The Red Pavilion

by Robert Van Gulik

  On a sign of the judge the clerk read out the coroner’s statement as he had noted it down. When the coroner had affixed his thumbmark to it, Judge Dee dismissed him and asked Feng:

  ‘What do you know about the courtesan’s antecedents?’

  Feng Dai took a sheaf of papers from his sleeve and replied:

  ‘Early this morning I had all her papers sent over here from our main office, sir.’ He consulted the documents and went on: ‘She was the daughter of a small official in the capital, who sold her to a wine house when he got into debt. Being a well-educated and clever girl, she thought that being a prostitute attached to a wine house didn’t offer her sufficient scope for her talents, and she began to sulk. Her owner then sold her to a procurer, for two gold bars. He brought her here to the island, and when our purchasing committee had seen her dance and heard her sing she was bought for three gold bars. That was about two years ago. She at once began to cultivate prominent

  JUDGE DEE, ASSISTED BY WARDEN FENG, HEARS KIA YU-PO

  scholars and artists who passed through here, and quickly became one of the leading courtesans. Four months ago, when the committee for choosing this year’s Queen Flower met, she was unanimously elected. I see that there were never any complaints lodged against her, and she never got involved in any trouble.’

  ‘All right,’ Judge Dee said. ‘You shall inform the next of kin of the dead woman that they can come to fetch the corpse, for burial. I now want to hear the testimony of the curio-dealer Wen Yuan.’

  Wen gave the judge a bewildered look. When he had knelt down in front of the bench, Judge Dee ordered:

  ‘Describe your movements after you had left the dinner in the Crane Bower!’

  ‘This person left the dinner early, Your Honour, because he had an appointment with an important client. It was to discuss the purchase of a valuable antique painting, as a matter of fact. From the restaurant I went directly to my curio-shop.’

  ‘Who was that client, and how long did he stay with you?’

  ‘It was the Commissioner Hwang, Your Honour, who is now staying in the second hostel in this same street. But I waited for him in vain. When I went to see him just now, on my way here, he maintained that our appointment had not been for yesterday, but for tonight. I must have misunderstood him when talking with him two days ago.’

  ‘Quite,’ Judge Dee said. He gave a sign to the clerk, who read out Wen’s statement. The curio-dealer agreed that it was correct and impressed his thumbmark on it. The judge dismissed him, and called Kia Yu-po before the bench. He spoke:

  ‘The Candidate Kia Yu-po shall now state what he did after he had left the dinner.’

  ‘This person,’ Kia began, ‘has the honour to report that he left the dinner earlier because he wasn’t feeling well. He intended to proceed to the restaurant’s bathroom, but by mistake went to the dressing-room of the courtesans. He asked a waiter to direct him to the bathroom, then left the restaurant and went on foot to the park. He walked around there till about the hour of midnight. Then he felt much better, and returned to his hostel.’

  ‘It shall be so recorded,’ Judge Dee said. When the poet had marked the clerk’s notes with his thumbprint, the judge rapped his gavel and announced:

  ‘The case of the demise of the courtesan Autumn Moon remains pending until further notice.’

  Thereupon he closed the session. Before getting up he bent over to Ma Joong and whispered:

  ‘Go and see that Commissioner Hwang. Then run over to the Crane Bower and to Kia’s hostel and verify his statement. Come back here to report.’ Turning to Feng Dai, he said: ‘I want to have a private conversation with Mr Tao. Can you take us to a room where we shan’t be disturbed?’

  ‘Certainly sir! I’ll take Your Honour to the garden pavilion. It’s located in our backyard, close by my women’s quarters; nobody from outside ever goes there.’ He hesitated a moment, then continued, rather diffidently: ‘If I may be permitted to say so, sir, I don’t quite understand why Your Honour has decided to keep both cases pending. A plain case of suicide, and a death caused by heart failure … I would have thought that …’

  ‘Oh,’ Judge Dee said vaguely, ‘only because I want to know something more about the background of those cases. Just to round them off, so to speak.’

