“I believe it did mention potable gold,” he agreed. “That might have meant the mysterious yellow, though, the hsuan huang, which was the material from which the elixir was made, the starting point. Many alchemists tried to make potable gold from other substances. Some claimed to have been successful. Silver could also be used. You are not saying, are you, that our colleague Burton was trying to join the Immortals?”
“No, but he did want to stay young and healthy,” I said. “Maybe that’s the modern equivalent of wanting to become immortal.”
“Philosophically speaking, I suppose it is. At the heart of alchemy is the process of transmutation. In Europe, it was the transmutation of base metal into gold by means of the prima materia, the starting point for the process. Others saw it as a spiritual transmutation of some sort. The idea of an old body transmuting into a young body would not seem out of place in the study of Chinese alchemy. There are recipes for substances that if taken for a short period make you weigh less, look younger. Take enough of it and you float away, literally. You became an Immortal. Yes, in ancient times, there were people fixated on the idea of becoming immortal, of either preserving their existing body beyond death, or actually living forever in some state or another, but how different is that, I ask you, from botox injections and plastic surgery, liposuction, and everything else we do to try to hold back time?”
“Not very,” I said.
In truth, if Burton had to go, I was relieved it was something like this. I hoped he hadn’t suffered, but when I got his last phone message, I had feared something much more violent. Because the message from Burton, left, according to the time recorded by the voice-mail system, at 9 PM on the day I’d found him, and delivered in a panicky tone that I can attest was contagious, went as follows: “Lara! Get out of China right away! Please believe me, it is very dangerous for you here, for both of us. Do not look for the silver box. You must leave immediately. I’ll be back in Xi’an tomorrow. I can’t get a direct flight to Hong Kong, so I’m flying to Beijing, and transferring to the international terminal. I’ll sleep there if I have to. I’ll get on the first flight anywhere that I can. I’ll call from the airport in Beijing to explain if you’re there, but please don’t wait for me. Get out of the country as fast as you can. I’ll tell you everything when we get home.” There was a pause, during which I heard the sound of a door slamming nearby. Just before he hung up, he said in a shaky voice, “This is not a trick, Lara. Please do what I say.”
“Does this argyria make a person delusional or anything?” I asked.
“Not that I know of,” Dr. Xie replied. “Why do you ask?”
“Burton left a message for me in which he sounded frightened by something. I just wondered if he was out of it.”
“What did he say?”
“He just said it was dangerous here, that he was going to fly back to Beijing as soon as he could, and then proceed directly to the international terminal to wait for any flight out. He said I should do the same. He told me to stop looking for the silver box.”
“Who knows what was going on in his body and his head?”
“But didn’t you tell me that the desk clerk mentioned to the police that Burton had had an earlier visitor? Jackie said Burton was planning to meet someone. Could it have been someone who threatened him? Perhaps even killed him? Who could he possibly know in Hua Shan?”
“I wouldn’t believe a word that clerk said,” Dr. Xie replied. “Let’s wait for the results of the autopsy, all right? We shouldn’t leap to any conclusions.”
“Of course. You’re right. It was exceptionally good of you to come with me, Dr. Xie. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been with me. I shouldn’t have called you that late I know, but I didn’t know where else to turn. I have imposed on you. I’d still be in the police station if you hadn’t been there. You are obviously much admired and indeed revered here.”
“Nonsense,” he said, waving that off as if I’d said something preposterous, but it had seemed clear to me that everyone was practically bowing and scraping in his presence, even kowtowing, a form of obeisance that had been outlawed by the Communist Party and rightly so. “Why wouldn’t I help you? We’re both Canadian residents, after all, and you are a guest in the country of my birth. I gave you both my home and mobile numbers so that you could call me at any time. As you know perfectly well, I was here. It was no inconvenience whatsoever. As it turned out, regrettable though it might be, you were quite right to worry about Burton. I wish we had managed to get there in time to save him, but I suspect that perhaps at that stage, even if he were still alive, there would have been little that could have been done.
“I’m glad I could help,” he added. “Not just because you are a friend of Dory’s and George’s, but also because I have enjoyed your company here. I should tell you that I have given the authorities my word that you will not leave China. You will have your passport shortly and can travel in the country, but should not attempt to leave just yet. We will work on that part of it, Mira and I.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t make a run for it. I wouldn’t dream of it, given that you have been so kind.”
“That is why I have no hesitation speaking on your behalf. Now I think you should get some rest, don’t you?”
“I’m afraid to go to sleep. I know I’ll dream about Burton. He looked terrible, Dr. Xie.”
“Yes, he did. It was an unpleasant sight even for someone trained to deal with it. I think that if we find that Burton died trying to stay young and healthy, that will be a very tragic end, indeed.”
“Oh, it’s worse than tragic. It’s criminal. I laughed at him, at the way he carried his air purifier every place he went, at how he wiped down the chopsticks even though the restaurants had perfectly clean ones, at the way he disinfected every hotel room, his desk at the office. His staff made fun of the way he wouldn’t use the facilities at work, and went home for lunch every day. But he must have had a compulsive or obsessive disorder of some kind, a pathological fear of germs. He needed help, and I laughed.”
“It would be difficult for most of us not to laugh. We would see Burton as eccentric, not ill.”
“It wasn’t just his health he was obsessed with. He was obsessed with the Tang box. He came to Xi’an to try to find the box, you know. I’m certain he also went to Hua Shan for the same reason.”
“Did he?”
“I’m sure he did, even though I thought it was a ridiculous idea. He was looking for the box all over Beijing. He had this idea that if he showed antique dealers the photograph and then left his business card everywhere, someone would contact him, and he’d be able to purchase it. He was convinced he could get it out of the country, stolen or not. He hinted that he knew how to do that.”
“It can be done, I regret to say,” Dr. Xie said. “And why did you come to Xi’an, if this idea of Burton’s was so ridiculous?”
“The short answer would be that I lost my temper. I don’t mean that I was yelling at him or anything, but he kept lying to me, over and over, and it got to me. I thought we’d established some sort of rapport over dinner one evening. He told me he’d booked a flight home the morning after we went to Cherished Treasures House to watch the videotape. But he hadn’t.”
“You know, I believe he had,” Dr. Xie said. “I could not help but overhear him speaking on his mobile phone. His Mandarin was execrable, but he did ask for a reservation the next day, and certainly sounded as if he had one.”
“You’re saying he didn’t so much lie as change his mind?”