Necklace And Calabash

by Robert Van Gulik

  In the hole in the wall was the shape of a standing woman, dressed in a blue robe stained with chalk and crusted cement, her head at an unnatural angle on her breast, the long hair hanging down in a tangled mass. The innkeeper screamed as the corpse began to sag and slowly collapsed onto the floor.

  Judge Dee bent down and silently pointed at the two half-decayed sweetmeats that had dropped out of her left sleeve, black with crowding ants.

  ‘I admit that you didn’t have much time, Wei,’ he said coldly, ‘but to immure the dead body without having inspected her dress was a bad blunder. The sweetmeats attracted the ants, and those industrious insects provided me with a clue to where you had hidden the body. Speak up, how did you murder your wife?’

  ‘It … it was the time of the evening rice,’ Wei stammered, his head down. ‘All the servants were busy serving the guests in their rooms. I strangled her, in my office. Then I carried her here… . She …’ He burst into sobs.

  ‘In due time, Siew,’ Judge Dee said, ‘you’ll arraign Wei on the charge of premeditated murder. You’ll see that the murderer is locked up in jail, Liu.’ He turned round on his heels, motioning the others to follow him. While they were crossing the hall he pointed at the counter.

  ‘Take both drawers out, Siew, and bring them to the court hall. With all contents intact, mind you! We now return to Headquarters, gentlemen.’

  Inside the palankeen the Superintendent spoke, for the first time.

  ‘A remarkable example of deduction, Excellency. However, it was only a crude crime of violence, perpetrated in a low-class setting. May I ask what bearing it has upon the grave matters of the palace we are concerned with?’

  ‘You shall learn that presently,’ the judge replied evenly.

  Chapter 20

  When they were back in the court hall, Judge Dee ordered the captain to place the two drawers on the bench. Then he told him to fetch a large bowl filled with a lukewarm cleansing liquid, and a piece of soft white silk.

  Seated at the bench, the judge poured himself a cup of tea. The three men waited in silence till the captain reappeared. When Siew had placed a porcelain bowl and a piece of silk on the bench, Judge Dee said:

  ‘I now come to the question of the necklace. It was stolen by Tai Min, cashier of the Kingfisher. He had been hired for that purpose by a notorious gangster, temporarily residing in this town.’

  Colonel Kang sat up. He asked tensely:

  ‘How was it stolen, Excellency?’

  ‘The gangster’s superiors had provided the cashier with precise instructions as to how the necklace could be stolen from outside: namely, by swimming across the moat to the north-west watchtower, then walking along the ledge at the base of the north palace wall and scaling the wall, thus reaching the pavilion of Her Highness. The necklace happened to be lying on the side-table to the left of the moon-door, and the thief had but to stretch out his hand to take it. I trust, Kang, that you’ll take the necessary measures at once to eliminate this serious gap in the security provisions.’

  Colonel Kang bowed, then he leaned back in his chair with a deep sigh. Judge Dee resumed:

  ‘After he had stolen the necklace, the cashier decided not to hand it over to the gangster who had hired him. He wanted to keep it, and sell the pearls one by one.’

  ‘An outrageous crime!’ the Superintendent exclaimed angrily. ‘Lese-majesty! That man ought to have been …’

  ‘He was a simple-minded youngster,’ the judge said quietly. ‘He didn’t realize the implications of what he was doing. He wanted money, in order to win the love of the woman who he thought was waiting for him in a village in the neighbouring district. Let us not judge him too harshly. His life was grey and dull, and he longed for love and happiness in a far-away place, beyond the mountains. Many have dreamed such dreams.’ Stroking his beard, Judge Dee cast a glance at Colonel Kang’s impassive face. He resumed in a businesslike manner, ‘When he had come back from the palace, the cashier paid a brief visit to the Kingfisher inn, then rode off. But he was waylaid by the gangster’s men, and when he told them he didn’t have the necklace, he was tortured. He died before he could reveal where he had hidden it. Captain Siew, I shall now hear your testimony.’

  The captain knelt down at once.

  ‘Report what you found on the dead body of Tai Min, after it had been discovered in the river!’

