“No, I’m sorry,” she said. “But it is possible she jilted him after Mrs. Gibson gave her the raise. She said that the girl always seemed in need of money. That she would take on extra embroidery work from the neighbors. Do you think she did it to support her parents? Are they unable to care for themselves?”
“Her parents still work,” he said. “They seemed in fine health. They both have a trade. Her father is a woodcarver and her mother embroiders lotus slippers. They also get help from the missionaries. That is how the girl learned English, and why she didn’t have bound feet.”
“So if her parents weren’t solely reliant on her to support them, why else would a young lady need money?” Lady Li wondered aloud. “She wasn’t saving for a wedding since she chose the job over the boy. So what was it?”
“Could be any number of things,” Inspector Gong said. “Could be nothing. Young women like to shop. Maybe she just wanted a new dress so she could look fashionable while she walked around the legation.” He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Are you making fun of me?” she asked teasingly.
“I’m just imagining you in those fine new clothes,” he said. Lady Li blushed. “Will I get another chance to see you in them?”
“Perhaps,” she said. “I did enjoy my time with Mrs. Gibson today. I think I might visit her again.”
Their eyes lingered on one another for a bit. It went unsaid that she was also enjoying her visit with Inspector Gong. He had the feeling that she had missed him as well.
He cleared his throat. “Or she could have been saving money for a more nefarious purpose. Perhaps she had a gambling problem or an opium addiction.”
“How dreadful,” Lady Li said turning back to her teacup. “Well, it was probably not opium. She wouldn’t be able to work if her mind was in the clouds.”
“You do have a point there,” he said. “Maybe her parents know.”
“If they do they probably won’t tell you,” she said. “They won’t want to say anything that could show their daughter in a bad light.”
“Well, that is true of almost everyone I interrogate,” he said. “But I always get them to talk.”
“Fortunately, I did get Mr. Gibson to agree to release the girl’s body to them,” she said.
“You did?” he asked, surprised. “How clever you are. How did you do it?”
“I cannot reveal all my womanly secrets to you,” she said with a smirk. “But, stupid me, I did not ask where it was or how they would get it.”
“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “Leave the gory details to me. Did you learn anything else of note? You were there an awfully long time.”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “But I know one of the families who lives across the street from the Gibsons, in one of the houses where the killer could have been. I’ll have to try to call on Lady Highcastle and see what I can find out.”
“Good,” he said. “But don’t try to do too much too fast. You don’t want to make yourself obvious.”
“Well it didn’t help that an investigator was waiting for me outside the legation,” she said with a quirk of her eyebrow.
“Hmm, you are probably right about that,” he said. “But I couldn’t resist. I haven’t seen you in so long.” He paused. “I missed you,” he finally dared to say softly.
The playful smile dropped from her face and she looked away. At first, he thought he had offended her. But then she stood and walked to the wall. Inspector Gong stood as well, expecting her to dismiss him. Instead, she moved a small table with a vase on it slightly to the left. She then walked over to Inspector Gong and put her arms around his neck.
“I missed you too,” she said in nearly a whisper.
Inspector Gong pulled her to him and kissed her passionately. He felt his desire rise and he ran his hands over her body.
“Oh, woman,” he groaned. “I need you.”
“And I you,” she said softly. “But…we cannot. In the Forbidden City, I was free. But here, even now I am watched. I moved the vase so he cannot see us, but I am sure he is still listening.”
“He is your servant,” he said. “So what if he knows? Order him to turn the other way.”
“It is not that simple,” she said. “It is a lot to ask of him. And it would grant him immense power over me. I trust him, but who knows what the future will bring. Besides, other people saw you arrive, the neighbors. You should leave soon.”
Inspector Gong turned away and rubbed his head in frustration. Then he turned back and gently touched her cheek. “We will find a way,” he said. “We will find a way to be together.”
“It is a lovely dream,” she said. “But for now, you have a crime to solve.”
7
He didn’t know how she did it, but Inspector Gong was learning to not question Lady Li’s ways. Somehow she had gotten the foreigners to release the girl’s body. She didn’t have the details of the exchange, but he was able to work things out easily enough. The foreigners weren’t doing anything with the body anyway besides letting it decay in their custody.
He had Prince Kung send a message to the chief of the British police force in the legation instructing him to release the body to Inspector Gong. When Inspector Gong arrived at the legation the next day, they released the body to him with no problems. He was surprised the body was in nearly the same condition she had been in when he saw her. It didn’t look like anyone had attempted an autopsy, which he thought was strange. The girl was murdered in the home of the wealthiest man in the legation. Did they not want to solve the crime? If not, why not?
He had the body sent to Dr. Xue, Inspector Gong’s trusted friend and a doctor of Chinese medicine. He sometimes examined bodies for Inspector Gong in the back room of his medicine shop. He gave the doctor a few hours to conduct his preliminary exam and called on him in the afternoon.
“The cause of death was an arrow to the chest,” Dr. Xue proudly proclaimed when the inspector arrived.
“I know that,” Inspector Gong said.
“Oh,” the doctor said, disappointed. “I thought you had sent me an easy case.”
