A Deadly Injustice

TWENTY-FOUR

An ant may well destroy a whole dam.

As Lin and I rode along the grey, stony track that led to the low building that was Pianfu’s prison, we discussed the interview with Taitemir. It had left me with an uneasy feeling.

‘Did you get the impression the governor was relieved we had found a culprit for the murder of Geng?’

Lin tried to be noncommittal, but he knew what I was intimating.

‘You think we should still consider him a possible suspect because of his reaction to our identifying Wenbo as the killer? Are you backing away from that position?’

‘No, no. Wenbo did kill his father. But think what Taitemir said about that dirty bomb. It is to be loaded with aconite. He has mountains of the very poison that killed Geng lying around outside his tent. The agent of the killing could still be Wenbo. The prime mover might have been Taitemir.’

‘Because he owed Geng money? He didn’t care about being indebted to him, Nick. It is a normal state for a Mongol governor to use his position to obtain goods for free.’

I groaned in frustration.

‘You are right. But you know how Kubilai is cracking down on corruption and building up his bureaucracy. Even the governor in a remote region such as Taitemir might feel he has to clean out his stables before more government officials arrive. Especially with Kubilai’s war-machine shedding light on the governor’s activities. The quiet disposal of a nuisance might have been a better option than the summary one of a slit throat.’

Lin remained unconvinced, but I was prepared to store my misgivings away for another day. Besides, as we approached the prison, I could see signs of unusual behaviour. It was still early morning, but the bulky figure of the prefect, dressed in his blue silk robe, was in evidence already. He was stomping around the compound in front of the cell block, waving an elegant bamboo cane at the cowering gaoler. The door to Wenbo’s cell stood half open, the interior dark and ominous. I murmured to the already shaken Lin Chu-Tsai.

‘I will go ahead and see what has happened. If they have let Wenbo slip through their hands, either deliberately or accidentally, then heads will roll.’

The mood I was in, I meant what I said quite literally. The executioner’s blade had been denied Jianxu – it could be slaked on Li’s blood for all I cared. I spurred my horse up the track towards the two men, who were still squabbling and had not seen my approach. I dismounted and called out.

‘What is going on here?’

Both Li and the gaoler turned to face me, startled by my sudden appearance. The gaoler cowered before the demon, and even Li looked crushed. He could not look me in the eye, and poked at the ground with his silver-topped cane.

‘There is a problem, Master Investigator.’

I was angry, and prodded the prefect in his soft breasts.

‘I hope Wenbo has not escaped, or worse still been deliberately released by you. I have to see him today.’

Li’s face was ashen.

‘Geng Wenbo is still in his cell, and you can see him. But it is going to be impossible to get a confession out of him.’

By this time, Lin, at his horse’s more sedate pace, had caught me up.

‘And why is that, Master Li? Are you denying us access to our suspect? The Great Khan himself will hear of this.’

Li blustered as Lin got off his mount.

‘No, you don’t understand me.’ He sighed, his whole fat face collapsing over the stiff collar of his gown. He waved his cane at the gaoler.

‘Show them what you found this morning.’

We followed the bandy-legged gaoler into Wenbo’s cell, and at first I thought it was empty. I could see no sign of the boy. I called out to Li.

‘Is this some sort of trick?’

In a quavering voice, he replied.

‘Look behind the door.’

Both Lin and I peered into the darkness immediately behind the half-open cell door. We gasped simultaneously. Wenbo was pinioned halfway up the door his legs folded under him. His head stuck out at an awkward angle and his face was red and bloated. My immediate reaction was that somehow Geng Wenbo had hanged himself from the bars of the cell door grille. Looking more closely, my suspicion was confirmed. I could see a thin cord embedded in his neck, which must have originally been used as a belt around his waist. From his neck, a loop of it went around one of the bars in the grille. Lin spoke in wonderment, and with not a little suspicion.

‘Is it really possible to kill yourself by hanging when your feet can still touch the ground? He is practically kneeling.’

I nodded my head.

‘I have heard that it is so. If you are determined to die and can tie a noose that will not slacken when you black out, then it is perfectly feasible. What we need to ask ourselves is whether this boy had that determination. He would only need enough desire to do it to carry him off into unconsciousness. After that, his own weight would ensure there was no return.’

Lin suddenly tipped his head to one side.

‘Listen. Can you hear something?’

I cocked my head, and concentrated on the sounds coming from the cell block. Li made as if to speak, but I held my hand up. There was no sound of birds in this desolate spot, but then I heard it. A soft mewling sound like the faint squeak of newborn kittens, followed by a scratching. I stepped out of the cell, trying to follow the sound. I realized it came from the cell next to Wenbo’s. As I stepped up to the door, the sound ceased, as though the kitten was aware of danger and was holding its breath. Silently, I tipped my thumb at the door, and raised an eyebrow, questioning what might be in there. Li hissed under his breath.

‘It’s the doctor. I had forgotten about him.’

Lin emerged from the death cell and offered a suggestion.

‘Then I propose that you open the door and see if he is alive or dead too.’

At the wave of Li’s pudgy hand, the gaoler rushed forward and thrust a key in the lock of the door. As he turned it, we all heard a scuttling sound like rats skittering through old straw to find a dark corner to hide in. The gaoler swung the door inwards, and poked his lamp into the darkness. A creature cowering in the farthest corner held up a claw of a hand over his face against the unwelcome intrusion.