  ‘He only wore his jacket, Excellency. In the sleeves we found a package of his name-cards, a map of this province, a string of thirty-two cash, and his abacus.’

  ‘That’s all, Captain.’ Leaning forward, the judge resumed, ‘Tai Min hit upon a very simple but very effective hiding-place for the necklace, gentlemen. He cut the string, and concealed the loose pearls in an object which he as cashier, was handling every day, and which everybody would therefore take for granted. This!’

  He took the abacus from the drawer in front of him, and held it up.

  As his two guests gave the counting-frame an incredulous look, Judge Dee snapped the wooden frame of the abacus and let the dark brown beads glide from their parallel wire rods into the porcelain bowl. Then he began to shake the bowl, making the beads roll about in the lukewarm lye. While doing so he went on:

  ‘Prior to replacing the original wooden beads by the pearls, he had covered each pearl with a layer of brown gum, the sort cashiers use to stick bills together. The gum hardened, and even a night in the river did not dissolve it. This warm lye, however, should prove more effective.’

  The judge picked two beads out of the bowl. He rubbed them dry carefully on the piece of silk, then showed them to the others in the palm of his open hand: two perfectly rounded pearls, shimmering with a pure white gleam. He resumed gravely:

  ‘Here in this bowl repose the pearls of the Imperial necklace, gentlemen. Presently I shall verify in your presence whether all the eighty-four are there. Captain, fetch a silk thread and a needle!’

  The Superintendent stared at the bowl, his thin lips compressed. Colonel Kang looked steadily at Judge Dee’s impassive face, his mailed fists clenching the sword across his knees.

  Captain Siew came back in a surprisingly short time. Standing at the bench, he cleaned the pearls, then threaded them with his thick but very nimble fingers. After the judge had counted them and found that all were there, he put the necklace in his sleeve and said:

  ‘The gangsters who searched Tai Min’s body went as far as slitting his belly open, but they never gave the abacus so much as a second glance. For one expects a cashier to carry an abacus. It was the most obvious hiding-place, and therefore the best.’

  ‘If the abacus was found on the cashier’s dead body,’ the Superintendent said in his measured voice, ‘how did it get back to the counter of the inn?’

  Judge Dee gave him a sour look.

  ‘I put it back there myself,’ he replied curtly, ‘without realizing what it really was. It is true that at that time I did not yet know that a pearl necklace was missing, but I should have remembered it afterwards. I discovered it late-but just in time.’ He rose, turned round, and made a bow in front of the wall-table. Lifting the yellow roll in both hands, he told the captain, ‘You will go back to the inn now, and wind up affairs there.’ And to the two others: ‘We proceed to the Water Palace.’

  As soon as the cortège had crossed the broad marble bridge across the moat, the monumental palace gate was thrown open and the palankeens were carried inside.

  In the first courtyard the two rows of guardsmen lined up there presented arms. Judge Dee leaned out of the window and beckoned the officer in command.

  ‘When I was leaving here the night before last in my guise of Doctor Liang, my sword was taken from the black palankeen assigned to me. You’ll see to it that it is located at once. It can be recognized by two characters inlaid in gold in the blade, reading “Rain Dragon”.’ As the officer saluted smartly, the judge told the Superintendent: ‘Now we’ll go directly to your office.’

  They descended from the palankee
n in front of the lofty hall. The judge beckoned Colonel Kang, then strode inside. By the Superintendent’s desk his councillor was talking in a subdued voice to three courtiers. They knelt down at once.

  Judge Dee pushed the yellow roll into his robe and spoke:

  ‘Rise and report about the condition of the Lady Hydrangea!’

  The councillor scrambled to his feet and made a low bow, his hands respectfully folded in his sleeves.

  ‘The attending physician reported, Excellency, that the Lady Hydrangea was suffering from a sudden attack of brain fever, not uncommon in this hot and moist climate. She was visited by terrible hallucinations. After sedatives had been administered, however, she fell into a deep sleep. This morning she had so much improved that she could be conveyed back from the dispensary to the apartments of Her Imperial Highness.’

