My Clever Girl

The Blind Banker (Part 4)

Iris's POV

The escapologist makes it down just in time for the arrow to hit the backboard as the audience applaud. We clapped as I felt that the arm around my shoulders wasn't there anymore. I looked around at the same time John did. He looked at me as I shrugged and kept clapping. The lady raised her hand as we all stopped clapping. "Ladies and gentlemen, from the distant moonlit shores of the Yangtze River, we present, for your pleasure, the deadly Chinese bird spider." She said as we applaud when she walked to the side and a man rolled down a rope. 

He stopped before he hit the ground as I looked around for Sherlock since I had a gut feeling that we found our killer of Soo Lin and the others. He ran and started to fly in the air with the ropes around his hands. I heard grunting and looked at a stage to see the curtain move around. Sherlock was kicked out from the curtain and landed on his back on the ground. John and I noticed as he ran and pushed the man in costume away from Sherlock. The man kicked John away as Sarah handed me a pole of some sort. 

I ran over and hit the man then hit him another time until he fell down. I panted softly and dropped the pole as I looked at him. Sherlock quickly took off the man's shoe to show the same tattoo as Soo Lin. "Come on." John said as he grabbed Sarah's hand. "Come on. Let's go!" Sherlock said, wrapping an arm around me as we hurried out to Dimmock. "I sent a couple of cars. The old hall his totally deserted." He said as we walked through the offices. "Look, we saw the mark at the circus. The tattoo that we saw on the two bodies, the mark of the Tong." Sherlock said as Dimmock looked at us. 

"Lukis and Van Coon were part of a smuggling operation. Now, one of them stole something when they were in China. Something valuable." John said as Sarah watched us. "These circus performers were gang member sent here to get it back." I said as Dimmock looked between all of us. "Get what back?" He asked as we went silent for a minute. "We don't know." John said for us as I crossed her arms. "You don't know? Mr. Holmes, I've done everything you asked. Lestrade, he seems to think your advice is worth something." Dimmock said as he sat down. 

"I gave the order for a raid. Please tell me I'll have something to show for it. Other than a massive bill for overtime." He said as it went quiet. I rolled my eyes and began to walk back to the flat with the others following. "They'll be back in China by tomorrow." John said once we got back to the flat. "No, they won't leave without what they came for." I said as my and Sherlock took off our coats. "We need to find a hideout. A rendezvous. Somewhere in this message it must tell us." Sherlock said as he looked at the photos again. 

"Well, I think perhaps I should leave you to it." Sarah said as both boys spoke at the same time. John saying it's okay for her to stay while Sherlock told her it was a bad time. "He's kidding. Please stay if you'd like." John said as Sherlock looked at me for some help. I smiled sweetly and shrugged me shoulders then sat on the desk. "Is it just me or is anyone else starving?" I asked, breaking the silence. Sarah agreed with me as John walked to the kitchen and looked around for something to eat. 

Sherlock grabbed the pictures and walked over as he spread them out on the desk and sat in the chair. "So this is what you do. You, Iris and John, you solve puzzles for a living." Sarah said as I saw Sherlock starting to get a bit annoyed as he stopped shuffling through the photos. "Consulting detective." He said and started looking through them again as she walked over. "What are these squiggles?" She asked, pointing to a photo as Sherlock looked at me as I looked through the photos. 

"They're numbers. An ancient Chinese dialect." I said with a small smile. "Oh, right. Well, of course I should have know that." She said as Sherlock was trying to remain calm and tried to ignore how annoyed he was. She grabbed the photo that Dimmock found at the museum as Sherlock gave her an 'are you for real' look. "So these numbers, it's a cipher?" She asked as I nodded. "Exactly." Sherlock said as I gently booped his nose to forget his annoyance. He did as he looked at me in confusion as I just smiled sweetly.