The Lacquer Screen

by Robert Van Gulik

  The judge got up and said:

  ‘Give me a man to take me there by the back streets, and I’ll have a look. Don’t forget that I’ve been a headman, I know all about dead bodies. Perhaps I can find out for you who did it too!’

  The Corporal hesitated. After a while he looked up and said:

  ‘All right, take the Student. I can’t let the others go. Soon my men will be coming in for the accounts. Hey, Student, you go with the beard!’

  ‘You better stay here, mate!’ Judge Dee said to Chiao Tai. ‘The two of us together might attract the attention of the thief-catchers.’

  Chiao Tai had followed the conversation in speechless astonishment. He grunted something, then took the wine-jar and hurriedly refilled his cup.

  Chapter 5

  The Student took Judge Dee along some less frequented streets and alleys down to the northern section of the town. He explained that the Phoenix Inn was located in the hilly, central quarter. The town was built on the mountain slope, and the northern quarter was the lowest part. The judge didn’t say much. He was preoccupied with his own thoughts. It was clear that the Corporal knew nothing about the murder or about Kunshan’s plans. A number of facts pointed to his theory being right, yet…

  ‘Do many people pass that marsh during the day?’ he suddenly asked the young man.

  ‘Yes, in the morning there’s a lot of traffic there,’ the Student replied. ‘The peasants come in from the plain beyond the north gate, bringing vegetables and so on for the market. But at night it’s a very lonely place. They say it’s haunted.’

  ‘Why didn’t the authorities have the marsh filled up?’

  ‘We had a big earthquake four years ago, I was fourteen then, I remember it well. It was especially bad in the north quarter, and it destroyed the houses built where the marsh now is. There was a fire. Heaven, you should have seen it, it was a beauty! People with their clothes burning came rushing to the river, screaming their heads off, I never laughed so much in my life! A pity the fire didn’t get to the tribunal, though! Well, later, when they started to clear the ruins, they found that the ground there had sunk below river level, it was too soggy to build there. So they let it lie waste, and now it’s overgrown with weeds and shrubs.’

  Judge Dee nodded. He reflected that a region which has many hot springs often suffers from earthquakes.

  They were passing through a narrow, quiet street. The curved roofs of the dark houses stood out against the moonlit sky.

  ‘I would like to leave that gang of the Corporal’s, you know,’ the Student resumed.

  The judge shot him a quick look. He had thought him a rather offensive specimen, but apparently he had done him an injustice.

  ‘Would you now?’ he remarked noncommittally.

  ‘Of course!’ the Student said scornfully. ‘You can see that I am quite different from that riff-raff, can’t you? My father was a schoolmaster, I got a good education, graduated from the town school. I ran away because I wanted to become something really big. But the Corporal’s was the only gang I could join in this town. Petty thieving and begging, that’s all they do! And the stupid dogs are always taunting me, just because they know I am a better man than they are!’

  ‘I see,’ Judge Dee said.

  ‘You and your mate are different,’ the Student went on wistfully. ‘I dare say you two have slit a few throats! You only told the Corporal you didn’t like murder because you heard the waiter say that the Corporal won’t have killings in this town. Don’t worry about me, I can put two and two together!’

  ‘Is it still far?’ the judge asked.

  ‘Next street. It comes to a dead-end behind the tribunal, where the ruined houses are. Say, did you often torture women when you were still headman?’

  ‘Let’s hurry!’ Judge Dee said curtly.

  ‘I wager they squealed like pigs when you put the hot irons to them! All women go for me, you know, but I have no use for them, the stupid bitches! When they put them on the rack, they also crush their arms in screws, don’t they? Do they scream a lot?’

  The judge gripped the Student’s elbow in a wrestler’s lock. His iron fingers dug deep into the flesh and nerves. The Student yelled frantically until Judge Dee released him.

  ‘You dirty bully!’ the youngster sobbed, supporting his bruised arm with the other.

  ‘You asked a question, didn’t you?’ the judge said affably. ‘Now you have supplied yourself the correct answer!’

