The Lacquer Screen: A Chinese Detective Story (Judge Dee Mystery)

by Robert Van Gulik

  Judge Dee nodded. While he was elbowing his way through the group of ragged vagrants in front of the stall, Chiao Tai suddenly vanished from his sight. The judge slipped round the corner and ran through a few winding alleys, in the direction of the street noise ahead. Once in a crowded street again he asked the way to the hostel, and found it without difficulty.

  The waiter brought tea and two candles. Judge Dee sat down at the small table. Sipping the hot tea he reflected that it seemed incredible that anyone would take a special interest in their doings. Yet Chiao Tai was rarely wrong in such matters. In his own district of Peng-lai there were of course a few scoundrels who were not very kindly disposed towards him, but even if some of them had the temerity to make an attempt on his life, how could they possibly know that he would break his journey here in Wei-ping? That idea had been formed only during his last day in the Prefecture. Or did a gang in Peng-lai perhaps have an accomplice there? He began to stroke his long beard pensively.

  There was a knock on the door and Chiao Tai came in. Wiping the sweat from his brow he said dejectedly :

  ‘Again he slipped through my fingers! You know who it is? None other than that ugly one-eyed bastard who came to see us this afternoon! I saw him slink past, looking left and right as if searching for someone. I was in the front row of those beggars, drinking a cup of the dregs that street stall sells, and while I was pushing the fellows aside to get at him, he spotted me and off he went like a hare! I ran after him, but he was nowhere to be seen!’

  ‘He's a slippery customer,’ the judge said. ‘I wonder what he is up to. Have you by any chance seen the fellow before, either in Peng-lai or in the Prefecture?’

  Chiao Tai shook his head. As the judge motioned him to be seated also he replied:

  ‘If I had ever seen that ugly snout I would certainly remember it! But don't worry, now I know whom to look for. He'll certainly try to follow us again when we go out, and then I'll get him. By the way, your colleague Teng here has another worry coming, Magistrate! A murdered woman!’

  ‘What is that?’ the judge asked astonished. ‘Did you see it happen?’

  ‘No,’ Chiao Tai said, ‘but it's murder all right! As yet known only to an old beggar and me!’

  ‘Out with it!’ Judge Dee ordered curtly. ‘What happened? We'll have to report immediately to Teng.’

  ‘We might be doing him a good turn,’ Chiao Tai agreed. He poured himself a cup of tea, then began: ‘It was like this. After that thin scoundrel had disappeared, I went back to the street stall to pay my coppers. As I turn to go, a dirty old beggar sidles up to me and asks whether he's right in assuming that I am a stranger in town. When I say yes and what is it to you, he pulls me aside and asks whether I'd be interested in buying some fine jewellery extra cheap. I think I may as well see what it's all about, so I let him take me to the porch of a quack doctor round the corner. Under the door-lampion he shows me a pair of beautiful earrings and two golden bracelets, and says I can have them then and there for one silver piece. I know of course that the old geezer has filched the trinkets, and I am debating with myself whether I'll take him here first, or straight to the tribunal. He thinks I am hesitating because I am afraid to buy the stuff, and he says, “Don't worry, there won't be any trouble. I took them from a dead woman lying in the marsh near the north gate. I am the only one who knows about it.” I tell him to come across with the whole story, and he says he has a lair in the shrubs on the edge of the marsh, where he sleeps sometimes. He went there tonight and came upon the dead body of a youngish woman, dressed in a fine brocade coat, half-hidden under the shrubbery. The hilt of a dagger was sticking from her breast, and she was quite dead. He felt in the sleeves but there was no money, so he tore off her earrings, took the bracelets, and ran off. That place is quite deserted at night, there was nobody about. Now, as a regular member of the beggars' guild, he's supposed to give everything he finds or steals to the boss of the underworld here, a ruffian called The Corporal, who then gives him a share. The old rascal says he thought it a pity to let go of such nice loot, therefore he was looking for a stranger who'd buy it, without the risk of him being betrayed to The Corporal—for whom he has an unholy fear.’

