“Er, yes. Yes, of course—I was taking you. I’ll order a good fire lit at once to help you dry.”
I followed Crofts with the overshadowing Coroner and the plump Superintendent into the Hall of the Moth. Doctor Aire and Lord Ludlow were waiting there; the body of Sean Cosgrove lay on the couch with the Brocade de Lyons upholstering, and across it was stretched a decorative leather skin plucked down from the wall.
Introductions were curt. Doctor Aire pulled off the cover, revealing the corpse. The limbs had been adjusted carefully. Rigor mortis, of course, had not yet supervened, and the features, save for the laxity of the jaw, had much the expression I should have expected to see in untroubled sleep. First Doctor Niblett bent for his swift, searching preliminary examination, turning the dead man’s head in his long, large-jointed fingers. The Superintendent followed in more deliberate manner, while Niblett went gratefully to the climbing fire.
It appeared that Salt is not one of those master-minds who require a vacuum in order to get results. He actually began to function in our presence! For at length, rising ponderously from his knees, upon which he had been scrutinizing the soles of the dead man’s shoes, he said, “See here, where’s the weapon?”
Crofts shrugged his shoulders, having a bit of a flea in his ear, and Doctor Aire answered, “We haven’t the slightest idea. There’s a pretty muddle about weapons. We’ve weapons to burn, but none of them appears to be connected with the case.”
“We’ll go into that later, then. You haven’t disturbed the contents of his clothing, I see.”
“Certainly not.”
Methodically Salt removed what Cosgrove carried on him when he died, turning out each pocket when empty and examining the inside. Besides the loose coins, watch and chain, and wallet, there were a number of hand-written and printed sheets in several pockets.
Ludlow singled out one slip from the heap and called Salt’s attention to it. “This thing,” he said, “was the subject of some acrimony on the part of the deceased last night. He accused me, in fact, of pilfering it.”
“What’s that?”