  Silently they picked their way among half-ruined, deserted houses. They came out on a wide, open space. A hot grey mist hovered low over a stretch of small trees and thick undergrowth. Farther on loomed the crenellated watch-tower of the north city gate.

  ‘That’s your marsh!’ the Student announced sullenly.

  It was very still. The din of the busy shopping streets farther uptown did not penetrate here. There were only the eery cries of waterfowl.

  Judge Dee followed the slippery footpath that seemed to run round the marsh, peering intently among the low shrubs. Then he halted. He had seen a patch of red, shimmering under the bushes. He quickly went up to it, his boots squelching in the mud. He parted the branches. A dead body was lying there, wrapped from neck to feet in a sumptuous long coat of red brocade with a golden flower pattern.

  Stooping he studied the still face for a moment, looking silently at the regular, handsome features and the curious, completely serene expression of the dead woman. Her extraordinarily long hair, of a strange silken beauty, had been clumsily bound up by means of a coarse cotton band. He put her age at about twenty-five. The earlobes were torn, but only a very few drops of blood were visible. He opened the coat, then quickly closed it again.

  ‘Go down the path and watch!’ he brusquely ordered the Student. ‘Whistle if you see somebody coming!’

  As the young man slunk away, the judge folded the coat back. The woman was completely naked. A dagger had been buried to the hilt under her left breast, and around it was a patch of dried blood. Scrutinizing the hilt, of beautifully chased silver but blackened by age, he decided that it was a valuable antique. The beggar hadn’t recognized it as such, and therefore he hadn’t taken it when he stole the earrings and the bracelets. He felt the breast. It was clammy. Then he lifted one of the arms, and found it was still limp. The woman had been murdered only a few hours before, he thought. The serene face, the clumsily gathered wealth of hair, the naked body and the bare feet pointed to her having been killed while she was in bed and asleep. Then the murderer had hastily bound up the hair, wrapped the body in the coat, and brought it out here. That fitted well with his reasoning.

  He pushed aside the branches overhead and let the moonlight fall on the slim body. He sat back on his haunches, rolled up his sleeves and carefully examined the lower part of the corpse. He had a wide knowledge of medicine, including the special science of the coroner. As he wiped off his hands on the wet grass, his face bore a perplexed expression. The woman had been raped. That upset his entire theory! He stood up and wrapped the body in the red coat again, then dragged it farther under the overhanging branches so that it could not be seen from the path. He walked back.

  The Student was sitting hunched on a large boulder, nursing his elbow. ‘I can hardly move it!’ he muttered.

  ‘You distress me!’ Judge Dee said coldly. ‘Wait here for me. I am going to search those houses over there.’

  ‘Please don’t leave me alone here!’ the youngster whined. ‘They say the ghosts of the people who died here during the fire still haunt this place!’

  ‘That’s bad!’ the judge said. ‘You said just now that their cries amused you. The ghosts will have heard that. But wait, I’ll help you!’ He walked three times round the boulder with measured pace, muttering some weird spells under his breath. ‘You are safe!’ he announced. ‘I learned to make that magic circle from an old itinerant Taoist monk. No ghost can come inside.’

  He left, convinced that the youngster wouldn’t meddle with the dead body while
he was away.

  After he had made his way through the ruins, he came on a row of inhabited houses. On the next street-corner he saw the lighted lampions of the teahouse where he had been sitting that afternoon with Chiao Tai. A short walk brought him to the back door of the tribunal compound. He knocked.

  Chapter 6

  Sooner than he had expected the door opened. The old steward said with evident relief:

  ‘So you did get the message our headman left in the hostel! My master has been waiting up for you, Mr Shen, hoping that you would come.’

  He led the judge straight to Magistrate Teng’s library. They found him dozing in the armchair behind his desk. The light of two large silver candelabra shone on his shrunken face. When the steward had woken him up, he rose quickly and came round the desk to meet the judge. He waited till the steward had left, then exclaimed agitatedly:

  ‘Thank Heaven that you came! I am in an awful predicament, Dee! I badly need your advice. Take a seat, please!’

