Elephant's Memory (Sherlock BBC)

The Blind Banker part 4: Cipher

"You saw the cipher. You know he is coming for me." Soo Lin said, sitting with Sherlock, Clara, and John at her worktable.

"You've been clever to avoid him so far." Sherlock replied quietly. The woman brushed one of the pots tenderly, seemingly not as struck by Sherlock's beauty in the light as Clara was (her head was, in fact, spinning with the beauty of his jawbone in the light).

"I had to finish... to finish this work." She replied. "But it is only a matter of time. I know he will find me."

"Who is he? Have you met him before?" Soo lin looked at the floor to avoid Holmes's sharp, calculating eyes seeing the anxiety behind her calm façade.

"When I was a girl, living back in China." She swallowed. "I recognize his... signature."

"The cipher." He replied. Her head rose again.

"Only he would do this. Zhi Zhu."

"Zhi Zhu?" John looked more confused than ever.

"The Spider." Clara replied. Soo Lin carefully removed her sneaker, and looked at Clara as she revealed a mark on her foot.

"Do you know this mark?"

"Yes." She replied. "It is the mark of a Tong."

"Hmm?" John asked. Clara glanced back at him.

"It's an ancient crime syndicate based in China."

"Every foot soldier bears the mark. Everyone who hauls for them."

"Pardon, 'hauls?'" John asked. Soo Lin looked away. "Y-You mean you were a smuggler?" She looked back up, her dark eyes boring holes through John.

"I was fifteen. My parents were dead. I had no livelihood, no way of surviving, except to work for the bosses."

"Who are they?" Sherlock asked. Soo Lin's dark eyes seemed to be sharper than arrows in the dark; either that, or she was becoming annoyed with Sherlock.

"They are called The Black Lotus." She scratched at her wrist. "By the time I was sixteen, I was carrying thousands of pounds of drugs over the border and into Hong Kong. But I managed to leave that life behind me. I came to England." She had a small smile hinting at the corners of her lips. "They gave me a job here. Everything was good; a new life."

"Then he came looking for you." Sherlock said.

"Yes...I had hoped after five years that, perhaps, they may have forgotten me... but they never really let you leave." She sounded like she was about to cry. "A small community like ours, I should have known that they never really allow you to leave. He came to my flat. He asked me to help him to track down something that was stolen."

"And you've no idea what it was?" John asked, sounding very concerned. She shook her head.

"I refused to help."

"So you knew him well when you were living back in China?"

"Oh yes. Better than anyone. He's my brother." There was a pause, before Soo Lin began to explain. "Two orphans. We had no choice. We could work for The Black Lotus, or starve on the streets like beggars. My brother has become their puppet," She spat the last part out in a bitter tone. "In the power of the one they call Shan - Black Lotus general. I turned him away. He said I had betrayed him. Next day I came to work and the cipher was waiting." Sherlock carefully laid out Clara's drawings and some of the crime scene photos onto the table they were sitting at.

"Can you decipher these?"

"These are numbers." Soo Lin said, like he was an idiot.

"Yes, I know." She pointed to one of Clara's drawings.