Murder in Canton

XI

Chiao Tai was roused from his confused thoughts by the litter being set down with a thud. He stepped out. It was a narrow, quiet street, apparently inhabited by retired shopkeepers. He gave the bearers a tip, and knocked on the plain wooden door.

An old bent woman opened it and welcomed him with a tooth­less grin. She led him through a small, well-kept flower garden to a two-storeyed, whitewashed building. Then she took him up a narrow wooden staircase, breathing noisily and muttering strange words to herself. She let him into a spacious, airy room of out­landish appearance.

All along the left side hung a curtain of embroidered silk that reached from the ceiling to the floor, of the same type as he had seen at Mansur's the night before. On either side of it stood two large flower vases of alabaster, on low ebony stands. On the right-hand wall hung a wooden rack bearing more than a dozen foreign swords. In the rear a row of four open arches afforded a fine view of a choice collection of potted orchids arranged on the broad sill. Beyond were the roofs of houses in the next street. The floor was covered by a spotless, thick reed mat. The furniture consisted of two armchairs of inlaid rosewood, and a low, round tea-table. There was no one about.

Just as Chiao Tai was going to examine the swords, the curtain parted and two young girls of about sixteen appeared. Chiao Tai gasped. They looked remarkably alike: both had round, rather pert faces set off by long golden earrings, and their wavy hair was done up in a curious foreign fashion. Their torsos were bare, show­ing their firm young breasts and smooth, light-brown skin. They wore pantaloons of flowered muslin, the ends wound tightly round their ankles, and identical necklaces of blue beads, with fringes of gold filigree.

One of them stepped forward, gave Chiao Tai a grave look, then spoke in excellent Chinese:

'Welcome to Captain Nee's house. The master will make his appearance presently.'

'Who might you two be?' Chiao Tai asked, hardly recovered from his astonishment.

'I am Dunyazad, and this is my twin-sister Dananir. We belong to the inner apartments of Captain Nee.'

'I see.'

'You think you do, but you don't,' Dunyazad remarked primly. 'We attend upon the captain, but he doesn't indulge in carnal relations with us.' She added decorously, 'We are virgins.'

'You don't say! And the captain a seafaring man!’

'The captain is committed to a third person,' Dananir said earn­estly. 'Since he is a single-minded and extremely fastidious gentle­man, his attitude to us is one of complete detachment. Which is a pity.'

'For the captain too,' Dunyazad observed. 'We possess a con­siderable capacity for passionate experience.'

'You two hussies don't know what you are talking about!’ Chiao Tai said crossly.

Dunyazad raised her curved eyebrows.

'We are familiar with all the practical aspects,' she said coldly. 'When the captain purchased us from Merchant Fang four years ago, we were attached as chambermaids to his Third Lady, and regularly attended their amorous dalliance.'

Admittedly, it was rather elementary,' Dananir added. 'Judg­ing by the Third Lady's repeated complaints about the lack of variety.'

'Why do you two talk in that awful stilted book-language?' Chiao Tai asked horrified. 'And where in hell did you learn all those long difficult words?'

'From me.' Captain Nee's pleasant voice spoke up behind him. 'Sorry to have kept you waiting, but you are a bit late, you know.' He wore a thin white woollen robe with red borders and a red belt, and a kind of tiara, embroidered with coloured silk.

He took the smaller armchair and Dunyazad came to stand by his side. Her sister knelt and looked up at Chiao Tai with a provocative smile. Chiao Tai folded his arms and glared at her.

'Sit down, sit down!’ Captain Nee told Chiao Tai impatiently. To the twins he said sternly, 'You are forgetting your manners. Run along and make us some nice morning tea! Flavour it with mint, will you.' When the two girls had gone, he went on, 'They are rather clever: they know Chinese, Persian and Arabic. It amuses me to read all kind of Chinese and foreign texts with them at night, and they're always browsing in my library. Well, Mr Chiao, I am relieved to see that you are all right. Evidently you didn't get into trouble last night.'

