Murder in Canton: A Judge Dee Mystery Page 18
‘Now I shall tell you the practical consequences of all this theorizing. On the basis of the facts at our disposal now, we can't take any steps against the Governor, the Prefect or Mr Liang, for to all appearances none of them is in any way connected with the crimes perpetrated here. We must, therefore, attack the criminal, whoever he is, through his henchmen. Mansur has disappeared, but we still have Yau. I shall have him arrested at once, on the charge of being implicated in Mrs Pao's murder. The arrest will be made in complete secrecy, by my four agents. I shall send you two away on some faked mission, to divert the attention of the criminal who is watching our every move. Once Yau is under lock and key, I shall search his house, and…’
The door burst open and Chiao Tai came rushing in, breathing heavily.
‘Her body is gone!’ he shouted.
Judge Dee sat up in his chair.
‘Gone?’ he asked perplexed.
‘Yes, sir. When I unlocked the door, we saw only the empty bed. There were a few drops of blood on the floor between the bed and the window, and a large smear on the sill. Someone must have entered by the window. He took the body away, over the roofs into the Arab quarter. We made house to house inquiries there, but nobody had heard or seen anything. It is…’
‘What about her maid, and the people on her boat?’ Judge Dee interrupted. ‘Did they know who her patron was?’
‘The body of the maidservant was found floating in the river, sir. Strangled. And the crew had hardly ever seen her patron; he used to come and go in the night, and always kept his face covered with his neckcloth. The swine, they…’ He choked on the words.
The judge leaned back in his chair. ‘Utterly preposterous!’ he muttered.
Chiao Tai sat down heavily, and vigorously rubbed his moist face with the tip of his sleeve. Tao Gan bestowed a thoughtful glance upon him. He started to say something, then changed his mind and looked at Judge Dee. When the judge made no comment, Tao Gan poured a cup of tea for Chiao Tai. His friend gulped it down, then sat there staring straight ahead with unseeing eyes. There was an uneasy silence.
At last the judge got up, came round from behind his desk, and began to pace the floor, his bushy eyebrows creased in a deep frown.
Tao Gan anxiously watched Judge Dee's face every time he walked past, but he seemed completely oblivious of his two lieutenants. Finally he halted in front of the nearest window, and remained standing there, his hands behind his back, looking out over the palace yard, which was sweltering in the strong morning sun. Tao Gan pulled Chiao Tai's sleeve. He told him in a whisper about the impending arrest of Yau Tai-kai. Chiao Tao nodded absent-mindedly.
Suddenly Judge Dee turned round. Stepping up to them, he said in brief, hurried phrases:
The stealing of the body is the criminal's first mistake. But a fatal one. I now understand his warped personality. I was partly right, but the main point escaped me. Now I see all that has happened here in its true light. I shall confront that man at once with his dastardly crimes, and make him tell me who his sponsors are!’ He paused, then added with a frown, ‘I can't arrest him outright, for he is a resourceful and determined man, and he might kill himself rather than give me the information I so desperately need. On the other hand he may have his henchmen about him, and I must take certain precautions. You will accompany me, Tao Gan. Chiao Tai, you call my four agents, and the captain of the palace guards!’
XXII
The headman of Judge Dee's palankeen bearers had to knock for a long time before the high double gate opened. The bent figure of the old house steward appeared. With bleary eyes he looked astonished at the two visitors.
‘Please announce us to your master,’ the judge told him affably. ‘Tell him that this is quite an informal visit; I want to see him for a few moments only.’
The steward led the judge and Tao Gan to the second hall and asked them to sit down on one of the enormous benches of carved ebony. Then he shuffled away.
Judge Dee silently stared at the huge coloured murals and slowly stroked his long beard. Tao Gan darted uneasy glances now at the judge, now at the door.
Sooner than Judge Dee had expected, the steward came back. ‘This way, please!’ he wheezed.
He took them through a corridor in the west section of the compound to a wing that seemed completely deserted. They met no one in the series of empty courtyards, whose white flagstones lay blazing in the sun. At the rear of the third, the old man entered a cool, semi-dark corridor. It led to a flight of broad wooden stairs, blackened by age.
At the top the steward halted for a moment to regain his breath, then took them up two other staircases, each narrower than the one before. They came upon a spacious landing. A faint breeze blew through the latticework of the high windows. Apparently they were on the top floor of a kind of tower. No carpet covered the floorboards, there was only a tea-table and two high-backed chairs. Above the double door in the back wall hung a huge wooden board bearing four engraved characters: ‘Ancestral Hall of the Liang Family’, in the impressive calligraphy of the former Emperor.
‘The master is waiting for Your Excellency inside,’ the steward said, as he pushed the door open.
Judge Dee gave a sign to Tao Gan who took one of the chairs at the tea-table. Then the judge entered.
He was met by the heavy smell of Indian incense. It came from the large bronze burner on the high altar in the rear of the hall, dimly lit by two candelabras. Below the altar stood a magnificent antique sacrificial table, laid out for a memorial service. Liang Foo was sitting at a lower table in front of it, wearing a ceremonial robe of dark-green brocade and the high cap indicating his literary degree.