  ‘Where is this beggar?’ Judge Dee asked. ‘Don't tell me that he slipped through your fingers too!’

  Chiao Tai scratched his head. ‘No,’ he replied with an embarrassed air, ‘he didn't. But the fact is that the fellow looked half-starved. He really was a rather pathetic old wreck. I questioned him up and down, and I am absolutely certain that he has nothing to do with that murder. I examined the earrings, and found some dried blood on them, so he didn't lie about taking them from a corpse. I know what'll happen to him if we take the poor wretch to the tribunal! The constables'll beat him up, and if and when they let him go that Corporal'll cut him to ribbons for not having brought the loot to him. I know the gentle manners of his sort! So I dig out a string of coppers, give them to him and tell him to run along. I thought that when we go to report this to your colleague in the tribunal, you might say that the beggar we got the baubles from ran away.’

  Judge Dee gave his lieutenant a thoughtful look.

  ‘It's very irregular, of course,’ he said after a while, ‘but I can see your point. An old beggar has no chance to get inside a gentlewoman's mansion, and when she is going out she rides in a litter and is well attended. And the beggar must have spoken the truth also when he said there was no one about, else he wouldn't have dared to rob the body. The woman was evidently murdered somewhere else, and her dead body deposited in the marsh. No, I don't think that in this case you did much harm. But don't let your good heart get the better of you too often, Chiao Tai! We'll now go straight to the tribunal; Magistrate Teng must initiate the investigation without delay.’ Rising he added : ‘Let me have a look at those things!’

  Chiao Tai reached into his sleeve and laid two earrings and two glittering bracelets on the table. Judge Dee gave them a casual look. ‘Good workmanship!’ he commented. He was about to turn to the door when he suddenly checked himself. He stooped, pulled the candle closer, and scrutinized the jewels intently. Each earring consisted of a small lotus flower, moulded in silver, in an elaborate gold-filigree setting, studded with six rubies, small but of excellent quality. The bracelets were of solid gold and had the shape of snakes. The eyes were large green emeralds that glowed in the candle light with a malicious glare. Judge Dee righted himself. He remained standing there staring at the jewels, slowly pulling at his moustache.

  After a while Chiao Tai asked anxiously :

  ‘Well, don't you think we'd better be on our way?’

  The judge took the jewels up and put them in his sleeve. Looking at Chiao he said gravely:

  ‘I think we had better not report this to Magistrate Teng, Chiao Tai. Not just yet.’

  Chiao Tai shot him an astonished look. But just as he was about to ask what the judge meant, the door opened and the thin man came rushing inside. He said excitedly :

  ‘They have caught up with you! And even sooner than I thought! You were crazy to visit the tribunal! The headman is in front, asking what room you have. But don't worry, I'll help you escape. Follow me!’

  Chiao Tai was about to make an angry retort, but the judge raised his hand. He hesitated just a moment, then said to the ugly man : ‘Lead the way!’

  He took them outside and quickly dragged them into a narrow corridor. He seemed to be entirely familiar with the hostel's layout. He led them into a pitch-dark, smelly passage, then opened a ramshackle door. They found themselves in a dark alleyway. Their guide picked his way among heaps of refuse. The smell of frying fat indicated that they were somewhere behind the hostel's kitchen. Farther along the thief entered another door. It proved to be the back entrance of the large winehouse next door. He elbowed his way through the noisy crowd of customers to the front door, then took them through a maze of streets and alleys, some going up, others down, now to the right, then to the left Soon the judge had lost all
sense of direction.

  Then the thief halted, so suddenly that Judge Dee collided with him. They stood at the entrance of a dismal back street He pointed at the only lighted window at the opposite end of the street and said :

  ‘That's the Phoenix Inn. You'll be perfectly safe there. Tell the Corporal that Kun-shan sent you. You'll see me later.’ He turned round, skilfully slipped past Chiao Tai, who tried to grab him, and disappeared into the darkness.

