RANSVESTIA

battle trying to teach me to be a deductive observer of facts. Then, you my dear lady, on your first case, full of imperfections, emotional hunches and intuition, bring to justice the one villain who had escaped Holmes for years. You have used only those methods which Holmes despised and succeeded where he failed. Yet, I suppose it was the only way Moriarty could ever be captured, he would never have been caught off guard as he was this day, by a logical man like Holmes. I wonder why Sherlock never thought of it himself. And to think during the course of this case I was beginning to think that I had at last become the logical, deductive observer Holmes had tried to make me. Perhaps, I should return to my former methods. I just can't believe it. To think that I had even formed several 'logical observations' about you, Olivia. You knew the entry ritual far too well for someone visiting the club for the first time; you knew all of the girls by their names and were too familiar with them; you were supposed to be impersonating your cousin Mark, who you said used the name of Sara, yet they all called you Olivia; and finally after our initial conversation and throughout the whole affair you never again mentioned Mark. I had deduced that there never was a Mark and that you were in truth one of the 'admirers of the feminine' who was actually male. I tell you this is the most humourous event which I have ever experienced. Tell me, Olivia, what do you think of my deductions?"

As she stepped into the main room, Olivia was still in the same dress she had worn earlier that evening. When I looked to her face my flesh grew cold and my limbs grew numb. The soft curls of her hair had vanished to a much shorter crop. Her soft, flawless face now showed rougher lines. Only those eyes which had for so long haunted me remained unchanged. Now the mystery of those eyes was solved, only to lead to an even more baffling mystery. The sultry tones of her voice faded away into a haunting somber baritone as she answered my question from behind a cloud of blue smoke arising from a black clay pipe.

"You forgot to count the stairs again, Watson."

44