The Lacquer Screen

by Robert Van Gulik

  ‘That makes it simple,’ the Corporal said. ‘I am against killings but, as the rule says that a man who steals from his comrades shall die, we’ll finish him off. But you go ahead and question him. You have the first claim!’

  He gave a sign to his men. They grabbed Kunshan, and pinned him spread-eagled to the floor, standing on his hands and feet. Kunshan screamed when the bald man planted a foot on his broken ankle, but the Corporal started to kick him again.

  Judge Dee raised his hand. He stared curiously at the prone man. His horribly emaciated body was covered with long, evil looking scars that seemed to have been caused by burns. Chiao Tai came up to the judge and handed him two packages he had found in Kunshan’s clothes. Judge Dee gave the heavy one back to Chiao Tai, and opened the other. It contained a water-stained notebook. ‘Where did you steal this?’ he asked the man on the floor.

  ‘I found it!’ Kunshan screamed.

  ‘Tell the truth!’ Judge Dee barked.

  ‘It is the truth!’

  ‘Get a shovel of burning coal and a pair of fire-tongs from the kitchen!’ the Corporal snapped at the waiter. ‘We’ll just lay a few of those hot coals on this bastard’s belly. That’s always a good start. It’ll smell a bit, but you can’t have everything.’

  ‘No! Don’t burn me!’ Kunshan shouted frantically. ‘I found it, I swear it!’

  ‘Where?’ the judge asked.

  ‘Here! The other night, I came here and searched all the rooms upstairs while you were sleeping. I found it behind that woman’s bed!’

  Judge Dee quickly looked at Carnation. Clutching her naked breast, she suppressed a cry. Seeing the frantic entreaty in her eyes, in a flash he understood. He said hurriedly to the Corporal:

  ‘It’s no use, the bastard is lying. I and my mate’d better take him to a quiet spot and have a leisurely talk with him. If we do it here he may become a bit noisy, and there’s no need to tell the whole neighbourhood about this. We’ll take him out to the marsh.’

  ‘No, no!’ Kunshan wailed. The Corporal silenced him with a kick. He snarled:

  ‘The dirty dogshead! Slandering our girl too, eh?’

  ‘It’s true!’ Kunshan shouted. ‘I tell you that I tore out a few pages, then put it back. When I came here tonight, I——’

  Judge Dee had quickly taken off his felt slipper and rammed the point in Kunshan’s open mouth. ‘Presently I’ll let you gossip all you want!’ he said. He showed the Corporal Kunshan’s blowpipe. ‘The powder is in this gourd,’ he remarked. ‘I assume that if you blow it through the crack under the door into a room, it disperses and drugs people. But luck was against the scoundrel. My mate slept on the floor with his head close to the door, and got the full dose of the powder in his face. He sneezed it out, and before it could start to spread he had already burst open the door and we were outside. I had cut out the window paper before I went to sleep, and the breeze took care of the rest. Otherwise all of us would have been sound asleep by now, and me and my mate with our throats slit from ear to ear. Hey you, I suppose you jammed my window, didn’t you?’

  Kunshan nodded. Gagging he moved his distended jaws, trying to get rid of the slipper.

  ‘Let your men paste an oil-plaster over his mouth,’ the judge said to the Corporal. ‘Then, if they make a stretcher of two poles, we’ll roll him up in an old blanket, and carry him away. If we meet the nightwatch, we’ll say he is suffering from a contagious disease and that we are taking him to a doctor.’

  ‘Baldy!’ the Corporal bellowed. ‘Let go of that foot, he can’t move it anyway! Get an oil-plaster!’ To the judge he said: ‘Don’t you want some instruments along?’

  ‘I have been a headman, so I know my job!’ Judge Dee replied. ‘You might lend me a knife, though.’

  ‘Good!’ the Corporal said. ‘That reminds me! I would like his ears and fingers, please. I’ll send them around to a few people in this city who are getting a bit fresh, just as a little warning. Bring them back in a piece of oil-paper, will you? And where are you going to hide the body?’

  ‘We’ll bury it in the quicksand of the marsh. It’ll never be found.’

  ‘Excellent!’ the Corporal said, gratified. ‘I don’t like killings here as a rule, but if there has to be one, I like it to be a workmanlike job!’

