221B

Chapter 9 - The Blind Banker

In a nearly-dark restoration room, she pours tea into the teapot on the desk in front of her, picking up the lid and carefully stroking it around the rim. Somebody comes up behind me and taps me on the shoulder. I whip around in the dark and see Sherlock's silhouette right in front of me. I see him place an index finger in front of his lips, and watches Soo Lin Yao as she picks up the teapot and pours some of the liquid into two cups.

Sherlock takes my wrist and slowly leads me through the dark towards her as she pours more of the tea into the tray where the cups are placed, then swills the teapot around to cover the outside with drips. Sherlock and I step up beside her.

"Fancy a biscuit with that?" Sherlock speaks up.

Before he can finish his sentence, she gasps in fright and and turns towards us, the teapot slips from her fingers. Sherlock reacts instantly and bends his knees to reach down and catch the teapot right before it hits the floor.

"Centuries old. Don't want to break that." He says, looking up at her. He slowly straightens up and hands the teapot back to her. As Soo Lin Yao takes it, I reach out and flick a switch on the desk, turning on the lights underneath the surface. Sherlock slightly smiles at her. "Hello."

Shrotly after John arrives, he and Soo Lin sit on stools at opposite ends of the table, Sherlock and I stand next to each other at the end of the table.

"You saw the cipher. Then you know he is coming for me." She says.

"You've been clever enough to avoid him so far." Sherlock says.

"I had to finish...to finish this work. It's only a matter of time. I know he will find me." Soo Lin answers.

"Who is he? Have you met him before?" Sherlock asks.

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

"The cipher." I say.

"Only he would do this. Zhi Zhu."

"Zhi Zhu?" John asks.

"The Spider." I say.

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

"You know this mark?" She asks.

"Yes. It's the mark of a Tong." Sherlock and I answer in unison.

"Hmm?" John asks.

"Ancient crime syndicate based in China..." Sherlock and I answer again at the same time. We look at each other and John and Soo Lin look back and forth between us for a moment. Sherlock furrows his brows for a moment and then Soo Lin speaks up.

"Every foot solider bears the mark; everyone who hauls for them."

"'Hauls'?" John asks, looking at her. Soo Lin looks up at him, and his eyes widen. "Y-you mean you were a smuggler?"

She lowers her gaze again and puts her shoe back on. "I was fifteen. My parents were dead. I had no livelihood; no way of surviving day to day except to work for the bosses."

"Who are they?" Sherlock asks.

"They are called the Black Lotus." Soo Lin answers. "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. "They gave me a job here. Everything was good; a new life."

"Then he came looking for you." I say.

"Yes." She answers, then swallows before continuing tearfully. "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 really far away." She wipes tears from her face. "He came to my flat. He asked me to help him track down something that was stolen."