That's right!  I'm back on the WOEICS fanfic writing trail, and I've begun a 
new fanfic to prove it!  It's called "The Adventure of the Crimson Lady", and 
I've written the first part!  I'd like you to put it on Acme Crimenet asap. 

TAOTCL is a Carmen/Sherlock Holmes crossover, with a checkered history.  Erin 
Mills was originally going to write this fic, but ran into unexpected 
problems (namely, a virus that infected the files on his dad's computer -- 
where his work was), and decided the problems meant he shouldn't work on the 
project.  As I didn't want the story to just die, I volunteered to do it 
instead, and he agreed. 

So, here's Part One of "The Adventure of the Crimson Lady".  I hope you like 
it. 

Jaci 

"The Adventure of the Crimson Lady"
Written by Belle Book, story idea by Erin Mills

Author's notes:

Carmen Sandiego and Paige Turner are creations of Broderbund Software and DIC. 
Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson, Mary Morstan Watson, and Inspector Lestrade
are creations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Any other characters that might appear
in this story are creations of my own imagination.  There are references to
Doyle's short stories "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Adventure of the Blue
Carbuncle", "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", "The Reigate Puzzle", "A Study in
Scarlet", and "The Sign of Four".

Originally, Erin was going to publish this story and I was merely going to
authenticate it.  Erin's grandfather was a WWII veteran on patrol in France,
when he and his platoon stopped at this farmhouse one day.  During the night,
Erin's grandfather happened to knock over a bookshelf, and found a loosely-bound
manuscript, slightly waterdamaged, behind it.  He recognized the name of the
writer, and stored the manuscript in an old ammo box, hoping to get it
authenticated and sell it.  He was a farmer, however, and after the war, he had
too much to do, so the ammo box was placed in storage and forgotten.  However,
one day, Erin and his dad were cleaning out on of the storage sheds on their old
property (the house was one of the oldest in Draper, and had about six storage
buildings on the property), when Erin found the ammo box with the manuscript and
kept it, later sending it to me for authentication when he couldn't do it
himself.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get verification one way or the other and
was going to send it back to Erin when he suggested I edit and clean up the
semi-illegible parts (due to water damage) and later post this story onto the
Internet.  He couldn't do it himself because he was busy with other projects,
and passed it off to me because I was a fan of both Sherlock Holmes and Carmen
Sandiego.

This story takes place in April of 1890, two years after "A Scandal in Bohemia"
and about a year before "The Final Problem".  I believe that "The Adventure of
the Blue Carbuncle" had occurred only about four months before, and the strange
affair of the "Red-Headed League" would occur about four months later (even
though Watson said the date of the newspaper ad which began that affair was
April 27 -- probably an error on his part).  It was apparently written in March
of 1894, and meant for publication later that year, but publication was
postponed due to Holmes's sudden reemergence.

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Part One

If Irene Adler was THE woman to my friend Sherlock Holmes, then I would say he
would call "C.S." (whose identity shall be revealed later) the woman in red.  I
have never heard him mention this woman under any other name but that one.  In
fact, I have seldom heard him mention her at all, due no doubt to the fact that
she not only was able to best him, but was able to humiliate him in the process. 
This is why I will probably never be able to publish this adventure until Holmes
is dead.  And yet, the adventure seemed to begin rather innocently enough at the
time, with no indications that Holmes would meet one of the greatest challenges
in his career, if not THE greatest.

	It was early April in 1890, when this tale began.  My wife and I had just
finished breakfast and I was ready to leave for my office when our maid brought
in a telegram.  To my surprise and delight, it was from Holmes, and ran in this
way:

	"Have you time to spare from your work?  Have a matter 
which initially seemed trivial, but now seems deeper.  Would like 
your assistance in this matter.  Shall be glad if you would come 
to 221B Baker Street at once."

	I showed the telegram to my wife.  "What do you intend to do?" she asked.

	"I would like to see what has engaged Holmes's interest like this," I asked. 
"But would you wish me to leave you again, as I might have to do if indeed it is
a deep matter?"