  The judge nodded. ‘Where is the safe?’

  The councillor hesitated but Judge Dee caught his quick glance at the flower painting on the wall. He went there and pulled the picture aside. Pointing at the square door of solid iron embedded in the wall, he ordered the Superintendent: ‘Open up!’

  Seated at the high desk, Judge Dee went through the bundles of papers he had taken from the safe, slowly tugging at his moustache. He found that the documents comprised confidential personnel reports and other important papers relating to the administration of the Water Palace. Nothing about the private affairs of the Third Princess, nor about the scheme of the necklace. He got up and put the papers back, motioning the Superintendent to lock the safe.

  ‘Lead me to your office, Kang. The Superintendent shall accompany us.’

  The colonel’s office was simply furnished but scrupulously clean. Its broad window afforded a view of an extensive, walled-in yard where a few guardsmen were practising archery. Colonel Kang unlocked the iron strongbox on the floor and the judge inspected its contents. But again he could find nothing that looked suspect. Putting his hands behind his back, he told the colonel:

  Tour days ago, towards midnight, there was a disturbance in the palace grounds. I want a report on that, Kang.’

  The colonel pulled out a drawer of his plain wooden desk and placed a large ledger before the judge. Each page was neatly divided into small numbered squares, charting the duties of the guard. He leafed it through till he found the correct date, then studied the brief note written in the margin. Looking up, he said:

  ‘Half an hour before midnight the roof of a tea pavilion in the sixth courtyard, in the north-west corner of the grounds, suddenly caught fire. I was in another section of the palace at that time, but my second-in-command sent a platoon there at once and they put out the fire without difficulty. It seems, however, that the Chief Eunuch saw the smoke and sent word that he wanted the entire area cordoned off at once, to make sure that no flying sparks reached the apartments of Her Highness. My man gave the necessary orders to the guards on the west and north ramparts. They returned to their posts one hour after midnight.’

  ‘Can you prove that?’

  The colonel turned the page over. A red slip of paper was stuck to it, bearing the seal of the Chief Eunuch, with a few scrawled instructions.

  Judge Dee nodded.

  ‘Now we shall repair together to the. Chief Eunuch’s office, gentlemen.’

  The news of the arrival of the Imperial Inquisitor had spread already throughout the palace. The sentries at the Chief Eunuch’s office opened the gate wide for the three visitors, and the obese eunuch came rushing out to meet them. He threw himself on the floor and touched the flagstones with his forehead.

  THE CHIEF EUNUCH SHOWS JUDGE DEE A RARE ORCHID

  ‘You’ll wait here in the corridor,’ the judge told his two companions. ‘I shall go inside to ask permission to cross the Golden Bridge.’

  He knocked at the gold-lacquered door. When there was no answer, he went inside, closing the door behind him.

  There was no one in the elegant library. A musty smell of old books mingled with the heavy fragrance of the orchids on the window-sill. Judge Dee looked outside. The old man was standing by a high rock down in the garden, clad in a plain, long-sleeved morning-robe, his head covered by a gauze house-cap. The judge went into the garden and followed the narrow paved path, zigzagging among miniature gold-fish ponds and flowering shrubs. Very small coloured birds were twittering among the green leaves, still glittering with dew.

  The Chief Eunuch turned round. Looking at the judge with his heavy-lidded eyes, he said:

  ‘A marvellous thing happened overnight, Dee! Look, this rare flower suddenly opened! Observe the delicately shaped petals, the velvety colour! I had this plant brought here from the southern regions by a special courier. For three months I tended it personally. But I had never dared to hope to make it bloom!’

  Judge Dee bent over the orchid that was as large as a man’s hand. It was rooted in the hollow of a palm tree, nestling against the rock. Its yellow petals, showing violet-black spots, gave the flower an almost feline grace. The orchid sent forth a faint but very distinct fragrance.

  ‘I must confess I never saw anything like it,’ he said as he righted himself.

