A Deadly Injustice (10 page)

‘Jianxu.'

He hissed, and displayed his versatility by bowing and scurrying over to the end door at the same time. He motioned us over and bowed yet again, muttering something in his Chinee tongue. I looked pointedly at the bunch of keys hanging from his belt. In my most communicative way I nodded, and turned my gaze on the cell door. Bandy legs nodded eagerly back and grinned. Obviously my language skills were not working well. Then Gurbesu nudged me in the back and whispered in my ear.

‘He wants an emolument, you idiot.'

I frowned, and then enlightenment came.

‘Oh, a bribe, you mean.'

I produced a small coin from the purse at my waist, waving it in the air. Amazingly, my ability to communicate suddenly improved. The gaoler grabbed the coin, and inserted a large key in the lock of the cell door. Peering through the grille to make sure the prisoner was not going to rush out, he pushed the door inwards. Before he went in himself, he grabbed a large plank that stood against the outside wall of the cell block. It was split in half, hinged, and had a hole in the middle of it. I realized what it was, having seen petty thieves in Xanadu being punished using it. It was a cangue, which the Chinee called
mu jia
, and was a sort of large, flat collar that prevented the wearer from escaping simply by its bulk. Sometimes, it was used as a means of punishment in itself. The offender wearing it could not reach round to feed himself, and so starved unless others fed him. The gaoler was clearly proposing to put it on Jianxu to prevent her fleeing. I grabbed his arm, and wrenched the device from his grasp.

‘You will not put that on her. I am the Investigator of Crimes, appointed by the Great Khan himself, and I will say what happens here.'

I spoke in Mongol, and didn't think he understood a word. But he heard the tone of my voice, and could see the anger and authority in my eyes. Hissing apologies, he backed off, and retreated to a leafless tree that was the only thing that alleviated the drab monotony of the approach to the prison. He sat cross-legged under it and stared back at me. He was not going to desert his post, even if it was Zhong Kui who had chased him off. I tried to outstare him, until a pleasant, light voice spoke from inside the opened cell door.

‘Then you are the Investigator of Crimes himself, and not the tame demon of the red robed one.'

I laughed, and looked round. A willowy girl, dressed in a drab shift that did not hide her shapely figure, stood in the doorway of the cell. Her face was pale and drawn, but she faced me boldly, not overawed by my presence. Jianxu was a very attractive young woman indeed.

‘Oh, I am both of those things in one body. The Khan's investigator, yes. But also the tame servant of Lin Chu-Tsai, Senior Clerk to the Chief Justice of the Mongol Empire.'

Gurbesu nudged me aside, and spoke to Jianxu herself.

‘Oh, he does like to boast. Just like a man.' She gave me a look, and I realized I was probably scaring the girl. Gurbesu carried on smoothly. ‘You were right the first time – he's Lin's tame monkey really.'

Jianxu's face remained impassive for a moment, but then she giggled briefly. She was probably amused for the first time since she was accused and judged to be the murderer of Geng Biao. I knew it was time to retreat and leave Gurbesu to do what she did best.

NINE

Judge not the horse by his saddle
.

I
sat in the shade of the shattered tree next to the gaoler while Gurbesu talked to Jianxu. They had the best of it, sitting comfortably inside the cell. The tree had few branches on it, and fewer leaves, and the bandy-legged Chinee had claimed whatever shadow was cast by them. The ground was hard beneath my arse. When it began to get numb, I tried a few simple Mongol words with the nameless gaoler, and finally he got the idea. He listened with his head cocked to one side like a dog, as I said a word such as ‘head' and pointed to the appropriate part of my anatomy. When he had understood what I had said, he told me the Chinee word in return. At first he laughed through broken and blackened teeth when I essayed the pronunciation, but I got it eventually. Then we moved on to another body part. Eventually, I decided I could surprise Lin with my command of his language when we met later that evening. I just hoped the gaoler hadn't taught me obscenities. Lin was a man of refined tastes.

