Page 20 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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JOHN: So you don’t have a boyfriend then?
SHERLOCK: No.
JOHN: Fine. Okay. So, unattached, like me. (He looks down at his menu, apparently rapidly
running out of things to say.) Good.
(Sherlock looks at him suspiciously for a moment, appearing to replay John’s statement in his
head.)
SHERLOCK: John, you should know that I consider myself married to my work, and while I’m
flattered by your interest, I’m really not looking for any kind of ...
JOHN (interrupting): No. No.
(He looks around awkwardly before looking back to Sherlock.)
JOHN: I wasn’t asking you out. No.
(Sherlock looks at him for a moment, then nods.)
JOHN: I’m just saying, it’s all fine. Whatever ... shakes your ... (he looks up in confusion as he
searches for the right word) ... boat. I’m gonna shut up now.
SHERLOCK: I think that’s for the best.
(He continues to watch the street behind him through the mirror while John looks at his menu
again. John manages to stay shut up for all of about seven seconds.)
JOHN: So ...
(Sherlock briefly closes his eyes in exasperation.)
JOHN: ... you don’t ... do ... anything.
SHERLOCK (slowly, as if trying to get it through John’s skull): Everything else is transport.

Time passes. John is partway through his meal and Sherlock is drumming the fingers of one
hand impatiently on the table as he continues watching the mirror. John looks up at him.
JOHN: No sign yet, then?
(Sherlock forces himself to stop drumming.)
SHERLOCK: I suppose it is a long shot. We have to be realistic.
JOHN: You said before you didn’t know who the killer was but you knew what.
SHERLOCK: So do you if you think about it.
(He screws up his eyes in exasperation.)
SHERLOCK: Why don’t people just think?
JOHN: Oh, because we’re stupid.
(He puts a forkful of food in his mouth as he looks at Sherlock. Sherlock bites his lip.)
SHERLOCK: We know the killer drove his victims, but there were no marks of coercion or
violence on the bodies. Each one of those five people climbed into a stranger’s car voluntarily.
The killer was someone they trusted.
JOHN: But not someone they knew?
SHERLOCK: Five completely different people. They had no friends in common. And another
thing: Lauriston Gardens, did you see it? Twitching curtains, little old ladies ... Little old ladies,
they’re my favourite. Better than any security cameras. But according to the police, no-one
remembers a strange car parked outside an empty house. Not one person remembered.
JOHN: I see what you’re saying.
(Sherlock fidgets expectantly in his seat.)
JOHN: ... No I don’t. What are you saying: that the killer’s got an invisible car?
SHERLOCK: Yes. Yes! Exactly!
JOHN: Then I definitely don’t see what you’re saying.
(Sherlock sighs, then looks intensely at John.)
SHERLOCK: There are cars that pass like ghosts, unseen, unremembered. There are people we
trust, always, when we’re alone, when we’re lost, when we’re drunk. We never see their faces,
but every day we disappear into their cars and let the trap close around us.
(He turns his head and glances out of the window, then his gaze sharpens as a black cab pulls
up on the other side of the road, its light on to indicate that it’s available for hire. Sherlock turns
his head and calls out towards the rear of the restaurant.)
SHERLOCK: Angelo, glass of white wine, quickly.
(He looks at John.)
SHERLOCK: I give you the perfect murder weapon of the modern age, the invisible car.
(The cab begins to pull away from the kerb. Sherlock watches it intently in the mirror.)
SHERLOCK: The London cab.
(The cab turns right into the narrow street opposite the restaurant. John looks over Sherlock’s
shoulder as the cab stops again a few yards down the road.)
JOHN: There’s been cabs up and down this street all night.

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)