  And you’ll never see the like again,’ the old man said quietly. He snapped the stem with his long fingernails, and raised the flower to his nose. Slowly moving it to and fro, he went on, ‘When you came here the day before yesterday, Dee, I knew at once that you couldn’t be just a doctor. Seeing me with my pet executioner standing behind me, you should’ve been trembling with fear, grovelling even. Instead you calmly exchanged profound remarks with me, as if with your equal. Next time you put on a disguise, take care that you also disguise your personality, Dee!’

  ‘You made determined efforts to have me eliminated,’ the judge remarked. ‘But luck was on my side, and I shall presently return the pearl necklace to Her Imperial Highness. Therefore I ask your permission to cross the Golden Bridge.’

  The old man turned the flower round in his thin hand.

  ‘Don’t misunderstand me, Dee. Yes, I did want power. The well-nigh unlimited power possessed by him who knows an Emperor’s guilty secret. But I also had a quite different, much stronger motive. I wanted to have the Third Princess with me forever, Dee. Wanted to look after her tenderly, as tenderly as I looked after this rare flower. I wanted to go on seeing her every day, hearing her lovely voice, knowing everything she does … always. And now she will be ravished by a brutish soldier… .’

  Suddenly he crushed the orchid in his claw-like hand and threw it onto the ground. ‘Let’s go inside,’ he said harshly. ‘I am suffering from many chronic ailments, and it is time that I take my drops.’

  Judge Dee followed him inside the library.

  The old man sat down in the enormous, carved armchair, and unlocked a drawer. He took from it a miniature calabash of rock crystal, its stopper secured by a red silk ribbon. When he was about to uncork it, the judge stepped forward and locked the frail wrist in his large hand. He said curtly:

  ‘The evil scheme must be destroyed root and branch.’

  The Chief Eunuch let go of the crystal vial. He pressed a bud in the elaborate flower motif carved in the rim of the desk. Prom the shallow drawer that appeared he took a sealed envelope. He handed it to the judge, a contemptuous sneer twisting his thin blue lips:

  ‘Have them tortured to death, every single one of them! Their miserable souls shall serve me as my slaves, in the Hereafter!’

  The judge broke the seal and glanced at the slips of thin paper. Each was marked with a name and rank; then there were notes of dates and sums of money, all written in the same, spidery hand. He nodded and put the envelope into his sleeve.

  The old man took the stopper out of the small crystal calabash and poured its colourless content in a teacup. Having emptied the cup at one draught, he leaned back into the armchair, his thickly veined hands grasping the armrests. His hooded eyes closed, his breath came in gasps. Then he let go of the armrests and clutched at his breast. A violent shiver shook his
frail body. Suddenly the blue lips moved.

  ‘You have my permission to cross the Golden Bridge.’

  His head sunk to his breast; his hands fell limply into his lap.

  Chapter 21

  The Superintendent and Colonel Kang stood waiting in the corridor, in an uneasy silence. The obese eunuch was still on his knees. Judge Dee closed the gold-lacquered door. Handing the envelope to the Superintendent, he said:

  ‘In here you’ll find full particulars about everyone who took part in the foul scheme. You shall go back to your office and have the main criminals arrested at once. Thereafter you shall institute a most exhaustive inquiry. You may follow me, Colonel. I have the Chief Eunuch’s permission to pass the bridge.’ And to the eunuch: ‘Lead the way!’

  When the three men had arrived at the foot of the bridge, the fat eunuch beat the small golden gong suspended on a marble pillar. After a while four court ladies came out of the building on the other side, and the judge and Colonel Kang went across. Judge Dee told the ladies that the Inquisitor requested the honour of an audience. They were led into a side-room where they waited for a long time. Apparently the Princess was still at her toilet.

  At last two court ladies came and conducted the judge and Colonel Kang along an outside corridor to a covered balcony, lined by heavy, red-lacquered pillars, on the east side of the palace. From there one had a fine view over the woodland that led up to the mountains. The Third Princess was standing by the farthest pillar, a round fan in her hand. Behind her stood a frail, elderly lady, her grey hair combed back straight from her high forehead. The judge and the colonel knelt.

  ‘Rise and report, Dee!’ the Princess ordered in her clear voice.