Page 163 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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JOHN: Professionally?
MYCROFT: There are many names for what she does. She prefers ‘dominatrix.’
SHERLOCK (thoughtfully): Dominatrix.
MYCROFT: Don’t be alarmed. It’s to do with sex.
SHERLOCK: Sex doesn’t alarm me.
MYCROFT (smiling snidely at him): How would you know?
(Sherlock raises his head and stares at his brother.)
MYCROFT: She provides – shall we say – recreational scolding for those who enjoy that sort of
thing and are prepared to pay for it. (He takes more photographs from his briefcase and hands
them to Sherlock.) These are all from her website.
(Sherlock takes the photographs and leafs through them. They are professional-looking publicity
shots for her ‘services’ and show Irene at her glamorous and sexy best. At the same time,
walking up the stairs at her house, Irene looks down at her phone and flicks through shots
which someone has taken of Sherlock wrapped in his sheet as he left 221B and got into
Plummer’s car.)
SHERLOCK: And I assume this Adler woman has some compromising photographs.
EQUERRY: You’re very quick, Mr Holmes.
SHERLOCK: Hardly a difficult deduction. Photographs of whom?
EQUERRY: A person of significance to my employer. We’d prefer not to say any more at this
time.
(Glaring angrily at him, Sherlock puts the photographs down on the table.)
JOHN: You can’t tell us anything?
MYCROFT: I can tell you it’s a young person.
(John drinks from his teacup.)
MYCROFT: A young female person.
(John’s eyes widen. Sherlock smirks.)
SHERLOCK: How many photographs?
MYCROFT: A considerable number, apparently.
SHERLOCK: Do Miss Adler and this young female person appear in these photographs together?
MYCROFT: Yes, they do.
SHERLOCK: And I assume in a number of compromising scenarios.
MYCROFT: An imaginative range, we are assured.
(Without looking round at him, Sherlock realises that John is staring blankly at Mycroft with his
teacup still half raised.)
SHERLOCK: John, you might want to put that cup back in your saucer now.
(John quickly does as advised.)
EQUERRY: Can you help us, Mr Holmes?
SHERLOCK: How?
EQUERRY: Will you take the case?
SHERLOCK: What case? Pay her, now and in full. As Miss Adler remarks in her masthead, “Know
when you are beaten.”
(He turns and reaches for his overcoat which is draped on the back of the sofa.)
MYCROFT: She doesn’t want anything.
(Sherlock turns back towards him.)
MYCROFT: She got in touch, she informed us that the photographs existed, she indicated that
she had no intention to use them to extort either money or favour.
SHERLOCK (finally interested for the first time): Oh, a power play. A power play with the most
powerful family in Britain. Now that is a dominatrix. Ooh, this is getting rather fun, isn’t it?
JOHN: Sherlock ...
SHERLOCK: Hmm.
(He turns around and reaches for his coat again.)
SHERLOCK: Where is she?
MYCROFT: Uh, in London currently. She’s staying ...
(Not waiting for him to finish, Sherlock picks up his coat, stands and starts to walk away.)
SHERLOCK: Text me the details. I’ll be in touch by the end of the day.
(The other three men get to their feet.)
EQUERRY: Do you really think you’ll have news by then?
SHERLOCK (turning back to him): No, I think I’ll have the photographs.
EQUERRY: One can only hope you’re as good as you seem to think.
(Sherlock looks at him sharply, apparently indignant that he should doubt him. We see a stream
of deductions as Sherlock glances down his body.

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)