Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Raisins and Almonds 14
something to sell, but we are not fools. We needed to exchange
information with an intermediary without him knowing who we
were. So we left the notes in Miss Lee’s shop, because we know
that she will never sell the books in the corner. Shimeon must
have tried to retrieve the paper. Someone killed him for it. It is
lost,’ he said desolately.
‘But it is not gone forever, while you still have Yossi,’ said
Phryne.
There was another silence, in which Louis mastered another
phrase of the adagio of his violin concerto.
‘He can’t remember what he did,’ wailed Solly suddenly,
clutching at his forehead. ‘Once, he got it to work once, and he
noted down all the proportions, but he tried to repeat it and it
doesn’t work. And now Shimeon is dead and someone has the
compound!’
‘Tell him to keep trying,’ urged Phryne. ‘Tell him to repeat
the experiment and vary the ingredients. I don’t suppose you
feel like telling me either what you were selling or to whom you
were selling it?’
They shook their heads.
‘So Shimeon went to deposit the paper and he died. And you
haven’t seen the paper since?’
‘No,’ David replied.
‘All right. Tell Yossi to keep working. Remember also that it
might be better to register the patent the usual way. When you
get the money, you can always buy guns for Palestine with the
proceeds. Now, I want to see all of your shoes.’
‘Our shoes?’ asked Isaac, bewildered. ‘You want to look at
our shoes?’
‘If you please,’ said Phryne, quietly determined.
One by one they removed their shoes and Phryne inspected
them. Leather soles retained particles of white china, such as
studded her own soles from the broken cup. But not one of
the shoes she was shown, from Simon’s immaculate Oxfords to
Isaac’s broken and unpolished ex-army boots, showed a crumb
of red, blue or gold from Mrs. Katz’s plate.