The Emperor's Pearl

by Robert Van Gulik

  ‘In the first place: what could have been the doctor’s motive? I think it was a feeling of frustration that brought him to his depraved debauches, as an indirect protest against his domineering wife who did not allow him to take another woman in the house. The man had no other outlet, for his wife’s jealousy and the decorum inherent in his profession precluded open association with prostitutes or courtesans. And perhaps there was a cruel streak in him anyway. We know really very little about all those things, Hoong.

  ‘However this may be, at first Pien vented his perverted passion on common, uneducated women provided for him first by his henchman Tong Mai, later by Sia Kwang; he must have shifted from Tong to Sia for the same reasons as quoted in my theory about Kou. Now the terrible thing about such perverts is that they crave for ever stronger excitement. Coarse, vulgar women soon can’t satisfy Pien any more, he wants to humiliate by his sordid passion refined ladies, and Kou’s secondary wife, beautiful and cultured Amber, becomes the target for his vile lusts. He sees her regularly, for he is Kou’s First Lady’s physician, as the curio-dealer Yang told me. However, to maltreat the wife of a prominent citizen is no small matter, Pien has to bide his time. He tells Sia to watch affairs in the Kou household; if Sia can get the Amber Lady for him, only for one night, he will be richly rewarded.’

  Judge Dee sat up and took a few sips from his tea. Settling back into his chair again he continued:

  ‘In this second theory we must assign quite different roles to Tong and Sia. In the first theory we assumed that Sia didn’t know about the plan of Tong and Amber until Kou told him about it. Now, on the contrary, we must take it that Sia had learned from Tong about the latter having agreed to meet Amber in the deserted house, there to exchange a pearl for a large amount of gold. But Tong is a careful scoundrel, he did not tell Sia that the pearl was a hoax, and that he was planning to elope with Amber. Sia sees a chance for getting the reward Dr Pien promised him. He prepares a sketch-map of the deserted house and the pavilion on the basis of information wormed out of Tong, then he goes to Dr Pien and tells him that now the doctor can get the Amber Lady into his hands. If Dr Pien can manage to get Tong out of the way that night, he, Sia, is willing to go to the deserted house in Tong’s place, and lock Amber up in the pavilion. Thereafter Pien can go there and have his way with the ” chicken in the coop “. Sia will take the gold and the pearl, and he and Pien will divide the loot. They’ll arrange that the next morning the Amber Lady is discovered in the pavilion. Everybody, including Kou, will then ascribe her terrible experience to an outrage committed by vagrant rowdies.

  ‘Dr Pien readily agrees with this proposal. He’ll not only get the Amber Lady into his hands, but also ten gold bars, which nicely solves his financial problems. I doubt whether Pien believed the story about the pearl. He is clever enough to have put two and two together, and to realize that Tong had invented the story of the pearl because he was planning to elope with the Amber Lady. But that does not concern him.

  ‘Pien puts poison in Tong’s wine-cup during the entertainment at Marble Bridge. That rids him of a troublesome henchman and nets him a sizable sum by betting against his own boat. Later the Amber Lady finds Sia waiting for her in the pavilion. He tries to overpower her, but she puts up resistance and suddenly draws a knife. In the ensuing scuffle Sia is wounded, and he kills her, either accidentally or on purpose. Anyway this killing will give him more power over Pien. Sia takes the gold, but my arrival prevents him from making a search for the pearl. Sia goes back to the city and reports his failure to Dr Pien. He tells the doctor that he wants more than the share agreed upon, for Pien is responsible for the death of Amber. Sia does not realize, however, that he is dealing with a ruthless maniac. Pien feigns to agree, and works on Sia’s greed by remarking that it would be a pity to let the pearl go. Sia, who doesn’t realize that the pearl can never be sold, lets himself be persuaded by Pien to go together with him to the deserted house this morning, in order to get the pearl. Pien lets Sia search the pavilion, then kills him. Give me another cup, Hoong, my throat is parched!’

  While pouring out the tea, the sergeant asked:

  ‘What would Dr Pien have done this morning, sir, after he had murdered Sia?’

  ‘He would have concealed himself among the trees along the path leading to the villa, I think, waiting till Mr Kwang had passed by on his way to their appointment. The doctor would have given Kwang sufficient time for discovering the ransacked pavilion, then he would have gone there too. Before leaving his hiding-place, however, the doctor saw you and me walk along there. That was even better, now he would have two witnesses! He followed us to the pavilion.