  IV

  Chiao Tai cursed violently. He said sourly:

  ‘I do hope you have a good reason for all this, Magistrate! For let me warn you that, in spite of its poetical name, that inn over there must be the headquarters of the boss of the underworld here!’

  ‘I am certain it is just that,’ Judge Dee said calmly. ‘If we find that the Corporal is involved in some dirty scheme together with our one-eyed friend, we'll at least discover what is behind their interest in us, and if necessary fight our way out. If not, then the Corporal and his crowd are exactly the people I need for solving a queer problem that is rather worrying me. In any case we'll begin by acting the part Mr Kun-shan so kindly assigned to us, namely that of highway robbers. Come on!’

  Chiao Tai grinned. Tightening his belt he said :

  ‘Maybe we'll have a good fight there!’

  They walked on to the house, a ramshackle two-storeyed building of wooden boards. Through the lighted window came the sound of rough voices. When Chiao Tai knocked on the door, the murmur within suddenly ceased. The grated peephole opened and a gruff voice asked :

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Two men coming for the Corporal!’ Chiao Tai growled.

  There was the sound of a crossbar being removed. A slovenly clad man let them inside a large, low-ceilinged room that smelled of stale sweat and cheap liquor. It was dimly lit by one smoking oil-lamp. The fellow was apparently the waiter, for he went straight to the high counter in the rear. Ensconced behind it he moodily looked the two men over, then muttered :

  ‘The boss hasn't come yet.’

  ‘We'll wait!’ the judge said and walked over to a small table by the window. He sat down heavily on the chair facing the room. Chiao Tai seated himself opposite, scowled over his shoulder at the waiter and shouted:

  ‘Two wine here. Of the best!’

  Four men who had been gambling at the larger table in the far corner near the counter eyed them suspiciously for a while, then resumed their game. A slatternly young woman who stood at the counter looked them up and down with an insolent stare. She wore a long black skirt and a red sash round her waist, and on top a loose dark-green jacket that left her shapely bosom bare. A wilted red rose was stuck in her hair. Her scrutiny completed, she began to whisper to the youngster next to her. He had a rather handsome but dissolute face. The young man shrugged, pushed the girl roughly away, and turned round to watch the gambling, leaning his back against the counter.

  One of the gamblers, a thin man with a ragged moustache, let the dice rattle in the coconut shell, then threw. He announced in a sing-song voice :

  ‘A pair of fours, four cross-eyed whores!’

  The next, a broad-shouldered, completely bald man scooped up the dice. After he had thrown them he shouted with a curse :

  ‘A three and a six! The damned luck I am having tonight!’

  ‘You must try to play the game more often!’ the youngster at the counter sneered.

  ‘Shut up, Student!’ the bald man growled. The fourth player threw the dice. Slamming his hand on the table he called out :

  ‘A pair of eights, two leaking crates, they walked the street, and still found mates! The pool is for me!’

  The waiter placed two wine-cups on Judge Dee's table. ‘That'll be six coppers!’ he said in a surly voice.

  The judge laboriously counted out four coppers on the table. ‘I never pay more than two apiece,’ he announced.

  ‘Halve the difference or clear out!’ the waiter said.

  Judge Dee gave him an additional copper. As the man went, the judge said loudly to Chiao Tai : ‘The dirty crook!’

  The waiter turned round angrily.

  ‘Want to make something of that, bastard?’ Chiao Tai asked invitingly. The waiter decided not to take up the challenge.

  Loud curses came from the other end of the room. The bald man shouted at the youngster:

  ‘Keep out of our game, I tell you! You're too green even to steal from a monk's almsbowl, you don't even have a few coppers to gamble with. Keep your trap shut, Mister Student!’