'What made you think I might?' Chiao Tai asked cautiously.

'I have my eyes about me, my friend! I saw an Arab hooligan and a Tanka strangler watching you from a strategic corner by the door!'

'Yes, I noticed the pair too. They had nothing to do with us, however. What was their quarrel with the waiter, by the way?'

'Oh, the fellow refused to serve the Tanka. Those outcasts are supposed to taint everything they touch, you know. That's why the waiter smashed the Tanka's beaker. Anyway, I saw that a bearded scoundrel also kept an eye on you all the time. When he followed you from the wine-house, I said to myself, Maybe the colonel is in for a bit of trouble.'

'Why do you promote me suddenly to colonel?'

'Because I got a glimpse of your badge, colonel. Just as the bearded man did. And I had heard that the famous Judge Dee had arrived in Canton, accompanied by two lieutenants. If a person then meets two ranking officials from up north who do their damnedest to look like petty clerks, it sets him thinking, so to speak.' When Chiao Tai made no comment, the captain went on, 'Last night it was being said in the tea-houses that Judge Dee had convened a conference in the palace, for a discussion of foreign trade here. That again set me thinking, for Judge Dee is famous as a detector of crimes, and you can't call foreign traders criminals, even though they charge atrocious prices. When I combined that with the fact that Judge Dee's two lieutenants were hanging about on the quay in disguise, I couldn't help asking myself: What mischief is brewing here in Canton?'

CHIAO TAI CONVERSES WITH CAPTAIN NEE

'You obviously know how to put two and two together!' Chiao Tai said with a grin. 'Well, we are indeed here to look into Arab trade. Where there are a lot of costly imports and high duties...' He let the sentence trail off.

'So it's smuggling you are after!' The captain stroked his mous­tache. 'Yes, I wouldn't put it beyond those Arab rascals.'

'What about the Chinese merchants who deal with them? Mr Yau Tai-kai, for instance. You know him, I suppose?'

'Slightly. Astute businessman, worked his way up from small beginnings to become one of the richest traders in the city. But he's a lecher, and lechery is an expensive hobby. He has a host of wives, concubines and stray mistresses whom he keeps in luxury — don't ask me what they have to put up with, that's neither here nor there. But he might be obliged to supplement his income by irregular means, perhaps. I must stress, however, that I have never heard any rumours of this. And I know practically everybody who counts in shipping circles.'

'What about that other expert on Arab affairs, Mr Liang Foo?'

'There you are wide of the mark, colonel!’ Nee said with a smile. 'You can't mention him in one breath with Yau. Mr Liang is a born gentleman, of vast wealth and frugal habits. Mr Liang a smuggler? Out of the question!'

The twins came in with a brass platter. While they were serv­ing tea, Captain Nee said with an apologetic smile:

'Sorry I can't entertain you more handsomely, colonel! I used to have a large residence, in the south city. But a couple of years ago I had to meet a heavy financial obligation, and sold it. I have come to like the quiet life ashore, and have decided to stay as long as my savings last me. At sea I had plenty of time to think about this and that, and I became interested in mysticism. Now I am passing the greater part of my time reading up on it. For exercise I go to the boxing and fencing club.' He rose and said, 'Well, let's have a look at my swords now.'

They walked over to the rack, and the captain pointed out to Chiao Tai the special merits of each sword, going into great detail about different methods of welding the blades. Then he told a few stories about the feats of famous Cantonese swordsmen. The twins listened avidly, their kohl-rimmed eyes very wide.

Suddenly the old crone came in and handed Nee a small en­velope. 'Excuse me, will you?' he asked. He went to stand in front of the window arch and read the note. Then he stuffed it in his sleeve, sent the old woman away and said to Chiao Tai, 'Let's have another cup of tea!'

'I like this mint tea,' Chiao Tai remarked. 'Last night I had aniseed liquor in Mansur's place. Rather good too. Do you know the fellow?'

