The Emperor's Pearl

by Robert Van Gulik

  She gave the judge a perplexed look. After having thought for a while, she shook her head and answered:

  ‘I really don’t know! I have been working there only one year, sir. I am the daughter of boatman Lee from up-river. My father got into debt and had to sell either the boat or me. My customers were shopkeepers and their assistants, from the neighbourhood. All nice fellows, I know them well. Why should they want to have me kidnapped, seeing that they could get all they want in the regular manner?’

  ‘Quite,’ Judge Dee said. ‘Did you, besides receiving customers in the brothel, also go out to attend parties in restaurants or wine-houses?’

  ‘Oh no, sir! I can’t sing or dance, so I was never hired out for parties. But my owner sent me there sometimes just to give a hand serving the food, or to help our Number One changing her dresses.’

  ‘Mention the parties you attended in that capacity during the last two months or so.’

  When she had started on a long list, Judge Dee realized that this did not lead anywhere. The parties had been large, Kou Yuan-liang, Dr Pien and other notables had been present at more than one, also Yang the curio-dealer. And she remembered that Kwang Min had attended as a guest a small dinner given by a local drug-dealer. He asked:

  ‘Did any of the guests pay special attention to you?’

  ‘Never, sir. I was only a maid, wasn’t I? The gentlemen spoke only with the courtesans from high-class establishments. They did give me tips, though. Quite large ones too, sometimes.’

  ‘Are the names Tong Mai and Sia Kwang familiar to you?’

  She shook her head. Judge Dee ordered the senior scribe to read out his notes of the proceedings. Miss Liang and Miss Lee agreed that they were correct and impressed their thumb-marks on the documents.

  The judge addressed a few kind words to the two women, then he rapped his gavel and closed the session.

  Miss Liang handed her parasol to the girl.

  ‘You hold that over my head when we are outside, dearie,’ she said. ‘I am very sensitive to the sun, and a person of my status shouldn’t go about unattended, anyway.’

  She strode off, the girl meekly following behind her.

  Chapter 14

  IN JUDGE DEE’S private office the senior scribe assisted him in changing into a cool houserobe of thin grey cotton. The judge told him to have his noon rice served there in the office, and thereafter bring him a basin of cold towels. When the headman would come back, he was to report at once.

  Having given these orders, Judge Dee began to pace the floor, his head bent. He considered the latest developments. Sia Kwang had evidently hired the three ruffians on the orders of his principal, the unknown maniac. Would the woman of the house of assignation behind the Taoist temple know that man? It seemed too good to be true! Yet it did happen sometimes that a difficult case was suddenly solved by such a lucky chance. There was a knock on the door. He quickly looked up, expecting the headman to come in. But it was only the clerk, bringing a tray with a bowl of rice, soup, and a platter of pickles.

  Judge Dee took his meal seated at his desk. He hardly tasted what he ate, his mind was occupied entirely with the three murders. He felt that the investigation had now reached the turning-point, for the murderer’s motive had been established at last. At first he had considered greed as the motive, the criminal’s aim being to steal the pearl and the gold. Then he had discarded greed as the main theme; assuming that jealousy was the motive he had reached the decision that the story about the Emperor’s pearl had been a hoax. Now he had to discard also jealousy, at least as the main incentive, because it had been established beyond doubt that the basic motivation had been a perverse urge to hurt women, any woman. The element of greed was still there, of course, as proved by the theft of the gold and the cornering of the racing-bets, and he still had to include jealousy. But these factors had now been relegated to a secondary place, the dominant element was perverted lust. That was bad, for when persons possessed by that urge found their schemes thwarted, they were liable to resort to violent action, disregarding the consequences.

  The number of suspects had now been reduced to three persons known to him, with a possible fourth, as yet unknown. He heaved a sigh. If greed, jealousy, vengeance or any other of the well-known common motives had driven the criminal, his course of action would have been obvious: a painstaking, systematic investigation of the background of each of his three suspects, including their antecedents, their family, financial status and so on. However, since he was dealing with a maniac, there was no time for such a protracted investigation. For the criminal might kill again, at any moment, and any person. He would have to take action, at once. But what action, and against whom?

