The Emperor's Pearl: A Judge Dee Mystery (Judge Dee Mystery Series)

by Robert Van Gulik

  judge Dee nodded at the headman. Yang was led away.

  The judge sat down. He wiped the perspiration from his forehead. Mr Kwang cleared his throat and asked:

  ‘Would Your Honour kindly allow me to ask a question?’ As judge Dee nodded wearily, he went on: ‘Mr Yang owes me a not inconsiderable sum for two antique bronzes supplied to him. Am I correct in assuming that the tribunal will in due time pay out that amount to me from the dead criminal’s confiscated assets?’

  ‘Indeed, Mr Kwang,’ judge Dee replied. Then he added: ‘I need you tomorrow in the tribunal, as a witness. Thereafter you are free to continue your journey, any time you like.’

  ‘Thank you, sir.’ Sadly shaking his head, Kwang went on: ‘I had always considered both Mr Yang and Dr Pien sound businessmen! Goes to show one can’t be too careful in choosing the persons to deal with! I am most grateful that Your Honour allowed me to take part in tonight’s session, it was a very instructive experience. I take it that you knew beforehand that Yang and Pien were guilty, sir? ‘

  ‘I did,’ Judge Dee replied in order to get rid of him.

  ‘Wonderful! Would you believe, sir, that I actually had a fleeting impression that you were suspecting me too? Tsk tsk, how little do we ignorant merchants understand the subtleties of the official mind!’

  ‘You may go now, Mr Kwang,’ the judge said sourly. ‘Convey my best wishes to Mr Sun’

  ‘Thank you, sir. Mr Sun will certainly appreciate that’ He pursed his lips and went on worriedly: ‘Mr Sun is in for another attack, I fear. I am familiar with the symptoms. When, directly after the noon meal today, he started to belch and complained of…’

  ‘Will you kindly see Mr Kwang out, Hoong?’ judge Dee interrupted.

  Kwang made a low bow. The sergeant conducted him to the corridor.

  ‘Preposterous fellow!’ judge Dee muttered disgustedly. He groped in his sleeve and brought out the wooden hand. He carefully detached it from the back of the small tortoise it had been glued to. The animal remained motionless on the table, its head and limbs securely drawn in.

  Sergeant Hoong came back. He silently went to the corner-table, felt whether the teapot was still warm, then poured out a cup.

  ‘Give our friend here the leaves you were holding up behind my three guests, Hoong!’

  The sergeant came up to the table and set the cup down in front of the judge. Then he took a bunch of green leaves from his sleeve. As soon as he had put them on the table, the tortoise stuck its head out, blinked at the candle, then eagerly crawled to the leaves.

  XIX

  Sergeant Hoong looked on in silence while Judge Dee was slowly emptying his cup. There was a hurt look on his old, wrinkled face. When the judge had finished, Hoong said dejectedly:

  ‘This afternoon Your Honour told me all about the trap set for Kou, Pien and Kwang. You didn’t say one word about Yang, sir.’

  ‘Take a seat Hoong,’ the judge said quietly. He loosened the front of his robe and pushed his cap back from his brow. Resting his forearms on the table, he began:

  ‘The clue of the missing domino suggested that the number of suspects must be limited to Kou, Pien and Kwang. That one of these three had been acting on the orders of a fourth person was a remote possibility. A possibility I kept in mind only because of a vague, intuitive feeling that the manner of the last two murders was wrong. Sia and Mrs Meng were killed in a violent, savage manner. I couldn’t help thinking that Kou, Pien or Kwang would have stabbed Sia from behind rather than brutally smash his head, and that they would have put poison in Mrs Meng’s tea rather than viciously strangling her. Further, the murders took place in quick succession and in widely separated places, suggesting a powerful, very active man, accustomed to strenuous rides up and down the country-side. Neither Kou nor Pien fitted that description, nor Kwang; that exasperating businessman does travel about a lot, but always in a comfortable junk.

  ‘Since the murderer had to be connected with the antique trade, I thought of course of Yang, as a fourth suspect.

