A Deadly Injustice

TWENTY-TWO

Rotten wood cannot be carved.

Matters progressed swiftly once we had arrested Geng Wenbo. The only hitch came when I dragged him out into the courtyard to face the prefect. A voice screeched out from the other side of the yard, wanting to know what was happening. We had forgotten Madam Gao, and she flew out of her quarters like a harpie, her outer robe pulled roughly around her night attire for modesty’s sake.

‘Who are you? What right do you have coming into the house of law-abiding citizens, and making such a bother?’

Her eyesight was poor or she would have recognized Lin and me straight away. It was Li who stepped in and quietened her down.

‘Madam, calm yourself. It is I, the prefect, who stand before you. We met before under trying circumstances, you may recall.’

I thought that they were very trying for the old lady. Li had been on the verge of torturing her by beating the soles of her feet with a cane in order to extract information about Geng’s death. Well, we had solved the case without such unnecessary violence. Thank the Lord that Jianxu had risked her own life to stop the bastinado being imposed on Gao.

The old lady stalked up to Li and peered closely at him. Finally realizing who he was, she tidied her dishevelled grey hair and pulled her robe closer around her skinny frame. I almost saw her simper at the sight of such authority. Perhaps I was mistaken though, because suddenly her gaze was fixed on the boy. She pointed a claw-like finger at him.

‘What has the boy done now? It must be something serious to bring the prefect and this foreign demon out in the middle of the night.’

Li gazed uncertainly at Lin and me, unsure whether he was in control here or not. Finally, he spoke up.

‘Madam, this boy has been accused by these people of the murder of Geng Biao. It remains to be proven if this is the case. But he must be taken in for investigation.’

Wenbo howled at the thought of the torture that awaited him. But the old lady’s eyes simply gleamed with pleasure. She cared nothing for the person who could have been her son-in-law in other circumstances. Another thought occurred to her, though.

‘Does that mean the girl will be released?’

Li was about to speak, but I did not give him a chance to prevaricate.

‘She will be freed this very night. As soon as we can deliver Geng Wenbo to the same jail.’

I could see that Li wanted to disagree, but he knew the consequences if he did not now cooperate with us. He merely growled, and stalked off across the courtyard. We all followed, with Wenbo firmly held in my grip. The old lady called after us.

‘Good. Send the girl back as soon as you can. I have need of her services around the house. There is much tidying up to do.’

As we marched up the road that led to the jail, Gurbesu shook her head in astonishment.

‘Did you hear what that old witch said? Jianxu, who protected her from Li’s bastinado by falsely confessing, and who was near to being executed, is to be freed. And all she can think about is, good, my slave and chattel is coming back.’

‘Yes, those are old-fashioned values for you. Always thinking about duty.’

Gurbesu snorted.

‘Of the woman, not the man.’

‘I am not so sure, though I know what you are getting at. Look at Wenbo, on the other hand.’

The boy was walking along ahead of us now and at the heels of Lin and the prefect. I had released him from my grip, and fallen back to talk to Gurbesu. With all his hopes of escape gone, he should have been subdued. But he almost seemed exultant, as though with all the subterfuge shed away, he had achieved his goal.

‘He should be afraid, and he was when I grabbed him. But now he looks as though he is the happiest person in the world.’

‘Of course he’s happy. He has secured Jianxu’s freedom.’

‘At the cost of his own life.’

‘I am not sure he realizes that yet. He is naive enough to think that if Jianxu can escape the executioner, then so can he.’

‘Hmmm.’ I was still puzzled. ‘Maybe he did what he did to win her over in the first place, thinking he was doing what she wanted.’

Gurbesu put a hand on my arm.

‘You are not going to let Li torture him, are you? If we can get a full confession, there is no need to do the poor boy any more harm, is there?’

‘That poor boy poisoned his father’s soup and murdered P’ing-Yang Nu in cold blood in order to hide his guilt. But no, we don’t need to hurt him any further. Just so long as he confesses.’

By now, we had almost reached the cell block where the girl had been incarcerated for so long. Unable to contain himself, Wenbo rushed ahead of us all, shouting for Jianxu to come and see.

