police, arguing that only one of the men had seen her and not for long. Louisa objected, then conceded, and suggested they swap coats.
  • C12S05 · Shirley Dander — Shirley Dander took the last of her speed and reflected, without much conviction, that Marcus would not have approved. She crested the hill into a sky bigger than London’s and saw a pitched roof behind snow-draped trees: the buildings she had been told lay beyond the wood. Having parked early and walked in, she decided this could pass as a tactic, and made her way towards the trees.
  • C12S06 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright explored the first outbuilding, a half-buried brick gun emplacement full of cans, foil and soot, and looked down at the drop to the rocks below. He decided to take a look at the next building along the path. Then a figure appeared, coming his way at a pace that suggested the ground gave it no trouble. It stopped five yards off and pulled back its hood: Frank, who said River had found him.
  • C12S07 · J.K. Coe — J.K. Coe greeted the soldier at the barn and claimed to be lost, heading for Pegsea. The man was dressed like a soldier, spoke French with an American slant, and Coe placed him from the ferry-terminal watchlist as Cyril Dupont. Cyril observed that Coe was not dressed for the weather and not much of a traveller, and made clear he knew Coe was no tourist. Coe asked whether he was Cyril.
  • C12S08 · Emma Flyte — Emma Flyte left Louisa at the shed and walked towards town, stiff from lack of sleep and thinking of the police station, or of the graveyard where her mobile lay. A man came round the corner towards her, one of the men from the night before. She kept walking, slapped her thigh and asked whether he had seen her dog. He asked what kind, closed the gap and hit her in the face.
  • C12S09 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright faced Frank Harkness on the cliff path, learned he had been hired to keep Lucas quiet, and made him toss his Glock over the edge. He refused Frank’s offer of a job and shot at his feet, then at his boot, and Frank, balancing on one foot, said he had three men. Then Frank looked at the drop, said it was a long way down, and moved.
  • C12S10 · Shirley Dander — Shirley Dander worked her way round the barn with a loose plank from the stile, hearing voices inside and arguing with the memory of Marcus, who would have told her to wait. She decided a blaze of glory would do her fine and that nobody was waiting up for her anyway, and ran at the front of the building with the wood carted two-handed like a rifle.
  • C12S11 · Emma Flyte — Emma Flyte, on the ground with a gun barrelled into her neck, refused three times to say where Lucas was. The man holding her explained, reasonably, that only the boy was wanted and that he did not even have to kill him, then banged the weapon against her head when she shook it again. He told her nobody was coming and asked once more. She decided it was worth being hit again; it did not feel like it.
  • C12S12 · Anton — Anton searched a second barn, having found the first occupied by a local woman and her cows, who had offered to feed him. This one was empty but smelled of animals. He thought about the clock sprinting rather than running, and about how one kid and two women should not have turned into a siege, then reached for his phone to check in with Lars and stopped. He drew his gun and waited by the door.
  • C12S13 · Louisa Guy — Louisa Guy told Lucas they were leaving the shed, since anywhere the men had not yet searched was safer than anywhere they had, and led him further along the estuary away from the town. Lucas asked whether there would be people there; Louisa doubted civilian cover would help. Both were shivering, which she took as a good sign, and she ate snow from a branch. His remark about her standards reminded her of Min.
  • C12S14 · River Cartwright — River Cartwright fought Frank Harkness on the cliff, was pinned with a forearm across his throat and his gun arm held down, and felt his vision going. He mouthed a word Frank leaned in to catch, then bit his ear, and they rolled, locked together, until River landed a punch and felt something give. A bird would have seen two dark figures scrambling on the white ground, and then only one.
  • C12S15 · J.K. Coe — J.K. Coe and Cyril Dupont stood in the snow and talked about mercenary pay, mortgages and the countryside, Cyril admitting he got no prospectus with a job and was not claiming to be blameless. Coe asked what the boy had done; Cyril said it was just a job. When Cyril said they should probably get on with it, he sounded genuinely sorry. Coe agreed, and his hand dropped to his pocket for his blade.
  • C12S16 · Emma Flyte — Emma Flyte, marched back along the track with a gun at her back, gave up the shed and calculated that Louisa and Lucas would have gone by now. Feeling stones in her pockets, she remembered the coat was Louisa’s, and that she had refused to wear the white puffa. She stumbled deliberately, was warned not to fake it, and closed her hand on one smooth stone. Then the man’s phone rang.
  • C12S17 · Shirley Dander — Shirley Dander ran at the barn with her piece of wood and found not gunmen but a young woman in a donkey jacket and wellies, reaching up for a transistor radio, who looked amused rather than alarmed and asked where she had sprung from. Behind her cattle shifted in the straw, giving off warmth in industrial waves. The woman said she had finished and offered toast; Shirley, starving, dropped the wood and followed her.
  • C12S18 · Emma Flyte — Emma Flyte did not get half a moment, only the moment the phone rang. She struck with the stone in her fist and her elbow, trying to knock the gun arm aside, and some of what she intended happened but not enough. She heard a small sound, no louder than a cough, and branches sawing overhead, and snow being laid down. Then nothing.

