Sherlock..........Who?

The Blind Banker Part Three

John has now arrived and he and Soo Lin sit on stools on opposite sides of the table. Sherlock stands at the end of the table.

SOO LIN: You saw the cipher. Then you know he is coming for me.

SHERLOCK: You've been clever to avoid him so far.

SOO LIN: I had to finish ... to finish this work. It's only a matter of time. I know he will find me.

SHERLOCK: Who is he? Have you met him before?

SOO LIN (nodding): When I was a girl, living back in China. I recognise his ... 'signature.'

SHERLOCK: The cipher.

SOO LIN: Only he would do this. Zhi Zhu.

JOHN: Zhi Zhu?

SHERLOCK: The Spider.

(Putting her right foot up on her opposite knee, Soo Lin unlaces her shoe and takes it off. On the underside of her heel is a black tattoo of a lotus flower inside a circle.)

SOO LIN: You know this mark?

SHERLOCK: Yes. It's the mark of a Tong.

JOHN: Hmm?

SHERLOCK: Ancient crime syndicate based in China.

(John nods his understanding and turns back to Soo Lin.)

SOO LIN: Every foot soldier bears the mark; everyone who hauls for them.

JOHN: "Hauls"?

(She looks up at him. His eyes widen.)

JOHN: Y-you mean you were a smuggler?

(She lowers her gaze and puts her shoe back on.)

SOO LIN: I was fifteen. My parents were dead. I had no livelihood; no way of surviving day to day except to work for the bosses.

SHERLOCK: Who are they?

SOO LIN: They are called the Black Lotus. By the time I was sixteen, I was taking thousands of pounds' worth of drugs across the border into Hong Kong. But I managed to leave that life behind me. I came to England.

(She smiles a little.)

SOO LIN: They gave me a job here. Everything was good; a new life.

SHERLOCK: Then he came looking for you.

SOO LIN: Yes.

(Upset, she swallows before continuing tearfully.)

SOO LIN: I had hoped after five years maybe they would have forgotten me, but they never really let you leave. A small community like ours – they are never very far away.

(She wipes tears from her face.)

SOO LIN: He came to my flat. He asked me to help him to track down something that was stolen.

JOHN: And you've no idea what it was?

SOO LIN: I refused to help.

JOHN (leaning forward): So you knew him well when you were living back in China?

(She nods.)

SOO LIN: Oh yes.

(She looks up at Sherlock.)

SOO LIN: He's my brother.

(Elsewhere, the hands of what is presumably a woman wearing black nail varnish open a box and fold back the tissue paper covering the contents. The box contains sheets of black paper. The hands take out the top sheet and lay it on the table.)