‘Jianxu, look! I have saved you. They have arrested me for the murder of my father, and you will be freed.’

He fell to his knees before her cell, his arms outstretched. It was as if he was welcoming his fate. A pale face appeared at the grille in the door. There was a calm smile on Jianxu’s face, and I got the impression she had expected this turn of events all along. The gaoler came scurrying out of his back room, caught unawares by the lateness of our arrival. It was almost pitch dark, and he quickly lit a lamp with a burning taper. When he saw the prefect, he bowed low and jabbered in his coarse dialect. Even Lin had difficulty understanding him, but Li was more used to his toothless gabble. He pointed at the girl’s cell and ordered the gaoler to open the door.

‘Let the girl go. The ruling of the court has been overturned.’

I could see that the words stuck in Li’s throat, but there was nothing he could do. The little man hurried to carry out his master’s command, whilst shaking his head in disbelief. He unlocked the door and pulled it open. For a moment, Jianxu hesitated on the threshold, as if unsure of herself at this last moment of her confinement. Then, more confidently, she took a step out of her cell, then another and another until she was free. Gurbesu took her in her arms, but Jianxu, not knowing how to respond, I suppose, stiffened with her arms held down by her side. Gurbesu gently released her, and spoke words of encouragement.

‘It will take some time to appreciate it fully. But you are free now.’

A faint smile crossed Jianxu’s lips, and, encouraged, Gurbesu led her away. Meanwhile, at Li’s command, the gaoler bundled Wenbo into the cell he had so often peered into from the outside. He was now to be its occupant, changing places with the girl he had so frequently visited. I warned Li to take good care of our prisoner.

‘He is not to be tortured. I will be back tomorrow morning and I expect him to be fit and well enough to make a full confession of his crimes.’

The prefect gave me a mocking bow.

‘I am as ever at your command, Investigator of Crimes.’

I did not like the evil look in his eye, but Lin indicated that we had done all we could. We followed Gurbesu and Jianxu back down the track towards town, leaving Li to pass on our commands to the gaoler.

Our triumphant return to our temporary quarters was witnessed by Tadeusz, who had kept the doctor securely locked away. Sun’s pale face poked out from the barred upper window of a storage room we had had no use for. Gurbesu had brought Jianxu here because she thought it a better place than the Geng house for the time being. Sun stared hard at the girl as she crossed the courtyard and passed inside the communal room we all used. Tadeusz congratulated us.

‘So, it is done then? The girl is freed?’

Lin was more cautious than I was.

‘For the time being. But we must get a confession out of Wenbo, or the prefect may try to change the verdict again. And we must get Sun’s evidence on paper.’

He glanced up at where the doctor’s sad face had been. But he was no longer at the window. Lin touched Tadeusz’s arm.

‘Bring him to us and we will get it all down tonight, before he has reason to think again, or deny what he has already told us.’

Tadeusz nodded and hurried away to fetch the doctor from his cell. Meanwhile, we followed Gurbesu and Jianxu inside. The girl looked a little bewildered by the course of events, and was seated in a corner hugging her knees to her chest. Her eyes were dull and appeared to be staring far off. Gurbesu came bustling back into the room with a ladle of water. She offered it to Jianxu, who drank greedily. But when she had finished drinking, she resumed her original motionless position. Gurbesu looked at us and shook her head slightly. She whispered in my ear so as not to be overheard by the girl.

‘She will take some time to recover, I suppose. She has been no more than a slave to Madam Gao for so long. And then under threat of execution’

Jianxu must have heard the sound of her mother-in-law’s name in the Mongol that Gurbesu spoke to me. Her eyes flickered, and she spoke finally.

‘When am I to return to Madam Gao? She will have need of me.’

Gurbesu went to pat her on the shoulder, but thought better of it. Any intimacy had seemed to cause Jianxu to flinch. Instead she just reassured her verbally.

‘All in good time, Jianxu. Madam Gao has managed without you for a while now; a few more days won’t matter.’

