Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

118 Kerry Greenwood
‘Your hat was there,’ she said. ‘I saw it in the hall. It’s a very
distinctive hat.’
‘Is good, yes?’ said Mrs. Katz, giving up her attempt to avoid
admitting that she had been in Miss Lee’s shop. ‘I like it. Max says
it is too big, but I don’t like the sun. Max says I look like mushroom.
He’s got no style. Oy, Maxie, what will Max say about this?
And my good fish cakes is all burned. Miss, do you know what
those gonifs wanted? Do you know what this is all about?’
‘No,’ admitted Dot. ‘Not really. But I’m sure that Miss Fisher
will. Why won’t you let me call the police, Mrs. Katz?’
‘We’re in new country,’ muttered Mrs. Katz. ‘We don’t want
no trouble. No old country trouble.’
‘Old country? What do you mean?’
Mrs. Katz shut up like an oyster. Dot considered her. She was
perhaps fifty, dressed in an art silk dress with rather too many
brooches. Her hair was dyed an unconvincing shade of gold and
she was made up with pancake and lipstick, but the effect was
oddly attractive and innocent, as though a child had amused
itself with her mother’s cosmetics. Her wrist bore a heavy gold
bracelet and there were small gold rings in her ears. Robbery had
not been the motive for this incursion into a respectable Carlton
household.
‘Perhaps I can give you a hand with the tidying up,’ Dot
offered, giving up on the police.
‘No, no, you put the kettle on if you will be so kind, we’ll
have some tea, how can I explain to Max what happened, maybe
he’ll understand, he’s got a better kopf than me, he’ll be home
by three, oy, what a terrible thing….’
Mrs. Katz pottered off into the parlour and Dot put the
kettle on and then followed. She found her hostess on her knees,
picking up the sad fragments of what had been a fine plate, red
and blue china embossed with gold.
‘With me I brought it,’ she said, breaking into tears. ‘Such
a long way I brought it.’
Dot realized then that Mrs. Katz had not cried during her
ordeal. She had courage, or perhaps felt that she had no reason