  Chapter 9

  THE PAVILION stood in the back of an extensive flower garden, it was half hidden by the tall oleander shrubs planted around it. Judge Dee sat down in the armchair in front of a high screen, decorated with a painting of plum blossoms. He motioned Tao Pan-te to take the chair by the small round table, where Feng’s steward had placed the tea-tray and a platter of candied fruit.

  It was very quiet in this secluded corner of the compound; there was only the humming of bees flying leisurely among the white oleander blossoms.

  Tao Pan-te waited respectfully till the judge would open the conversation. After he had taken a few sips from his tea, Judge Dee began affably:

  ‘I hear, Mr Tao, that you are known as a man of letters. Does your wine business and your household leave you sufficient leisure for literary pursuits?’

  ‘I am fortunate in having a dependable and experienced staff, Your Honour. All the routine business connected with my wine shops and restaurants I can leave to them. And, since I am unmarried, the administration of my household is quite simple.’

  ‘Allow me to come now straight to my subject, Mr Tao. I want to tell you, in the strictest confidence of course, that I suspect that both the Academician and the Queen Flower were murdered.’

  He watched Tao closely when saying this, but the impassive face of the wine merchant didn’t change. He asked calmly:

  ‘How then does Your Honour explain the fact that in neither of the two cases could anybody have entered the room?’

  ‘I can’t! But neither can I explain how the Academician, who on five nights in succession had slept with other women, suddenly became so deeply infatuated with the Queen Flower that he took his own life when she wouldn’t have him! And neither can I understand why the Queen Flower, when catching at her own throat, didn’t leave the marks of her long, pointed nails on her skin. There’s more to these two cases than meets the eye, Mr Tao.’ As Tao nodded slowly, the judge resumed : ‘As yet I only have some vague theories. I think, however, that your father’s suicide, which I am told took place in the same Red Pavilion, and under practically the same circumstances as that of the Academician, might provide a clue. I fully realize how painful this subject must be for you, but …’ He let his voice trail off.

  Tao Pan-te made no reply; he was deep in thought. At last he seemed to have reached a decision. He looked up and said in his quiet voice:

  ‘My father didn’t commit suicide, Your Honour. He was murdered. That knowledge has cast a dark shadow over my entire life, a shadow which will vanish only after I have succeeded in finding the foul murderer and have brought him to justice. For a son shall not live under one sky with his father’s murderer.’

  He paused. Looking straight ahead of him, he continued: ‘I was a boy of ten when it happened. Yet I remember every small detail, having gone over it again and again, thousands of times, in the ensuing years. My father was very fond of me, his only son, and taught me himself. On the afternoon of that fatal day he had been teaching me history. Towards dusk he received a message, and told me he had to go at once to the Red Pavilion, in the Hostel of Eternal Bliss. After he had left I took up the book he had been reading aloud from and found his folding fan. I knew my father was very fond of that fan, so I ran out to take it to him. I had never been in that hostel before, but the manager knew me and told me to walk straight on to the Red Pavilion.

  ‘I found the door standing ajar, went in and saw the Red Room. My father was lying slumped back in the armchair, in front of the bed, on the right. Out of the corner of my eye I saw another person, clad in a long red robe, standing in the left corner. But I didn’t pay any attention to him, for I was staring in speechless horror at the blood that
was covering my father’s breast. I ran up to him, and saw that he was dead. A small dagger was stuck in the left side of his throat. Half-distracted with fright and grief, I turned round to ask the other person what had happened. But he wasn’t there any more. I rushed out of the room to find someone, but I stumbled in the corridor, my head must have hit the wall or a pillar. For when I came to I was lying in my own bedroom, in our summer villa in the mountains. The maid told me that I had been ill, and that my mother had moved the entire household to the villa because a smallpox epidemic was ravaging the island. She added that my father had left, on a long journey. Thus I thought that it had all been only a bad nightmare. But its horrible details remained engraved on my memory.’

