The Qing Dynasty Mysteries - Books 1-3
Page 27
“Damnit, man!” he yelled. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Sorry, boss,” the man said, doing his best to hide a snicker. He looked around and noticed the rest of his men were chuckling as well. He looked back and saw Concubine Swan leaning out of the chair.
He closed the flap of the chair in front of her. “Stay here,” he ordered her. Then he turned to his men. “Follow me.”
The house where this opium den was located was more what he expected. It was a decrepit old dwelling from the outside and there were no guards or fine ladies to welcome them.
When he opened the door and entered, he was hit by a wave of smoke and the smell of unwashed humans. There was only one large room, but large was a generous word. There were wooden slats along three walls, and people, mostly men in various stages of undress, lounged on top of them. As his eyes adjusted, he realized that under the slats along the floor laying on bamboo mats were more half naked people.
An elderly man shuffled up to the inspector. “Please,” he said in a soft voice. “We are simple folk. We don’t want trouble.”
“And you won’t have any,” the inspector said. “As long as you hand over Zhao Jiaolong right now.”
“Oh, I don’t know my patrons’ names,” the man said. “Privacy is important for my business, you understand.”
“I understand that if you don’t hand over Zhao Jiaolong right now,” the inspector said, raising his voice for all the patrons to hear, “I am going arrest every person in this disgusting rat nest.”
Several of the patrons tried to rouse themselves from their drug-induced stupor, but were slow going of it.
“Here,” one raspy voice called out. “He’s here.” The man raised his hand and pointed to the man next to him.”
“You bastard,” the other man said as he slid of the wooden slat and shuffled toward the door.
Inspector Gong tried to grab him, but the man pushed him away. Normally, it would have been a feeble attempt, but with his injuries, he was easily pushed away. Two of his men went to grab Jiaolong, but he slipped between them and shot out the door.
“Grab him!” Inspector Gong yelled. He headed toward the door, expecting Jiaolong to be long gone, but instead he saw him lying face down on the ground with Concubine Swan standing over him.
“I stopped him!” she yelled.
“How?” Inspector Gong asked as he signaled for his men to collect the boy off the ground. “You were supposed to stay in the cart!”
“You were taking so long, I was worried you weren’t going to be able to find him. So I was about to come in to help you when he ran out. I figured if he was running, he might be escaping, so I just stuck out my foot and tripped him.”
Concubine Swan beamed. Inspector Gong agreed internally that she did a good job, but he knew better than to encourage her.
“Get back in the cart,” he said firmly.
“But didn’t I do a good job?” she asked, begging for his approval. “I helped you…”
“Get in the cart!” he yelled.
He could see her heart break right in front of him as the smile melted from her face. She turned and got back into the cart, but he could already hear her crying.
He turned to his men. “Take him to the Ministry of Justice. I must see the lady home first.”
They nodded and dragged the boy away.
He turned back to the cart to get in, but when he did, he saw the curtain on the other side of the chair flapping in the wind.
Concubine Swan was gone.
15
By the next day, Eunuch Bai still had not returned. Lady Li paced in her chambers, unsure of what to do. That the foreigners had threatened war had her nerves on edge. She almost didn’t want to wait to see what happened; she wanted to get out of Peking. But how? As a woman, she couldn’t travel China alone, and she had no man to escort her. Also, Popo was still very weak. Even though her health had improved since she moved in with Lady Li, she was feeble. She wasn’t sure the old woman could survive an arduous journey.
There was Prince Kung. He had said he would not abandon her if things went wrong, but just how much could she rely on that? She trusted the prince with her life and counted him a friend, but he had his own family to attend to. And if he suddenly needed to flee, would he have time to send for Lady Li? She didn’t think she should solely rely on him for assistance. She needed another plan, but she had nowhere to turn.
Even that insufferable Inspector Gong was not an option. She didn’t know much about his family situation, but she doubted his family would want him to spend any effort trying to help a Manchu, especially if the tide of popular opinion turned on them. He wouldn’t want to make his family a target by allying himself with a Manchu woman.
She wondered if the women who called her a friend in the foreign legation would be willing to help her. Probably not. They had been kind to her, but if war broke out between China and the foreign countries, they wouldn’t want to appear to be cavorting with the enemy.
Truly, Lady Li had never felt so alone.
She thought about how helpful—if blunt—Concubine Swan had been when they were visiting the foreign ladies. She had known that Concubine Swan was well educated, but she had never considered whether the girl had any practical skills or common sense. In her position, Concubine Swan would have little use for either one. She simply did what she was told. Lady Li wondered if Concubine Swan might have any ideas about what they could do. She walked down the hall and knocked on Concubine Swan’s door.
There was no answer.
She knocked again. Again she was met with only silence. Surely the girl was not lost in an opium daze this early in the morning.
“Concubine Swan!” Lady Li demanded. “Open this door.”
Finally, the door opened a crack, and Concubine Swan’s maid peeked through.
“Can I help you, madam?” the maid asked quietly.
“I wish to speak with Concubine Swan,” Lady Li said.
