Mandarin Yellow (Socrates Cheng mysteries)

by Steven M. Roth

  “They might have committed the crimes, if told to do so, but I can’t see them instigating or planning anything. The Twins are drones.”

  “You underestimate my brothers,” Jade said, “all of them, not just the Twins. You always have.”

  “Not the Twins, I don’t,” Socrates said. “Maybe Eldest Brother, I do, but definitely not the Twins.” He looked over at Eldest Brother, then back at Jade.

  “I was bothered when they admitted setting up the burglary through their Triad, but continued denying being involved in killing anyone. Their insistence didn’t track for me then, and it still doesn’t, especially now that I know they were planning all along to flee the country and escape punishment.” He paused a beat and looked into Jade’s eyes.

  “The Twins had no reason not to admit their role in the murders if they were involved.” Socrates looked over at Eldest Brother. He hadn’t moved.

  “It took me a while to understand,” Socrates said, “but it slowly dawned on me. If the Twins were telling the truth about the burglary, if they were just the middlemen in arranging it through the Triad, then someone else had to be involved in the instigation and orchestration of it all. Naturally, that person would also be involved in the killings.” He paused to pull together his thoughts.

  “You’re just guessing, Socrates. You’re desperate and fishing,” Jade said. “The Twins were the ones. They said so. You should pay attention to what you know and stop reaching out for what you don’t know.”

  Socrates ignored Jade. “Actually,” he said, “I thought about your father as a possibility, but eliminated him because of his age and because I couldn’t come up with any motive for him to sabotage the exhibit and undermine his own reputation and honor. His arranging for the burglary would have been an act against his own self-interest, cultural and political suicide.”

  Socrates paused and looked again at Eldest Brother. Still a safe distance away, he thought. He turned back to Jade. “I eliminated your father as the one responsible.” He wondered why Jade had shrugged, almost imperceptivity, or was it just his imagination?

  “Until recently, I thought Eldest Brother had pulled the strings, that he might even be the murderer himself. He certainly fits the physical profile, but I couldn’t see any reason for him to do it.

  “As far as I know, Eldest Brother had no reason to shame your father and your family. And, anyway, it doesn’t fit his cultural profile, not unless he secretly hates your father and the rest of you, which I don’t think he does, not based on what I’ve seen and been told by you and the Twins. Besides, Eldest Brother had no reason to assault me. Certainly not just because you and I were romantically involved.”

  Jade started to say something, but stopped when Socrates abruptly shook his head. “Let me finish,” he said, his impatience clear in his voice.

  “I know Eldest Brother wanted tradition to prevail, wanted to restore your father’s sullied honor, but scuttling the exhibit and committing the murders wouldn’t achieve that. It would have brought about just the opposite.”

  Jade stepped toward Socrates. She flicked the back of her hand dismissively. “I guess that leaves only Youngest Brother or me as the evil villain,” she said, her voice laced with contempt, “that is, if you’re keeping it all in the family.”

  Socrates nodded. “Right,” he said, “and it wasn’t Youngest Brother.”

  JADE PURSED HER lips and wrinkled her forehead as if seriously thinking about what Socrates had just said. She shook her head. “Okay, Sherlock, “ she said, her contempt now palpable. “I’m listening. How’d you come to your brilliant conclusion?”

  “It’s what they say in TV crime shows, Jade. You were the only one with the motive, the means, and the opportunity. All three.”

  “This should be interesting,” Jade said, turning her head toward Eldest Brother and speaking to him. Her tone was laced with sarcasm.

  Socrates, too, looked over at Eldest Brother. He hadn’t moved from the foyer into the living room.

  “Let’s start with Brandon,” Socrates said. “I was emotionally too close to his murder to see the truth. I couldn’t be objective. So I made the mistake of approaching his murder backwards by making a natural, but wrong assumption about it.

  “I assumed Brandon had been killed because he went to meet with the assistant director in my place, that either I was the actual target or his murder was meant to warn me to drop my investigation.