  Physically he fitted my intuitive picture of the criminal, and he had the same opportunities for committing the crimes as Kou, Pien or Kwang. Yang was present at the boat race and showed special interest in our diagnosis of Tong’s death; this morning he had gone out for a ride up-country, so he could have killed Sia; and he was in the neighbourhood of the tribunal when Miss Liang went there to report the prostitute’s abduction. Further, there were three points against him. First, although he assured me he had never visited the ruined temple, he knew about the altar being separated from the statue’s pedestal. This suggested that he had indeed visited the temple, probably in order to rob it. Second, his pretending not to know Tong and Sia, which seemed highly improbable since those two were engaged in the same trade. Third, his contradicting Sheng Pa’s information that Dr Pien needed money; this suggested that Pien was Yang’s henchman, whom he wanted to protect against all possible suspicion.’

  The judge waited till Sergeant Hoong had refilled his cup, then went on:

  ‘However, every one of these three points had a perfectly innocent alternative. Yang might have read in some other antiquarian treatise about the change made in the temple. Tong and Sia might have deliberately avoided Yang as a dangerous competitor in the curio trade. And Dr Pien might have concealed his financial difficulty so well that only Sheng Pa’s all-seeing and all-hearing beggars could come to know about it. And, most important of all: Yang had no motive. I knew Yang and his habits fairly well; if there was a motive, I thought that its roots must lie somewhere in the past. But there was no time for a detailed investigation, I had to take immediate measures. And measures that would allow me to check my logical deductions as well as my vague intuition.

  ‘Thus I laid tonight’s trap, intended for all four suspects, all at the same time. If Kou, Pien or Kwang were the criminal, I hoped that my reading out of the faked letter, my dark hints about the criminal having made a mistake, my macabre talk about avenging ghosts culminating in the sudden appearance of the white hand, would frighten the guilty person into betraying himself—as I explained to you in detail before we came here. What I did not tell you then was that I expected Yang, if he were indeed the criminal, to come here to spy on us.

  ‘Before we left the tribunal, you heard me tell the headman to follow us here and, as soon as I had sent Kou’s steward away, to round up all the servants except the gatekeeper, and herd them together in a back room. Then he and his men were to hide themselves beyond the bend of the corridor. They were to arrest anyone who should leave the library, but they were not to interfere with anybody coming from outside. These instructions were meant to make sure that Kou, Pien or Kwang would not escape if one of them were the criminal and, at the same time, to facilitate Yang’s spying on us—if he were our man. Well, my intuition proved to be right. Yang was the murderer and he fell into my trap. You yourself heard him state just now that he had indeed come prepared to take action—which would have proved beyond doubt that he was the criminal.’

  ‘You took a terrible risk, sir ! If I had known that, I would never have agreed to the plan. Never!’

  Judge Dee gave his old assistant an affectionate look. He said soberly:

  ‘Now you know the reason why I didn’t tell you about that particular part of my scheme, Hoong.’

  ‘You were right, sir ! I was terribly afraid as it was ! As the tension kept mounting, I expected every moment one of those three men to attack you! ‘

  ‘I didn’t feel too well myself!’ Judge Dee said with a wan smile. ‘I had seen this room only once before and mistakenly assumed that, when the candelabras along the back wall were out, the large candle on the table here would allow me to watch the door on my right and the three men opposite me, all at once. If Yang comes to spy on us, I thought, I’ll notice his setting the door ajar, and if he should rush inside later to attack me or his accomplice, I’ll have plenty of time to tackle him and shout for the constables. As it was, however, I could see
on my right only black shadows, and I found it impossible to deliver my speech, and yet keep an eye on the door as well as on my three suspects all the time. When I knew that someone was inside, and heard the sound of breathing close behind me, I was struck by the uncomfortable thought that this time I had tempted providence too far!’