  ‘Well, the rest is very much the same as I explained in my first theory. Dr Pien had the same opportunity as Kou Yuan-liang for recognizing Miss Lee in the street, for Pien also had left the session earlier. The doctor rushed to the north quarter and strangled Mrs Meng. To sum up: Dr Pien had to forgo his amusement with the Amber Lady, but he has got rid of two expensive and troublesome henchmen, and all his financial troubles are over, for he has obtained ten gold bars and, in addition, a considerable sum won at the races. Neat case, no loose ends left.’

  Judge Dee paused. He listened for a while to the distant rumble of thunder that came from outside. As he was replacing the wet towel round his neck again, Sergeant Hoong observed:

  ‘This second theory, sir, seems to me more probable than the first, if I may say so. It is simpler, for one thing. And other points against Dr Pien are that he tried to maintain that Tong Mai had died from a natural cause, and that he told Your Honour a deliberate lie when he said that he had seen Sia go back to the city after the races.’

  ‘Significant, but not conclusive,’ the judge said. ‘Tong Mai’s symptoms seemed indeed to point to heart failure. And, since Sia’s face is disfigured by a scar, Dr Pien may well have mistaken in good faith another man with a similar scar for Sia. If Pien is innocent, that is!’

  ‘Who would have repaired the pavilion, Your Honour?’

  ‘I am inclined to believe it was Tong Mai. He had lived there, and consequently knew the place thoroughly. He did not repair the pavilion in order to store the curios he traded in, however, as I wrongly assumed at first. The barred window, the heavy door, the new lock-all these precautions were not meant to prevent outsiders from entering the pavilion, but to prevent someone confined there from getting out! The pavilion was even better suited for secret debauches with unwilling victims than the house of the old procuress behind the Taoist temple. ” No one will hear the chicken cackle,” as Sia told Miss Violet Liang.’

  Sergeant Hoong nodded. He thought for a while, slowly tugging at his thin goatee. Suddenly he frowned and said:

  ‘Your Honour said that three suspects headed the list.

  Would Mr Kwang Min be the third? I must confess that-‘

  He broke off. Hurried steps of nailed boots resounded in the corridor outside. The door opened and the headman came bursting inside.

  ‘Dr Pien has been assaulted and nearly killed, sir!’ he panted. ‘Down the street here, in front of the Temple of Confucius!’

  Chapter 15

  JUDGE DEE GAVE the sergeant a startled look. He righted himself in his chair and asked the headman: ‘Who did it?’

  ‘The man escaped, Your Honour! Dr Pien is still lying in the street where he was knocked down.’

  ‘How did it happen?’

  ‘The doctor was attacked while walking along the street, sir, towards the bridge over the waterway. The ruffian knocked him down, but, just when he was going to take the doctor’s money, Mr Yang, who had heard him cry for help, came rushing out of his curio-shop. The man let go of the doctor, and ran for it, with Mr Yang on his heels. But he had disappeared in the maze of crooked alleys on the other side of the waterway before Mr Yang could catch him. Mr Yang made sure that Dr Pien was still alive and conscious, then he called the gatekeeper of the temple and came here to warn us.’ The headman took a deep breath, and resumed: ‘Dr Pie
n insisted that he should not be moved until another doctor could verify that there were no dangerous fractures.’

  Judge Dee rose.

  ‘We’ll go out there at once. Call the coroner, headman, and let your men bring a stretcher. Come along, Hoong!’

  The sky was still covered by low-hanging, dark clouds. They walked quickly down the steaming hot street, keeping close to the high outer wall of the tribunal. Arrived at the Temple of Confucius, they saw a cluster of people gathered near the gatehouse. The headman roughly pushed the onlookers aside to let Judge Dee pass.

  Dr Pien lay spread-eagled on the ground, at the foot of the wall. Yang was placing a folded jacket under his head. Pien’s cap had fallen off, his topknot had become loose, and his long greying hair was sticking in moist strands to his livid face. There was a large lump above his left ear, the left side of his face was badly bruised. His robe, a mass of dust, was torn from shoulder to waist. As the coroner squatted down by his side the doctor muttered:

  ‘Check chest, hips, right arm and right leg. My head is all right. The bruise is painful, but I don’t think the temple has been damaged.’