“I’m afraid she is not feeling well,” the maid said. “Perhaps later…”
“Open this door, now,” Lady Li said firmly, pushing the door open and entering the room. The room was completely dark.
“What is wrong with you?” Lady Li asked the maid. “Light the braziers and open the windows.”
The maid simply trembled before her.
“What is going on?” Lady Li asked. “What is wrong with Concubine Swan?”
The maid crumpled to the floor, knocking her forehead to the floor. “I’m sorry, my lady. I’m sorry.”
Lady Li threw the door open to let more light into the room. As her eyes adjusted, she looked around for Concubine Swan. She was not there! She ran over to the bed and threw open the curtains. The bed had not been slept in.
“Where is she?” Lady Li shrieked. “Where is Concubine Swan?”
“I don’t know,” the maid wept. “She threatened to beat me, to have me fired, to claim I was a thief if I didn’t open the back gate for her yesterday. She said she would only be away for a few hours. She never returned, and I was terrified.”
Lady Li grabbed the girl by the ear. “You stupid girl!” she screamed. “She has been gone for more than a day? Out on the streets? Alone!”
“I’m sorry, my lady,” the maid cried.
“Where did she go?” Lady Li asked, still pinching the girl’s ear.
“I…I…”
“Where?”
“An opium den, my lady,” the maid finally admitted.
In her shock, Lady Li let go of the girl and covered her mouth. “An opium den?” she asked. “Where would she even know how to find such a place?”
The maid continued to cry and kowtow at Lady Li’s feet. “I believe she saw it when you took her to the legation,” she said. “From the window of the sedan chair. She said it was very near. Only a few houses down.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lady Li asked. She glanced up and saw that other servants were peeking in the door, trying to find o
ut what had happened. They quickly scattered when they saw her looking at them. This was a disaster. The servants were terrible gossips. The news that Concubine Swan had snuck out to an opium den would be all over the neighborhood within hours.
“She threatened me,” the girl explained. “If I was cast out as a thief, I would never find another job. And she said she would be back soon. I thought she would come back before you knew she was gone.”
“But that was yesterday,” Lady Li said. “Why didn’t you tell me when she didn’t return. She could be dead!”
“I know, my lady,” the maid said. “I became even more afraid. How was I to tell you?”
Lady Li grunted and stormed out of the room. The maid would have to be fired. Someone that stupid and untrustworthy could not remain in her household. But what was she to do about Concubine Swan now? The maid said the opium house was very close. But she could not go there on her own. And she had no male servant to send whom she could trust.
Damn that Eunuch Bai—how dare he abandon her!
She would have to send for Inspector Gong. She was none too pleased with him right now. And she didn’t know if he would return even if she did ask. She had cursed him when he last left the house. But this was not a personal request, but a professional one. If she had to, she would hire him to find the girl.
She went to her office and wrote a note to Inspector Gong requesting his assistance. As she wrote, tears formed in the corner of her eyes. What if the girl was dead? She couldn’t bear it if something terrible had happened to her. She knew that Concubine Swan was miserable. She knew that the girl had become addicted to opium, but she had looked the other way. She had failed the girl as her mistress, as her protector. In trying to keep her safe, she had only kept her in a cage. It was only a matter of time before she tried to escape.
She had not yet finished the letter when a different maid knocked on her door.
“My lady,” the maid said.
“What is it?” Lady Li asked, wiping her tears.
“Inspector Gong is here,” she said. “And he has Concubine Swan with him.”
Lady Li could not speak out of shock. She flew from her office to the main courtyard. She could hardly believe her eyes when she saw Inspector Gong there with Concubine Swan.
Concubine Swan was smiling, and Lady Li felt herself fly into a rage. She stomped toward Concubine Swan and slapped her face. Concubine Swan held her hand to her cheek and began to cry.
“You dare come back here!” Lady Li yelled. “You sneak out, go to an opium den. You are gone all night! I thought you were dead! You’ll wish you were!”
Lady Li raised her hand to strike the concubine again, but she felt Inspector Gong grab her arm.
“Be calm,” he said softly. “She is alive, and unharmed.”
Lady Li took a step back and wiped her face with her sleeve. “Go from my sight,” she said, a little out of breath. Concubine Swan’s maid ran to her and helped her to her room.
Inspector Gong placed a hand on Lady Li’s shoulder. He didn’t say anything, but just his touch helped calm her.
“Do you have any idea what this means?” Lady Li asked. “What will happen when word gets out about what she has done?”
“I know this will reflect badly on your family,” he said.
“Badly?” she asked, looking at him. “It could ruin us. All this time I have worried about my actions reflecting badly on my children. I never thought that Concubine Swan would be the one to put everything in jeopardy.”
“Surely the actions of a concubine will not ruin the lives of your daughters?” Inspector Gong asked. “She is not their mother. Everyone knows that keeping the concubine after your husband’s death was a kindness on your part.”
She shakes her head. “I cannot know how this will play out,” she said. “But we will not be spared some sort of fallout. Someone will pay for this, one way or another.”
