The Lacquer Screen

III

In the market place, teeming with a noisy crowd, they halted in front of a small eating-house that looked rather inviting. The row of large coloured lanterns hanging from the eaves was inscribed with the grandiloquent name of the restaurant: 'Roost of all Gourmets within the Four Seas'.

'Here we can hardly go wrong!' Judge Dee remarked smiling. He pulled aside the door curtain of clean blue cotton and was greeted by an appetizing smell of frying onions.

They had an excellent meal of rice, roast pork and pickled vegetables. Tasting the heady local wine, they talked about their adventures in the prefectural city, and then exchanged reminiscences about the past year at home, in Peng-lai. When they left the restaurant Judge Dee had lost his preoccupied air, and they strolled back to the hostel in the best of moods. Now and then they halted in a gaily lit shopping street, looking at the local products which were praised by voci­ferous street vendors, or listening in to a particularly acri­monious bout of bargaining.

While they were walking the judge noticed that Chiao Tai had grown rather quiet. 'What is wrong with you?' he asked. 'Doesn't the meal agree with you? '

'We are being followed!' Chiao Tai replied in a low voice.

'Who would follow us?' Judge Dee asked incredulously. 'Did you see them?'

'No, but I have a feeling for these things, and so far it has never failed me. Let's walk on, I'll try a few tricks to find out who is keeping an eye on us.'

He quickened his pace and turned into a less crowded side street As soon as he was around the corner he abruptly halted, pulling the judge with him into a dark porch. They scrutinized the passers-by. But they saw no face they knew, and no one seemed to take the slightest interest in them. They resumed their walk, now choosing dark back streets where only few people were about.

'It's no use,' Chiao Tai said when they were in a narrow alley. 'Whoever is spying on us is an old hand at the game. You'd better return to the hostel, Magistrate. Do you see the group of beggars blocking up the road ahead there, in front of that street stall? When we pass there I'll join them. You just turn that corner quickly. I'll see you in the hostel, and bring those dirty spies along for you!'

Judge Dee nodded. While he was elbowing his way through the group of ragged vagrants in front of the stall, Chiao Tai suddenly vanished from his sight. The judge slipped round the corner and ran through a few winding alleys, in the direction of the street noise ahead. Once in a crowded street again he asked the way to the hostel, and found it without difficulty.

The waiter brought tea and two candles. Judge Dee sat down at the small table. Sipping the hot tea he reflected that it seemed incredible that anyone would take a special interest in their doings. Yet Chiao Tai was rarely wrong in such matters. In his own district of Peng-lai there were of course a few scoundrels who were not very kindly disposed towards him, but even if some of them had the temerity to make an attempt on his life, how could they possibly know that he would break his journey here in Wei-ping? That idea had been formed only during his last day in the Prefecture. Or did a gang in Peng-lai perhaps have an accomplice there? He began to stroke his long beard pensively.

There was a knock on the door and Chiao Tai came in. Wiping the sweat from his brow he said dejectedly:

'Again he slipped through my fingers! You know who it is? None other than that ugly one-eyed bastard who came to see us this afternoon! I saw him slink past, looking left and right as if searching for someone. I was in the front row of those beggars, drinking a cup of the dregs that street stall sells, and while I was pushing the fellows aside to get at him, he spotted me and off he went like a hare! I ran after him, but he was nowhere to be seen!'

'He's a slippery customer,' the judge said. 'I wonder what he is up to. Have you by any chance seen the fellow before, either in Peng-lai or in the Prefecture?'

Chiao Tai shook his head. As the judge motioned him to be seated also he replied:

'If I had ever seen that ugly snout I would certainly remember it! But don't worry, now I know whom to look for. He'll certainly try to follow us again when we go out, and then I'll get him. By the way, your colleague Teng here has another worry coming, Magistrate! A murdered woman!'

'What is that?' the judge asked astonished. 'Did you see it happen?'

'No,' Chiao Tai said, 'but it's murder all right! As yet known only to an old beggar and me!'

'Out with it!' Judge Dee ordered curtly. 'What hap­pened? We'll have to report immediately to Teng.'

