Hello Detective

The Blind Banker Part 7

We all made it back to Sherlock's flat where all the books were still stacked.

"They'll be back in China by tomorrow." John said as Sherlock took of his coat and scarf.

"No they won't leave without what they came for. We need to find their hideout. A rendezvous. Somewhere in this message it must tell us." Sherlock said, running his hand over the pictures on the wall.

"Well, I think perhaps I should leave you to it." Sarah said awkwardly

"No, you don't have to go. You can stay." John said at the same time as Sherlock said, "Yes, it'd be better if you left now."

"He's kidding please stay if you'd like." John said, covering up for Sherlock's behavior.

"Is it just me or is anyone else starving?" Sarah asked nicely.

"Oh, God." Sherlock groaned. I stepped on his foot forcefully to shut him up. "Ow." He whispered while giving me a dirty look. I glared back.

John went to the kitchen to look for some food. I knew there was never anything in that fridge but body parts. Sherlock sat down at his desk and began looking through all the evidence again. I stood next to him and did the same. Sarah was roaming around the sitting room, inspecting everything.

"So this is what you do. You solve puzzles for a living." Sarah asked.

"Consulting detective." Sherlock corrected her rudely.

"Oh. And you too?" She asked me.

"No, I actually work for Scotland Yard." I said smiling.

"What are these squiggles?" Sarah asked, now standing on the other side of Sherlock, pointing down to the pictures.

"They're numbers. An ancient Chinese dialect." Sherlock said, his patience wearing thin.

"Oh, right. Well, of course I should have known that." Sarah said. Sarah picked up one of the papers and Sherlock looked as if he was going to blow a gasket. I squeezed his arm slightly and shook my head. Silently telling him to behave.

"So these numbers, it's a cipher?" Sarah asked.

"Exactly." Sherlock said through gritted teeth.

"And each pair of numbers is a word?" She said again. The two of us looked at her, extremely surprised.

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"Well. two words have already been translated, here." She said pointing to the picture that we had brought to Soo Lin and Dimmock must have brought back from the museum.

"Soo Lin must have started to translate the code for us. We didn't see it. 'Nine' 'mill'." He read.

"Nine million quid. For what?" I asked.

"We need to know the end of this sentence. Ugh the museum, the restoration room. We must have been staring right at it." He groaned as he slipped on his coat.

"At what?" John asked, emerging from the kitchen.

"The book John, the book. The key to cracking the cipher. Soo Lin used it to do this. Whilst we were running around the gallery, getting shot at. She started to translate the code. It must be on her desk." Sherlock yelled as he ran out of the flat.

"He's certainly something else, isn't he." Sarah stated. I smiled and nodded.

Suddenly a phone buzzed and interrupted my thoughts. It was Sarah's, she read it quickly.

"Oh hell. It's the hospital. I'm so sorry, one of my patients has gone into labor." She said, scurrying to get her things. After some goodbyes she left the flat.