Page 86 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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(Cut-away flashback of Lukis carrying his suitcase into the Lucky Cat and lifting it onto the
counter.)
SHERLOCK: ... a journalist writing about China.
JOHN: Mmm.
SHERLOCK: Both of them smuggled stuff out, and the Lucky Cat was their drop-off.
JOHN: But why did they die? I mean, it doesn’t make sense. If they both turn up at the shop
and deliver the goods, why would someone threaten them and kill them after the event, after
they’d finished the job?
(Sherlock sits back thoughtfully for a few seconds, then smiles as he realises the answer.)
SHERLOCK: What if one of them was light-fingered?
JOHN: How d’you mean?
SHERLOCK: Stole something; something from the hoard.
JOHN: And the killer doesn’t know which of them took it, so he threatens them both. Right.
(Sherlock looks out of the window towards the shop, then raises his eyes to the windows above
it. Looking down to the ground floor level again, his gaze sharpens.)
SHERLOCK: Remind me ...
(He focuses on a Yellow Pages phone directory sealed in a plastic wrapper which has been left
outside the door to the flat beside the Lucky Cat.)
SHERLOCK: ... when was the last time that it rained?
(Without waiting for a reply, he stands up and leaves the restaurant. John, who has probably
managed only two mouthfuls of his meal, sits back in exasperation but then dutifully gets up
and follows.)

Over the road, Sherlock bends down to the Yellow Pages. The plastic wrapper still has drops of
water on it, and the top of it has broken open a little. Sherlock runs his fingers over the top of
the wet exposed pages of the directory.
SHERLOCK: It’s been here since Monday.
(He straightens up and presses Soo Lin’s doorbell. He only waits a couple of seconds, then looks
to his right and heads off in that direction. There’s an alleyway beside the flat and the boys walk
down the alley.)
SHERLOCK: No-one’s been in that flat for at least three days.
JOHN: Could’ve gone on holiday.
SHERLOCK: D’you leave your windows open when you go on holiday?
(He has reached the rear of the building and looks up to see a cantilevered metal fire escape
above his head. Taking a short run at it, he jumps up and grabs the end, pulling it down
towards him until it touches the ground, then runs up the steps towards the open window of the
flat. As he reaches the top, the ladder swings back to the horizontal position behind him.)
JOHN: Sherlock!
(Realising that he’s far too much of a short-arse to be able to pull the ladder down again, he
turns and runs back along the alley to the front of the building.
Sherlock climbs in through the window into the kitchen, then cries out in muffled alarm as he
almost knocks a vase of flowers off the table beside the window. Catching it before it hits the
floor, he looks down and sees a wet patch on the rug in the precise place where the vase would
have hit if it had reached the floor. Straightening up, he calls out of the open window, unaware
that John is no longer there.)
SHERLOCK: Someone else has been here.
(Putting the vase back onto the table, he looks around, talking too quietly for John to hear even
if he was still nearby.)
SHERLOCK: Somebody else broke into the flat and knocked over the vase just like I did.
(He looks round the kitchen, then bends down to the washing machine and opens it. Taking out
an item of Soo Lin’s unmentionables, he sniffs it and grimaces. Downstairs, John rings on the
doorbell. Sherlock puts the item back into the washing machine and pushes the door closed,
then reaches for a tea towel hanging up nearby.)
JOHN (from outside): D’you think maybe you could let me in this time?
(Sherlock feels the tea towel, apparently finds that it’s dry, and moves onwards. Downstairs,
John bends down to the letterbox, pushes it open and calls through the gap.)
JOHN: Can you not keep doing this, please?
(Sherlock has taken a pint of milk from the fridge and has taken off the lid and now sniffs the
contents. Putting the bottle back into the fridge, he calls out.)
SHERLOCK: I’m not the first.

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)