  He groped for his tea cup and took a long draught, then went on:

  ‘Later, when I had grown up, I was told that my father had committed suicide, having locked himself alone in the Red Room. But I understood at once that he had been murdered, and that I had seen the murderer, just when he had done the foul deed. After I had rushed out, the criminal fled, locking the door behind him- He must have thrown the key inside through the barred window, for I was told that it was found on the floor, on the inside of the door.’

  Tao sighed. He passed his hand over his eyes and resumed wearily:

  ‘I then began, very discreetly, an investigation. But every attempt led to a dead end. To begin with, all the official records of the case were lost. The then magistrate of Chin-hwa, a wise and energetic official, had recognized that the brothels were mainly responsible for the quick spread of the smallpox epidemic. He had made all the women vacate them, and had had the entire quarter burned down. The warden’s office caught fire also, and the files stored there went up in flames. I did find out, however, that my father had been in love with a courtesan called Green Jade, who had just been chosen Queen Flower. She had been a remarkable beauty, I was told, but she caught the disease soon after my father’s death and died a few days later. The official version of my father’s death was that he had killed himself because Green Jade had rebuffed him. Some persons who had been present when the magistrate heard Green Jade, just before she fell ill, assured me that the courtesan had stated that on the day before my father died she had informed him that she couldn’t accept his offer to redeem her because she loved another man. Unfortunately the magistrate didn’t ask her who that was. He only asked why my father had gone to the Red Room to commit suicide, and she replied that it must have been because she had often met him there.

  ‘I thought that the murderer’s motive might give me a clue to his identity. I was told that two other men had sought Green Jade’s favours. Feng Dai, who was then twenty-four, and the curio-dealer Wen Yuan, at that time about thirty-five. Wen had already been married for eight years without having any offspring; it was common knowledge that he was incapable of exercising his marital duties, and among the courtesans it was well known that he sought a vicarious satisfaction in humiliating and hurting women. He courted Green Jade only because he wanted to assert himself as an elegant man of the world. That left Feng Dai, who was a handsome bachelor then, and deeply in love with Green Jade. It was said that he planned to marry her as his First Wife.’

  Tao fell silent. He stared with unseeing eyes at the flowering bushes. Judge Dee casually turned his head to look at the screen. He had heard a rustling sound behind it. He strained his ears, but all was still again. He thought it must have been some dry leaves fluttering down. Then Tao fixed the judge with his large, melancholy eyes and resumed:

  ‘Vague rumours hinted at Feng having murdered my father. That it was Feng who had been Green Jade’s preferred lover, that he had met my father in the Red Room, and there killed him during a violent quarrel. Wen Yuan kept making veiled suggestions that he knew that was true. But when I pressed him for proof, he could only say that Green Jade had known it too, but had confirmed the suicide version in order to protect Feng. He added that he himself had seen Feng in the park, behind the Red Pavilion, at the time my father died. Thus all facts seemed to point at Feng.

  ‘Words fail me to describe, sir, how deeply this conclusion shocked me. Feng had been my father’s best friend, and after my father’s death he had become my mother’s trusted counsellor. When she had died and I had come of age, Feng helped me to continue my father’s business; he has always been as a second father to me. Was he my father’s murderer, who treated his victim’s family so kindly only because of remorse? Or were the rumours, kept alive by Feng’s enemy Wen Yuan, only malicious slander? Thus I have been torn by doubt, all these years. I have to associate daily with Feng, sir. Of course I never let him know my terrible suspicions. But all the time I am watching him, waiting for a word, a gesture that will prove him to be my father’s murderer. I really can’t…’

  His voice broke, he buried his face in his hands.

  Judge Dee remained silent. He thought he had heard again that faint sound behind the screen. This time it resembled the rustling of silk. He listened intently. As all remained quiet, he said gravely:

  ‘I am grateful that you told me all this, Mr Tao. There is indeed a strong resemblance to the Academician’s alleged suicide. I shall study carefully all the implications. For the moment I confine myself to verifying a few details. In the first place, why did the magistrate who dealt with the case rule that it had been suicide? You said he was a wise and competent official. He must surely have realized, just as you did later, that, although the room was locked, the key could have been thrown inside through the window or slipped through the crack under the door?’