	"I would not mind," she said.  "You are always so interested in Mr. Holmes's
cases, and Anstruther can take over your cases if you ask him."

	"I will," I said as I prepared a telegram for Anstruther, my assistant.  He has
often had to take my cases for me when I was busy following those of Holmes.

	About ten minutes later, I had sent the telegram to Anstruther, hailed a
hansom, and was heading over to 221B Baker Street.  When I arrived, Holmes was
lounging upon the sofa in a brown dressing-gown, with his pipe within reach on a
pipe-rack to the right, and nearby, a pile of morning papers, evidently studied
earlier that morning.  Beside the sofa was a wooden chair, and on the angle of
the back hung a striking red hat with a yellow band around it.  A lens and a
foreceps lying upon the seat of the chair suggested that the hat had been
suspended for the very purpose of examination.

	"Ah, Watson," said Holmes, rising from the sofa to greet me.  "I take it you
have just noticed that hat."

	"I have," I said as I seated myself in his armchair.  "Where did you obtain
it?"

	"It was sent to me," said Holmes.  "However, Mrs. Hudson is the one who found
it in front of her door this morning."

	"Mrs. Hudson?" I asked, with some surprise.

	"Yes.  She awoke me by pounding on the door to my quarters.  I opened the door,
and she told me that someone had knocked on her door very early that morning,
long before she usually awakens.  When she went to see who had dared to wake her
so early, she found nobody there.  She was just about to close the door, when
she noticed something at her feet.  It was this very hat, and there was a letter
attached which indicated it was meant for me.  She then went to my quarters to
deliver the hat.  I have the letter on the sofa, but would not examine it until
I had my dear friend Watson here to listen to this story."

	I listened to this tale with a thrill of wonder.  Now that I had heard how
Holmes had obtained the hat, I had to agree that the matter might be more
important than it appeared.  I remembered the adventure of the blue carbuncle,
only less than four months before, and how it began with some matter which
seemed trivial, yet proved to be linked to a botched robbery.

	"Did Mrs. Hudson see who knocked on her door?" I asked.

	"No, the person had left by the time she answered the door.  I have no doubt
the knocker waited until Mrs. Hudson could be heard approaching the door, or
else left before then.  The envelope was unsigned."

	"Then what clue could you have as to his identity?"

	"Only as much as we can deduce from this hat and from the letter itself, which
I have yet to open."

	"What can you gather from it?"

	"You know my methods.  Take my lens.  What can you deduce from this hat that
can help us identify the person who wore it?"

	I took the lens and the hat and turned it over rather nervously.  It looked to
be a fedora which had been slightly modified and well-preserved, being neither
cracked nor discoloured, unlike an earlier hat of my acquaintance.  The lining
was the color of the hat, red felt.  There was no maker's name, but the initials
"C.S.", handwritten and the work of a woman, were written nealy in black ink
upon one side of the lining.  The hat was pierced in the brim by a small hatpin
that looked almost golden.

	"I can see nothing other than the initials of the person who once wore it --
C.S., that the hat itself is a slightly modified fedora, and that it is
well-preserved," said I, as I handed it back to my friend.

	"On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything.  However, you are too timid
in drawing your inferences from anything that is not obvious, as is shown by the
fact that you could only infer what I saw very easily."

	"Then pray tell me what else you can deduce from this hat?"

	Holmes picked the hat up and gazed at it in his usual introspective fashion. 
"There are several inferences which are very distinct, and there are others
which represent at least a strong balance of probability," he said, after a few
moments.  "The fact that the owner of the hat is a woman is of course, obvious
upon the fact of it, and that she is both very wealthy and highly intelligent. 
She seems to be both flamboyant yet mysterious, and has a great deal of
foresight.  She is a woman who leads a very active life, probably goes out a
good deal, is in very good training, is probably around thirty, and has black
hair which she has had trimmed within the last few days.  She is new to London,
having arrived within a day or two at the most.  These are the most patent facts
which are to be deduced from this fedora."