  When they had sat down at the tea-table, Judge Dee said:

  ‘I presume that it concerns the murder of your wife.’

  ‘How did you know? ‘Magistrate Teng asked aghast.

  ‘I’ll first tell you what I know. Then you’ll explain what happened.’

  Teng raised his teacup with a shaking hand, spilling some tea on the polished table top.

  ‘When I visited you this afternoon’ Judge Dee began, ‘I couldn’t help noticing how ill and perturbed you were. Concerned about you, I later asked Pan Yoo-te what was ailing you, but he said that you had been perfectly all right in the morning. Thus I knew that you must have had a severe shock, just before my arrival. I remembered that when your steward inquired about your wife, you said that during the siesta she had unexpectedly received a summons to go and visit her elder sister. But the steward had said that her bedroom door was locked. That struck me as curious. Why should your wife have locked her bedroom when she left? Surely the maids would have to go there to make the bed and so on? At the same time the steward informed you that an antique vase in your wife’s ante-room had been broken. You took that news very calmly, yet Pan told me afterwards that it was a costly heirloom which you valued highly. Evidently you knew already about that mishap, and more important things than a broken vase were weighing on your mind. Thus I concluded that during the siesta something must have happened in your wife’s bedroom that greatly upset you. Since, however, your household affairs are no concern of mine, I didn’t give those matters further thought.’

  The judge took a sip of his tea. As Magistrate Teng remained silent, he pursued:

  Then fortuitous circumstances placed in my hands some jewellery which a beggar had stolen from the dead body of a woman, said to be lying out in the marsh. Among those jewels was a pair of earrings, silver lotus flowers, in a very elaborate, costly setting of gold and rubies. Since the value of the setting must be twenty or thirty times that of the silver lotus flowers, evidently the motif of the lotus had a special meaning. I feared that they belonged to your wife, whose name is Silver Lotus. Of course I couldn’t be certain that there wasn’t another lady in this town called Silver Lotus, but remembering your agitation and the curious sudden departure of your wife, I suspected that there was a connection.

  ‘Just when I had arrived at that conclusion, your headman came to the hostel asking for me. I assumed you wanted to consult me. But I felt that, before seeing you, I must learn more about the murdered woman. Therefore I hurriedly left the hostel by the back door, and found someone who took me to the marsh. I examined the body. There could be no doubt that she was a gentlewoman, while the fact that she wore no clothes pointed to her having been killed in her bed. The condition of the body confirmed that death had occurred during the siesta hour. Since the marsh is near the tribunal, I concluded that the dead body was indeed that of your wife, killed during the siesta in her bedroom, and after dark deposited in the marsh. This is an unfrequented neighbourhood at night, and in addition your residence has a secret exit to the usually deserted back street, so that the body could be transported with small risk. Am I right?’

  ‘All your deductions are quite correct, Dee,’ the magistrate said slowly. ‘But…’

  Judge Dee raised his hand.

  ‘Before you say anything further I wish to state that no matter what happened here, I’ll do everything I can to help you. But don’t expect me to transgress the law, or to impede the course of justice. Therefore I warn you that if you choose to give an explanation, I’ll have to consider that as evidence, and shall quote it in court if summoned as a witness. It is for you to decide whether we continue this conversation or not.’

  ‘I quite understand’ Magistrate Teng said in a toneless voice. ‘Of course this terrible tragedy must be brought before the Prefect. But you’ll help me greatly by letting me tell you everything, and by advising me as to how to formulate my defence. For it was indeed I who killed my wife.’

  ‘Why?’ Judge Dee asked quietly.

  The magistrate leaned back in his chair. He said wearily: ‘The answer to that question goes back a long way. More than seventy years.’

  ‘I put your age at not more than forty, and that of your wife at twenty-five!’ the judge said astonished.

  Magistrate Teng nodded. He asked:

  ‘Are you by any chance a student of military history, Dee? In that case you may be familiar with the name Teng Kuo-yao.’

