The Lacquer Screen

by Robert Van Gulik

  After the frightened maid had scurried away, Judge Dee looked gravely at Pan and said: ‘A devilish scheme!’

  ‘Yes, sir! ‘Pan replied. His dazed look showed that he had not the faintest idea what the judge was talking about. However, Judge Dee did not notice that. He was staring at the floor, slowly stroking his beard.

  When the maid came back the judge went down on his knees and, with the kitchen knife, prised loose two slabs. The earth underneath was moist. He took the shovel and removed other slabs, piling them up by his side. He found six loose slabs, which together formed a rectangle of about five by three feet. Judge Dee rolled back his long sleeves, then began to shovel the loose earth away.

  ‘You can’t do such work, sir!’ old Pan shouted aghast. ‘Let me call a few servants!’

  ‘Shut up!’ snapped the judge. His shovel had struck something soft. As he went on, he noticed a nauseating smell coming up out of the hole. A piece of red leather became visible.

  ‘There we have our missing clothes-box, Pan!’ he exclaimed. He turned to the maid, who was squatting by the side of her mistress, trying to revive her. He shouted at her: ‘Run to the gate! Tell the doorkeeper that Counsellor Pan orders him to go immediately to the tribunal and tell them that the counsellor wants the headman to come here right away with four constables and the matron of the jail. And, on your way back here, bring me a bundle of burning incense-sticks from the house altar! Get going!’

  Judge Dee wiped the perspiration from his forehead. Pan had been looking unhappily at the prone figure of Mrs Ko. Now he asked diffidently:

  ‘Shouldn’t we make her more comfortable, sir? She—’

  ‘No,’ the judge said curtly. ‘The cool floor is the best means of making her come to again. She knew very well that the corpse of her husband was buried under the floor here. She is the accomplice of a murderer.’

  ‘But her husband jumped or fell into the river, sir. I myself saw him!’

  ‘His body was never found, was it? I tell you that Ko Chih-yuan was murdered here in this room, when he came to take his medicine.’

  ‘Who came rushing out of the house, then?’

  ‘The murderer!’ Judge Dee replied. Leaning with his arms on the shovel, he went on: ‘It was a very clever scheme. When the murderer had buried Ko under the floor here, he put on Ko’s robe and cap, and smeared his face with blood. Then he rushed out on the terrace and into the garden. All of you expected Ko to come out of the bedroom, and you saw the familiar robe and cap, and were alarmed by his shouting and the blood on his face. No wonder none of you realized it wasn’t Ko. He first made for the pavilion, but he took good care not to come too near. Halfway he changed his direction, ran to the river-bank and jumped into the water. I suppose he let himself drift downstream till he saw a deserted spot on the bank, and climbed out. He threw the cap into the river, as a false clue.’

  Pan nodded slowly.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘now I understand! But who could have been that man? Perhaps Kunshan?’

  ‘Kunshan is indeed our most likely suspect,’ Judge Dee replied. ‘He must have stolen the banker’s notebook after he had killed Ko. Kunshan doesn’t look very strong, but maybe he is a good swimmer.’

  ‘He probably got that blood on his face by a self-inflicted wound,’ Pan remarked.

  ‘Or used Ko’s blood. Here’s the maid. Now we’ll verify how Ko was killed. Take that burning incense from her, will you, and hold it close to my face!’

  As Pan did so, the judge pulled up his neckcloth over his mouth and nose, and began shovelling the earth away from the lid of the red box. When the upper part of the box was free he knelt and ripped off the strip of oil-plaster that was pasted around the four sides of the lid. He righted himself and lifted the lid with the point of the shovel.

  A foul smell came up. Pan quickly covered his nose with his sleeve and waved the incense so that they were enveloped in its blue cloud. The body of a frail man, clad only in an undergarment, was lying doubled up in the box. The grey head was bare, and the hilt of a knife protruded from under his left shoulder-blade. The judge turned the head a little with the point of the shovel, so that part of the wrinkled face became visible.

  ‘Is it Ko Chih-yuan?’ he asked.

  When Pan nodded, his face contorted in speechless horror, the judge closed the box. He threw the shovel on the floor, then went over to the window and pushed it wide open. He set his cap right and wiped the sweat from his face.

