Page 125 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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MORNING. NEW SCOTLAND YARD. The boys are in Lestrade’s office, Sherlock standing at the
window which looks into the main office, his hands raised in front of his mouth and his fingers
tapping together. John is sitting opposite Lestrade at his desk.
LESTRADE: She lives in Cornwall. Two men broke in wearing masks, forced her to drive to the
car park and decked her out in enough explosives to take down a house.
(He looks up at Sherlock who is walking towards the desk.)
LESTRADE: Told her to phone you. She had to read out from this pager.
(He puts the pager onto the desk in front of John, who picks it up to look at it.)
SHERLOCK: And if she deviated by one word, the sniper would set her off.
JOHN: Or if you hadn’t solved the case.
SHERLOCK (walking back to the window and speaking softly, as if to himself): Oh. Elegant.
(John raises his head and sighs in exasperation.)
JOHN: “Elegant”?
LESTRADE: But what was the point? Why would anyone do this?
SHERLOCK: Oh – I can’t be the only person in the world that gets bored.
(He flashes back in his mind to shooting holes in the wall a couple of days ago. Just then the
pink phone beeps a message alert. John turns round to him as Sherlock activates the phone.)
VOICE ALERT: You have one new message.
(As Sherlock walks towards Lestrade’s desk, the phone sounds the Greenwich pips again, but
this time there are three short pips and one long one.)
JOHN: Four pips.
SHERLOCK: First test passed, it would seem. Here’s the second.
(He shows a new photograph to the others. It’s a close-up of a car with its driver’s door open
and the number plate clearly visible. John and Lestrade get up to take a closer look, and outside
in the main office a phone rings.)
SHERLOCK: It’s abandoned, wouldn’t you say?
LESTRADE: I’ll see if it’s been reported.
(As he picks up his desk phone, Sergeant Donovan comes to the office holding another phone.)
DONOVAN: Freak, it’s for you.
(Sherlock walks over to the door and takes the phone from her. John sits down again and
Sherlock walks out into the general office and raises the phone to his ear.)
SHERLOCK: Hello?
(The frightened voice of a young man comes over the phone.)
YOUNG MAN: It’s okay that you’ve gone to the police.
SHERLOCK: Who is this? Is this you again?
YOUNG MAN: But don’t rely on them.
(In Lestrade’s office, John looks round and sits up taller when he sees the look on Sherlock’s
face.)
YOUNG MAN: Clever you, guessing about Carl Powers.
(We get a glimpse of the young man standing somewhere in a busy street, reading from a
pager.)
YOUNG MAN: I never liked him.
(Sherlock looks round sharply at this. We see that the man is wearing a zipped-up jacket with
wires sticking out from the bottom. The man fights his tears as he continues to read.)
YOUNG MAN: Carl laughed at me, so I stopped him laughing.
(John comes out of the office and walks closer to Sherlock, looking at him in concern.)
SHERLOCK (into phone): And you’ve stolen another voice, I presume.
YOUNG MAN: This is about you and me.
(A bus noisily drives past him.)
SHERLOCK: Who are you?
(More traffic goes past.)
SHERLOCK: What’s that noise?
(The man looks down at the pager, still struggling not to weep.)
YOUNG MAN: The sounds of life, Sherlock.
(Finally we get a clear view of where the man is. He is standing on a large traffic island at
Piccadilly Circus. Pedestrians are walking past him, taking no notice of a distressed tearful man,
as is the wont of Londoners [I’m allowed to criticise – I’m a Londoner myself!])
YOUNG MAN (reading from the pager): But don’t worry ...
(He looks down in tearful horror when he sees a red laser point on his jacket.)
YOUNG MAN: ... I can soon fix that.

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)