Deadly injustice

TWENTY-NINE

‘ She killed her husband too?’

Gurbesu was genuinely shocked when I read out Jianxu’s confession to my companions. It had surprised me too, until I had begun to analyse her behaviour. She had always seemed so unemotional, so controlled, and we had put it down to her upbringing in Gao’s household. And her acceptance of the role of a woman in Chinee society. It now appeared there had been some more sinister worm inhabiting her heart. I hesitate to use the word, but all I saw in her actions was pure, cold evil. I answered Gurbesu’s question.

‘It would appear so. Though whether Sun did it deliberately at her instigation, or was seduced into administering his “cure” to ensure immortality a little too eagerly we shall never know.’

Lin spoke up.

‘By the way, the prefect’s men found Sun’s body, barely covered, exactly where she said it was. The fact that the doctor was missing from his cell will go badly for Li Wen-Tao. I imagine his career, as stalled as it was already, will go backwards now. And he deserves it to do so.’

Gurbesu looked at me, pain showing deeply in her dark, brown eyes. She was hurting at having so misjudged Jianxu.

‘When I asked how long you had known who the murderer was, and you said not long but you knew it was her, I really thought you meant Madam Gao.’

Lin chipped in too.

‘And so did I. But you must have been sure it was Jianxu by then, because you hid Madam Gao away in her old home and substituted my nephew for her. I can forgive you for letting me think I had solved the case by landing on Madam Gao, but I may not forgive you for placing Tien-jan in danger. He could have been killed by Jianxu.’

‘Yes, I am sorry about that. I had it all planned so well. But Jianxu sneaked off before I knew. I took my chance to speak to you in her hearing, Gurbesu. Do you remember?’

‘I wondered why you moved me away from her room, but then bellowed something out loud about seeking Madam Gao, who you made clear was still at Geng’s. I should have guessed it was one of your scams.’

I grimaced at the thought of my crude efforts.

‘I didn’t do it very well, because I had not yet arranged for Tien-jan Hsiu to play the role of the old lady. I had spent the night convincing Madam Gao to leave the Geng house, and arranging for Tadeusz to stand guard over her.’

Tadeusz laughed.

‘Yes, and I almost got brained by her when I brought her some tea. She leapt at me calling me a lazy child and hitting me round the head. She cannot see so well, and I suppose she thought I was Jianxu. Ironic really.’

I continued my story.

‘So, that took so long that I had to leave it to the daytime to get Tien-jan to stand in for her. A part, I may say, he performed almost as well as the role of the priestess in my scam to trap the prefect.’

Lin gasped in astonishment.

‘The priestess in the temple was my nephew? I gave her — him — some coins and didn’t even guess.’

‘As you yourself said, he is a good actor. I went straight from talking to you, Gurbesu, to get him to agree to the role as the old lady. Unfortunately, Jianxu chose that moment to slip away. My original plan was to lay in waiting for her and follow her more closely.’

It was Lin who asked the obvious and most pertinent question.

‘How did you figure out it was Jianxu, when all the evidence pointed to Madam Gao.’

I looked at the friar, who had been quiet through our whole conversation.

‘Alberoni put me on to her.’

The friar looked astonished.

‘Me? How could I have helped you? I knew nothing about the case.’

‘But you told me something about my own past that showed me the way to the truth in this case. About families falling out over money with tragic consequences. And your own quest for Prester John and the tale of the Golden King made everything slot into place. You spoke of men who spent two years of their lives planning an outcome that would enrich them.’

Alberoni was still puzzled.

‘How did all that guide you to Jianxu?’

‘No one else had such a compelling motive to murder as she had. Oh yes, Madam Gao had a reason to do away with Old Geng. She had money, and didn’t need a penniless old man as a husband forced on her. She wanted rid of him, but it didn’t make sense for her to have Wenbo as an accomplice. She knew the boy was stupid. Sun, I discounted as a possible killer quite early on. He did try to strangle the old lady once, but he didn’t plan properly then, and couldn’t have done so now. No, Jianxu had a clear motive, and was working to a long-term plan. She knew how wealthy Madam Gao was and arranged to marry her son. She probably seduced him into asking his mother, so it didn’t seem as though she was the prime mover. Once she had married into the family, she got rid of Cangbi with the help of Doctor Sun. The next step would have been to wait for the old lady to die, or maybe to help her along if she appeared to be living too long. But then Old Geng came into the picture and spoiled all her plans.’

Gurbesu smacked her hands together.

‘If the old lady married Geng then she would lose everything she had worked for. She could have married Wenbo, and waited again. But who’s to say Geng wouldn’t have squandered all Gao’s money before she could get it?’

‘Exactly. Jianxu dragged Wenbo into an imaginary plot to kill Gao, and he got the poison for her from Sun. When Geng — the real target of her plan — died, she pretended to Wenbo that it had gone badly wrong. She persuaded him he would have to keep quiet, and he did. When the family were being interrogated, she was afraid that Wenbo would break down, and confessed.’

‘And made it seem as though she had done it to spare Madam Gao.’

Gurbesu was right. Jianxu had been calculating all the time under torture. Just as she had been all her life.

‘Yes. She confessed, knowing full well that she could manipulate Wenbo later. Then, once he had confessed, he was no longer useful, so she killed him to ensure his silence. And the same applied to Sun.’

It was Tadeusz’s turn to speak. There was some guilt in his voice.

‘If we had not found the doctor, he might still be alive. It would not have been necessary for Jianxu to kill him.’

I laughed grimly.

‘If we had not found him he would have been beaten to death by one of his patients’ relatives. He was incompetent and a conspirator in murder, so don’t blame yourself for his death.’

The facts I had laid out were sobering, and we all were silent for a while as we contemplated the turnings of fate. It was Gurbesu who finally spoke out.

‘Do you think that her confession covers all Jianxu’s deeds? I mean to say, in her confession, she tosses off her murder of Sun and her husband as though they were nothing to her.’

I knew what she was implying.

‘You mean to say did she kill others? Maybe her mother too?’

Gurbesu nodded.

‘We will never know, I imagine. That may be buried too deep in Jianxu’s mind. And the executioner will soon put an end to her life and any hopes of discovering the truth.’

Tadeusz could not believe what Gurbesu and I had suggested.

‘You cannot mean what you say! The girl was… what… seven when her mother died? What reason could she have for killing her? I mean, we can guess why she killed the others and tried to do away with Madam Gao. It was a pursuit of the money the old lady possessed, sure. Geng stood in her way, and the deaths of Wenbo and Sun were merely to keep her deeds secret. She said herself that she planned to have Sun accused of the murder of Madam Gao. If she had succeeded in that, she would then have her money free and clear.’

I agreed with Tadeusz.

‘But she did all this with a coldness and precision that transcends mere greed. And the ease with which she killed people who stood in the way of her wishes may have begun earlier in her life. Maybe that is why her father so readily farmed her out to Madam Gao for money and never returned. Perhaps he feared her without knowing quite why. And whether he knew it or not, his action probably saved his life.’

A sad silence descended on the room. Outside an unseasonal flurry of snow began to fall.