She looked at Lin and me, and indicated that we should leave. We nodded, and crossed the courtyard to intercept Tadeusz’s arrival with the doctor. We were in time to stop them entering the room where Jianxu was closeted and manoeuvred Sun into Lin’s own suite of rooms. He had been bound by Tadeusz in such a way that his ankles and wrists were tied, while still allowing him to hobble. He squatted awkwardly on the floor, with Tadeusz standing over him holding a large stick. Lin sat cross-legged at his low desk, and Po Ku provided him with writing materials and paper. We began to take down Sun’s story.

I started by asking him the reason for his being at the Geng house on the day in question.

‘The day I sold the aconite to the boy?’

‘Yes. Did he ask you to go there?’

I wanted to know whether it was a deliberate plan of Wenbo’s, or a more spur of the moment decision. Sun frowned, looking at each of his captors in turn. There was something he didn’t want to tell us. I pressed him, and Tadeusz tapped his stick on his palm ominously. The weak-willed doctor broke down.

‘You must understand that I was not… popular in the Geng house. But Wenbo insisted that I went there, so I turned up in disguise.’

‘Disguise?’

‘Yes. I dressed as a… mendicant.’

Something came together in my mind, and I was firm with him.

‘A mendicant? Were you not dressed as a beggar? Like a leper, in fact, who was well known in the city.’

He nodded glumly, his subterfuge having been uncovered.

‘Yes. I thought if I looked like the leper, no one would come near me. And I would not be identified. I particularly did not want Old Geng to see me.’

I should have questioned him more on his reluctance to be seen by Old Geng, but I was in a hurry, and raced on.

‘But Wenbo told us that he tried to get rid of the beggar. Why would he be doing that when he had asked you to come in the first place?’

‘There was someone else there. A man with tattooed arms. He saw me giving the aconite to the boy and taking money from him. I suppose Wenbo wanted to keep our transaction a secret. When he saw we had been spotted, he treated me like the beggar I appeared to be. Besides, he was glad to be rid of me as soon as he had got what he wanted.’

I looked at Lin.

‘So that was what Nu saw, that later sealed his fate. Now, doctor, did you tell Wenbo what a fatal dose would be?’

Sun’s face went green, and he began to gasp in deep breaths that stopped him speaking for a while. I put my hand on his shoulder, and squeezed hard.

‘Come now. It is too late to escape your fate. You must tell me everything.’

A squeal emerged from his throat, and then he began to nod vigorously. When he spoke his voice was high pitched, and false.

‘Yes. He insisted on knowing how much was fatal. And I told him. But I had to do it you see. I had to.’

There he faltered and would say no more. It was curious as to why he felt he had to do what the boy had said, but it was no matter now. We had our evidence. Lin began packing away his writing materials, and Tadeusz yanked Sun up from the ground by the rope attached to his wrists.

‘I will take him to the jail right now.’

‘But it’s dark, Tadeusz.’

The little silversmith grinned evilly by the light of the lantern he bore.

‘I don’t think the doctor will try and escape. But if he does, I shall be pleased, for then I can beat him insensible.’

I hoped Tadeusz didn’t mean what he said. But recently he had shown a side to his character that I had not encountered before, and I was no longer certain of his intentions. His fall from grace over spying for Ko had hardened him. I watched as he poked Sun across the courtyard with his stick, causing him to almost stumble due to his hobbled legs. I resolved to reassure Tadeusz when he got back that he didn’t have to go too far in the opposite direction to prove his loyalty to me.

Deep in the night, she sat up, alert to any sound that took place. But the house was as quiet as her cell had been. Located as it was on the edge of town, there were none of the noises that characterized Geng’s old house. No sound of creaking timbers or of scurrying rats disturbed the calm of the night. No sound of neighbours coughing or shuffling feet as old men with weak bladders made for the slop bucket. She crossed her arms over her knees and contemplated her future. She could tell the red-haired Westerner viewed her with some suspicion, not understanding her deeply-ingrained sense of obedience. And the wild, dark-faced native girl also had expected a more emotional reaction to her release. She resolved to give them what they expected in future. That way she would not be closely watched, and she would be free. Yes, she would learn to shed a tear, as she had done when her husband had died. She rose quietly, and walked out into the silent courtyard.