Finally, both women came to the cell door, and my language teacher jumped up, ready to chase Jianxu if she decided to make a run for it. But she didn't. In fact she looked very relaxed for someone whose execution had only been delayed. If I could find no fault with the judgement passed down by Li Wen-Tao, and confirmed by Taitemir, she would still be beheaded. And a beautiful head it was too, with thick, black hair braided and hanging down her back, and a pale face with exquisite almond eyes. She stared at me as Gurbesu crossed the courtyard towards me, and I smiled. And even though her face remained impassive, I suddenly wanted with all my heart for her to be innocent. Gurbesu saw where I was looking, and stood in my line of vision.

‘Do you want to know what I learned from Jianxu? Or does it not matter any more?'

I grinned inanely at her.

‘Of course. Tell me everything.'

‘She says that she doesn't know how the soup that killed Old Geng was poisoned. She admits to making it, but not with the aim of killing Geng. In fact, she says she made the soup for her mother-in-law, Madam Gao.'

‘So she intended to kill
her
?'

Gurbesu snorted and shook her head.

‘No! Do pay attention, Nick. She made the soup because Madam Gao felt unwell. It was a broth to nourish and revive her spirits, as she hadn't eaten for two days. Old Geng saw her taking it to Madam Gao, and told her to give it to him. He was hungry, he said. She was annoyed, but couldn't show it, and obediently gave Geng the soup. She went back to the kitchen to make some more, and the next thing she knew, the boy . . .'

‘Wenbo.'

‘Yes, Wenbo came into the kitchen saying his father was dying. That he was complaining of cramps and numbness at the same time, and was vomiting. Wenbo said his father had tried to rise from his bed but his limbs wouldn't move. He begged Jianxu to come and help. When they got to the old man's room, he was lying in a foul pool of his own internal fluids. He was already dead.'

‘That ties up with the doctor's report on the body. I saw it in Lin's files on the case. It said that, from the symptoms observed, aconite or wolfsbane must have been added to the soup. If so, it would have been an unpleasant death.'

I could see over Gurbesu's shoulder that Jianxu still stood in the doorway of her cell. She had not moved a muscle as Gurbesu and I had been speaking, and I had the feeling she was a person very much in control of her emotions. In fact, she made me feel uneasy for a moment. Taking Gurbesu's arm, I led her a little way away from the prison. When I no longer felt we were being observed, I looked Gurbesu in the eye.

‘If she claims to be innocent, did she say why she signed a confession?'

Gurbesu nodded, her thick, dark hair swirling round her face.

‘Yes. She did it to spare Madam Gao being tortured as she, Jianxu, had been by the prefect. Her feet and legs are only just now healing.'

‘You see what I mean about torture? It rarely provides you with the truth. So the girl claims not to be the poisoner now. Does she have any idea who might have been? Who could have got in the kitchen to doctor the soup?'

Gurbesu pulled a face.

‘She wouldn't say, but I thought she had an opinion. You know what these Chinee women are like. True to the Three Duties of women: obedience to your father before marriage; obedience to your husband after marriage; and obedience to your son after your husband's death. Obedience, obedience, obedience, grrrrrr.'

Gurbesu growled, and if I hadn't been already leaning with my back against the tree trunk, I would have backed off. She was a tiger in this sort of mood. Instead of retreating, I asked her another question.

‘Do you believe everything she told you?'

She had to pause and think about that. We watched as the gaoler closed and locked the cell door on Jianxu, leaving her as a pale face outlined by the grille. Finally, she answered me.

‘I think so.'

‘But you are not sure?'

‘Everything she said was so precise and considered. As though she had rehearsed it.'

I shrugged.

‘Not surprising. She has been taken through the story many times, and often under duress with her feet tied up and being beaten. She would have ended up telling the prefect anything he wanted to hear. He could even have prompted her. And since being incarcerated to await our arrival, she has had weeks to think about what she would say.' I paused before asking the final question. ‘Is she innocent?'

Once again, my favourite Kungurat pondered the question. She pursed her full, red lips.

‘Mmmmm. Too early to tell. I am going to reserve judgement.'

