A Deadly Injustice (7 page)

‘Indeed, Master Lin. You have me there. A great play for sure, that will stand as a beacon for the cause of justice for years to come.' He looked me in the eye. ‘You believe in justice, do you not?'

I surprised myself with a reply that sounded deeply philosophical.

‘Truth and justice are ephemeral creatures that can have different skins at different times, like the chameleon lizard I have seen sailors bring back from lands beyond the sea.'

Guan was nonplussed by my reply, and his prepared presentation was broken. He recovered himself enough to say that he would see us again in P'ing-Yang-Fu, and then bowed out in to the night. Lin laughed breathily, and patted me on the back.

‘That was a very thoughtful retort of yours. And the simile was excellent. I have seen such a lizard, and the changing of their skin colour is remarkable.'

I blushed at the compliment and confessed the truth.

‘I borrowed the idea from you, Chu-Tsai, as well you know. Though I confess the imagery was my own. I have been saving it up for just such a moment.'

Just as I finished speaking, I was conscious of another figure standing in the doorway. The well-built Guan had not returned, however, because framed by the moonlight, I could tell this was Natural Elegance. Her hips were slightly tilted and her shape curvy. My mouth went dry. Then she stepped into the room, and the light from one of the lamps fell on the figure's face. I gasped in shock. The luscious Empress Tu, the sweet Yu-Niang from the play, the lubricious Natural Elegance was a youth. A pretty, willowy youth, but a youth nevertheless. I turned to Lin and scowled.

‘You knew.'

Lin had a big grin plastered on his face.

‘Forgive me for deceiving you. It was so amusing seeing how you lusted for Tien-jan, when I knew all along that she was a he.' Suddenly his tone became severe. ‘Besides, you should not have forsaken Gurbesu for a passing . . . amusement.'

For once I had to agree with him. Gurbesu's charms were suddenly all the more attractive, when compared to those of young Tien-jan. I silently thanked the God that I was not sure I truly believed in for saving me from a grievous error, and beat a retreat from Lin's rooms.

Gurbesu was surprised but pleased when I burst into our room a few moments later.

‘You are earlier than I thought, sweetheart.' She gave me a piercing look that I feared meant she had seen right through my subterfuge. ‘I imagined you would be hours with Lin and his visitor, and then looking over all the documents in that case.'

I brazened it out and shrugged nonchalantly, as though we had solved the problem easily.

‘It was not such a difficult matter, after all. And our interview with the playwright Guan, who drafted the petition, was brief. It would seem he is more interested in making a name for himself than chasing justice for Jianxu. Though like many young men he burns with the idea he sees injustice everywhere. He hails from that part of Cathay where fifty years ago the leaders went quickly over to the Mongol side to save their skins. They were called the Black Army according to Lin, and escaped relatively unscathed from the invasion. Maybe Guan feels guilty about his ancestry. Who knows?'

I unfastened my Mongol jacket and eased down on the low bed, reaching out to Gurbesu's hips.

‘So now we have the whole evening to ourselves.'

As I felt the warmth of Gurbesu's thigh, I shuddered at the thought of touching Natural Elegance, and finding a male member between ‘her' legs. I wiped the image from my mind, but as I grabbed her, Gurbesu's face fell.

‘Oh I am sorry, dear. I thought, when you said that you would be hours that I would invite Tadeusz and the friar to our room. We are going to have a little supper. You are welcome to join us, naturally.'

Before I could protest, the door suddenly opened, and the aforesaid pair poked their heads in. Alberoni smiled broadly.

‘Ah, Niccolò, you are here. I wanted to ask you about something before we got to our destination.'

I think I must have replied a little sulkily, because Alberoni gave me a strange look, and shook his head. Gurbesu, noticing the awkwardness, started bustling around, producing smoked meat and fresh fruit from somewhere. And a stone flagon of Chinee rice wine. Tadeusz was already laying on the table some dried fruit he had brought with him. He cast a glance at me too, before asking me about the details of the case.