  “But that’s what I was supposed to think, what we all were supposed to think. It was classic misdirection. It’s why the catalog illustration was shoved down his throat, to lead us all down that wrong path.”

  Socrates watched Jade shrug one shoulder and raise her eyebrows.

  “But there was no reason Brandon should have been murdered for taking my place because there was no reason to eliminate me. I wasn’t a threat to the burglars even though I was making progress in my investigation. Not only that, the stolen items were being repatriated by Bing-fa, one at a time, at least they were until the police took everything into custody as evidence.

  “The upshot,” Socrates said, “was that nothing I might do going forward would pose a threat to the thieves, so why bother warning me off? Or why bother killing me or killing Brandon in my place? The answer is, there was no reason.”

  He paused to glance over at Bing-wu. Eldest Brother hadn’t moved any closer.

  “Once I understood this, I also understood that Brandon had been the target all along. His killing had nothing to do with the burglary or its aftermath. His murder was a crime of convenience, an opportunistic crime.” He paused to gauge Jade’s reaction, but she remained impassive, staring at him as he spoke, her arms defiantly crossed over her chest.

  Socrates pointed his finger at Jade, but he softened his voice. “You knew Brandon was going to the gallery in my place to interview Linda Fong because I told you at lunch that same day.” He now stared hard at Jade.

  “No one else knew,” he said. “Just me, Brandon, and you. This gave you the perfect opportunity to eliminate him later that night and make it seem as if Brandon’s murder had something to do with the burglary.

  “That’s why you stuffed the reproduction of the Northern Sung Edict down his throat.” He waited for Jade to say something, to deny this, but she merely shook her head dismissively.

  “The reason you killed Brandon was just because he was Brandon, because you’ve hated him ever since college. It was an opportunity you couldn’t pass up.”

  Socrates watched for some sign, either of acknowledgment or demurrer by Jade, but saw nothing, just the stolid face of a stone cold sociopath. He took a deep breath.

  “You used your Kobudo blade skills to slash Brandon’s throat, just as you did with the director. Then for good measure or for rage, I don’t know which and I don’t care which, you stabbed Brandon thirteen more times.”

  “If we assume you’re right, Socrates — and you’re not, by the way — what about the rest of it? Are you saying I was involved with everything else, that I had the Twins arrange for the burglary with their Triad?” She looked over at Eldest Brother and rolled her eyes.

  Jade looked back at Socrates, and pointed her finger at him. “What you’re saying makes no sense. Think about it. I’m trying to work my way back into my father’s favor, not further alienate him by screwing up the exhibit and subverting his honor.”

  Socrates nodded. “That’s what I thought, too, until recently. It was a reasonable assumption, but it was wrong.”

  Socrates looked at Eldest Brother. He still hadn’t left the foyer. He turned back to Jade. “The burglary had nothing to do with your father. I know that now. It just seemed that way. That was another fortunate opportunity for you, Jade, and you took advantage of it.”

  Socrates saw movement from the corner of his eye, and quickly turned his head in the direction of the foyer. Eldest Brother had moved in closer. He now stood behind Jade, off to her left, looking over her shoulder at Socrates. He scowled when Socrates
caught his eye.

  Socrates tensed, then looked back at Jade, and said, “It began to come together for me, although I didn’t realize it at the time, when the Twins referred to two Secret Protocols, rather than just one, as secret addenda to the Xi’an Agreement. That puzzled me because what little I knew about the Secret Protocol referred to only one such document, not two.

  “Your father reinforced my confusion when I later referred to two Secret Protocols in a conversation with him. He jumped all over me as if I was an idiot, and said there was only one Secret Protocol.” Socrates noticed Jade flinch at the mention of her father. She recovered quickly.

  “As you can imagine,” Socrates continued, “I was confused because the Twins had given me two documents, each purporting to be a legitimate Secret Protocol. But when I read them both and compared them side-by-side, my confusion disappeared. I understood why the burglary had occurred and the reason for the director’s and cultural attaché’s murders. And that information led me to you, Jade, although I wish that hadn’t been the case.”