  After he had laid down his chopsticks he remained sitting there, so deep in thought that he did not notice the stifling heat any more.

  The clerk came back, carrying a large brass basin with towels soaked in cold, scented water. As the judge was wiping his face, the headman entered. Seeing his dejected face, Judge Dee asked anxiously:

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘We found the house without difficulty, sir. It’s the former gardener’s lodge of a large old mansion, deserted many years ago. The main building is only a ruin, but the gardener’s house, located in the back of the terrain, is in a good state of repair. The old woman Meng was the only occupant. A charwoman came in the mornings, for the rough work. The people living in that neighbourhood suspected that the house was used for immoral purposes, they often saw men and women going in and out there late at night. But, since the house is standing apart on that deserted property, they couldn’t see or hear properly what went on. Therefore nobody has the slightest idea who murdered her.’

  ‘Murdered? Why didn’t you say so at once, you fool? How was it done?’

  ‘The old woman was strangled, Your Honour,’ the headman replied unhappily. ‘She must have had a visitor, and shortly before our arrival too, for the tea in the two cups we found standing on the table was still warm. Mrs Meng was lying dead on the floor, by her overturned chair. A silk scarf was wound tight round her neck. I loosened it at once, but she was dead and gone. I had the body conveyed here. The coroner is conducting the autopsy now.’

  Judge Dee bit his lips. This was the fourth murder! Then he mastered himself and said in a flat voice:

  ‘All right, headman. You did very well. You may go.’

  In the door the headman nearly collided with Sergeant Hoong. The guards at the gate of the tribunal had told the sergeant about the new murder, and he was anxious to hear what had happened. He quickly sat down and asked:

  ‘What does this mean, sir?’

  ‘It means that we are dealing with an uncommonly clever and resolute opponent, Hoong. I’ll tell you what happened in the tribunal after you had left.’ After he had given the sergeant a detailed account of the exploits of Miss Violet Liang, he said: ‘The criminal must have seen Miss Liang leading the three ruffians and the prostitute to the tribunal. The three men he didn’t know, of course, for he had left the negotiations concerning the kidnapping to his henchman Sia. But he did recognize Miss Lee, whom he had earmarked as a future victim when he met her at some party or other. He concluded that Miss Liang had surprised the kidnappers, and they would mention in their confession the address they were to take their victim to. He went there at once and killed the old procuress.’ The judge angrily tugged at his beard. Then he heaved a sigh and asked: ‘Well, what did your enquiries bring to light?’

  ‘Not very much, sir. I had a long talk with Sheng Pa. The man did his best, but he discovered only that the person who had been behind the cornering of the bets was somehow or other connected with the antique trade.’

  ‘Again the antique trade! Holy Heaven, every single person connected with this case seems to dabble in curios!’

  ‘As to Kwang Min, Your Honour, the innkeeper described him as a quiet man who never gave any trouble and who paid his bills on the dot. He checked his register together with me, and we fou
nd that Kwang had stayed there eight times during the past year. He always turned up unexpectedly, and never stayed longer than two or three days. He used to go out directly after breakfast and to come in again only late at night. He never received any visitors.’

  ‘When did he stay there last?’

  ‘About three weeks ago. Kwang occasionally told the innkeeper to get a woman for him, always specifying that he wanted an ordinary prostitute and not an expensive courtesan; that she needn’t be especially good-looking, as long as she was clean and healthy, and moderately priced.’ The sergeant made a face and went on resignedly: ‘I went to the brothel near by, where the innkeeper used to order the women for Kwang from. I spoke with the girls who at one time or another had slept with Kwang. They hadn’t much to say. They described Kwang as no better and no worse than most customers. He never asked for anything special, and it wasn’t necessary to make any efforts to please him, because he never gave large tips anyway. That was all.’ He paused, then asked curiously: ‘Why did you want all those particulars about Kwang, sir? I would have thought that …’

  He was interrupted by a knock on the door. The coroner came in. After he had greeted the judge he handed him a sheet of paper, saying:

  ‘As Your Honour will perceive from this autopsy report, the woman called Meng was about fifty years old. Except for the weal round her throat, I didn’t find any marks of violence on the body. I presume that the murderer, when he had tea with her, left his chair on some pretext or other and, as he was passing behind her, suddenly wound the scarf round her neck. The scarf had been drawn tight with such savage force that the silk went deeply into the flesh, nearly cutting through her windpipe.’

