Sherlock Holmes (ACD): A Smudge on the Paper

[smallhobbit]

Title: A Smudge on the Paper
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: G

Inspector Lestrade watched curiously as Holmes took up his magnifying glass and looked closely at a mark on the piece of paper he was studying.

"Surely, Holmes," he said, "that can be of no importance. It is just a smudge."

"That is where you are mistaken," Holmes replied. "It is not the smudge itself which interests me, but why it is there. What does it seek to obscure? And yes, I have it. There are two little words which this inky fingerprint covers. And one of them is 'not'"

"You think the message has deliberately been amended?"

"I do indeed."