  Kunshan’s eyes, crazy with pain and fear, were bulging from his head. He was wriggling like an eel under the men’s feet. When the bald gambler pulled the slipper out of his mouth he began making incoherent sounds, but immediately the sticky plaster was clapped over his mouth. The Corporal himself bound his hands and legs together with a thin rope. Carnation brought an old blanket, and she helped Chiao Tai to roll the thin man up in it from head to feet. Two men had brought an improvised stretcher, and Kunshan was secured to it with more ropes.

  Judge Dee and Chiao Tai lifted the stretcher and put the poles on their shoulders.

  The Student came in. He looked, astonished, at the men and the naked girl, then asked:

  ‘What’s going on here?’

  ‘None of your business, runt!’ the Corporal growled. And, to Judge Dee:

  ‘There’s nobody about near that marsh at night, so take your time over him. I never trusted that ugly bastard!’

  The judge and Chiao Tai went out into the alley, carrying their burden. If the neighbours had noticed all the commotion, they thought it wiser not to give any sign of it

  Two streets farther on they met the nightwatch. Judge Dee said curtly to their headman:

  ‘Help us to get this man to the tribunal. He’s a dangerous criminal.’

  Two sturdy watchmen took the stretcher from them.

  At the main entrance of the tribunal, Judge Dee gave his card to the sleepy guard and told him to rouse Counsellor Pan. The watchmen put the stretcher down in the gatehouse and left. Soon the guard came back, carrying a lighted lampion. Pan followed him, clad in a houserobe. He started to ask questions agitatedly, but Judge Dee cut him short.

  ‘I have Kunshan here,’ he said. ‘Tell the guards to take him to your private office. And call Magistrate Teng. I’ll explain later!’

  When the guards had deposited the stretcher on the floor in Pan’s office, Judge Dee told them to bring a jar of warm wine. He and Chiao Tai freed Kunshan from the blanket, cut his ropes with the Corporal’s knife, and placed him in an armchair. The judge turned it round so that it faced the wall. Kunshan wanted to raise his hands to take the plaster from his mouth, but the cruel thin ropes had bitten deeply into the flesh, and he could not move them. He began to groan. The light of the single candle shone on his distorted face, and his thin, scarred body. His left ankle was swollen, the foot bent at an unnatural angle.

  Chiao Tai remarked:

  ‘That broken ankle of his gives me an idea. Suppose that this is the dirty peeper who followed the couple to the house of assignation, and that he faked a limp? That would be a good disguise. And the rest fits, he is tall and thin enough!’

  Judge Dee swung round and stared fixedly at his lieutenant.

  ‘Well,’ Chiao Tai said diffidently, ‘it’s only an idea, but I——’

  ‘Shut up!’ Judge Dee barked at him. He began pacing the floor, angrily muttering to himself. Chiao Tai looked at him unhappily, wondering what he had done wrong.

  The judge stood still. He said gravely:

  ‘Thank you, Chiao Tai! Your remark has made me discover the truth. I have been a fool, stared myself blind on one interpretation…. Well, now my problem is solved.’

  He heard footsteps in the corridor, and quickly went outside, motioning Chiao Tai to stay with the prisoner.

  Magistrate Teng was clad in a houserobe, just as Pan Yoo-te. His eyes were heavy with sleep. He wanted to ask something, but Judge Dee said in a low voice:

  ‘Send your counsellor away!’

  When Teng had given Pan a short order, the judge went on:

  ‘Tomorrow you’ll hear the prisoner in the tribunal, Teng. The rules forbid a magistrate to question a man in priva
te. But that rule doesn’t apply to me here, and I’ll hear him now. You’ll stand behind his chair so that he can’t see you.’

  A guard appeared, carrying a tray with a jar of wine and two cups. Judge Dee took it from him, and stepped back into the room. He pulled a chair up to Kunshan’s side and sat down, holding the wine-jar and a cup in his hands. Magistrate Teng and Chiao Tai remained standing by the desk. Judge Dee looked round at Chiao Tai and gave him a sign to lock the door. Then he ripped the plaster from Kunshan’s mouth.

  Kunshan moved his misshapen mouth convulsively. He stammered: ‘Don’t…don’t…’

  ‘You won’t be tortured, Kunshan. I promise you,’ the judge said in a soft, persuasive voice. ‘I am a special agent, Kunshan, I saved you from those cruel men there at the inn. Here, drink some wine!’ He brought the beaker to Kunshan’s mouth, and let him drink. Then he pulled loose his own neckcloth and laid it over the naked man’s lap. ‘Later I’ll give you a clean robe, and I’ll have a physician look at your ankle, Kunshan. Then you’ll have a nice, long sleep. You must be very tired, and your ankle hurts badly, doesn’t it?’