  ‘When your men get here,’ he said to Pan, ‘let them dig out the clothes-box and bring it to the tribunal as it is, with the corpse inside. Also order a closed palankeen. The matron will sit inside with Mrs Ko, and convey her to the tribunal to be locked up in a cell. Report everything to Magistrate Teng, and tell him that I am on my way to try to find and apprehend Kunshan. If he isn’t the murderer, he can at any rate give us valuable information. The magistrate had been planning to leave tomorrow morning for the Prefecture on urgent business, but after these new developments I think he’d better hear Mrs Ko first, during the morning session. If I succeed in catching Kunshan, I trust we’ll be able to close this case during that session, and then proceed to Pien-foo. I’ll be off now. When you are back at the tribunal you’d better draw up a report concerning our discovery of the body. Tomorrow I’ll sign it, as a witness.’

  He took leave of Pan Yoo-te and told the maid to conduct him to the gate.

  In the street it was still hot, but he thought that anything was better than the foul atmosphere in the room he had just left. A strenuous uphill walk took him to the centre of the town. He felt hot and tired when he entered the alley of the Phoenix Inn.

  Sounds of singing and laughter were coming through the window. The judge was pleased that everyone was still up and about, for now he could ask them for more information about Kunshan. The waiter opened the door, looking more sour than ever. Apparently he had a dislike for late hours.

  Chapter 14

  The taproom was lighted by half a dozen smoking candles; it presented a lively scene. Gambling was in full swing, the foursome had been reinforced by Chiao Tai and the Student, who lustily joined in the rhyming chorus when a particularly good combination was thrown. The Corporal sat in the rattan chair with Carnation on his knee, one arm round her waist and the other beating the time of the ribald song she was singing. When he saw the judge, he shouted:

  ‘Hey thief-catcher, did you catch your man?’

  ‘I didn’t find the fellow, let alone catch him!’ Judge Dee said sourly.

  ‘The wench here says you caught her all right, though!’ the Corporal said with a broad grin. ‘From now on we shall call each other cousin, hey? All the same family!’ He pushed the girl from his lap and got up. Slapping her behind he shouted: ‘Now you’ll show me what new tricks the beard taught you!’

  They went laughing to the stairs.

  Judge Dee sat down at the table near the window. Chiao Tai had risen and fetched two wine beakers from the counter. As he seated himself the judge asked eagerly:

  ‘Did Kunshan turn up?’

  ‘Hasn’t been near here!’ Chiao Tai replied.

  Judge Dee set his beaker down hard on the table. He said peevishly:

  ‘I should have followed your advice! I made a bad mistake letting that fellow go! I can’t understand why he hasn’t turned up. He is clever enough, he must realize that, now that the tribunal has arrested Leng, they may issue a proclamation that all his possessions’ll be confiscated, and that the gold shop then won’t honour the drafts any more.’ He called over to the gamblers: ‘Hey there, do any of you know where I can find Kunshan?’

  The bald man looked round and shook his head.

  ‘I don’t think he has a fixed place to stay, brother, and if he has we never heard of it. He sleeps curled up under a stone, together with the other worms, I suppose!’

  The gamblers guffawed.

  ‘Has the scoundrel done more dirty things?’ Chiao Tai asked.

  ‘Perhaps a murder,
’ Judge Dee replied. Then he told Chiao Tai in a low voice what had happened at the Ko residence.

  By the time he had finished, the four gamblers had settled accounts and were drifting towards the staircase. The Student went out. The waiter came up to Judge Dee’s table and asked whether they would be needing him. When they said no, he disappeared behind the counter.

  ‘Does that fellow sleep there?’ Judge Dee asked, astonished.

  ‘Certainly!’ Chiao Tai said with a grin. ‘He just fits into the second shelf. As regards Kunshan now, much to my regret I must say that he couldn’t have murdered old Ko, because he never could have managed that dive into the river. I’ve seen it. The current is very swift, jagged rocks stick out of the water everywhere, and there are plenty of nasty whirlpools. The man who dives into it, swims downstream and then comes out alive must not only know the river as well as the palm of his hand and have superior skill in swimming, but he must also have considerable strength and power of endurance. No, Magistrate, you can take my word for it—Kunshan could never have done that.’