'We might be doing him a good turn,' Chiao Tai agreed. He poured himself a cup of tea, then began: 'It was like this. After that thin scoundrel had disappeared, I went back to the street stall to pay my coppers. As I turn to go, a dirty old beggar sidles up to me and asks whether he's right in assuming that I am a stranger in town. When I say yes and what is it to you, he pulls me aside and asks whether I'd be interested in buying some fine jewellery extra cheap. I think I may as well see what it's all about, so I let him take me to the porch of a quack doctor round the corner. Under the door-lampion he shows me a pair of beautiful earrings and two golden bracelets, and says I can have them then and there for one silver piece. I know of course that the old geezer has filched the trinkets, and I am debating with myself whether I'll take him here first, or straight to the tribunal. He thinks I am hesitating because I am afraid to buy the stuff, and he says, " Don't worry, there won't be any trouble. I took them from a dead woman lying in the marsh near the north gate. I am the only one who knows about it." I tell him to come across with the whole story, and he says he has a lair in the shrubs on the edge of the marsh, where he sleeps sometimes. He went there tonight and came upon the dead body of a youngish woman, dressed in a fine brocade coat, half-hidden under the shrubbery. The hilt of a dagger was sticking from her breast, and she was quite dead. He felt in the sleeves but there was no money, so he tore off her ear­rings, took the bracelets, and ran off. That place is quite deserted at night, there was nobody about. Now, as a regular member of the beggars' guild, he's supposed to give every­thing he finds or steals to the boss of the underworld here, a ruffian called The Corporal, who then gives him a share. The old rascal says he thought it a pity to let go of such nice loot, therefore he was looking for a stranger who'd buy it, without the risk of him being betrayed to The Corporal—for whom he has an unholy fear.'

'Where is this beggar? ' Judge Dee asked. 'Don't tell me that he slipped through your fingers too !'

Chiao Tai scratched his head. 'No,' he replied with an embarrassed air, 'he didn't. But the fact is that the fellow looked half-starved. He really was a rather pathetic old wreck. I questioned him up and down, and I am absolutely certain that he has nothing to do with that murder. I examined the earrings, and found some dried blood on them, so he didn't lie about taking them from a corpse. I know what'll happen to him if we take the poor wretch to the tribunal! The con­stables'll beat him up, and if and when they let him go that Corporal'll cut him to ribbons for not having brought the loot to him. I know the gentle manners of his sort! So I dig out a string of coppers, give them to him and tell him to run along. I thought that when we go to report this to your col­league in the tribunal, you might say that the beggar we got the baubles from ran away.'

Judge Dee gave his lieutenant a thoughtful look.

'It's very irregular, of course,' he said after a while, 'but I can see your point. An old beggar has no chance to get inside a gentlewoman's mansion, and when she is going out she rides in a litter and is well attended. And the beggar must have spoken the truth also when he said there was no one about, else he wouldn't have dared to rob the body. The woman was evidently murdered somewhere else, and her dead body deposited in the marsh. No, I don't think that in this case you did much harm. But don't let your good heart get the better of you too often, Chiao Tai! We'll now go straight to the tribunal; Magistrate Teng must initiate the investiga­tion without delay.' Rising he added: 'Let me have a look at those things!'

Chiao Tai reached into his sleeve and laid two earrings and two glittering bracelets on the table. Judge Dee gave them a casual look. 'Good workmanship!' he commented. He was about to turn to the door when he suddenly checked himself. He stooped, pulled the candle closer, and scrutinized the jewels intently. Each earring consisted of a small lotus flower, moulded in silver, in an elaborate gold-filigree setting, studded with six rubies, small but of excellent quality. The bracelets were of solid gold and had the shape of snakes. The eyes were large green emeralds that glowed in the candle light with a malicious glare. Judge Dee righted himself. He remained standing there staring at the jewels, slowly pulling at his moustache.

After a while Chiao Tai asked anxiously:

'Well, don't you think we'd better be on our way?'

The judge took the jewels up and put them in his sleeve. Looking at Chiao he said gravely:

'I think we had better not report this to Magistrate Teng, Chiao Tai. Not just yet.'

Chiao Tai shot him an astonished look. But just as he was about to ask what the judge meant, the door opened and the thin man came rushing inside. He said excitedly:

'They have caught up with you! And even sooner than I thought! You were crazy to visit the tribunal! The head­man is in front, asking what room you have. But don't worry, I'll help you escape. Follow me!'

Chiao Tai was about to make an angry retort, but the judge raised his hand. He hesitated just a moment, then said to the ugly man: 'Lead the way!'

He took them outside and quickly dragged them into a narrow corridor. He seemed to be entirely familiar with the hostel's layout. He led them into a pitch-dark, smelly passage, then opened a ramshackle door. They found themselves in a dark alleyway. Their guide picked his way among heaps of refuse. The smell of frying fat indicated that they were some­where behind the hostel's kitchen. Farther along the thief entered another door. It proved to be the back entrance of the large winehouse next door. He elbowed his way through the noisy crowd of customers to the front door, then took them through a maze of streets and alleys, some going up, others down, now to the right, then to the left. Soon the judge had lost all sense of direction.

Then the thief halted, so suddenly that Judge Dee collided with him. They stood at the entrance of a dismal back street.

He pointed at the only lighted window at the opposite end of the street and said:

'That's the Phoenix Inn. You'll be perfectly safe there. Tell the Corporal that Kun-shan sent you. You'll see me later.' He turned round, skilfully slipped past Chiao Tai, who tried to grab him, and disappeared into the darkness.