Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Raisins and Almonds 1 1
‘Well, you’re out of that horrible place and you’re a free woman
again,’ said Phryne. ‘Anything you want, just name it.’
‘I want a bath,’ said Miss Lee promptly. ‘A real bath with real
soap. I want a boiled egg and some bread and butter and a cup
of real tea. Then I want to go and walk around the city.’
‘It’s yours,’ said Phryne. ‘Dot will look after you. She will
also tell you everything that has happened.’
‘Where will you be?’ asked Miss Lee, bewildered by the speed
of events. An hour ago she had been a condemned prisoner.
Now she was sitting in a very expensive red saloon car and the
suburbs were speeding past.
‘I have to go and talk to a chemist,’ said Phryne.
999
Bert put down his empty glass and licked a little foam from his
upper lip.
‘That hit the spot, eh, mate?’
‘Too right.’
The pub was filling rapidly as the temperature outside
climbed. The Albion was a spacious pub, built in the days
when a public house with any pretensions to gentility had to
have fourteen foot ceilings, brass taps and a polished wooden
bar you could skate down. It had no floor coverings, but the
black and white tiles were cool in the heat. Bert, in his reflective
moments, considered that if heaven didn’t have a well-appointed
pub where a man could sit down over a beer for a yarn with the
other angels, then he didn’t want to go there.
‘Mate,’ Cec nudged him. ‘Looks like trouble.’
Even in Arcadia, thought Bert resignedly, and looked where
Cec indicated. A bulky middle-aged man was raising his voice to
carry over the hum of peaceful voices. His dark face was flushed
with beer. He had been in the pub for a while. Five empty
glasses were on his table and his ashtray was full of butts. The
fact that these had not been cleared away spoke volumes of the
Management’s desire not to retain him as a customer.