  While the coroner began to go over Pien’s chest with his sensitive fingers, Judge Dee stooped and asked:

  ‘How did it happen, doctor?’

  ‘I was walking along here, on my way to see a woman in labour. In Halfmoon Street, over on the other side of the bridge. There was no one about. I …’ He broke off, his lips twitched in pain as the coroner felt the ribs.

  ‘The villain attacked him from behind!’ the curio-dealer blurted out angrily.

  ‘I suddenly heard furtive footsteps behind me,’ Dr Pien went on in a weak voice. ‘Just when I wanted to look round, I received a blow against the left side of my head that smashed me against the wall. I fell down, half-dazed. I vaguely saw a tall ruffian looming over me. I began to shout for help, but he silenced me by kicking me viciously. Then he bent over me and tore my robe loose. Suddenly he stopped. I saw him run away towards the bridge, with Mr Yang behind him.’

  ‘He was a tall fellow, clad in a dark-brown jacket and trousers, sir!’ Yang said excitedly. ‘He had bound his hair up with a rag.’

  ‘Could you see his face, Mr Yang?’ Judge Dee asked.

  ‘Got only a glimpse, sir. Rather round face, with short beard and whiskers. That’s about it, isn’t it, doctor?’

  Dr Pien nodded.

  ‘Do you as a rule carry much money on your person?’ the judge asked him. As Pien shook his head, Judge Dee asked again: ‘No important papers?’

  ‘A few prescriptions, and one or two receipted bills,’ Dr Pien muttered.

  The coroner rose. He said cheerfully:

  ‘No need to worry, doctor! Your chest is badly bruised, but no ribs broken, as far as I can see. Right elbow is wrenched, and your knee too. I would like to examine you more carefully in my office.’

  ‘Put the doctor on the stretcher,’ Judge Dee told the coroner. And, to the headman: ‘Send four of your men to Halfmoon Street. Let them make a thorough search for a ruffian as just described by Mr Yang. Fellow is left-handed.’ Thereupon the judge turned to the gatekeeper and snapped at him: ‘Didn’t you see or hear anything? What were you doing? Did nobody ever tell you that you are supposed to guard the temple?’

  ‘I … I had just dozed off, Excellency!’ the frightened man stammered. ‘In my lodge next to the gate, I was. I was roused by Mr Yang hammering on the door.’

  ‘I would have been having my afternoon nap too,’ Yang said. ‘It so happened, however, that my assistant had been sorting out a rather valuable collection of jade pieces in the shop downstairs, so I went down to make sure he had locked everything away properly before he left for his noon rice. When I was down in the shop I heard a cry for help outside, and rushed out into the street at once. Saw the ruffian tearing at Dr Pien’s robe. He heard me and ran. I went after him, but I wasn’t fast enough. Old age is catching up with me, I am afraid,’ he added with a rueful smile.

  ‘You probably saved the doctor’s life, Mr Yang,’ the judge said. ‘You may come with us to the tribunal now, and write out an official statement. Lower the stretcher, constable! And don’t touch the doctor!’

  He watched the efforts of the coroner and Mr Yang to get Dr Pien on to the stretcher. With Sergeant Hoong’s help they got him comfortably established there. As the two constables were carefully lifting the stretcher up, the judge said in an undertone to Hoong:

  ‘The time was well chosen. During the siesta few persons are about. And the quarter across the bridge is a veritable rabbit-warren, an excellent place to hide.’ He motioned the sergeant and the headman to follow him.

  While the three men were walking back to the tribunal, with the stretcher bearers and the coroner and Yang behind them, Judge Dee said to the headman:

  ‘Take a horse and ride to the landing-stage as fast as you can. Board Mr Kwang’s junk, and summon him to come to the tribunal. If he isn’t there, you wait for him. Hurry up!’ As the headman ran ahead, the judge whispered to Sergeant Hoong: ‘You go to Mr Kou’s house at once, and check whether he is taking his siesta!’

  When Judge Dee was back in his private office, he sat down at his desk and poured himself a cup of tea. He emptied it in one draught, then leaned his elbows on the desk. Knitting his eyebrows he tried to bring some order in the ideas his mind was teeming with. Something was wrong about this latest development, something connected with a vague intuition he had felt all along about this case. His soaking wet, grey robe was clinging to his back and shoulders, but he did not even notice it.

