Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Raisins and Almonds 18
The noise of breaking laths was loud in the hot darkness.
The unknown had not spoken, but now he muttered as he
pulled out books and threw them to the floor. Finally he found
what he wanted, opened the book and felt in the spine.
Yossi gave a convulsive jerk, and Phryne suppressed him
with a heavy hand on his shoulder. The man examined the bit
of paper by the light of the torch. He stowed it carefully in an
inner pocket.
Then all the lights came on. There stood the murderer.
Phryne at last met the cunning mind which had contrived a
rat-poison death for Shimeon Ben Mikhael.
Uncle Chaim Abrahams turned and ran.
Phryne and Yossi sprang up, knowing that he could not get
far. Here was the bulky man who had bought the disguise of a
drunken carter and had been in Miss Lee’s shop that morning,
defacing a book. Here was the man who had flung the remains
carelessly into the bin, and caused accusations of murder in the
bird dealer’s. Here was the man who was dealing for Yossi’s compound,
who listened to Simon talk about Zion and Palestine,
who was so sympathetic to the aspirations of the young. Chaim
who had no head for business, who had always failed, who had
had to be humiliatingly rescued by his brother who had even
married the woman Chaim loved.
The doors were guarded, but Chaim was not heading for the
doors. He ran not along but up, clattering up the stairs into the
market. Ten policemen, Bert and Cec, Yossi and Phryne raced
after him.
They heard him pounding ahead as they reached the first gallery.
They were close enough to hear his panting breath as he ran
along the top storey. They ran him to earth by the flowershops,
and then they stopped.
Uncle Chaim had a hostage, and he was holding a very sharp
knife to his throat.
‘Simon,’ said Phryne. ‘I might have known it.’
She turned to address a remark to Yossi Liebermann, but he
had vanished.