“It probably is easy enough,” Inspector Gong said. “I know the cause of death. The arrow was still sticking out of her when I first examined the crime scene. I was just hoping you’d be able to tell me if there was anything else about her I should know.”
“Hmm,” the doctor mumbled to himself as he pulled the sheet back, revealing the splayed open body of the girl. “Young, healthy. No poison this time,” he said, referring to the case of Lady Li’s murdered sister-in-law from a few months back.
“That’s good,” Inspector Gong replied. “But it doesn’t really help us.”
“Well, she was also with child,” the doctor said. “About three months gone.”
“Really?” the inspector asked, raising an eyebrow. “You are sure?”
“When you know what to look for, the signs are easy enough to spot.”
“Would she have known?” Inspector Gong asked. He really knew very little about the particulars of childbearing.
“Probably,” the doctor said. “It’s possible she didn’t know. Young women, they don’t always know the ways of the world, but many women notice certain…changes after two or three months. She should have at least suspected something wasn’t right.”
“Lady Li talked to the woman’s employer. She was a maid in the legation,” the inspector explained. “She had just accepted a raise. The employer was under the impression she was going to keep working. But if she had known she was pregnant, she wouldn’t be able to keep working.”
“Maybe she had planned to get rid of it,” the doctor said.
“Would she have been able to do that?” the inspector asked, once again showing his ignorance when it came to things women and children related.
“Of course,” the doctor said. “Up to six months she could have taken care of it rather safely. After that, though, most doctors who take care of that kind of thing would probably ad
vise her to give birth and then get rid of it.”
“They would encourage murder?” Inspector Gong asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Nah,” the doctor said with a wave of his hand. “Just abandon it somewhere. Leave it in Heaven’s hands. Or she could have left it with the missionaries. They seem to specialize in taking in foundlings.”
“She did have a connection with one of the missions,” Inspector Gong mused. “She went to school at one. But would she have been able to hide a pregnancy, and a birth?”
“Some women can hide it,” the doctor said. “Some women don’t gain much weight when they are pregnant. And if their clothes are loose enough, sure. The birth itself, that could be much more difficult.”
“Where are her clothes?” the inspector asked, looking around the room.
“Here,” he said walking over to the simple wooden casket she had been delivered in. It looked as though she had only been wearing a simple green sleeping robe at the time and a few underclothes. It was late at night when she had been found. She must have been ready for bed. He thought back to the room she had been found in. He had only had a few minutes examine the scene, and he spent most of it examining the girl, so he tried to remember what he saw of the room. The details were fuzzy, but he distinctly remembered seeing a bed, a large bed with heavy wooden posts. All of the furnishings in the room looked large and high quality. A room too fine for a servant. Why would she be walking around the house and in a bedroom that wasn’t hers in her sleeping garments?
“Was the murder weapon included with her things?” he asked.
The doctor shook his head. “No, and no personal items. Just the body.”
Inspector Gong let out a long exhale. No personal items. How cold were these British people? Surely they would know that her parents would want what few things she had. Wouldn’t they want them if they had been in their shoes? Even if she only owned a few cheap garments, it was all they had left of her. Who knows what Lady Li had given them to get the body; would she have anything left to give to secure her personal belongings? How much were these people going to make her bow and scrape to get them?
To say nothing of finding the arrow. It was unique enough that Inspector Gong would remember it, but actually having the evidence in hand would be more useful to him.
“She had a boyfriend,” the inspector said. “And he works in the legation too. If he was the father, why didn’t she just marry him? Not like he was some penniless scrapper.”
The doctor pursed his lips for a moment. “I can think of one reason why she wouldn’t marry him.”
Inspector Gong nodded knowingly. “If he wasn’t the father.”
The doctor nodded in agreement.
“But still, the boy probably wouldn’t know he wasn’t the father. Why not just claim he’s the father, quit her job, and let him take care of her?” Inspector Gong asked.
“That’s why you are the inspector, Inspector,” the doctor said. “I don’t pretend to understand people, especially women.”
“Is married life no longer heavenly bliss?” the inspector joked. The doctor was an older man and only recently purchased a young wife for himself.
“You’ll know, soon enough,” the doctor said as he started to close the body of the dead girl back up.
“What do you mean?” Inspector Gong asked.
“I’ve heard that your mother has been making…inquiries,” the doctor said slyly.
Inspector Gong groaned and rolled his eyes. “Nothing will come of it. She can ask around and pray at the temple all she wants, I won’t agree to anything.”
“Have you ever really defied your mother?” the doctor asked. “Really? Have you ever truly stood before her and told her you would not do as she asked?”
“No…” he slowly admitted. He and his mother had more of a silent agreement. As the youngest son, there had never been a real rush to get him married off. She had patiently allowed him free rein over his life. She let him join the army during the Taiping Rebellion. She then allowed him to work with Prince Kung, solving some of the most pressing cases around the city. She let him drink and whore and do whatever he wanted. His older brothers were already married with children of their own, so she had let him enjoy his bachelorhood for far too long. But even he couldn’t defy his filial duty forever. Eventually he would have to marry and have children. It was the natural order of things and his number one duty as a son.
