Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Raisins and Almonds
‘We haven’t got a lot of evidence, certainly,’ admitted the
policeman. ‘But have you found anyone else who fits as well?’
‘I’ll meet the rest of his friends tonight,’ said Phryne. ‘At
Kadimah, in Drummond Street. Then we shall see what we shall
see, and hear what we shall hear. There’s some secret element
in this, Jack. I’ve had those papers translated. They were in a
code, and they translate into another code. The pictures are all
the stages making the philosopher’s stone.’
‘Like Johnson’s play, The Alchemist?’ asked the policeman. He
had been to a night course in Elizabethan drama and had never
regretted it. Shakespeare was now his constant companion.
‘Yes, like that,’ answered Phryne, a little taken aback. ‘I’ll find
out more when I have time to read the texts. I’ve even got Elias
Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Brittanicum. Miss Lee found it
in a French auction and bought it for the dead man. Poor thing.
Never even saw it. However, I don’t know if it will help. The
Rabbi had a lot of books, but they were all in Hebrew and he
said that he knew nothing about alchemy.’
‘Rabbi?’
‘Rabbi Elijah. Simon Michaels was his student. He lives in
St. Kilda. If you are going to talk to him, Jack, I have to tell you
that he’s…difficult.’ She smiled at her choice of words.
‘Difficult?’
‘Really difficult,’ Phryne emphasized.
‘Well, must be going,’ said Jack Robinson reluctantly. He
had, however, cleared the plate of scones. ‘I’m afraid that you
may have taken on an impossible task, Miss Fisher. I don’t see
how you’re going to find this murderer when the resources of
the police force can’t track him down.’
‘But the resources of the police force aren’t trying to track
him down,’ Phryne pointed out reasonably. ‘You don’t believe
he, she or they exist. I do. So I have the advantage,’ she said,
escorting him to the door.
‘About the only advantage I have,’ she added, as the door
shut on Jack Robinson and the buff folder.