The Adventure of the Rewritten Death

The curtain rises on the third act of a romantic thriller, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson attending the performance.

Leading man Roderick Garrick, dashingly costumed in a crimson uniform, acts to solve the puzzling death of a fellow officer.

In the wings Vincent Hillyard, Garrick's understudy, stands silently reflecting on each movement the noted Thespian makes. Theatre owner Gill Bennett, fretting over declining ticket sales, paces nervously behind the scenery.

On stage, the lovely Regina Fulton, actress wife of playwright Stephen Pinter, sobs under questioning. Albert Boswell, attired in a green officer's tunic to denote the Rifle Brigade, steps to her side.

In a stunning denouncement Garrick reveals Boswell to be the murderer. Cornered, Boswell draws a revolver -- the two men grapple. A shot rings out, a second shot ensues. Boswell recoils, falling lifelessly between the footlights.

Applause is short. Regina Fulton hysterically screams for a doctor. Albert Boswell has been murdered.

Roderick Garrick swears the second shot did not result from the staged fight; prop master Cliff Mountjoy insists he loaded the gun with "blanks" and playwright Stephen Pinter, denying knowledge of an affair between his wife and Boswell, vows the sole reason he rewrote the confrontation scene, substituting a revolver for a knife, was in the interests of better drama.