  ‘Thank you. Have the corpse placed in a temporary coffin, and inform the next of kin. Let them come to fetch it as soon as possible, it wouldn’t do to keep it above ground too long in this terrible hot weather. Has Mr Kou Yuan-liang fetched the body of the Amber Lady already? Yes? Good. See to it that Sia Kwang’s family is informed too. I heard that his parents are living in the capital.’ He passed his hand over his face, then asked: ‘How are the three prisoners doing?’

  The coroner pursed his lips.

  ‘The one with the lacerated ears has also a few broken ribs and internal injuries. I set the other’s dislocated shoulder and gave him a sedative, for he suffers also from concussion of the brain. These two can be questioned in a few days, I think. As regards the fellow with the crushed throat, it will take weeks before he can speak again-if ever!’

  When the coroner had taken his leave, Judge Dee said to Sergeant Hoong:

  ‘It would seem that the unlucky trio has received already the punishment! Miss Violet Liang is not a person to trifle with. Violet, forsooth! Heavens, this heat is getting worse and worse! Open the window, Hoong.’

  The sergeant put his head outside, then quickly stepped back and closed the window again.

  ‘Outside it’s hotter still, sir! The sky is leaden with low-hanging clouds, and there’s no breeze stirring. I fear we’ll be in for a severe thunderstorm shortly.’

  The judge took a wet towel from the basin, wiped his perspiring face, and draped the towel round his neck. Pushing the basin across the desk towards Sergeant Hoong he said:

  ‘Help yourself. Well, while eating my noon rice I went over the three murders. The fourth, that of the procuress Meng, does not materially alter my conclusions. I shall try to sum up for you the situation now, Hoong.’

  ‘Before doing so, sir, I would like very much to hear why you are so interested in Mr Kwang’s activities.’

  ‘I’ll be coming to Kwang presently. He plays an important role in one of my theories. But let’s tackle all this systematically. Now then, these murders point to a ruthless maniac as the main criminal. There are no direct clues to his identity, and he has taken good care to remove all persons who could have testified against him. The Amber Lady, Tong Mai, Sia Kwang, the procuress Meng-all dead! So no witnesses, no clues! Add to that the recurrent motif of the antique trade, the story of the Emperor’s pearl, and the sinister background supplied by the White Goddess in her impenetrable sacred grove, and you have all the elements that make an intriguing, lovely case! Lovely to discuss and theorize about I mean-while having a leisurely cup of tea after a substantial dinner, together with a few congenial friends! But confound it, we have to solve this case, Hoong! And quickly too, for if there’s more delay the man who is behind all this will doubtless manage to invalidate even the few indirect clues we have, and if necessary kill again!’

  Judge Dee greedily emptied the cup the sergeant had given him. He changed the towel round his neck for a new one, then continued in a business-like manner:

  ‘As to that unknown maniac, my list of suspects is headed by three persons. Each had the opportunity, and for each I could imagine a compelling motive.

  ‘Kou Yuan-liang is still the main suspect. My case against him is substantially the same as I have outlined to you already. Let’s now try to reconstruct what happened if he is indeed our man. Kou employs Tong Mai to get him curios, and at the same time to procure him the victims for his base lust. Tong takes those women after dark and by a circuitous route to the place of the old woman Meng, and Kou himself goes there too, wearing a mask or ensuring by other means that he is not recognized. He pays his victims generously; therefore the risk of their making trouble is small. The only weak spot in Kou’s method is that he must employ an assistant. And that assistant, Tong Mai, is a clever and enterprising fellow. Tong wants more and more money, probably threatens to blackmail Kou. On top of that Kou discovers that Tong has a secret liaison with the Amber Lady and that Tong is the father of her unborn child. Kou decides to kill both Tong and Amber. But he is a patient man, he waits for a suitable opportunity. As a first step, he dismisses Tong, doubtless with an ample bonus, and employs Sia instead. Miss Violet Liang told me that Sia is not as clever and enterprising as Tong, and therefore less liable to make trouble.