  He passed his hand over his eyes, then went on in a tired voice:

  ‘Now that I have heard Yang’s confession, I understand that it all began with his love for Gold Lotus. This infatuation became tangled with his passionate love of fine art, the two finally blending into the frenzied desire of a lonely elderly man to possess and enjoy what he soon was to lose forever. Possessing Gold Lotus in the ruined temple, yet irrevocably losing her, incapacitated him in mind and body, and engendered in him a maniacal rage, which he sought to appease vicariously by maltreating other women.’ He heaved a sigh, then resumed: ‘As to Pien, according to the law he should be beheaded. But since there are mitigating circumstances for the misguided doctor, I shall propose to have his death sentence commuted to a long prison term. Remind me, Hoong, to make arrangements for Miss Lee, after the case has been disposed of. We’ll give her a round sum from the confiscated assets of Yang, so that her father can redeem her. She impressed me as a staunch girl, she deserves better than life in a brothel.’

  For a while Judge Dee watched the tortoise that was nibbling contentedly at the green leaves. Then he spoke:

  ‘This small animal did his duty, Hoong. But things turned out quite differently from what I had thought. Now it is clear what actually happened, of course. When I ordered our headman to round up all the servants in this house, I had completely forgotten about Mrs Kou. Our good headman has a one-track mind, he collared also the maids assigned to look after that poor lady. Left alone in her room, she went out and started to wander about in the empty house. She must have seen Yang going to this room, but he didn’t see her. Yang had avoided meeting her ever since his raping her in the ruined temple. He told me he had made it a point never to go farther than the reception room when visiting here, allegedly because he couldn’t bear to see Kou’s beautiful collection. The real reason was of course that he didn’t dare to risk meeting Gold Lotus, who might recognize him and remember. Tonight she did not, at first, recognize Yang, but the mere seeing of him must have stirred something in her deranged mind, and she followed him to the library here. You saw her come inside, Hoong. She passed by Yang, who was standing in the corner to the left of the door, went on towards the light circle and stood herself behind my chair. Now it so happened that tonight a storm was threatening, it was exactly the same tense and oppressive atmosphere as on that night four years ago, when Yang abducted her. Mentally deranged persons are especially sensitive to weather conditions, and the similar atmosphere prepared the way for what followed. When I put the white hand with the red ruby on the table, she saw the marble hand of the goddess, the hand she had looked up to in that terrible moment when she was lying helpless on the altar. Suddenly she connected the hand with the man she had just seen, and in a flash everything came back. She was cured by the shock.’

  Sergeant Hoong nodded.

  ‘Heaven has been kind to Mr Kou,’ he remarked. ‘In its mercy it took the adulterous Amber Lady away, and restored his faithful wife to him, completely cured.’ He frowned, then asked curiously: ‘How did Your Honour know that, on the night that Yang abducted Mrs Kou, a storm was threatening? I don’t remember her mentioning that.’

  ‘Nobody mentioned it. But don’t you see that the ghostly apparition of the White Lady that four years ago frightened the Tong family so much was in fact Mrs Kou? Her mind distracted by the terrible experience in the temple, she must somehow or other have found her way to the edge of the grove. Everything fits! She was half naked, her hair was hanging loose, and the thorny branches had torn her hands and limbs, hence the blood the Tong family saw. Then the tempest started, and the poor deranged woman walked round the grove and wandered the rest of the night through the fields, till she collapsed from sheer exhaustion outside the east gate, where the next morning the farmers found her. I’ll check the precise dates, of course, but I don’t doubt for one moment that the abduction of Gold Lotus and the ghostly phenomenon in the Tong villa will prove to have occurred on one and the same night!’

  Alone in the large room, the two men sat listening silently to the rain. At last Sergeant Hoong spoke up with a satisfied smile:

  ‘So Your Honour has solved two baffling puzzles tonight ! One concerning no less than four murders, and also that old riddle of the White Goddess.’

  Judge Dee took a sip from his tea. After he had set his cup down he gave the sergeant a thoughtful look and said slowly:

  ‘The murders, yes, I solved those. And also that one appearance of the goddess, four years ago.’ Shaking his head he went on: ‘As to her part in all that happened here…no, I haven’t solved that, Hoong.’ He got up from his chair and replaced the small tortoise in his sleeve. Straightening his robe he said: ‘It seems the rain has abated a little. Let’s go back to the tribunal.’