‘Will it be resolved easily, do you think?'

I shrugged. It seemed to be the only communication I was capable of at the moment. As we settled down together at the table, I looked out of the window and across the courtyard. In Lin's rooms I saw a shadowy figure embracing Lin tightly. Before the lamp in the room was extinguished, I felt sure the figure looked willowy and elegant. I returned my attention to the others in my room, but not before Tadeusz also had seen what I was looking at. I tried to concentrate on the matter in hand.

‘Let's see what we do know.'

Tadeusz had placed an oil lamp in the centre of the table, and its flame cast a circle of light in which we all sat. To my right sat Gurbesu, who was biting into a peach. I watched as the juice ran down her chin. She smiled and wiped it away with delicate fingers. She then waved them in the air.

‘Don't look at me for enlightenment. You have told me nothing so far. I feel that I am just along for the ride.'

I brushed aside her self-deprecating words. I knew how useful she would be when it came to talking to the main suspect – and presumed perpetrator – Jianxu. She could use her wiles on a man to get him to talk, but more importantly was able to extract the innermost thoughts from another woman. And truths often emerged from such a meeting of minds that would have been held back from me or the other men. I reckoned even Alberoni would benefit from her powers of truth-finding in his confessional. The friar was the next round the table, and I raised a questioning eyebrow towards him. He clasped his hands together.

‘I did manage to talk to Lin on our way here. I understand that the poor girl confessed to the crime. What more is there to say?'

I gave a harsh and braying laugh.

‘Do you know how they obtain a confession here? They use a bastinado, beating the soles of the person's feet until they cannot stand the pain any more. Then they confess.'

‘Are you saying there is no place for torture in extracting the truth?'

I thought of all the ways a suspected person would be abused in the West – the rack, the head crusher, or thumbscrews – and shook my head.

‘Not if you are a seeker of the truth. A confession is easily obtained – the truth needs winkling out. Taduesz, do you have any observations to make before we reach P'ing-Yang-Fu?'

The little man leaned away from the circle of light and stroked his beard. When he spoke from the darkness, it was with a quaver in his voice.

‘Do you not think, Nick, that the girl has been deliberately placed in the picture to allow the real killer to escape free and clear? Are not Chinee girls very obedient sorts, who would go out of their way to please? How could she possibly be the killer?'

I nodded, agreeing with him as far as it went.

‘You are right. There is something that stinks in this whole case. Not least the involvement of Ko Su-Tsung in its being brought to our attention. We will tread cautiously, but we will find out the truth.'

I marvelled at how, under Lin's tutelage, I had become so enamoured of the truth. Maybe such an obsession came with being in your thirties and no longer a youth. Before being appointed Investigator of Crimes by Kubilai Khan, I was more concerned with what gave me the most profit; whether it was within the law or not. In fact I much preferred sailing close to the wind, and then on beyond the boundaries of legality. It made for greater excitement and a lot more pleasure when the enterprise came off. I looked at Tadeusz, who had once more leaned forward into the lamplight. The side of his face burned in the fire set by marauding Mongols was red and shiny, but his eyes were cool and impassive. I slapped his back.

‘Now pass me the wine before I start crying like a baby at my own softness.'

The girl wiped a tear from her eye, and looked through the bars at the boy who stood outside.

‘Thank you, Wenbo. You have saved my life. I owe you everything, and I will show you my gratitude when I am released.'

She accompanied the final sentence of her outpouring with a modest, but meaningful look. After all, it did not harm to promise, when the chances of having to repay that promise were so slim. Still, she had taken the first step, and the flow of
yun
was moving in the right direction. The boy had come with the news that very morning that an investigator had been appointed in Tatu, which some called Khan-balik, and that he was on his way. The executioner's sword had been stayed, and that was what mattered. It was no good to her if she were exonerated after her death. Some may think her soul would be saved, and her reputation restored. But what good was that to her if she was dead and buried?

The spotty face of Wenbo swam before her eyes, and she once again wiped away the tears of joy. She fixed a smile on her face, and glanced modestly down at the ground.

