Page 95 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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(The results list comes up.)
SHERLOCK: Look, here’s another one.
JOHN: Mmm.
SHERLOCK: Arrived from China a month ago: Chinese ceramic statue, sold four hundred
thousand.
[As in, it sold for £400,000.]
JOHN (consulting Lukis’ diary after he spots another entry on the screen): Ah, look: a month
before that – a Chinese painting, half a million.
SHERLOCK: All of them from an anonymous source. They’re stealing them back in China and
one by one they’re feeding them into Britain.
JOHN: Huh.
(He looks at Lukis’ diary again and then at the printout of Van Coon’s calendar.)
JOHN: And every single auction coincides with Lukis or Van Coon travelling to China.
SHERLOCK: So what if one of them got greedy when they were in China? What if one of them
stole something?
JOHN: That’s why Zhi Zhu’s come.
(Mrs Hudson knocks on the open door of the living room.)
MRS HUDSON: Ooh-ooh!
(The boys turn to her.)
MRS HUDSON: Sorry. Are we collecting for charity, Sherlock?
SHERLOCK: What?
MRS HUDSON: A young man’s outside with crates of books.

Shortly afterwards, two uniformed police officers are carrying in yet another plastic crate to add
to the many which have already been dumped in the living room.
SHERLOCK: So, the numbers are references.
JOHN: To books.
SHERLOCK: To specific pages and specific words on those pages.
JOHN: Right, so ... fifteen and one: that means ...
SHERLOCK: Turn to page fifteen and it’s the first word you read.
JOHN: Okay. So what’s the message?
SHERLOCK (snarkily): Depends on the book. That’s the cunning of the book code. Has to be one
that they both owned.
(John looks round despairingly at the many many crates in the room, each either labelled “Van
Coon” or “Lukis.”)
JOHN: Okay, right. Well, this shouldn’t take too long, should it?(!)
(He goes over to the nearest crate and flips open the lid, sighing tiredly when he sees the
amount of books inside. Sherlock opens another crate and starts taking out books, looking at
the cover of each one. John takes a handful from his crate and carries them over to the dining
table and sits down. Dimmock walks in and holds up an evidence bag to Sherlock.)
DIMMOCK: We found these, at the museum.
(He shows the bag to John. It contains the photographs of the cipher which Sherlock had been
showing to Soo Lin.)
DIMMOCK: Is this your writing?
JOHN (taking the bag): Uh, we hoped Soo Lin could decipher it for us. Ta.
(Dimmock nods and turns back to Sherlock, who is still unloading his crate.)
DIMMOCK: Anything else I can do? To assist you, I mean?
SHERLOCK (without looking up): Some silence right now would be marvellous.
(Dimmock stares at him, then looks across to John, who shakes his head apologetically. Biting
his lip and trying not to cry at not being allowed to play with the big boys, Dimmock turns and
leaves the room.
Sherlock takes out a book from a crate and realises that he’s already got one like it from
another crate. He puts them side by side – hard backed copies of Iain Banks’ “Transition.”
Opening one of them to page fifteen, he looks at the first word on the page and then narrates
the word in exasperated disappointment.)
SHERLOCK: “Cigarette.”
(Slamming the book closed, he puts both versions on top of the pile on the desk.)
JOHN: Ah.
(Sherlock goes back to rummaging through crates while John puts his pile onto the floor and
crosses the room to get more books from a crate. Time moves on and later Sherlock finds two
more identical books, “Freakonomics,” from the two men’s collections. He flicks to page fifteen,

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)