Lin eased her confusion with some words spoken in Chinee. I was beginning to understand some words now, and knew he was introducing me as the Khan’s investigator. She smiled nervously and bowed to me. Indicating that we should follow her, she went inside. A servant was called and a not unpleasant hot brew called tea was served. An awkward three-way conversation then developed, with Lin asking questions of Madam Gao in Chinee, and then translating for me. When I wanted to ask a question, I had to do it through Lin as intermediary. It made for a slow, and for me, frustrating interview. It went something like this, starting with Lin’s opening question.
‘The broth that your daughter-in-law made was intended for you, I believe.’
Gao pulled a face, the wrinkles on her brow turning into deep furrows.
‘Aiii, yes. To think if I had drunk it, I would now be dead. It does not bear thinking about.’
‘Then you think the poison was intended for you?’
‘I cannot say for certain. But what I am very sure of is that, if it was intended for me, then Jianxu still has to be innocent. Why should she want to kill me? I have looked after her since taking her in as a child. Her father could not afford his studies and her mother had died. He left Jianxu with me, and in return she served me as any proper daughter of my own blood would have. She even married my son.’
She began sniffling at this point, and Lin explained she was upset by having brought up the death of her son, Jianxu’s husband. I listened to his explanation of Jianxu’s history, and wanted clarification.
‘Then she didn’t just marry into the Gao family. She was adopted by Madam Gao first. Ask her who she thinks put the poison into the soup, if it wasn’t Jianxu.’
On being asked by Lin, the old lady looked cautiously over her shoulder before replying.
‘Who else could it have been but that lazy son of Geng’s? He didn’t want me to marry his father, because then he might lose the money from Old Geng’s business. It was him. He tried to kill me, and in his usual ham-fisted way ended up killing his own father.’
After Lin had translated this outburst for me, he asked me if there was anything else I wanted to ask the old woman. I said there wasn’t at present, and Lin dismissed her. He told her to send Wenbo to us. She shuffled off, muttering under her breath. I sipped at the bowl of tea, but it had gone cold and didn’t taste so good any more. I yearned for a good robust red wine. Just as we thought that the boy wasn’t going to turn up, we heard raised voices from another part of the house. Lin smiled.
‘That is Madam Gao telling Wenbo to get out of bed and speak to the investigator before she sets the demon on him. I think that’s you, Zhong Kui.’
I pulled a face that I imagined resembled the drawings I had seen of the demon in question. And just at that moment a skinny lad entered the room. Seeing me, he whimpered and almost fled. Lin waved his hand imperiously, and coaxed the boy to come and sit. Close up, I could see he was older than I had thought at first. He was twenty at least, though still somewhat gangly and awkward, which contributed to the impression he was much younger. He stared wide-eyed at Lin, hardly daring to look at me. Lin spoke sternly to him.
‘You worked for your father?’
The youth nodded.
‘If you had dealings with the staff at Taitemir the Mongol’s palace, then you can speak their language?’
Another nod. At this rate, I reckoned we didn’t need to tax Wenbo’s language skills. We would get all we wanted from him with a nod and a shake of the head. But Lin ploughed on.
‘Then you will speak directly in that language with the investigator.’
He pointed at me, and Geng Wenbo reluctantly turned his gaze my way. I started with a question designed to unbalance him, and elicit an unconsidered response.
‘Did you kill your father deliberately, or was it an accident?’
Wenbo gaped open-mouthed at me.
‘Accident? How could it have been an accident?’
‘Then you meant to do it.’
The youth’s voice went up a pitch.
‘Noooo, you are twisting my words. I didn’t do it. Nor did Jianxu. You should ask her — ’ he hooked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the absent Madam Gao, — ‘why she let my father eat the broth. I didn’t kill him. He was my father.’
‘And he was going to marry Madam Gao. Your hold on your father’s business would then have been precarious, especially as he thought you were incompetent.’
‘Who told you that? That old bitch? Yes, she had designs on my father. But that didn’t matter, because I was going to marry Jianxu. Did she tell you that as well?’
TWELVE
‘ They’re just accusing each other. This is getting us nowhere.’
Lin nodded in agreement at my observations on our morning’s work.
‘We can’t just concentrate on the moment of the murder. We have to delve into the past and find out more about the reason why Geng was murdered.’ He sighed. ‘We need to go back to the beginning.’
‘But where is the beginning?’
I was getting more and more depressed about finishing this before Guan presented his play to the public showing Jianxu in all her innocence.
‘Is it when Jianxu was left as a child with the Gao family? How are we going to dig that far back?’
‘Jianxu herself can tell you.’
It was Gurbesu who spoke up. She had been sitting in the corner of the room listening to our debate. Tadeusz had not yet put in an appearance, and was presumably still ferreting around finding out what he could about where the aconite might have come from. I challenged Gurbesu’s opinion that the girl was the best source to go to for information about the past.
‘She was a child when she was left with Gao. Her knowledge of what happened will be clouded by the view of a child. And if she is guilty of murder her testimony will not be the most reliable.’
‘It will be a start, and we could check her story with neighbours. As for her fabricating facts to cover up her guilt, you yourself have said often enough that a murderer can be uncovered as much by their lies as by the truth.’
Lin laughed out loud.
‘You are caught out by your own words, Nick. Admit it; Gurbesu is right. We should speak to Jianxu again. If only to test Wenbo’s statement about him being about to marry her.’
Gurbesu corrected Lin sharply.
‘I was saying that I should speak to her, not either of you. It worked the first time, and will work best again if I speak to her alone.’
It was best not to contradict Gurbesu when she had the bit between her teeth. And she was right anyway. Jianxu would talk to her, and Gurbesu would know the truth. If she spun a yarn, Gurbesu would know that too. She was clever that way. We agreed that she would approach Jianxu alone, which suited me as I had business with the prefect that I didn’t want her to know about. Lin would have to be kept in the dark too, because it was not exactly above board. Once I had tempted Li Wen-Tao with a bagful of paper money, I had spotted where the business opportunity lay, and couldn’t resist taking it. But before I could get away, Tadeusz came rushing in. He had a big smile on his lopsided face that suggested he had made a discovery.
‘You won’t guess what I found out from one of the silversmiths. He had had some business dealings with Old Geng, and told me that a few months ago the old man had paid off some of his debts. When he asked Geng if he had at last got Taitemir to pay him, Geng pulled a face and said he had not, that he had had to borrow money at an extortionate rate to keep himself going.’