  Socrates waited for some response from Jade, but she said nothing.

  “You should have destroyed the first Secret Protocol when the burglars took it, Jade. Then there wouldn’t have been two documents for me to compare. Without both, I never would have figured everything out.”

  “This is fascinating, Socrates,” Jade said. “I can hardly wait to learn what you think you figured out.” She looked over at Eldest Brother and again rolled her eyes.

  “You can roll your eyes and mock me all you want, Jade,” Socrates said, “but one of the things I discovered, the most interesting of all, was your motive for the burglary and the murders. And, unfortunately, it all fits.”

  JADE INTERLACED HER fingers and placed her hands on her chest. She tilted her head slightly to the side and lowered her eyes. Her beatific ensemble evoked memories for Socrates of a Raphaello Madonna.

  Jade’s voice, when she spoke, now was elevated an octave and seemed to Socrates to be contrived to replicate the voice of an innocent young girl. Socrates didn’t buy Jade’s posturing.

  “You know how I hate being kept in the dark, Socrates,” Jade said in a sing-song voice. “Please enlighten me. What so-called motive of mine do you think you uncovered?”

  Socrates stared into Jade’s eyes and hesitated. He wasn’t sure he wanted to continue. But he realized he had no choice. He’d already committed himself with his prior statements and, in that measure, had eviscerated his relationship with Jade.

  “Before the publicity for the exhibit, very few people knew the Secret Protocol even existed, let alone what it looked like or what its contents disclosed. I certainly didn’t even though I’d been infused with China’s history during college. I’ll bet you didn’t either, Jade.

  “When I compared the two Secret Protocols,” he said, “I realized you had orchestrated the burglary so you could get your hands on the original Secret Protocol, the one intended to be exhibited, the one illustrated in the catalog.”

  “That’s absurd, Socrates. Why in the world would I want to do that?”

  “So you could substitute a second Secret Protocol for the original one.”

  Jade turned toward Eldest Brother and shrugged. Then she looked back at Socrates and said, “Oh, really, Sherlock? And why would I want to do that?”

  “Because the second Secret Protocol,” Socrates said, “was a forgery created for you, probably by Jiao tu san ku, and made to your specifications, is why.”

  “This is absolutely fascinating, Socrates. I never realized you had such a vivid imagination. You clearly missed your calling being a lawyer and a pen salesman. You should have been a novelist creating mysteries or other imaginative fiction.”

  “This isn’t a joke,” Socrates said, his voice hardened now. “People died because of you.”

  “So you say.” Jade glanced briefly at Eldest Brother, then looked back at Socrates. “Okay, I’ll play along with your fanciful script. What reason would I have had to want to steal the exhibit’s Secret Protocol and substitute a forged one for it?”

  Jade turned briefly and again looked at Eldest Brother. She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. Then she turned back to Socrates and said in a tone impregnated with contempt, “I’m sure Eldest Brother also would like to hear your theory before I tell him to throw you out of here.”

  “You wanted to substitute the forged Secret Protocol because the original Secret Protocol described, as part of an overall mosaic, an agreement between Mao and Chiang to continue a contrived Civil War against one another after the Japanese were defeated.”

  “That’s preposterous, Socrates,” Jade said, “but even if it was true, why would I care? Why would anyone care?” She shook her head in disgust and sighed. “You’re talking ancient history. Besides, two armies couldn’t stage fake battles and get away with it. This is absolute nonsense.”

  “They could and they did,” Socrates said. “Most of the engagements between Mao’s army and Chiang’s were fought in the countryside, away from populated urban areas, away from the few foreigners, especially Western journalists, who were allowed to be in China.

  “No one outside China would ever know anything about how the Civil War was staged and being fought, except for what might be reported in the press — the press controlled by Mao and Chiang in their agreed-upon spheres of influence.”

  “Have it your way,” Jade said. “Assuming Mao and Chiang could get away with it, so what? Again, who cares? Especially now in the twenty-first century. It’s irrelevant in today’s world.”