That was one split vote, then. And I respected Gurbesu's intuition. But anyway, she was right. It was early days, and we needed to gather a whole lot more information. I took Gurbesu's arm, and we walked away from the prison.

‘Let's go back to the house, and see what Lin and Tadeusz have found out.'

The girl watched from behind the door of her cell, which had once again been locked securely. She watched as the red-haired man and the strange woman walked away. She had never experienced such an odd pair. The demon looked as though he would scare anyone into submission, but the dark-skinned woman had brushed him aside as if he didn't matter. He had then sat with her gaoler while the woman spoke to her. The girl had assumed the woman was the demon's wife, though she didn't behave like any Chin wife. They had spoken at first in her native tongue, but mostly they had conversed in the tongue of the Mongols who had conquered her native land many years ago. The true emperor still lived, somewhere in southern Song, but the Mongols were pressing ever southwards. It was inevitable that the barbarian hordes would win, and she had picked up as much of their tongue as she was able. It had now served her well.

The woman had probed for the facts of the death of Old Geng, and she had told her story well, she thought. She felt she had convinced the Kungurat of her innocence. When the woman, who called herself Gurbesu, had asked if she had any idea who had killed the old man, she had hesitated. Just like a good, obedient woman, she had demurred, not accusing anyone directly. But she thought she had convinced Gurbesu that she did suspect someone. So she knew the demon and his wife would be back.

‘Li Wen-Tao could tell me nothing that was not in the official records already. I could tell he was toeing the party line. He even had the nerve to refer me to Taitemir, knowing of course that even a Chin official as highly connected as I am could not contradict a Mongol. It was a waste of my time. How about the girl?'

We had met up over a meal in Lin's rooms, which were, as usual, far better organized than any of ours. Mind you, he had a servant, and I would have expected nothing less of Lin. He always surrounded himself with serenity, whereas I thrived on chaos. We complemented each other in that way. Before I answered his question, I looked at Gurbesu. Did she want to voice her opinions directly? She gave a little shake of her head, which left me, as ever, in her debt. She knew I needed to maintain my position as the main investigator, even amongst our little group. So it was I who replied to Lin's question.

‘She did no more than confirm what was in the documents we already have. Her story has not changed. So there is nothing new yet. But it is only the beginning. We need to talk to the son and the old lady . . . what's her name?'

‘Madam Gao.'

‘Yes, we need to speak to her. And maybe I can have a go at the prefect myself.' I grinned wolfishly. ‘I can be a mite rougher than you, Chu-Tsai. Besides, I want to appeal to his baser instincts.'

Lin frowned a little, though his face was normally impassive and didn't show too much about his inner workings.

‘What have you in mind, Nick?'

‘It is better that you don't know. Then you can keep your hands clean.'

Lin settled back on his couch, looking somewhat out of sorts, and I took charge of the meeting. I looked over at Tadeusz, who had been very quiet during my exchanges with Lin.

‘What about you, Tadeusz. Did you learn anything in the marketplace?'

Tadeusz Pyka tugged at his beard, and seemed not sure where to begin. Finally he put into words what he had learned by chatting to the tradesmen he had met.

‘I wandered around a few of those big squares we came through when we arrived. I reckoned that one of them had to accommodate workshops. I found the one for doctors and astrologers first. They teach reading and writing there too, you know. I saw a local magistrate settling an argument between two doctors who, from what I could tell, were disputing the efficacy of something called
dang gui
.'

Lin nodded his head.

‘Yes. It's also called female ginseng, and I believe it's used for all sorts of women's complaints.'

‘The argument seemed to be about whether it should be boiled or steeped in wine.'

Gurbesu laughed.

‘I would prefer the last method.'

‘The magistrate resolved the matter, but by then the client – an older woman – had walked away. So neither doctor gained from arguing. Anyway, the next square I came to was the craft square. They say there were twelve guilds represented, and each workshop employed up to forty men. It was certainly a busy and bustling square, and I could see some men had got quite wealthy from the trade. I went to the silversmiths' quarter – you can always find it by the sound.'