Page 169 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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IRENE: The car’s going to backfire.
SHERLOCK: There’s going to be a loud noise.
IRENE: So, what?
SHERLOCK: Oh, noises are important. Noises can tell you everything. For instance ...
(Back in the sitting room – which they obviously never really left – he pauses dramatically and a
moment later a smoke alarm starts to beep insistently from the hall. Out in the hall, John had
set light to the end of the rolled-up magazine, blown it mostly out again and allowed the smoke
to drift upwards. Now he waves his hand over the magazine and blows on it to try to put it out
completely. In the sitting room, Irene turns and looks at the large mirror over the fireplace.
Sherlock turns his head and follows her gaze.)
SHERLOCK: Thank you. On hearing a smoke alarm, a mother would look towards her child.
Amazing how fire exposes our priorities.
(He walks over to the fireplace and begins running his fingers underneath the mantelpiece.
Finding a switch under there, he presses it and the mirror slides upwards, revealing a small wall
safe behind it. Sherlock turns and looks at Irene as she stands up.)
SHERLOCK: Really hope you don’t have a baby in here.
(He calls out.)
SHERLOCK: All right, John, you can turn it off now.
(In the hall, John is still trying to put out the smouldering magazine.)
SHERLOCK (loudly): I said you can turn it off now.
JOHN: Give me a minute.
(He starts thwacking the end of the magazine on the table, grimacing when sparks fly up from
the paper, but then looks round as three men run down the stairs. The first one raises an
enormous pistol – the silencer of which is so long that he must be compensating for some other
shortcoming – and fires it up at the smoke alarm, shattering it. The beeping stops. One of the
other men hurries towards John, aiming his pistol at him and John instantly raises his hands,
looking at the first man as he walks over and stops in front of him.)
JOHN: Thank you.
(In the sitting room Sherlock is looking closely at the number pad on the front of the safe.)
SHERLOCK: Hmm. Should always use gloves with these things, you know. Heaviest oil deposit’s
always on the first key used – that’s quite clearly the three – but after that the sequence is
almost impossible to read. I’d say from the make that it’s a six digit code. Can’t be your
birthday – no disrespect but clearly you were born in the eighties; the eight’s barely used, so ...
IRENE: I’d tell you the code right now but you know what? I already have.
(Sherlock frowns at her.)
IRENE: Think.
(The door bursts open and the leader of the group, Neilson, comes in and aims his pistol at
Sherlock.)
NEILSON: Hands behind your head. (To Irene) On the floor. Keep it still.
(A second man goes over to Irene and walks her nearer to John who is being bundled in by a
third man.)
JOHN: Sorry, Sherlock.
(As Sherlock raises his hands, Neilson looks round at Irene.)
NEILSON: Ms Adler, on the floor.
(His colleague shoves her to her knees beside John who has also been pushed to his knees and
is doubled over with his hands behind his head and a pistol pointed to the back of his neck.)
SHERLOCK: Don’t you want me on the floor too?
NEILSON: No, sir, I want you to open the safe.
SHERLOCK (clocking his accent): American. Interesting. Why would you care?
(He glances across at Irene as she puts her hands behind her head.)
NEILSON: Sir, the safe, now, please.
SHERLOCK: I don’t know the code.
NEILSON: We’ve been listening. She said she told you.
SHERLOCK: Well, if you’d been listening, you’d know she didn’t.
NEILSON: I’m assuming I missed something. From your reputation, I’m assuming you didn’t, Mr
Holmes.
JOHN: For God’s sake. She’s the one who knows the code. Ask her.
NEILSON: Yes, sir. She also knows the code that automatically calls the police and sets off the
burglar alarm. I’ve learned not to trust this woman.
IRENE: Mr Holmes doesn’t ...

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)