  XX

  The following morning, shortly after dawn, Judge Dee and Sergeant Hoong left the city by the south gate and rode out into the country. The storm of the preceding night had cleared the air, and it promised to become a beautiful, cool day.

  The judge had sat up till deep in the night, drawing up a full report on the murders, to be forwarded to the higher authorities. He had slept badly. He had found it difficult to ban the tense moments in Kou’s library from his mind, and he did not relish the prospect of hearing Yang’s confession all over again, during the morning session of the tribunal.

  Having risen after a fitful slumber, he had decided to make an early trip with Hoong to the Mandrake Grove in order to survey the possibility of having the forest cleared. He planned to append a proposal to that effect to his report on the murders, pointing out that the continued existence of such a place would tempt miscreants to make their lair there.

  They took the short cut through the rice fields indicated by the curio-dealer. Soon the tall trees of the forest came into sight.

  They easily located the white elm trees that marked the pathway leading to the ruined temple. However, they found that the tempest had played havoc there; uprooted trees had fallen across the path amidst a tangle of thick creepers and thorny shrubs, effectively barring their progress.

  The two men circled the grove, looking all the time for other gaps. But they found nothing but an impenetrable wall of old trees and thick undergrowth.

  At last they found themselves at the back of the deserted house. They rode along its outer wall, to the entrance, Judge Dee dismounted there. He said to the sergeant:

  ‘Let’s have a look at the grove from the walled-in garden. Four years ago Mrs Kou emerged somewhere there from among the trees. It is our last chance of finding a way to get inside!’

  They passed through the tunnel-like entrance, and went to the side garden to the east of the main building.

  Standing at the low wall, they scanned the forbidding mass of trees. No leaf stirred in the still morning air. Twittering birds flew in and out from under the eaves of the pavilion, but they shunned the forest. There everything was as quiet as the grave. A strange air of silent expectancy seemed to linger among: the dark foliage.

  After a long time Judge Dee shook his head. He spoke:

  ‘No, I shan’t disturb the abode of the White Goddess, after all. We shall leave her in peace, standing there in her ruined temple, in the middle of her sacred grove. There are things, Hoong, that are better let well alone. Let’s go back to the city!’

  As he turned round, his eye fell on a young bird that was struggling helplessly among the grass, near the wall of the pavilion. It frantically flapped its undeveloped, naked wings, Judge Dee carefully took it up in his cupped hands and said:

  ‘Poor fellow fell out of its nest! It doesn’t seem to have hurt itself, though.’ Lifting his head he went on: ‘Look, the nest
is up there under the eaves of the pavilion, the mother is flying around it. I’ll put it back.’

  He climbed on the low wall and put the bird in the nest. But instead of stepping down he remained standing there. Raising himself on tiptoe, he had a close look, not heeding the mother bird that flapped anxiously round his head.

  Amidst broken egg-shells three young birds were huddling close together, squeaking with wide open beaks. By their side lay an egg-shaped object. The dirt clinging to it could not conceal its shining white colour.

  Judge Dee took it up with his thumb and forefinger, then stepped down. He rubbed it clean with his handkerchief. Having laid it in the palm of his left hand, he silently examined it, Sergeant Hoong looking on. It sent forth a purely white, shimmering brilliance. After a while Judge Dee said softly:

  ‘This is the Emperor’s Pearl, Hoong! ‘

  The sergeant sucked in his breath. Bending over Judge Dee’s hand he stared at the pearl. Then he asked, involuntarily lowering his voice:

  ‘Couldn’t it be a fake, sir?’

  The judge shook his head.

  ‘No, Hoong. No one could ever imitate that perfect shape, and that unearthly white shine. Tong Mai’s story was true, this is indeed the long-lost Imperial treasure. Tong was a resourceful crook, he had indeed hidden the pearl in the pavilion, but in a place where no one would discover it. When Sia searched the eaves he saw the nest, but then the eggs had not yet hatched, apparently. And we would never have found it but for this lucky chance—if it was a chance.’ Letting the shining pearl move slowly in his palm, he resumed with a sigh: ‘So, after all these long years, after untold human suffering, and after the shedding of so much innocent blood, this pearl shall revert to the Throne, its rightful owner.’