‘I thank you, Geng Wenbo.'

The boy seemed transfixed, unclear as to what he should do next. He was already beginning to irritate the girl, and, without raising her eyes, she hinted that she would like to be alone now.

‘My fate is still uncertain, and I wish to compose myself should the wheel of fortune not turn in my favour in the end.'

The boy stammered an apology for intruding on her contemplations and slouched away. She waited a moment and gave a cautious look up. He was walking down the unlucky road that led to her cell. When he was far enough away, she breathed a sigh of relief, and hugged herself. She hoped the next person she would see coming towards her cell along the road would be the investigator. In her mind, she began to marshal her thoughts. If he was as clever as she imagined, it would not do to get her story all mixed up. Let the others be tripped up by him, she would play her part well.

‘That play we saw made me think.'

As the light from the lamp got lower, we had moved closer to each other to stay in its beam. Alberoni rubbed his smooth jaw and yawned.

‘I didn't follow all of it, as I couldn't hear Lin's explanation. What was it about the play that got you thinking?'

Gurbesu stared into my eyes with those big brown orbs of hers.

‘Was it the wife, Yu-Niang, confessing under torture? Just like this case of ours?'

I shook my head.

‘No. I liked that chief clerk, Chang Ting, best. He reminded me of myself.'

Tadeusz threw his head back and laughed. I wanted to know what he found so funny in what I said.

‘I understand some Chinee, you know, and followed a few of the lines. The clerk said he hated those who – how did he put it? – who “fiddled the law.”' He put a solemn look on his ruined face. ‘How could he then have been like you?'

I took it that Tadeusz was teasing me about my fondness for skirting round the borders of legality, and wasn't seriously taking me to task. In fact, I was glad he seemed to be more relaxed, more like his normal self. He was usually such a quiet and uncritical man, but he had been more than a little edgy during our journey. I put it down to the strains of the long trip.

‘I may flirt with what is unlawful, that is true. But no, it wasn't that I was thinking of. Chang Ting cracked the case of the Mo-Ho-Lo Doll by filling in the missing facts. Facts that had been ignored before. No one checked on the unidentified man who brought Yu-Niang news of her husband's illness. It was only when she remembered the doll that she could trace the doll-maker and he provided crucial information about the real murderer. Another witness was bribed to say Yu-Niang planned the murder with her lover. But when Chang Ting investigated, it turned out there was no lover. But, most importantly of all, no one had checked the source of the poison that killed Yu-Niang's husband.'

There was silence as everyone pondered my great exposition. I looked around expecting admiration, but all I saw were puzzled expressions.

‘Damn it, don't you see? It's the same with this case. No one has followed up the mystery of the origins of the poison.' I turned to the little silversmith.

‘Tadeusz, I want you to make that your job when we get there. You have some of the Chinee tongue as you have just reminded us, and can talk to the locals. But if you get stuck, you can always talk to Lin.'

He nodded, and looked down at the floor, embarrassed by everyone's attention suddenly being on him.

‘What about the Mongol overlord – Taitemir?' This was Gurbesu's question. ‘He looked a fierce fellow at the theatre, surrounded by all his cronies.'

A shiver ran down my spine.

‘I would rather not get entangled with him, if I can help it.'

Gurbesu would not leave it, however.

‘But if some wrong has been done, he could be at the centre of it. You will have to talk to him along with the Chin prefect.'

I sighed, knowing that Gurbesu had a point, and that she would not give up, if she felt she was in the right. So I diverted her from her purpose by giving her a task I knew she would relish.

‘You are right. Lin and I will have to deal with him, I suppose. And I want you to talk to the girl. Find out the truth from her.'

I stroked her hair, which, as she leaned into the light, hung like a curtain over her round, olive-skinned face. The others must have noticed my tender gesture towards Gurbesu, because both Tadeusz and Alberoni rose, and wished us goodnight. I recalled that when they had arrived, Alberoni had said he wanted to ask me something.