People

  • Shirley Dander — Slow horse driving Ho’s car in search of Louisa and Coe; takes speed, then charges a barn with a plank.
  • Roderick Ho — Owner of the car Shirley borrows and crashes; its reliability is held against him.
  • JK Coe — Slow horse walking the hillside; recognises Cyril Dupont from the ferry-terminal watchlist and faces him at the barn.
  • River Cartwright — Slow horse on the coastal path; telephones Lamb, then confronts and fights Frank Harkness.
  • Frank Harkness — Mercenary hired to stop Lucas talking; meets River on the cliff, offers him a job and is shot in the boot.
  • Louisa Guy — In hiding with Lucas; agrees Emma should go for the police and moves the boy along the estuary.
  • Jackson Lamb — Telephoned by River; says he is outside visiting an old friend and mentions Wicinski’s shaving cut.
  • Lech Wicinski — Mentioned by Lamb as having cut himself shaving, or had it done for him.
  • Emma Flyte — Walks towards town for the police, is captured and questioned, and strikes at her captor with a stone.
  • Lucas Harper — The boy in hiding; moves along the estuary with Louisa and complains about her eating snow.
  • Peter Judd — Named as a former Home Secretary; Emma doubts his reach runs to a town this size.
  • Marcus Longridge — Dead colleague Shirley talks to in her head; she misses him and ignores his advice.
  • Cyril Dupont — Mercenary at the barn, flagged at Southampton’s ferry terminal; marked on the temple by Louisa’s monkey wrench.
  • Devon Welles — Named by Emma as someone who would still take her calls if the Park stopped answering.
  • Anton Moser — The third mercenary, checking barns for the boy and the two women.
  • Lars Becker — Mercenary Anton would normally check in with by phone.
  • Min Harper — Named by Louisa; Lucas’s remark about standards reminds her of him.

Places

  • Slough House — The offices Coe’s desk is in, and the place he reflects he may never leave.
  • Pegsea — Town Coe claims to be walking to, back the way he came.

Lines worth keeping

“So you found me” — Frank Harkness, Frank pulls back his hood on the cliff path and greets River.

“It’s called parenting.” — Frank Harkness, River complains that Frank makes every setback sound like his own plan.

“Don’t ever let anyone take a piece of what’s yours, because they’ll always come back for the rest.” — Frank Harkness, Frank explains why he is being paid to silence Lucas.

“I’m a mercenary. Not a pirate.” — Cyril Dupont, Coe suggests buy-to-let as a career move.

“One kid, two women. It shouldn’t have turned into Stalingrad.” — Narrator, Anton’s view of the hunt as he checks a second empty barn.

“In real life, Goliath crushed David every time.” — Narrator, Emma, marched back at gunpoint, weighs one smooth stone against an armed man.

Threads

  • Plants: Frank says he has three men: two down by the estuary and one right behind River.; Frank offers River a job and serious money, and River finds the idea not entirely unwelcome.; Cyril Dupont was flagged by Coe’s program at Southampton’s ferry terminal.; Emma’s mobile is still in the graveyard, and Devon Welles would take her calls.; River’s fight with Frank ends with only one figure standing; the text does not say which.; Emma’s last scene ends with a sound like a cough and then nothing.
  • Payoffs: The coat swap proposed in c12s04 pays off when Emma finds Louisa’s stones in the pockets she is wearing.; Cyril’s bruised temple from the monkey wrench pays off the attack on the first night.; Shirley’s directions — a wood with buildings just beyond it — pay off when she reaches the roof beyond the trees.; Lamb’s line to River about Wicinski cutting himself shaving pays off Catherine’s and Lamb’s argument in the previous chapter.
  • Continuity: It is still the same morning; snow keeps falling and the roads are untreated.; Louisa’s car has slashed tyres and her phone was dumped rather than recovered.; Shirley has taken her last speed; Marcus is dead.; Emma has not slept more than ten minutes.; Frank’s Glock goes over the cliff; the gun River carries came from Lamb.; Louisa and Lucas leave the shed and head further along the estuary, away from the town.

Characters

Places