  The sudden change from the brutal scene in the inn unnerved Kunshan completely. He began to cry softly, tears came rolling down his hollow cheeks. Judge Dee took an oblong package from his bosom. He unwrapped it and showed Kunshan the antique dagger. He asked in the same soothing voice:

  ‘Was this dagger hanging over the dressing-table, Kunshan?’

  ‘No, it hung by the bed, next to the lute’ Kunshan replied. Judge Dee let him drink from the beaker again.

  ‘My ankle!’ Kunshan groaned. ‘It’s hurting so much!’

  ‘Don’t worry, Kunshan, we’ll look after that. You’ll feel better soon. You won’t be tortured, I promise you. They burned you badly before, didn’t they?’

  ‘They burned me with hot irons!’ Kunshan cried. ‘And I was innocent, it was that woman who called them 1’

  ‘That was a long time ago, Kunshan. You’ve killed a woman now, and you’ll have to die, of course, but I’ll make everything easy for you. I promise that they won’t torture you. Nobody’ll touch you.’

  ‘She seduced me, the lewd slut, she seduced me, I tell you! Just like that harlot before, she seduced me! And see what they did, how they burned me, look at my body!’

  ‘Why did they burn you, Kunshan?’

  ‘I was still so young, just a boy.…I passed that house, and the girl smiled at me, from behind the window. She invited me, I tell you! But when I went inside, she said she had only laughed at my ugly face…I wanted her, she screamed, I grabbed her by the throat, I…I…She hit me in the face with a wine-jar. It broke and cut my cheek, the jagged end pierced my eye. Look at the scar, you can see it for yourself! Then the men came. She shouted I had tried to rape her. They threw me on the floor, they burned me…. When they ran off to get the constables, I managed to escape….’

  He burst into convulsive sobs. Judge Dee silently let him drink again. Kunshan began to tremble all over. He said with chattering teeth:

  ‘I have never touched a woman again, never, in all those years. Till…till that other slut seduced me. I didn’t want it, I only wanted the money, I swear it! You must believe me, please!’

  ‘Had you been to the magistrate’s house before, Kunshan?’ the judge asked calmly.

  ‘Only once, also during the siesta. That’s the best time, for at night there are the guards. I went in by the emergency entrance. She was in the library, the bedroom was empty. I searched the room, found the safe behind the dressing-table, then I heard someone coming. I left by the garden door, climbed onto the roof, and let myself down into the empty back street.’

  ‘How did you enter the second time?’

  ‘By way of the roof and the small garden. I blew the powder under the garden door, and waited. When I entered, the maid was lying on the bamboo couch, drugged. I went to the bedroom to open the safe. Then I saw her lying on the bed there, also drugged. She was lying there all naked, the slut! I tell you I didn’t want to do it, but…I had to. Why didn’t she cover herself up decently, why should she lie there naked like a whore? She seduced me, she soiled me! And then she taunted me, with that still face, her eyes closed! I took the dagger and stuck it in her evil breast. I wanted to cut her to pieces, destroy that evil, lewd woman….’

  He suddenly halted. Sweat was streaming down his haggard face, and running quickly along his oiled breast. His one eye fixing the judge with a crazed expression, he went on softly:

  ‘I heard a door close somewhere in the house. I quickly went to the dressing-room. The maid was still drugged, but I heard footsteps approaching in the corridor. I emptied all the powder from my blowpipe there, then fled through the garden door, pulling it closed behind me. I crawled over the roofs, stumbled on through the street until I saw the teahouse. It was early, only the waiter was on the terrace. I told him I was ill, and fell into a chair. When I had drunk several cups of tea, I recovered somewhat. Then I knew I had to leave this accursed place, where I had been soiled, humiliated.…I had to get Leng Chien’s money as quickly as possible. Then I would flee…go to a far-away place, to get clean again. I saw you two coming, you left, and I studied your companion. When you came back and had tea there, I again observed you, both of you. I knew you two could get the money from Leng. I followed you to the hostel, I…’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ Judge Dee interrupted him. ‘I also know how you got the notebook. You found it in the girl’s room, and first tore out only a few pages. Tonight you stole it. All that doesn’t matter now. Now we must only think how we can make it easy for you. Shall I tell you how we’ll do it? We’ll arrange your killing Mrs Teng as a simple murder. If you confess that you raped her too, Kunshan, they’ll torture you. They’ll condemn you to the lingering death. You know how the executioner begins, don’t you? He starts with cutting slices from your breast, and…’

  ‘No!’ Kunshan screamed. ‘Help me!’

