10
Finding a needle in a haystack is not so hard. The police will find it for you; it’ll prick them but they’ll find it. It’s harder to find a straw in a haystack or a needle in a sewing kit, especially if you don’t know which needle you are looking for.
The police found a whole handful of gold coins—the shop assistants had brought them right to them—but the people who had handed out those coins? Well, it was as if the ground had swallowed them up.
“Where can they be hiding?” This very reasonable thought popped into Captain Merinos’s head.
And an attempt at an answer popped into young sergeant Safonov’s:
“In the house by the river?”
And a visit was paid to the house by the river. Though this time Captain Merinos did not take the ex-‘gasman’ with him.
At that particular moment, N. wa
