Sherlock season 1 episode 1 with Lily

A Study in Pink Part 8

Lily P.O.V

Lily: Sorry.

I chases after Sherlock, who runs a few yards up the road before realising that he's not going to catch the taxi and slows to a halt. John catches up and stops beside him.

John: I've got the cab number.
Sherlock: Good for you.

I brings my hands up to either side of my head and concentrates, calling up a mental map of the local area and overlaying it with images of the streets along the route which I calculates that the taxi must take.

Lily(quick fire): Right turn, one way, roadworks, traffic lights, bus lane, pedestrian crossing, left turn only, traffic lights.

Having worked out the route, I lifts my head and sees a man unlocking the door to a nearby building. Instantly my mind flashes up a signpost saying, "ALTERNATIVE ROUTE." I races towards the man and grabs him, shoving him out of the way before charging into the building.

Man: Oi!

John and Sherlock hurries after me, raising an apologetic hand to the man as they goes.

John: Sorry.

The three of us race up the stairs and out onto a metal spiral fire escape staircase leading to the roof. I, the lanky git, takes the steps two or even three at a time and John and Sherlock struggles to keep up with me as they scurries up behind me.

Lily: Come on, guys.

Sherlock P.O.V

Reaching the top of the stairs, Lily runs to the edge and looks over before seeing a shorter metal spiral staircase leading down the side of the building to another door one floor lower. She gallops down the stairs and climbs onto the railing before leaping across the gap to the next building. John scrambles onto the railing and follows. Lily runs across to the other side of the roof and again leaps across to the next building. John races after her, but then skids to a halt when he realises that the gap may be too big for him to jump across. As if in sympathy, pedestrian traffic lights on the ground change from the green "It is safe to cross" sign to the red "Stop and wait" sign. John hesitates, looking down at the drop beneath him.

Lily: Come on, guys. We're losing him!

John backs up a few paces and braces himself. As the traffic lights change to "Safe to cross" again, he takes a run-up and and leaps the gap. Dropping down onto a walkway along the side of the building, the we run onwards. The taxi continues its journey on the ground and we gallop down another metal staircase, then run to a ledge and drop down into an alleyway before running onwards again. Lily leads John down the alleyway as, in his head, a map shows their location in comparison to where the taxi must be. Their paths are beginning to get closer and they are heading towards a point where Sherlock, John and Lily will exit the alleyway onto D'Arblay Street, into which the taxi is just turning. Lily turns the corner and races down the last part of the alley, only to see the taxi drive past the end, heading to the left.

Lily(angrily): Ah, no!

Without breaking stride, I races out of the end of the alley and turns right.

Sherlock: This way.

Instinctively John and Lily turns left in pursuit of the taxi.

Sherlock: No, this way!
John: Sorry.

John turns and heads back in the opposite direction, following me. In my mind-map, I picks a new point where me, John and Lily can intercept the cab. The we run down the street, taking a shorter route than the taxi which is being diverted by various road signs taking it the long way around. We head down more alleyways and side streets towards the interception point in Wardour Street and finally, at the precise point which my mental map predicted, I races out of a side street and hurls myself into the path of the approaching cab, which screeches to a halt as I crashes hard into the bonnet. Scrabbling in my left coat pocket, I pulls out an I.D. badge and flashes it at the driver as I runs to the right hand side of the cab.

Sherlock: Police! Open her up!

Panting heavily, I tugs open the rear door and stares in at the passenger, who looks back at me anxiously. Instantly I straightens up in exasperation just as John and Lily joins me.

Sherlock: No.

I leans down again to look at the passenger a second time.

Sherlock: Teeth, tan: what - Californian?

I looks at something on the floor in front of the passenger.

Sherlock: L.A., Santa Monica. Just arrived.

I straightens up again, grimacing.

John: How can you possibly know that?
Sherlock: The luggage.

Lily P.O.V

He looks down at the suitcase on the floor of the cab and its luggage label showing that the man has flown from LAX [Los Angeles International Airport] to LHR [London Heathrow Airport].

Sherlock (to the passenger): It's probably your first trip to London, right, going by your final destination and the route the cabbie was taking you?
Passenger: Sorry - are you guys the police?
Sherlock: Yeah. (He flashes the I.D. badge briefly at the man.) Everything all right?
Passenger (smiling): Yeah.

Sherlock pauses for a moment as if wondering how to finish this conversation, then smiles falsely at the man.

Lily: Welcome to London.

He immediately walks away, leaving John staring blankly for a moment before he steps closer to the taxi door and looks in at the passenger.

John: Er, any problems, just let us know.

As the man nods, John smiles politely and slams the cab door shut. The man looks round to the taxi driver in bewilderment. John walks to where Sherlock and I has stopped a few yards behind the vehicle.

John: Basically just a cab that happened to slow down.
Sherlock: Basically.
John: Not the murderer.
Lily(exasperated): Not the murderer, no.
John: Wrong country, good alibi.
Lily/Sherlock: As they go.

*to be coutione*