  Judge Dee knitted his bushy eyebrows.

  ‘Teng Kuo-yao…’ he said pensively. ‘Let me see now. There was an able general of that name, he earned fame by his bravery in our great campaign in Central Asia. A brilliant future at Court was predicted for him, but he suddenly went into retirement because…’ The judge stopped abruptly and gave his host a startled look. ‘Heaven, was the general your grandfather?’

  Teng nodded slowly.

  ‘He was. And allow me to state in plain terms what you hesitated to pronounce just now. He had to retire early because in a fit of temporary insanity he stabbed his best friend to death. He was acquitted, but had of course to resign.’

  Deep silence reigned in the room. After a while the magistrate resumed:

  ‘My father was a perfectly healthy and normal man. Why should I have assumed that the disease was hereditary? Eight years ago I married Silver Lotus. I don’t think there often are found a man and wife so completely, so unreservedly devoted to each other. If I acquired the reputation of being rather unsociable, it was because no company could be dearer to me than that of my beloved wife. Then one day, now seven years ago, my wife found me lying unconscious on the floor of my bedroom. When I came to I was ill. Strange memories flitted through my fevered brain. After long hesitation, I told my wife the truth. During that fit I had dreamt I savagely murdered a man, and revelled in that gory deed. I told her that a hereditary curse was on me, that she couldn’t go on living with a madman, and that I would do everything to arrange for a speedy divorce.’

  He covered his face with his hands. Judge Dee looked with deep compassion at the stricken man. When the magistrate had mastered his emotion, he went on:

  ‘Silver Lotus resolutely refused. She said she would never leave me, that she would look after me and see to it that nothing untoward happened, should I have other attacks—if I did have them, for she added that nobody could say whether my fit hadn’t been due to other causes. I protested, but when she insisted, saying that she would kill herself if I divorced her, at last I, miserable wretch, gave in.…We had no children yet, and we decided there should be none. We hoped that our literary work together would make us forget that we were compelled to forgo the joy of seeing the fruits of our conjugal love. If I seemed to the outside world a reserved, rather cold man, Dee, I hope you’ll now understand the reason.’

  Judge Dee nodded silently. There was little one could say when confronted with such deep grief. Teng went on:

  ‘Four years ago I had a second attack, two years later a third. The last time I was in a vio
lent rage, and my wife had to force a soporific down my throat to prevent a terrible accident. Her unfailing support was my only consolation. Then, four weeks ago, something happened that robbed me of that consolation also. For thereafter I could no longer share my sorrow with her. The lacquer screen took possession of me.’

  The magistrate paused and pointed at the high, red-lacquered screen behind Judge Dee’s back. He turned and looked. The flickering light of the candles threw weird flashes on its delicately carved surface.

  Magistrate Teng closed his eyes. ‘Rise and observe that screen!’ he said in an even voice. ‘I’ll describe it to you I know it by heart, every square inch of it!’

  The judge got up and walked over to the screen. It consisted of four panels, each bearing a beautifully executed picture, engraved in the red lacquer, and with small fragments of green jade, mother-of-pearl, silver and gold incrusted in its surface. It was a valuable antique; he estimated that it was at least two hundred years old. He remained standing there, listening to the now nearly impersonal voice behind him.

  ‘The four panels of the screen symbolize, as is often the case, the four seasons. The scene on the first panel, on the left, denotes spring. A spring dream of a student, fallen asleep over his reading, on the porch of his house, in the shadow of a pine tree. While his page is preparing the tea, he dreams of four girls. They are all beautiful, but only one has caught his fancy.

  ‘The second panel depicts summer, the season when ambitions ripen. The student has now become a full-grown man. He is travelling to the capital to pass his final examination and become an official. He rides along, followed by his page.

  ‘Then comes autumn, on the third panel. The season of fulfillment. He has passed the final examination, and has been appointed a ranking official. Clad in Court-dress, he passes a house in his chariot, followed by an attendant who carries the large fan indicating his high office. On the balcony he sees the four girls of his dream, and among them the one he hoped to make his bride.’