“Will it help if you find out what she learned, what she did?” he asked. “She helped with the investigation greatly.”
“I wish I had the energy to care about that right now,” she said, finally looking up at him. “Eunuch Bai is gone. He has abandoned me.”
“I cannot believe that,” Inspector Gong said, his eyes wide. “That man is eternally devoted to you.”
“That is what I thought too,” she said, shaking her head. “But he has been gone for days and has sent no word.”
“But why would he leave you?” he asked.
She looked at him for a moment and then scoffed. “You know why,” she said finally.
“No,” he said. “I cannot believe it. He knows you and I…” He could not finish the sentence. They looked at each other for a moment, each trying to read the other person’s mind.
“He knows,” she finally said, not putting words to their feelings. “But here, in my own house? It was dangerous and stupid. He probably felt I was putting the whole household in danger and did not want to wait around to see it happen.”
“I will set some of my men to look for him,” he said. “Maybe…maybe something happened to him.”
Lady Li sighed and closed her eyes. She rubbed her forehead. “I hadn’t even considered that. In my selfishness, I thought only of myself. But you are right. What if he has been injured or kidnapped and I did nothing to help him?”
She could not stop the tears this time. Inspector Gong pulled her into his arms and she did not pull away. She did not care if the servants or her children saw. She needed this. She needed someone to comfort her. And she had the feeling he needed her too. Not in the carnal way he usually did, but in the familiar, safe way a man sometimes needs even if he does not put it to words. As he held her, with her head on his chest, she listened as his heartbeat slowed.
Finally, they forced themselves to part.
“Would you come to my office?” Lady Li asked. “You said she helped with the investigation.”
“Only for a moment,” he said with a nod. “I must get back as soon as possible.”
She nodded to a maid as they entered the office. “Tea,” she said. As they entered, she once again left the door open.
“Please, sit,” she offered. “What have you found out?”
“The girl works fast,” he said. “She claims she had not been to the opium house before. But she already had made some…friends.”
Lady Li gulped and pursed her lips. “Was she whoring?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“I do not think so,” he said as a maid poured them tea and then left the room. “But you will need to ask her the…delicate details.”
“Go on, then,” Lady Li said.
“Somehow, she knew where Zhao Jiaolong was. He was another opium house, barely a hole in the wall quite a distance away. I guess he has a loose tongue, and even she had heard of him at the house she was in.”
“So you found him?” she asked. “What did he say? Did he kill his sister?”
“I have not had time to question him,” Inspector Gong said. “After I captured him, Concubine Swan slipped away. I think she was afraid of what would happen when I returned her home.”
“As she should have been,” Lady Li said sharply.
“I was going to cover for her,” he said. “Claim that I had asked her for help. But I guess you found out where she was somehow. When you started screaming about her being in an opium den, there was no point in denying it.”
“I cannot believe you would lie to me for her,” Lady Li said, leaning back and crossing her arms.
Inspector Gong smirked. “I do not know if I could have gone through with it. You needed to know.”
“So she slipped away from you?” Lady Li said. “Then what?”
“I spent all night looking for her,” he said. “I was frantic. I knew you would never forgive me if something happened to her. But this morning, I received a note from my brother. She had turned up at my home.”
Lady Li couldn’t help but laugh. “What must your mother have thought.”
“Tell me,” she said, leaning forward.
“She pretended to be a legation servant, and they believed her! They let her inside even though it is supposed to be on lock down.”
“No!” Lady Li gasped. “I can’t believe it!”
“She did,” he said. “Before she went to my home, she went to the Gibsons’ house and spoke with their servants. She claims that they told her that they all knew that Mr. Gibson was taking the girl to his bed, even though she was unwilling.”
“So…he was raping her?” Lady Li asked, horrified.
“He probably doesn’t see it that way,” Inspector Gong said. “She probably submitted out of fear of losing her job.”
“That poor girl,” Lady Li said. “So he might have been the man she was afraid of, the one she wrote about in her letter. And he could be the father of her child.”
“It is possible,” he said with a nod. “We have no way of knowing, but here is the most interesting part. The maid said that she was certain Mr. Gibson was home when the girl was killed.”
“But his wife said they were at a play that night, all of them,” Lady Li said.
“Maybe she is covering for him,” he said. “Or could he have slipped away without her knowledge?”
“I don’t know,” Lady Li said. “I have never been to a western play. At Chinese opera performances, though, the men and women are separated. Perhaps western audiences are separated as well.”
“Maybe you can find out,” he said.
Lady Li sighed. “I don’t know. I can’t get into the legation right now. They aren’t allowing visitors.”
“But the foreigners are allowed to leave, if they dare,” he said. “If you invite the ladies here, you could talk to them more.”
Lady Li nodded. “I can try, but I do not know that they will accept. I’m sure they are too afraid to leave their houses.”
“Just do the best you can.” Inspector Gong put down his cup and rose to leave. “I must go and interrogate Jiaolong. Do let me know if you learn anything more.”