He rose quickly and came to meet the judge.
‘I do hope you did not mind all those steps, sir!’ he said with a courteous smile.
‘Not at all!’ Judge Dee assured him quickly. After a glance at the life-size picture of Admiral Liang in full armour hanging on the wall opposite, he added, ‘I deeply regret that I have to interrupt memorial rites for your late father.’
‘Your Excellency is welcome at any time,’ Liang said calmly. ‘And my late father won't mind interruption; he was always wont to put official matters before his family interests—as his children knew only too well! Be seated, please!’
He led his guest to a chair on the right of the table. On it lay a large chess-board, a few black and white pieces distributed over it in a pattern suggesting the final phase of a game. By its side stood two brass bowls, one containing the discarded white pieces, the other the black. Liang had apparently been studying a chess problem. Sitting down and straightening his robe, Judge Dee said:
‘I wanted to discuss with you a few new facts that have come to light, Mr Liang.’ He waited till his host had seated himself on the other side of the table, then added, ‘More in particular about the theft of a woman's dead body.’
Liang raised his curved eyebrows.
‘What a curious object to steal! You must tell me more about it! But let's first have a cup of tea!’
He rose and went to the tea-table in the corner.
The judge quickly looked round him. The flickering light of the candles shone on the offerings on the sacrificial table, covered with a piece of embroidered brocade. On it stood golden vessels heaped with rice cakes and fruit, between two fine antique vases filled with fresh flowers. The broad niche above the sacrificial table, where the soul-tablets of the ancestors are always displayed, was hidden by a scarlet curtain. The heavy fragrance of the incense could not conceal the curious smell of foreign spices, which seemed to come from behind the scarlet curtain. Raising his head, the judge saw that the room was very high, and the grey incense clouds clustered about the blackened rafters. The bare floor consisted of broad wooden boards, polished to a dark, glossy finish. He rose abruptly. Pulling his chair round to the left side of the table, he remarked casually to Liang, who was coming up to him:
‘I'll sit here, if I may. The light of the candles is bothering me.’
The judge watched him as he poured the tea in two small cups of blue porcelain. He placed one in front of Judge Dee, then cupped the other in his hands. The judge noticed through the thin, long fingers a crack in the delicate glaze. Liang pensively looked at the picture.
‘It is an excellent likeness,’ he said, ‘done by a great artist. Do you notice how carefully he painted every small detail?’ Putting down his cup, he rose and walked over to the picture. Standing with his back to the judge, he pointed out the details of the broadsword lying across the Admiral's knees.
Judge Dee shifted their tea cups. He quickly emptied that of Liang in the bowl of chess-pieces nearest to him, then got up and stepped up to his host, the empty cup in his hand.
‘I hope you still have that sword?’ he asked. As Liang nodded, he went on, ‘I too possess a famous sword, inherited from my ancestors. Its name is “Rain Dragon”.’
‘Rain Dragon? What a curious name!’
‘I'll tell you its story, some other time. Could I have another cup of tea, Mr Liang?’
‘By all means!’
After they had sat down again, Liang refilled Judge Dee's cup, then emptied his own. Folding his thin hands in his sleeves, he said with a smile:
‘Let's now have the story of the stolen body!’
‘Before I come to that,’ Judge Dee said briskly, ‘I would like to give you a brief sketch of the background, so to speak.’ As Liang nodded eagerly, the judge took his fan from his sleeve, and leaned back in his chair. Slowly fanning himself, he began:
‘When I arrived in Canton the day before yesterday to trace the missing Censor, I only knew that his business was in some way or another connected with the Arabs here. In the course of my inquiries I found that I had an opponent who knew perfectly well the real object of my visit, and who was watching every move we made. When I had discovered the Censor, murdered by a Tanka poison, I assumed that one of the Censor's enemies at court had engaged a local agent to lure the Censor to Canton, and have him killed here by Arab conspirators. But I perceived also other forces that seemed intent on thwarting the evil scheme. As my investigation went on, things became ever more complicated. Arab hooligans and Tanka stranglers were roaming about, and a mysterious blind girl kept flitting in and out of the picture. It was only this very morning that I at last obtained a definite clue. Namely when the dancer Zumurrud told Colonel Chiao that it was she who had poisoned the Censor, and that her patron knew all about it. She kept to the rule of the “world of flowers and willows” that a girl should never divulge the name of a customer. I suspected the Governor, the Prefect and thought in passing of you. It led me nowhere.’
He snapped his fan close and put it back into his sleeve. Liang had been listening with a bland air of polite interest Judge Dee sat up straight and resumed:
‘So I tried another approach, namely to piece together a mental picture of my opponent. Then I realized that he had the typical mind of a chess-player. A man who always stays in the background and makes others act for him, moving them about like chess-men on the board. I and my assistants were also his chessmen, we were an integral part of his game. This realization was an important step forward. For a crime is half-solved already when one has understood the criminal's mind.
‘How very true!’