‘Aiii, don’t kill me, demon.’

Something had terrified Doctor Sun out of his wits.

Gurbesu had risen early that morning, aroused by the fuss caused by the arrival of Taitemir’s messenger. She knew Lin and I would go straight to our interrogation of Geng Wenbo afterwards, and was glad of the time alone that our tasks gave her. She wanted to talk some more to Jianxu about her life, having the, in my opinion, forlorn hope that she could bring the young woman out of herself. It irritated Gurbesu more than a little that Jianxu had been no more than a slave all her life. First her father had sold her into slavery, and then she bowed down to her husband, and then when he died to her mother-in-law. I thought she was mad to try and change one girl who merely stood as an example of the fate of most women in Cathay. It would be like trying to push back the acqua alta in Venice with a broom. Raging high tides came and inundated the city whether we Venetians liked it or not. It was a force of nature. And so were the Three Duties and the Four Virtues in Cathay.

Gurbesu had dressed and sat combing her shiny black locks, while pondering how she would approach her task. Finally, she could put it off no longer. She got up and walked out into the central courtyard of their lodgings. Predictably, Jianxu was already awake and dressed. But, surprisingly, she wasn’t bustling about carrying out tasks as Gurbesu had imagined she might. The young woman sat on a stone bench in the middle of the yard, apparently contemplating the outside world as it passed the open doors of the house. A fruit-seller hurried by with a bucket full of prickly oval fruit clutched in each hand. Then a sedan chair went by, its two bearers transporting a pretty white-faced woman somewhere. Gurbesu could see a look of strain and tiredness on the woman’s face as she glanced into the courtyard. She was probably returning to her lodgings after a night entertaining a rich Chinee client. Gurbesu heard a sigh, only after a moment realizing it was not the white-faced entertainer, but Jianxu who had made the sound. Jianxu turned to her, and spoke sadly.

‘We are all slaves to men, are we not?’

Her attractive oval face and almond eyes had for the first time some animation in them. Gurbesu even thought she saw a small tear running down her peach-like cheek. She smiled in relief. Perhaps the girl was not as cowed as she had imagined.

Sun refused to come out of the corner of his cell where he had first cowered when I entered. So I sat on the floor next to him. Lin circumspectly retired from the cell, so as not to cause the doctor any more anxiety. He hustled the prefect away, too. For a long time, Sun and I sat side by side in silence, staring out of the open door. Finally he plucked up the courage to speak.

‘Will you close the door, demon? I will feel safer.’

I rose and pushed the door closed, glancing through the grille at a quizzical Lin, who stood patiently outside. I shook my head gently and he nodded in understanding. Lin was the most patient man I had ever encountered. He would wait all day if necessary to see what troubled Doctor Sun. As the sun reached the highest point in the sky, a few rays filtered through the grille of the door, chasing away some of the gloom of the cell. This is what Jianxu would have experienced every day for weeks, perhaps imagining that that particular day’s sun would be the last she would see. The doctor began to weep.

‘I heard the Devil last night. It took Wenbo, and I was afraid it would come for me next. And I have sins on my soul.’

I did not tell him that Wenbo had killed himself. I was far more interested in his sins. Without Wenbo’s own confession, I would need a statement from Sun, if Lin and I were to overturn the verdict on Jianxu.

‘Tell me the sins that burden you.’

A random ray of sunlight cut across his face, illuminating his fearful, staring eyes.

‘I planned with Old Geng to murder Madam Gao. And I would have done it, too.’

His words jolted through me as if I had been standing on the deck of a ship struck by lightning. I recalled the old woman saying she had been rescued by Geng from an attacker. Was this the incident that Sun was referring to? But if it was, why did he say that Geng was in on the plot?

‘You mean you planned it, and Geng stopped you?’

Sun suddenly became agitated, beating the packed earth floor of the cell. I saw Lin’s face appear briefly at the grille then disappear once he assured himself I was safe. Sun was adamant.

‘No, no, no. Old Geng and I both owed Gao a great deal of money. It was his suggestion that we sneak round to her house together. He said we were going to catch her on her own, and do away with the old bitch. But just as we were about to rush into her office, Geng said he had heard the girl – Jianxu – and he would check on her first. I entered Gao’s inner office on my own and grabbed her by the neck. She was screeching like some old cat but I just kept squeezing. The next thing I knew, Geng was in the room acting like some avenging angel. He pulled me off her and hit me in the stomach. I realized I had been betrayed – that Geng had planned it this way from the start – and I ran out of her house. After that, I knew I couldn’t show my face in Pianfu again and began to practice in the hill villages.’

All the facts were beginning to fit together nicely now, but I still needed something more.

‘But you did come back. You sold Old Geng’s son aconite in order that he might kill his father.’

Sun nodded.

‘The boy knew what I had tried to do to Madam Gao. The old bitch must have told him or the girl, I am not sure. One day, in the village where you found me, I got a message. It simply said, “I know about you and Gao. If you would like to revenge yourself, come to the Geng household in disguise. Bring poison. If you don’t come, remember that I know how to find you.”’

He stared at me with horror in his eyes.

‘Save me from the Devil. Don’t leave me in the dark on my own.’