  Jade chuckled disingenuously and looked at Eldest Brother.

  “I have a feeling we’re about to come to the good part, Eldest Brother,” she said to Bing-wu, “the part why Mao and Chiang faked the Civil War and the part telling what my so-called motive was for arranging for the burglary and substituting a forged Secret Protocol for the original one. Pay attention. Socrates might want to give us a quiz later.”

  Socrates gave Jade a pass on her sarcasm and continued as if she hadn’t just mocked him.

  “The first Secret Protocol, the one originally intended to be displayed in the exhibit, provided that Chiang, after he fled to Formosa, would remain a vocal foe of the Communist government to generate American foreign aid to Chiang”

  Jade again turned toward Eldest Brother and said with raised eyebrows and a jackal’s grin, “I can feel the drama, the tension rising, Eldest Brother. I just know we’re coming to the good part.”

  “You’re right, Jade,” Socrates said, “we are getting there. Now comes the interesting part, the reason you cared and your motive for the crimes that followed.”

  Jade placed both her palms over her heart and mimed a swoon.

  “The first parts of the conspiracy didn’t particularly interest you, Jade,” Socrates said. “The staged Civil War, Chiang’s willful defeat, Mao’s rule over the Mainland, and Chiang’s and Mao’s vocal enmity afterward, were all prelude to what you cared about.”

  Jade glanced at Eldest Brother, smiled, and nodded once.

  “But here’s what you did care about,” Socrates said. “The original Secret Protocol had specifically assigned the responsibility for enticing the United States into sending Chiang millions of dollars in foreign aid to Madam Chiang Kai-shek, your longtime idol, Jade, Madam Chiang.”

  Socrates waited for Jade to say something, but she remained quiet.

  “As we both know, Jade, Madam Chiang performed her part very well. She returned to Wellesley College after the end of the Second World War and achieved great and favorable publicity for herself, her husband, and their hypothetical cause. She did it again in Washington when she addressed the United States Congress. This performance, itself, generated huge amounts of economic aid that continued to flow to Chiang for decades afterward.”

  “So what, Socrates?” Jade said, her voice growing louder and derisive. “That’s common knowledge. Everybody knows it. You and I learned this as China Studies maj
ors at Penn State. What’s your point? Nobody but you cares about this.”

  “I’ll tell you so what,” Socrates said. “The point is, you cared, Jade. You cared very much. Too much, in fact. That was your problem.” Socrates glanced briefly at Eldest Brother, then looked back at Jade.

  Why, Socrates thought, am I telling Jade what she already knows? Having posed the question to himself, he, of course, knew the answer. He still held out hope Jade would deny her role in the crimes in some credible way that would convince him he was wrong about her. He didn’t expect this to happen or, if it did happen, that it would remedy the damage already done to their relationship, but he hoped it might, so he had to try.

  “What history didn’t tell us,” Socrates said, “was that the 1937 Xi’an Agreement negotiated by T.V. Soong and Madam Chiang to free her kidnapped husband came with the original Secret Protocol as part to it.

  “And, of course, history couldn’t tell us about the existence of the forged, second Secret Protocol because it didn’t exist until recently when the Cunning Rabbit Triad created it for you with key information eliminated from it.” He paused and silently counted to five while he stared into Jade’s eyes.

  “History also couldn’t tell us what it was that had been excluded or why it had been omitted.”

  “Okay, Socrates,” Jade said, “you know I’m a sucker for a good puzzle. What was it you think I wanted removed from the original Secret Protocol?”

  SOCRATES PAUSED TO organize his thoughts.

  He took a deep breath, held it briefly, then let it seep out slowing between clenched teeth.

  “You wanted to remove all mention of Madam Chiang’s role in the decades-long conspiracy and massive embezzlement,” he said. He paused again and looked for some reaction from Jade. He saw none. She remained impervious to the implications of his statement.

  “That’s what you caused to be left out of the forged Secret Protocol,” Socrates said. “Those parts of the original document that referenced Madam Chiang’s role in the deception and graft.”