Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

1 8 Kerry Greenwood
ears, was eating little biscuits and thinking how uncommonly
well Miss Fisher looked, considering the immense risk she had
taken diving across the floor under a madman’s knife. Phryne
had put on a violet dress with a black chiffon overlay: the colours
of Victorian half-mourning. Jack Robinson wondered if she had
done it on purpose and decided that she had. She was a woman
who savoured nuances.
‘Well,’ sighed Benjamin Abrahams, ‘it is all over. It is not
well over, and I will never forgive myself for not noticing how
Chaim felt—for not noticing Chaim at all.’
‘To think of Chaim hating us so much for all those years,’
sighed Julia. ‘I should have seen. But he never touched me, never
spoke to me, Bennie, so how could I know?’
‘Ai-ai-ai,’ said Mrs. Katz. ‘Such a sad thing.’
‘But now it is over,’ continued Benjamin Abrahams. ‘Chaim
alav ha-sholom did it all.’
‘No,’ said Phryne. ‘Chaim didn’t. Perhaps you weren’t there,
but I asked him about the other things. I asked him about Mrs.
Katz’s robbery, the burglary of my house, the man who tried to
steal my purse. No, said Chaim, all I had to do was wait until
Miss Lee was hanged—the bastard!—and I could buy the book.
No, Chaim didn’t do those things. And it is not proper to load
him with all available sins just because he is dead. But the person
who did them is in this room.’
‘Who?’ demanded Robinson.
‘I shall ascertain. Mr. Abrahams, if I may?’ He made a gesture
for her to continue. She walked to the middle of the room. ‘I
have three questions.’ She held up three fingers. ‘One. Mrs.
Katz, do you recognize any of the young men who tied you to
a chair and robbed your house?’
‘I don’t like to say,’ said Mrs. Katz. Her husband said, ‘You tell
them, if you know.’ Mrs. Katz looked up from under the brim of
the black hat and said, ‘Maybe he looks a little like one of them.
But I really didn’t see them to know again. One of them had a
scarf over his face.’