'You two go down and water the flowers,' Nee told the twins. 'It's getting quite hot already.' When they had left, looking highly indignant, the captain resumed, 'So you want to know about Mansur. Well, I'll tell you a little story about him. It goes back four years or so, when Mansur paid his first visit to our good city. There was a certain young lady here. Her parents were dead, and consequently her elder brother was the head of the house. A very wealthy and distinguished house, I should add. She was in love with a young man here, but they quarrelled, and he went away. Then her brother married her to an official, an awful dry stick nearly twice her age. Shortly after this ill-assorted marriage, she met Mansur and fell violently in love with him. One of those hectic, short-lived affairs, you know. She repented soon enough and told Mansur that it was all over. Know what Mansur said? That it was all right with him but that she'd have to pay him a round sum, for services rendered — as he chose to call it.'

'The dirty blackmailer! Know of any mischief he's engaged in now? I'd welcome a chance to collar the bastard!'

Captain Nee stroked his short beard. After a while he replied:

'No, I don't. I am sorry, for I am not very partial to Arabs. They trampled my mother's country underfoot. And I was very fond of my mother — Nizami was her Persian name. I changed my name to Nee, as a tribute to her memory.' He paused, then re­sumed, 'It's a large city, always buzzing with all kinds of rumours. But as a matter of principle I refuse to repeat vague rumours, which usually are just malicious gossip.'

'I see. By the way, at Mansur's party I met an Arab dancing girl called Zumurrud. Ever seen her?'

Captain Nee gave him a quick look.

'Zumurrud? No, I never met her. But I have heard her described as a beautiful and skilful dancer.'

'Do you happen to know who her patron is?'

'No. If she has one, he must be a wealthy man, for she's rather exacting, I've always heard.'

Chiao Tai nodded, and emptied his teacup.

'Talking about beautiful women,' he resumed, 'those twins you have around here don't look too bad either! They complained to me about your detached attitude, by the way!'

The captain smiled faintly.

'I've had them now for four years, have seen them change from children into young women. It has given me a kind of paternal feeling towards them.'

'They seem quite a handful! Where did you buy them?'

Nee did not reply at once. He gave Chiao Tai a searching look, then said:

'They are the illegitimate children of a very nice girl, a distant relative of my mother's, who was seduced by a Chinese official. She gave them away to a Chinese merchant of her acquaintance, for she feared that her lover would abandon her because of them. When he left her anyway, she killed herself. It created quite a stir here, but her lover managed to keep his name out of it, so it didn't harm his career.'

'Pleasant fellow! Did you know him?'

'Of him. Didn't feel like meeting him. But I kept myself in­formed about the twins. They were treated well in the merchant's house, but he went bankrupt. I bought them when his possessions were auctioned off. I educated them as well as I could, and now I must look for a suitable husband for them.'

'I wouldn't put that off for too long,' Chiao Tai remarked judiciously. He got up adding, 'I'd better be off now.'

'You must come again for a boxing bout,' the captain said, as he took him downstairs. 'You are a bit heavier than me, but the years are on my side.'

'That's fine! I need practice. Used to exercise regularly with my blood-brother Ma. But the fellow's married now, and developed a paunch!'

In the small garden Dunyazad and Dananir were spraying the flowers with diminutive watering pots.

'Good-bye, children!' Chiao Tai called out.

They pointedly ignored him.

'They are cross that I sent them away,' the captain said with a smile. 'They are as inquisitive as a pair of monkeys. And they hate to be called children.'

'I am getting paternal too,' Chiao Tai said wryly. 'Many thanks for showing me your swords!'

When the captain closed the door behind him, Chiao Tai noticed that the street was crowded now; people were rushing back home after their early morning shopping. As he elbowed his way through them, he bumped into a young woman. He wanted to apologize but she had already brushed past him. He saw only her back as she disappeared in the throng.