“Maybe she just thinks it is time,” the doctor said. “I can’t be the only one to have noticed a change in you lately.”
“What do you mean?” Inspector Gong asked, playing dumb.
“Good thing you decided to be an inspector and not an actor,” the doctor said as he started stitching up the girl. Inspector Gong couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose as he watched the gruesome task. “You haven’t been visiting the flower houses like before. And you’ve been drinking less. There’s a…somberness about you,” Doctor Xue explained.
“I’ve just…been busy,” the inspector said. “I have a lot on my mind.”
“A lot?” he asked. “Or just one thing? Or one person, I should say.”
Inspector Gong stayed silent, neither confirming or denying the doctor’s accusation.
“Is she someone your mother wouldn’t approve of?” the doctor asked. “Is she a whore or from a poor family?”
“Not exactly,” the inspector said. “But…we can’t be together. Nothing can come of it.”
“She’s married?” the doctor asked.
Inspector Gong stayed silent. He let the doctor think he was right. It would be better than him figuring out the truth.
The doctor nodded. “Then maybe letting your mother make a match would be for the best. You’ve obviously changed your mind about staying a single man forever. You’ve at least been entertaining thoughts of marriage, yes? Well, how better to get over a woman you can’t have than by taking a woman you can.”
Inspector Gong sighed. The old doctor was probably right. He needed to marry. And if he couldn’t marry Lady Li, why not marry someone else? Maybe he could stop thinking about her so much if he had another woman waiting for him at home. His growing feelings for Lady Li were only going to lead to disaster. For one of them at least; possibly both of them.
“As always, you are full of wisdom, Doctor Xue,” Inspector Gong said as he gave him the fist-in-palm salute. “And thank you for the information about the girl. Let me know if you discover anything else. I’ll send her father to collect her.”
Inspector Gong left a small pile of coins on the counter on his way out. He felt the need to call on Lady Li. He wanted to tell her about the girl being pregnant and ask her what she thought about it. Lady Li had two children. She might have some ideas about the girl’s motives. But he walked slowly. He knew he shouldn’t involve her further. He shouldn’t keep seeing her. Dr. Xue was right, he should marry and leave Lady Li far behind him. Then why did he keep walking toward her home? Why did she draw him so?
He knew why. She was fascinating. No woman his mother found for him would ever be as interesting as Lady Li. Any woman his mother picked would just kneel and fawn. She would do embroidery work and have children. They wouldn’t have anything in common and she wouldn’t know anything about the wider world. He wouldn’t be able to share his day with her, and she wouldn’t be able to help him with his cases.
Any other woman in all of China would be a poor substitute for Lady Li.
8
Lady Li was anxious. She paced the floor of her sitting room, waiting for…something. She wasn’t sure what. She hated being left in the dark. When she had helped Inspector Gong with a case previously, she was right in the thick of it. It had been her own family member who was the victim, and she was the one doing most of the investigating since Inspector Gong was barred from entering the Inner Court, the court of the ladies.
But now, she wasn’t so intimately involved. She could only do as he asked and then give him the information, but there was little she
felt she could do on her own. If she wanted to know anything else about the progress of the case, Inspector Gong had to be gracious enough to tell her, but she couldn’t force him.
She hated giving him any power over her. She was above him socially, and as a widow, the head of her own household. Granted, in the great scheme of things, she was a rather insignificant person. But at least she didn’t have to directly answer to any man. Any amount of power Inspector Gong held over her felt as though she was losing the little bit of the autonomy she had.
But it was more than the case that had her frustrated. Inspector Gong had been out of her life for months. For both of their sakes, he should have simply stayed away. Yet here he was, back in her life. And she didn’t want him to leave again. She wanted him to call on her, for any reason, related to the case or not. The one night they had spent together in the Forbidden City had reignited a passion in her she had almost forgotten had existed. She was now having trouble sleeping and was restless during the day. It killed to her to admit it, but she missed him. She wanted him. She wanted to find a way…
Eunuch Bai knocked on her door.
“Enter,” she said.
“Inspector Gong,” he announced.
Her breath hitched in her throat as he entered. He looked harried, rushed. His gaze was intense.
“Leave us,” she somehow managed to say even though her throat was tight.
Eunuch Bai nodded and shut the door.
Inspector Gong stared at her, but he didn’t speak. He didn’t give her the required bow or state his intention. She also did not give him a curtsey or motion for him to take a seat. It was as if they were both frozen. Both wanting something they were unable to name.
Finally Inspector Gong walked over to the table with the vase and moved it in front of Eunuch Bai’s peep hole. Then in only two quick strides, he was face to face with Lady Li. Still he did not speak.
Lady Li’s breath quickened. Was this happening? “Wha…what are you…” she tried to ask, but the words died in her mouth. Inspector Gong took her face in his hands and kissed her. She closed her eyes and leaned into him. She opened her mouth and let him taste her.
The Qing Dynasty Mysteries - Books 1-3 Page 21