	"I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I am unable to
follow you," I admitted.  "For example, how could you tell that the owner of the
hat was a woman?"

	"The initials were handwritten," said Holmes.  "The handwriting clearly
indicates that the writer was a woman.  Also, the writing of the 'S' corresponds
exactly to the 'S' in 'Mr. Sherlock Holmes' in the letter."

	"And I thought the writing in the lining might be that of the maker of the hat. 
That is why I did not say that the owner of the hat was female.  But how about
her being highly intelligent?  I can understand why you thought Henry Baker was
intellectual due to the size of his hat, but this woman's head cannot possibly
be larger than Baker's head."

	"It is not as large as Baker's head," said Holmes, picking up the hat, and
putting it on his head.  "However, just as with Baker's hat, it is a question of
cubic capacity.  This hat is unusually large for a woman's hat.  Therefore, the
woman must have an unusually large brain.  And a woman with so large a brain
must have something inside that brain."

	"Considering how accurate you were earlier, I can accept your reasoning here,"
I said.  "But how could you tell that she was both flamboyant and mysterious?"

	"This type of hat would attract attention to the user wherever she went. 
Therefore, we can safely assume that our mysterious woman likes attracting
attention to herself.  However, the hat has clearly been worn in such a way that
one of the woman's eyes is concealed all the time.  For that reason, she also
must be mysterious."

	"What about her wealth, then?"

	"Here's both the evidence of her wealth AND her foresight, which you no doubt
would have asked about next," said Holmes, pointing to the hatpin.  "Neither
hatpins nor hat-securers are ever sold upon hats.  If she had one ordered, it is
a sign of a definite amount of foresight, since she went out of her way to take
precautions against the wind.  Thanks to this lens, I have determined that it is
solid gold.  This indicates that the woman is extremely wealthy, and that she
has probably maintained her wealth; since if she had a hatpin which is obviously
expensive and not troubled herself to taking it out before leaving the hat
behind, she must have had enough money to replace it."

	"Your reasoning defintely sounds plausible," I admitted.

	"The further evidence -- that she is probably around thirty and that she has
black hair which has recently been trimmed -- can be gathered by a close
examination of the lower part of the lining.  My lens disclosed a large number
of short black hairs and a couple of gray hairs, clean cut by the scissors of a
barber.  They all appear to be adhesive.  Further evidence of her age can be
gathered from the writing on her envelope, which is both strong and bold,
indicating youth, yet mature at the same time.  The maturity indicates
experience.  With all this evidence, I would put the age of the woman at about
thirty.  Unlike Baker, there are no marks of moisture upon her hat, which means
that she did not perspire much.  Therefore, she probably leads an active life
AND is in good training."

	"But how on earth do you deduce that she has been in London only recently?"

	"There is some dust on her hat.  Most of it is the gritty, gray dust of the
street.  Therefore, she has probably gone outdoors with it most of the time. 
However, a long-time London resident who goes out a lot would have a lot more
dust from the London streets on their hats than this woman has on hers. 
Therefore, she is a newcomer.  It would be interesting to find out where she
originally came from."

	"You have an answer for everything," said I.  "But so far, there is no evidence
other than the woman left her hat for you for your assumption that the matter is
more complex than it appears."

	"Then let us examine the letter," said Holmes.  "It may give us some clues as
to why she left the hat behind -- and guide us in the solution of some mystery."

	So, Holmes took the envelope from the sofa, cut it open with a penknife, and
examined the letter inside it.  At last, he laughed, handed it to me and said,
"Whoever this woman is, she is certainly clever."

	The letter was short and to the point:

		"The game is afoot."

					C.S.

	"What an extraordinary letter!" I said, handing it back to Holmes.

	"No doubt she has read your writings," said Holmes.  "She used a phrase you had
me say when I was on the scent of a crime.  She has planned something, something
which she may even have done by this point."

	"I wonder what she could have planned," I asked.

	"I believe we will soon find out," said Holmes.  "In fact, I have no doubt we
will find out what she has planned," he added, as we heard the sharp clang of
the bell announcing a client.

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