‘I then reconsidered you, the expert chess-player,’ the judge resumed. ‘You certainly had the subtle intellect required for evolving a difficult scheme, and for supervising its execution. I also could imagine a good motive, namely your frustration at not being able to follow in the footsteps of your illustrious father. On the other hand, however, you were definitely not the type of person to fall in love with an Arab dancer tainted by pariah blood. I decided that if you should be our man, then one of your henchmen would be the dancer's lover. Since Mr Yau Tai-kai would eminently fit that role, I resolved to have him arrested. Just then, however, the theft of the dancer's body was reported to me. And that made me come straight to you.’
‘Why to me?’ Liang asked calmly.
‘Because when I then began to think about the dead dancer and about the Tanka and their savage passions, I suddenly remembered the chance remark of a poor Chinese prostitute who had been a slave of the Tanka. At their drunken orgies the Tanka used to boast to her that about eighty years ago an important Chinese had secretly married one of their girls, and that their son had become a famous warrior. Then I thought of the peculiar features of the Subduer of the South Seas.’ He pointed at the picture on the wall. Took at the high cheekbones, flat nose and low forehead. “Old Monkey-face”, as his sailors affectionately nicknamed the Admiral.’
Liang nodded slowly.
‘So you have unearthed our jealously guarded family secret! Yes, my grandmother was indeed a Tanka. My grandfather committed a crime in marrying her!’ He grinned. There was a malignant glint in his eyes when he resumed, ‘Imagine, the famous Admiral tainted by the blood of an outcast! He was not as fine a gentleman as people always thought him to be, eh?’
Ignoring the sneering remark, Judge Dee continued:
‘Then I realized that I had been thinking of the wrong game of chess. Namely of our Chinese literary chess played with pieces all of equal value; or the military one, representing a battle between two opposing generals. I suddenly understood that I ought to have referred to the game as people say it is played in India. There the king and the queen are the two most important pieces. And in the particular game of chess you were playing it was not primarily a high position in the capital that was the gage, but the possession of the queen.’
‘How cleverly put!’ Liang said with a thin smile. ‘May I ask in what stage the game is now?’
‘The last. The king is lost, for the queen is dead.’
‘Yes, she is dead,’ Liang said quietly. ‘But she is lying is state, as befits a queen. The queen of the game of life. Her spirit now presides over these solemn death rites, rejoices in rich offerings, in fresh flowers. Look, she smiles her beautiful smile….’ He rose and quickly pulled the curtain above the altar aside.
Judge Dee gasped at this shocking, unspeakable outrage. Here in the sacred ancestral hall of the Liang family, facing the dead Admiral's portrait, and in the niche destined for the soul-tablets of the departed, Zumurrud's naked body lay stretched out on the gold-lacquered altar top. She was lying on her back, her hands folded behind her head, her full lips curved in a mocking smile.
‘She has only received preliminary treatment,’ Liang remarked casually, as he drew the curtain shut again. ‘Tonight the work will be continued. Has to be, in this hot weather.’
He resumed his seat. The judge had now mastered himself. He asked coldly:
‘Shall we reconstruct the game together, move by move?’
‘I'd like that very much,’ Liang replied gravely. ‘An analysis of the game always affords me the keenest pleasure.’
‘Now then, the gage was Zumurrud. You had bought her, so you possessed her body. That was all. You thought you would win her love if only you could gratify the one desire that dominated her, namely to be raised from her pariah status to that of a great Chinese lady. Since that could be done only by one of the highest metropolitan officials, you decided you would become one of those. You had to act upon that decision quickly, for you were obsessed by the fear of losing her, either to a man she would fall in love with, or to one who could make her realize her ambitions. Mansur fell in love with her. Apparently she did not care for him, but you feared nonetheless that sooner or later her Arab blood would speak, and therefore you wanted to eliminate Mansur. Then you heard from one of your friends in the capital that a powerful person at court, close to the Empress and her clique, was looking for a means to ruin the Imperial Censor Lew, and was willing to reward handsomely anyone who could help to achieve that aim. That was your chance! You began at once
to work out a scheme, carefully planning the moves that would win you the queen. You put an ingenious proposal before that person at court. You…’
‘Let's have everything neat and orderly!’ Liang interrupted testily. “That person is Wang, the Chief Eunuch of the Imperial Seraglio. Our contact was a mutual friend, the wealthy wine-merchant who is purveyor to the court.’
Judge Dee grew pale. The Emperor mortally ill; the Empress tormented by her perverse passions; the sinister, hybrid figure of the Chief Eunuch…he suddenly saw the hideous pattern.
‘Now guess what position he promised me! Yours! And with the backing of the Empress I shall rise higher still! My father was the Subduer of the South Seas. I shall be the Subduer of the Empire!’
‘Quite,’ Judge Dee said wearily. ‘Well, you proposed to lure the Censor to Canton by giving him to understand that the Arabs were planning a revolt, with the connivance of an unnamed person at Court. You would fan Mansur's foolish ambitions, so that when the Censor came to investigate he would indeed find something brewing here. Then you would have him murdered, and accuse Mansur. When questioned under severe torture, Mansur would be made to confess that the Censor had backed his plot. Neat solution! Mansur out of the way, the Censor dead and his reputation smeared, and you going to the capital, together with Zumurrud.