  After a long while he suddenly straightened himself. He muttered: ‘Yes, that could be the solution! Everything fits -except the motive!’ He sat back in his chair, and tried to make up his mind what would be the wisest course to follow. The explanation that had occurred to him was not beyond the bounds of probability; but was he justified to take action on the basis of an intuitive feeling only? Surely a theory arrived at by careful logical deduction should take precedence over mere intuition? Or could he work out perhaps a scheme that would enable him to test his intuition and his logical reasoning-both at the same time? Stroking his long beard he again sank into deep thought.

  Thus the coroner found him when he came to report, half an hour later.

  ‘Dr Pien is doing all right, Your Honour,’ he said with satisfaction. ‘I have put an ointment on his chest, bandaged it, and placed his right arm in a sling. He can walk-with a stick, that is. The doctor asked whether he could go home now, sir. He wants to take a good rest.’

  ‘Tell him that he can take that rest here, in the tribunal,’ the judge said curtly. Seeing the coroner’s astonished look, he added: ‘I want to ask him a few more questions, later.’

  Not long after the coroner had taken his leave, Sergeant Hoong came in. Judge Dee motioned him to sit down on the stool in front of his desk, and asked eagerly: ‘Did you find Mr Kou at home?’

  ‘No sir. His house steward informed me that Mr Kou had said that it was too hot for taking a siesta inside, and that he would go to the Temple of the City god, to burn incense. The Amber Lady’s coffin has been temporarily placed there, pending an auspicious date for the funeral. Mr Kou came back just now. I told him to stay at home, because Your Honour would probably want to summon him to the tribunal later.’ Giving the judge an anxious look, he asked: ‘What does the attack on Dr Pien mean, Your Honour?’

  ‘It may well mean just what it appears to be,’ Judge Dee replied slowly, ‘namely an attempt at robbing the doctor. If that is so, then the incident doesn’t invalidate my theory about Dr Pien’s eventual guilt. If, on the other hand, it was meant as a murderous attack, then Dr Pien must be innocent; without realizing it himself, he must know something that could lead us to the real criminal-who therefore wanted to silence him. In that case we must concentrate on my theory about Mr Kou. His sentimental trip to the temple just now may have been a pretext to give him an opportunity for hiring a ruffian to kill Dr Pien. T
he doctor wanted to go home, by the way, but I ordered him to stay here, so as to prevent an eventual second attempt on his life. I am glad you instructed Mr Kou to stay home until further notice. That leaves only my third suspect unaccounted for, namely Mr Kwang Min.’

  ‘So it was indeed Kwang who is the third!’ Sergeant Hoong exclaimed. ‘But why did you add him to the list of suspects, sir? It’s of course true that Kwang could answer the description of Dr Pien’s assailant, but you had selected him already before this new development had taken place.’

  Judge Dee smiled faintly.

  ‘I had to include Mr Kwang, Hoong! As soon as I had discovered the meaning of a missing domino.’

  ‘A domino?’

  ‘Yes. A double-blank, as a matter of fact. Last night someone purloined a domino from the set I and my ladies were playing with on board my boat. The only persons who had an opportunity for taking that domino were Kou, Pien and Kwang. Pien and Kou when they came on board to report to me that the dragonboats were ready to start; the maid who was serving tea had then pushed the dominos in the pool aside, turning some of them with their face up. And Kwang had the opportunity when he came up on deck while I and my ladies had interrupted our game and were standing at the railing, admiring the festive water scene.’

  ‘But why should the criminal want a domino, sir?’

  ‘Because he has an alert mind,’ the judge answered with a wan smile, ‘much more alert than mine, as a matter of fact! When he saw a double-blank domino lying on the table, he was struck by its close resemblance to the markers used by the guards of the city gates. He saw that at once, but it took me quite some time before I realized it! It flashed through his mind that it would be awkward if his henchman Sia Kwang, returning to the city after closing time, should have to prove his identity to the guards at the south gate. If any inquiries were made later regarding persons returning to the city at a late hour, either in connection with Tong’s murder or the maltreatment of the Amber Lady in the deserted house, the guards might remember Sia, especially because of that scar on his face. The criminal therefore purloined the domino, on the spur of the moment. Later, he scrawled an arbitrary number on it, and gave it to Sia. Sia actually used it when he came back to the city to report to his principal what had happened in the pavilion. For the corporal at the south gate returned the false marker to me.’