  ‘In that case,’ Judge Dee said, ‘Kunshan must have had an accomplice who jumped into the river. The scheme of the faked suicide itself bears the hallmark of Kunshan’s evil, tortuous mind. And, since he stole Leng Chien’s notebook, he must have been there when the murder was committed. Tomorrow I’ll tell Pan Yoo-te to send his best men out to arrest the scoundrel. He won’t have left the city, not without the money or without trying to do us some dirty trick!’

  ‘Talking about an accomplice,’ Chiao Tai said slowly, ‘when I visited Mrs Ko she told me that she had been expecting someone else, but that he hadn’t turned up. Since I thought she was a courtesan, I took it that she referred to another customer. But it was probably her lover, and that man might be Kunshan’s helper! Heaven, that reminds me! She also said that she would be leaving town shortly!’

  ‘She won’t!’ the judge remarked dryly. ‘I had her put in jail, for she showed clearly that she knew about the murder. Tomorrow I’ll ask Magistrate Teng to appoint me his temporary Assessor, so that I can take part in the questioning of Mrs Ko. Then, when the session is over, I shall accompany Teng on a trip to Pien-foo.’ He told Chiao Tai about the two visits of the painter and his paramour to the house of assignation, about the mysterious person who had spied on them, and about his final conclusion that the woman had not been Mrs Teng at all. ‘Therefore,’ he said, ‘I am glad that I made good progress with Ko Chih-yuan’s case, I feel I owe that to the magistrate. Well, what did you find out this afternoon?’

  ‘My job was easy. I left here after I had my little nap. That unpleasant youngster, the Student, insisted on accompanying me part of the way. He told me, very confidentially, about some big coup he is planning, all by himself, and which would net him two hundred gold pieces!’

  ‘Not in two hundred years!’ Judge Dee said. ‘On our way to the marsh he dished out a similar tale to me. What did they say at headquarters about our kind host?’

  ‘As usual,’ Chiao Tai replied with a grin, ‘I had to run around a bit before I found the right man. The officer in charge of personnel said that the files on deserters were with the military police, and the military police said that personnel had them. At last a clever sergeant took me apart and warned me that if I were going to wait for that file I’d have to wait till my hair had turned grey. But he knew that Captain Mao of the military police had served in the Third Wing of the Western Army too, and he thought that he might remember the case. Well, this Captain Mao is a nephew of Colonel Mao, of the fort in Penglai. He has the fiercest moustache I’ve ever seen in my life, but he proved to be a very likeable fellow notwithstanding, and he remembered our Corporal quite well. Mao said he had been an excellent soldier, several times commended for bravery in battle, and worshipped by his men. Thereafter, however, there came a new commanding officer, a certain Captain Woo, a crook who kept part of the soldiers’ pay for himself. When a soldier protested, Woo ordered the Corporal to give him hundred lashes with the bowstring. The Corporal refused, and when Woo started beating him, the Corporal, he knocked Woo down. Since beating an officer is, of course, a capital offence, the Corporal took to his heels. Later it was discovered that Woo had accepted bribes from a secret agent of the barbarians, and he was beheaded. Captain Mao told me that if our Corporal had managed to stay out of mischief after his desertion, they would in this special case make an exception and forget about his offence. The army now needs good men like him, and if the magistrate recommends him, he’ll be re-enlisted and promoted to sergeant. That’s all.’

  ‘I am glad to hear that’ Judge Dee said. ‘The Corporal is a rough-and-ready rascal, but he has his heart in the right place. I’ll see what I can do for him. Now, what about that soothsayer?’

  ‘There can’t be the slightest doubt that he is genuine. He’s a dignified old man, very serious about his work. He had known Ko Chih-yuan for a long time, and liked him. He said old Ko was a bit nervous and fussy about small things, but a good and kind man, always ready to help others. I described Kunshan to him, but he had never seen him. Then I asked the old gentleman to have a squint at my future too! He looked at my hand and said I would die by the sword. I told him that nothing would suit me better! But he didn’t like that, for, as I said already, he’s dead serious about his forecasts.’

