DIMMOCK: You’re not serious! Like Spiderman?(!)
SHERLOCK: He scaled six floors of a Docklands apartment building, jumped the balcony to kill Van Coon.
DIMMOCK (laughing in disbelief): Oh, ho-hold on!
SHERLOCK: And of course that’s how he got into the bank. He ran along the window ledge and onto the terrace.
(He steps down onto the landing and looks around again.)
SHERLOCK: We have to find out what connects these two men.
(His eyes fall on the pile of books scattered up the side of the staircase. Jumping down a few stairs he picks up one particular book which has fallen open at its front page which shows that it has been borrowed from West Kensington Library. Slamming the book shut, he takes it with him as he heads off down the stairs.)
After a taxi journey during which they go right past the end of the road that your humble transcriber works in [why didn’t they drop in for coffee??], Sherlock and John are once again on an escalator, this time inside West Kensington Library. Sherlock finds his way to the aisle where Lukis’ book came from.
SHERLOCK: Date stamped on the book is the same day that he died.
(Checking the reference number stuck to the bottom of the book’s spine, he goes to the correct place along the shelves and starts pulling out books and examining them. John, probably just for something to do, pulls out some books on a nearby shelf on the other side of the aisle and immediately gets lucky.)
JOHN: Sherlock.
(Sherlock turns and sees John staring into the gap left by the books he removed. Stepping over to him, he kisses John’s ear [he does, if you freeze-frame it just right!] and then reaches to the shelf and pulls out so many books with one hand that your transcriber faints at the verythought of how wide that man’s hand span is. Pulling out another huge handful of books with his other hand, he reveals that spray painted on the back of the shelf are the same two symbols that were sprayed across Sir William Shad’s office.)
221B. Photographs of the shelf have been added to the earlier photos stuck around the mirror in the living room. The boys are standing at the fireplace looking at the pictures.
SHERLOCK: So, the killer goes to the bank, leaves a threatening cipher for Van Coon; Van Coon panics, returns to his apartment, locks himself in.
(Flashback of a terrified Eddie Van Coon turning the key in the inside lock of his front door and fastening the safety chain before hurrying towards his bedroom.)
SHERLOCK: Hours later, he dies.
JOHN: The killer finds Lukis at the library; he writes the cipher on the shelf where he knows it’ll be seen; Lukis goes home.
SHERLOCK: Late that night, he dies too.
JOHN (softly): Why did they die, Sherlock?
(Sherlock runs his fingers over the line painted across Sir William’s face.)
SHERLOCK: Only the cipher can tell us.
(He thoughtfully taps his finger against the photo as his expression sharpens. Apparently he has had an idea.)
TRAFALGAR SQUARE. The boys are walking through the centre of the square, heading towards the National Gallery.
SHERLOCK: The world’s run on codes and ciphers, John. From the million-pound security system at the bank, to the PIN machine you took exception to, cryptography inhabits our every waking moment.
The Blind Banker - PART 2
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