  ‘The only cash the runt has is what the wench here gives to him,’ the second gambler remarked. And, to the Student: ‘If the Corporal gets to know about that, you're in for it, dirty pimp!’

  The young man went for him with balled fists. But before he had reached the speaker, the bald gambler had stopped him with a hard blow to his stomach that made him reel back gasping against the counter. The four gamblers guffawed. The girl uttered a cry and ran over to the youngster. She kept her arm round his shoulders while he vomited into the spittoon. When he had righted himself, his face deadly pale, she clutched at his sleeve and whispered something. ‘Leave me alone, you stupid slut!’ he panted. Then he slapped her face. She went behind the counter and began to sob, hiding her face in her sleeve.

  ‘Pleasant company!’ Judge Dee remarked to Chiao Tai. The latter was looking sadly at the wine-cup in his hand. He muttered :

  ‘This is even worse than the rotgut I got at the street stall!’ Then he turned round and watched the girl for a while. She had now wiped her face and was leaning on the counter, staring straight ahead. ‘If you'd scrape off all that rouge and powder,’ Chiao Tai remarked judiciously, ‘she wouldn't be a bad-looking wench. Good figure, anyway.’

  The young man had recovered. Suddenly he pulled a knife from his belt. But the waiter reached out over the counter, grabbed his hand from behind and gave it a quick twist. The knife clattered to the floor. ‘You know the boss doesn't want knife-fighting, runt!’ the waiter told him placidly.

  The bald man had risen and picked up the knife. Now he raked the youngster's face with a nasty back-hand blow. The Student's face was suddenly covered with blood.

  ‘So you've been in a knife fight already today, eh?’ the bald man said with satisfaction. ‘They gave you a good cut across your forehead. Children shouldn't play with knives!’

  Two hard knocks resounded on the door.

  ‘That's the boss!’ the bald man said and went quickly to open.

  A squat, hulking man came in. He had a broad, coarse face with a ragged ringbeard and a short, bristling moustache. His greying hair was bound up with a piece of cloth, and he wore wide blue trousers and a kind of waistcoat that left his deep, hairy chest and muscular arms bare. He ignored the bald man's respectful greeting and walked straight to the counter, without looking right or left.

  ‘A large bowl, from my special jar!’ he barked at the waiter. ‘Just had a little affair, a narrow squeeze, I tell you! How can a man make a decent living in this blooming town? Everywhere you run into those rats from the tribunal!’ He gulped down the wine, smacked his lips and shouted at the girl: ‘Don't stand there blubbering, wench!’ And, to the waiter : ‘Give her a drink too, mate! life ain't always easy for her either!’

  His eyes fell on the young man, who was wiping the blood off his face. ‘What's wrong with the Student?’ the Corporal asked.

  ‘He drew a knife on me, boss!’ the bald man said.

  ‘He did, did he? Come here, runt!’

  As the frightened youngster came up to him with lagging steps, the Corporal gave him a contemptuous look and asked with a sneer:

  ‘So you like knife-fighting, eh? All right, show me what you can do!’

  A long, gleaming knife appeared in the Corporal's hand. With his left he grabbed the Student's collar. The waiter ducked under the counter, but the girl leaned over quickly and laid her hand on the Corporal's shoulder.

  ‘Let him go, please!’ she cried out desperately
.

  The Corporal shook his shoulder free. He had now seen the two men by the window. He pushed the trembling Student roughly out of his way, stepped forward and exclaimed : ‘Holy Heaven! Who's the beard?’

  ‘Strangers, boss!’ the Student said obsequiously. ‘Just came in.’

  The waiter popped up again behind the counter. He said venomously:

  ‘That beard called me a crook, boss!’

  ‘Nobody ever said you weren't! But I don't trust blasted strangers.’ The Corporal walked over to Judge Dee's table and asked gruffly: ‘Where are you from?’

  ‘We got into a bit of trouble,’ Judge Dee replied, ‘and Kun-shan sent us here.’