Page 138 - SHERLOCK transcripts

137

Information
Most Wanted
Contact

JOHN: There’s quite a bit of bruising around the nose and mouth. More bruises here and here.
(Sherlock selects the “Most Wanted” option, then looks up as he mentally flashes back to
looking at the small round red marks beside the man’s mouth and near his hairline.)
SHERLOCK (thoughtfully): Fingertips.
(As John stands up, Sherlock shifts to a new search:

Missing Persons

He scrolls through the options:

Last 36 hrs
Age
Location
Local Search

JOHN: In his late thirties, I’d say. Not in the best condition.
SHERLOCK: He’s been in the river a long while. The water’s destroyed most of the data.
(He quirks a grin.)
SHERLOCK: But I’ll tell you one thing: that lost Vermeer painting’s a fake.
LESTRADE: What?
SHERLOCK: We need to identify the corpse. Find out about his friends and associates ...
LESTRADE: Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait. What painting? What are you – what are you on about?
SHERLOCK: It’s all over the place. Haven’t you seen the posters? Dutch Old Master, supposed
to have been destroyed centuries ago; now it’s turned up. Worth thirty million pounds.
LESTRADE: Okay. So what has that got to do with the stiff?
SHERLOCK (grinning briefly): Everything. Have you ever heard of the Golem?
LESTRADE: Golem?
JOHN: It’s a horror story, isn’t it? What are you saying?
SHERLOCK: Jewish folk story. A gigantic man made of clay. It’s also the name of an assassin –
real name Oskar Dzundza – one of the deadliest assassins in the world.
(He points down to the body.)
SHERLOCK: That is his trademark style.
LESTRADE: So this is a hit?
SHERLOCK: Definitely. The Golem squeezes the life out of his victims with his bare hands.
LESTRADE: But what has this gotta do with that painting? I don’t see ...
SHERLOCK (exasperated): You do see – you just don’t observe.
JOHN: All right, all right, girls, calm down. Sherlock? D’you wanna take us through it?
(Taking a moment before he responds, Sherlock eventually steps back and points to the body.)
SHERLOCK: What do we know about this corpse? The killer’s not left us with much – just the
shirt and the trousers. They’re pretty formal – maybe he was going out for the night, but the
trousers are heavy-duty, polyester, nasty, same as the shirt – cheap. They’re both too big for
him, so some kind of standard-issue uniform. Dressed for work, then. What kind of work?
There’s a hook on his belt for a walkie-talkie.
LESTRADE: Tube driver?
(Sherlock throws him a look which blatantly says ‘idiot.’)
JOHN: Security guard?
SHERLOCK: More likely. That’ll be borne out by his backside.
LESTRADE: Backside?!
SHERLOCK: Flabby. You’d think that he’d led a sedentary life, yet the soles of his feet and the
nascent varicose veins in his legs show otherwise. So, a lot of walking and a lot of sitting
around. Security guard’s looking good. And the watch helps, too. The alarm shows he did
regular night shifts.
(Flashback to Sherlock pushing buttons on the man’s wristwatch and it showing an alarm time
of 2:30.)
LESTRADE: Why regular? Maybe he just set his alarm like that the night before he died.

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)