Page 139 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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SHERLOCK: No-no-no, the buttons are stiff, hardly touched. He set his alarm like that a long
time ago. His routine never varied. But there’s something else. The killer must have been
interrupted, otherwise he would have stripped the corpse completely. There was some kind of
badge or insignia on the shirt front that he tore off, suggesting the dead man worked
somewhere recognisable, some kind of institution.
(He takes something from his pocket.)
SHERLOCK: Found this inside his trouser pockets.
(He is holding a small scrunched-up ball of paper.)
SHERLOCK: Sodden by the river but still recognisably ...
JOHN (peering at the ball of paper): Tickets?
SHERLOCK: Ticket stubs. He worked in a museum or gallery. Did a quick check – the Hickman
Gallery has reported one of its attendants as missing.
(He points down to the body.)
SHERLOCK: Alex Woodbridge. Tonight they unveil the re-discovered masterpiece. Now why
would anyone want to pay the Golem to suffocate a perfectly ordinary gallery attendant?
Inference: the dead man knew something about it – something that would stop the owner
getting paid thirty million pounds. The picture’s a fake.
JOHN (admiringly): Fantastic.
SHERLOCK (shrugging, apparently still peeved about their earlier argument): Meretricious.
LESTRADE: And a Happy New Year!
(John throws him a ‘seriously?!’ look. Lestrade grins sheepishly, then John looks down at the
body again.)
JOHN: Poor sod.
LESTRADE: I’d better get my feelers out for this Golem character.
SHERLOCK: Pointless. You’ll never find him. But I know a man who can.
LESTRADE: Who?
SHERLOCK (grinning): Me.
(He turns and walks away. John sighs, his entire body radiating ‘Oh, here we go again,’ but he
dutifully follows his friend.)

TAXI. As the boys sit in the back of the cab, Sherlock is looking at the pink phone in frustration.
SHERLOCK: Why hasn’t he phoned? He’s broken his pattern. Why?
(A thought strikes him and he leans forward to the taxi driver.)
SHERLOCK: Waterloo Bridge.
JOHN: Where now? The Gallery?
SHERLOCK: In a bit.
JOHN: The Hickman’s contemporary art, isn’t it? Why have they got hold of an Old Master?
SHERLOCK: Dunno. Dangerous to jump to conclusions. Need data.
(He has taken his notebook from his pocket and now writes something on a page before tearing
it out and folding a bank note inside it. He puts the paper into his pocket, then a few seconds
later calls out to the driver.)
SHERLOCK: Stop!
(The cab pulls over to the side of the road.)
SHERLOCK: You wait here. I won’t be a moment.
(He gets out, goes to the railings at the edge of the pavement and easily vaults over them.)
JOHN (also getting out of the cab): Sherlock ...
(As Sherlock walks off, John shakes his head in exasperation, then scrambles over the railings
and follows him. Sherlock trots up some steps to where a young woman is sitting on a bench
under Waterloo Bridge. She has a large bag beside her with a handwritten cardboard sign
poking out of the top. The first two words on the sign say, “HUNGRY AND”. Presumably the next
word, obscured by some of her possessions, is ‘HOMELESS.’)
HOMELESS GIRL: Change? Any change?
SHERLOCK: What for?
HOMELESS GIRL: Cup of tea, of course.
SHERLOCK (handing her the piece of paper from his pocket): Here you go – fifty.
HOMELESS GIRL (smiling): Thanks.
(He immediately turns and walks away again. John looks at him in bewilderment before turning
and following, pointing back towards the girl.)
JOHN: What are you doing?
SHERLOCK: Investing.

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)