  Tao looked up. He answered listlessly:

  ‘Just at that time the magistrate had his hands full with the smallpox epidemic, sir. It is said that people were dying like rats, the corpses were lying piled up by the roadside. My father’s relationship with Green Jade was well known, one can imagine that, having heard her statement, he thought it provided a simple and welcome solution.’

  ‘When you related that terrible boyhood experience,’ the judge resumed, ‘you stated that, when you entered the Red Room, the bedstead was on your right. At present, however, it is standing against the wall on the left. Are you sure you saw it on the right?’

  ‘Absolutely, sir! That scene is for ever before my mind’s eye. Perhaps the management shifted the furniture about later.’

  ‘I’ll look into that. One last question. You got only a glimpse of the person in the red robe, but you saw at least whether it was a man or a woman, I suppose?’

  Tao shook his head disconsolately.

  ‘I couldn’t, Your Honour. I only remember it was rather a tall person, and clad in a red robe. I have tried to verify whether someone wearing such a robe has been seen at the time in or near the Hostel of Eternal Bliss, but in vain.’

  ‘Red. is rarely worn by men,’ Judge Dee remarked pensively, ‘and decent girls wear a red dress only once, and that is on their wedding day. One would conclude, therefore, that the third person in that room was a courtesan.’

  ‘That’s what I thought too, sir! I did my utmost to find out whether Green Jade had sometimes worn a red dress. But nobody had ever seen her wearing red, she preferred green, because of her name-‘

  Tao fell silent. He pulled at his short moustache, then went on:

  ‘I would have left this island long ago, were it not that I know I shan’t be able to find rest anywhere as long as this riddle has not been solved. I also feel that, by continuing the business which my father built up here, I am fulfilling at least part of my filial duty. But I find life here very difficult, sir. Feng is always so kind to me, and his …’ He suddenly broke off. Giving the judge a quick look, he continued: ‘You’ll now understand that I can’t claim any merit for my literary hobbies; they are only an attempt at escape, sir. An escape from a reality that bewilders, and often frightens me …’

  He averted his eyes, evidently he kept himself under control with difficulty. In order to change the subject, Judge Dee asked:

  ‘Have you any id
ea who could have hated the present Queen Flower, Autumn Moon, deeply enough to want to murder her?’ Tao shook his head. He answered:

  ‘ I take no part in the hectic night life here, sir, and I have met the Queen Flower only at official functions. She impressed me as being a shallow and fickle woman, but nearly all of the courtesans are that way, or have become so because of their unfortunate profession. She was popular, and attended some party or other practically every night. I have heard that, until she was chosen Queen Flower a few months ago, she was rather liberal with her favours. Afterwards, however, she would sleep only with special patrons, distinguished and wealthy persons, and they had to court her assiduously before she consented. None of those affairs developed into a regular liaison, as far as I know, and I never heard that anybody offered to redeem her. I presume that her sharp tongue deterred her clients. The Academician seems to have been the first to offer to buy her out. If someone hated her, the reason must lie in the past. Before she came to the island, at any rate.’

  ‘I see. Well, I won’t detain you any longer, Mr Tao. I’ll just stay here a while to finish my tea. Please tell Mr Feng that I’ll come to his office presently.’

  A MEETING IN A GARDEN PAVILION

  As soon as Tao was out of earshot, the judge sprang up and looked behind the screen. The slightly built girl standing there uttered a suppressed cry. She glanced wildly about her, then turned to the flight of steps that led down into the shrubbery at the back of the pavilion. Judge Dee grabbed her arm and pulled her back. He asked sternly:

  ‘Who are you, and why were you eavesdropping?’

  She bit her lips and looked up angrily at the judge. She had a regular, intelligent face, with large expressive eyes and long, curved eyebrows. She wore her hair combed straight back, gathered in a chignon at her neck. Her black damask robe was of simple style, but it went very well with her slender, shapely figure. The only ornaments she wore were two ear-pendants of green jade, and she carried a long, red scarf round her shoulders. She shook Judge Dee’s hand from her arm and burst out: