FIRST STEPS


We found a little group of men gathered about the chair in which sat
the huddled body. Two of them I already knew. One was Detective-sergeant
Simmonds, and the other Coroner Goldberger, both of whom I had met
in previous cases. Simmonds was a stolid, unimaginative, but
industrious and efficient officer, with whom Godfrey had long
ago concluded an alliance offensive and defensive. In other words,
Godfrey threw what glory he could to Simmonds, and Simmonds such
stories as he could to Godfrey, and so the arrangement was to their
mutual advantage.

Goldberger was a more astute man than the detective, in that he
possessed a strain of Semitic imagination, a quick wit, and a fair
degree of insight. He was in his glory in a case like this. This was
shown now by his gleaming eyes and the trembling hand which pulled
nervously at his short, black moustache. Goldberger's moustache was a
good index to his mental state--the more ragged it grew, the more
baffling he found the case in hand!

Both he and Simmonds glanced up at our entrance and nodded briefly.
Then their eyes went back to that huddled figure.

There were three other men present whom I did not know, but I judged
them to be the plain-clothes-men whom Simmonds had brought along at
Godfrey's suggestion. They stood a little to one side until their
superiors had completed the examination.