  ‘Yes, I’ll help you. But you must listen very carefully, and do exactly as I say, Kunshan. You must say that you knew that Mrs Teng often went to visit her elder sister, in her villa outside the north gate. You entered by the small garden, and when you saw that the maid was away, you knocked. You told Mrs Teng that her sister needed her immediately, for an urgent and secret family affair. You said her sister was in great trouble, and that she had to bring ten gold pieces, and not to tell anybody, not even her husband. She believed you, took the money and went with you, leaving by the secret door. The street was deserted during the siesta, so you could take her unnoticed through the ruins to the marsh. There you told her to hand the gold and the jewels to you. She wanted to call for help. You became afraid; pulling your dagger, you told her to shut up. She tried to wrest the dagger from you, and before you knew it you had stabbed her to death. You tore her earrings off and took her bracelets and the package with the gold. The gold you spent, but you didn’t dare to dispose of the jewels. Here they are. They’ll be brought forward as evidence.’

  He took them from his sleeve, and showed them to Kunshan. Then he resumed:

  ‘Keep to that story, Kunshan. I guarantee that then they won’t beat you, they won’t question you under torture. You’ll die, but it’ll be a quick death. Then all your troubles will be over, Kunshan, and you needn’t fear anything any more. They’ll give you a good bed, now, and a doctor will look at your ankle. Then you’ll have a few hours of nice sleep. They’ll hear you during the morning session. You tell your story, and then no one will bother you any more for many days. For many days and nights you can rest, Kunshan, rest…’

  The thin man made no response. His head was sinking slowly to his breast. He was completely exhausted.

  Judge Dee rose. He whispered to Chiao Tai:

  ‘Call the guards and let the warden of the jail lock him up. See to it that a physician treats his ankle, and gives him a drug.’ He motioned Teng to follow him outside.

  The magistrate’s face was of a deadly pallor. He started to
mutter something about his gratitude, but the judge quickly interrupted him, saying:

  ‘I hope you’ll allow me to stay here at the tribunal tonight.’

  ‘Certainly, Dee! Anything you wish!’ Teng took him to the courtyard outside. ‘It was…unspeakable, Dee!’

  ‘Quite,’ Judge Dee said dryly. ‘Would you summon your counsellor now, and tell him to assign twelve constables to my lieutenant? They’ll have to go now and arrest the boss of the underworld here, called The Corporal, and a young hoodlum called The Student.’

  ‘Of course!’

  The magistrate clapped his hands, and, when the frightened-looking Pan appeared, told him to have the guest quarters prepared for the judge, and to follow his orders regarding two arrests. He added with a bleak smile:

  ‘If you stay here long enough, Dee, my jail will be too small!’

  ‘We’ll hear the prisoners tomorrow morning,’ Judge Dee said with an impassive face. ‘I beg you to appoint me your Assessor at the start of the session, so that I can question some of them personally. Good night!’

  He gave Pan and Chiao Tai his instructions. Then a servant led him to the guest quarters, behind the large reception hall.

  He saw that the guest-room was large and comfortable. He sat down in an armchair, aimlessly following the movements of two servants as they lighted the large silver candelabra on the high wall table, and drew open the silken curtains of the bedstead of carved rosewood. The old steward came in with a large tray of tea and cold refreshments, followed by a sleepy maid who hung a clean bed-robe on the rack of red lacquer. The steward poured him a cup of hot tea, then lit a stick of incense in front of the large landscape painting that decorated the side wall. He bowed, wished the judge an obsequious good night, and left.

  Judge Dee leaned back in the armchair and slowly sipped his tea. Then, with a tired gesture, he lifted his left arm and took from his sleeve Kunshan’s blowpipe. With a sigh he put it on the table. He ought to have thought of that possibility. The chambermaid who slept through all the commotion, not waking up even when Teng let die vase shatter on the marble floor, the serene face of the dead woman—those facts should have told him at once that they had been drugged. And there had been no coincidence. Magistrate Teng had not had an attack of insanity, he had been overpowered by the large dose of the drug that Kunshan had released in the dressing-room just before he fled. And Mrs Teng had been dead already when her husband entered the dressing-room and saw her through the bedroom door that stood ajar.