  ‘Kou knows that the time for taking vengeance has come when Amber tells him the rigmarole about the Emperor’s pearl. Since Kou is a learned antiquarian, he realizes at once that it is a hoax, a scheme by which Tong and Amber hope to get funds for eloping together. This is his chance.

  ‘Kou summons Sia Kwang. He tells him not to go ahead with the scheme for kidnapping the prostitute Lee. Maltreating her would only have been a routine amusement, now his mind is on bigger things. Sia promises he’ll warn the three ruffians that the deal is off. We know now that luckily for us, Sia didn’t get round to that, but that’s neither here nor there. Kou gives Sia a map of the deserted house and the pavilion, and tells him that Tong and Amber will meet there after the races, Amber bringing with her gold stolen from him, and that they plan to elope together. Kou proposes that Sia go there in Tong’s place, kill the adulterous Amber, and bring back the stolen gold. Kou promises Sia a generous reward. Kou can afford that, for his plan includes the ultimate removal of Sia.’

  Judge Dee took up his fan. Leaning back in his chair, he went on, slowly fanning himself:

  ‘What happens last night? Kou poisons Tong Mai when he and Dr Pien entertain the crews of the dragonboats at Marble Bridge. Thereby Kou achieves a threefold aim. One, he takes revenge on his wife’s lover. Two, he eliminates a troublesome assistant. Three, he nets a tidy profit from cornering the racing-bets. Sia Kwang keeps the appointment in the deserted house, kills Amber, and brings the gold back to Kou. Then Kou tells Sia that the gold was not exactly stolen, but that it was to be the payment for the Emperor’s pearl, hidden by Tong somewhere in the pavilion, and that Tong and Amber had planned to flee with the gold and the pearl. Kou adds that he purposely hadn’t told Sia about the pearl before, because he hadn’t wanted Sia to tarry in the pavilion for a search, after the murder of Amber. Kou points out that, it had been a wise precaution, for Amber had for some mysterious reason been followed to the deserted house by officers of the tribunal, who nearly caught Sia. Kou adds that they’ll still get the pearl. The
next morning they’ll go out there together and search the pavilion.

  ‘This morning, at dawn, as soon as the city gates are open, Kou and Sia go to the deserted house separately: Kou on a morning ride allegedly to take him out of himself a bit, Sia disguised as a carpenter going out on an early job outside the city. Kou lets Sia search the pavilion, because that will give him a chance of killing Sia when he is off-guard, and also because the fact that the pavilion has been searched will bear out the rigmarole Kou told me about the pearl. At a suitable moment Kou smashes Sia’s skull with a brick, throws the body into the ditch, and rides back to the city.

  ‘Later this morning Kou attends the session of the tribunal. After he has left, he sees in the street Miss Liang leading her procession here. He doesn’t know her or the three ruffians, but he does recognize Miss Lee. He realizes that something has gone wrong, and that now we’ll learn from the kidnappers about Kou’s secret haunt, the house of old Mrs Meng behind the Taoist temple. And Mrs Meng knows him. So Kou hurries out there and strangles her. Now everything has been nicely attended to. He has avenged himself on his unfaithful wife and her paramour, he has got his ten gold bars back, and, in addition, the winnings of the boat race. Tong, Sia and Mrs Meng, the only persons who could ever testify against him, are dead. Finish.’

  The judge paused. Sergeant Hoong silently poured out a fresh cup of tea for him. Judge Dee took a sip, wiped off his face again with a cold towel, and resumed:

  ‘If Kou is innocent, then he is a much-wronged man. In that case his First Lady really lost her memory because of a sudden attack of malignant brain-fever, and Amber’s scars must date from the time when she was still a slave-girl; in some households those unfortunates are often harshly treated. In that case Kou believed the story about the Emperor’s pearl. It was plausible enough, I myself thought that it was true, at first. Well, let’s now forget, for the time being, everything I said about Mr Kou, and concentrate on our second suspect, namely Dr Pien Kia.