  ‘Well, that settles that!’ the judge said. ‘I reckoned with the possibility that someone who wished to harm Ko had bribed the soothsayer to indicate the fifteenth as a dangerous day, so as to be able to lay his plans beforehand. Now we’d better be off to bed, for we’ll have to be at the tribunal early. This is our last night here in the Phoenix Inn, Chiao Tai. Tomorrow I’ll have to give up my incognito. We’ll stay in the guest quarters of the tribunal for the rest of my leave. ‘

  Chiao Tai took the candle, and they went upstairs.

  They found their small bedroom even hotter and closer than the night before. Judge Dee would have opened the window, but the myriad tiny thuds resounding from outside against the dirty oil-paper reminded him that clouds of winged insects were waiting for the assault. With a sigh he lay down on the hard couch, pulling his robe close so as to be protected somewhat against the other hordes that presently would come crawling from the crevices among the planks. Chiao Tai again stretched himself out on the floor, his head close to the door.

  Judge Dee turned and tossed on the plank-bed, but sleep would not come. Soon he found that the air had become suffocating. Since, now that he had doused the candle, there seemed to be fewer flying insects attacking the window, he decided to open it. But he pulled and pushed in vain; it had become stuck in its frame. He took the hair-needle out of his top-knot, and, with its sharp point, cut the oil-paper from the square window panes. A slight breeze came in, together with the cool rays of the moon, and he felt somewhat relieved. He again lay down on the plank-bed, and put his neckcloth over his face to protect himself against the mosquitoes. After a while his fatigue asserted itself, and he fell asleep.

  Except for the rhythmic snoring, the Phoenix Inn was still.

  Chapter 15

  Chiao Tai woke up with a start. There was a strange, pungent smell in his nose. The year of city life as Judge Dee’s assistant had not yet dulled the alertness of his senses, acquired during the years he had lived in the ‘green woods’. He sneezed, and immediately thought of a fire, and of the fact that the inn consisted of boards. He jumped up, grabbed Judge Dee’s foot and threw himself against the door, all in one and the same moment. The door burst open and he tumbled into the narrow passage outside, dragging the judge with him. He collided in the dark with a queer, slippery shape. He grabbed at it but missed. There was the sound of someone falling down the staircase. Something clattered on the wooden stairs, then there came suppressed groans from down below. Chiao Tai began to cough. He shouted:

  ‘Get up! There’s a fire!’ And, to the judge: ‘Downstairs, quick!’

  Bedlam followed. While cursing, half-naked men came crowding into
the passage, Chiao Tai and the judge let themselves slide down the stairs. Below, Chiao Tai stumbled over a human body, scrambled up again, ran to the door and kicked it wide open. He took a deep breath, then he went coughing and sneezing to the counter, groped for a tinder-box and lit a candle. Judge Dee rushed outside into the street too. He was dizzy and nauseated, but after he had sneezed a couple of times he felt better. He looked up at the second storey, but all was dark there. The place was not on fire, but he thought he knew what had happened. When he went inside again the waiter had emerged with tousled head from behind the counter and was lighting more candles.

  Their light shone on a weird scene. The Corporal, stark naked and looking like a huge, hairy ape, stood with the bald man over a queer, whimpering figure, sitting on the floor and nursing its left leg. Its naked body was glistening with oil The three gamblers, scantily dressed, were looking dazedly at each other with watering eyes. Carnation, clutching a small loin cloth round her naked body, stared with horrified eyes at the groaning man on the floor. Judge Dee, who, with Chiao Tai, was the only person fully dressed, stooped and picked up a bamboo blowpipe about two feet long, which had a small gourd attached to its end. He hurriedly examined it, then he barked at Kunshan:

  ‘What poison did you blow into our room?’

  ‘It was no poison, only a sleeping drug!’ Kunshan whined. ‘It was nothing, I didn’t want to hurt any of you! I have broken my ankle!’

  The Corporal gave him a vicious kick in the ribs.

  ‘I’ll break every bone in your body!’ he growled. ‘What do you mean by sneaking in here, you son of a dog?’

  ‘He wanted to rob me,’ Judge Dee said. He looked at Chiao Tai, who was searching a pile of clothes that lay next to the door. ‘You can close the door,’ he called out to him, ‘the particles of powder this rascal blew into the room have dispersed by now’ And, to the Corporal: ‘Look, the bastard undressed down here and oiled his body so that he could wriggle out of the hands of anyone trying to catch him. He planned to flee after he had stolen what he could!’