Page 85 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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over to look at the price tag. His hand begins to tremble when he sees the Chinese symbol
stuck on the underside. It’s the same sort-of upside down eight with a line above it which was
painted beside Sir William’s portrait and on the library shelf.)
JOHN: Sherlock.
(Sherlock, who has picked up one of the statues, puts it back on the shelf and comes over to
him.)
JOHN: The label there.
SHERLOCK: Yes, I see it.
JOHN: Exactly the same as the cipher.
(Clearing his throat awkwardly, he puts the cup back. Sherlock lifts his head as it all starts to
make sense to him.)

Shortly afterwards they have left the shop and are walking down the street.
SHERLOCK: It’s an ancient number system! Hangzhou.
(The symbols from that system are flashing in his mind’s eye as he walks.)
SHERLOCK: These days, only street traders use it. Those were numbers written on the wall at
the bank and at the library.
(He walks over to a greengrocer’s which has some of its wares on display outside the shop. The
various boxes have handwritten signs on them giving the names of the vegetables in both
Chinese and English, and underneath is the cost of that particular item in both Hangzhou and
English. He picks up various signs, checking the symbols.)
SHERLOCK: Numbers written in an ancient Chinese dialect.
(John has spotted a sign with the upside down eight and slash above it and its English
equivalent beneath.)
JOHN: It’s a fifteen! What we thought was the artist’s tag – it’s a number fifteen.
SHERLOCK: And the blindfold – the horizontal line? That was a number as well.
(He shows John a price tag which has the almost-horizontal line at the top, and “£1” written
underneath.)
SHERLOCK (grinning triumphantly): The Chinese number one, John.
JOHN: We’ve found it!
(Sherlock turns and walks away. As John smiles and turns to follow him, he sees the same
woman who was taking a photograph outside 221 standing nearby. Still wearing her dark
sunglasses, she again has her camera raised and pointed towards him as she takes a picture.
Someone walks across her, obscuring his view of her for a moment, and by the time the person
has passed, she has vanished. John frowns, then follows after his friend.)

Shortly afterwards, they’re staking out the tourist shop, which we now see is The Lucky Cat, the
shop outside which Andy Galbraith was standing when he tried Soo Lin’s doorbell. Sitting at a
table in the window of the restaurant opposite the shop, Sherlock is writing the two Hangzhou
numbers and their English equivalents onto a paper napkin. John sits opposite him, also writing
notes.
JOHN: Two men travel back from China. Both head straight for the Lucky Cat emporium. What
did they see?
SHERLOCK: It’s not what they saw; it’s what they both brought back in those suitcases.
JOHN: And you don’t mean duty free.
(A waitress brings over a plate of food and puts it down in front of John.)
JOHN: Thank you.
SHERLOCK: Think about what Sebastian told us; about Van Coon – about how he stayed afloat
in the market.
JOHN: Lost five million ...
SHERLOCK: ... made it back in a week.
JOHN: Mmm.
SHERLOCK: That’s how he made such easy money.
JOHN: He was a smuggler. Mmm.
(He takes a mouthful of food.)
SHERLOCK: A guy like him – it would have been perfect.
(Cut-away flashback of Van Coon paying a taxi driver just outside the Lucky Cat and then
carrying his suitcase towards the shop.)
SHERLOCK: Business man ...
JOHN: Mmm-hmm.
SHERLOCK: ... making frequent trips to Asia. And Lukis was the same ...

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)