‘Come forward where I can see you, man.’
I spoke in Mongol, but just in case he didn’t understand, I made my gestures clear. He was a skinny Chinee with a dowdy brown cotton robe printed with dull green flowers. It made him blend even more into the background than his dull, grey face, and limp, long black hair did. You could walk past him in the street and never notice him. I had seen many a successful assassin with the same attributes, so I stood my ground. Reluctantly, he stepped into the light and spoke in a voice as dull and nondescript as his physical nature.
‘Are you Zhong Kui?’
He gave me my demon name and spoke in Mongol too. I noticed for the first time that his eyes sparkled with intelligence. It was the only bright thing about him.
‘Yes, you could call me that.’
‘Naturally. Who else could you be with hair like that?’
He was proving a strange character, whose cleverness belied his outward appearance. I was intrigued.
‘Now you know who I am. I would like to know who I am addressing.’
He shrugged, as if his name was of no consequence.
‘I am Ho.’
He was the burglar, then, who formed part of the little scam I had devised, and that Li had taken over. I was even more curious.
‘What have you got that would be of any interest to me?’
He grinned, exposing sound and fine white teeth. They showed he took good care of himself.
‘I could tell you many things. But there is one item I hear you are anxious to lay your hands on. A play script.’
He had my complete attention. He must have been referring to the script missing from the players’ collection at the theatre. The one that could have information on Geng’s death written down by the murdered Nu.
‘Yes. I am interested in a particular script.’
‘It will cost you.’
I didn’t imagine he had brought it out of the kindness of his heart. Not a thief and a robber like Ho.
‘If it is the document I want, could you tell me how you came by it?’
He smiled more broadly.
‘That information will cost you more.’
I felt like grabbing him and squeezing the information out of him. But I knew he was too canny to have the document on him. I would have to pay for the pleasure of obtaining it, and the name of the person from whom he had stolen it. I had no doubt that was how he had come by it. He just happened to have robbed the one person who would have preferred to have kept his possessions secret. I contained my anger and agreed an outrageous amount of money with him. He once again slid back into the shadows where he looked more at home. But not before he told me how he would let me have both the script and the name I wanted.
‘Go to the temple right now, and give the priestess the money. She will be our intermediary. When you return this afternoon she will give you what you want.’
Like a shadow lost in sunlight, he was gone. I hurried back to my rooms and grabbed the satchel that held much of the paper money I had waved under the prefect’s nose in order to entice him into the scam that Ho had formed a crucial part of. The return on my investment had proved thin, but there was still plenty to buy what I wanted from the thief. I found it amusing that our go-between was to be the old priestess in the temple. Presumably Ho trusted her enough because of her part in the swindle I had set up.
‘What are you laughing at?’
Gurbesu had just finished dressing and was arranging her thick black hair in a Chinee fashion. I caressed her cheek and deliberately annoyed her for my own petty amusement.
‘Never you mind your pretty little head about it. I have great plans afoot.’
I dodged out of the room just as her ivory comb flew through the air. It hit the door frame and clattered to the floor, but I was gone. The streets were already busy, and traders were opening their shops for the day’s business. I made for the square. My business was with the old woman in the temple. Stepping over the threshold into the incense-filled gloom, I looked around for her. She was in her usual spot, seated on the floor beside the god of lost items. Spotting me she rose more agilely than a woman of her years should have a right to. But then, as other worshippers entered behind me, she adopted her normal stooping gait. She held out her claw of a hand and begged in that grating voice of hers.
‘You have an offering for me, red-haired demon?’
I dug my hand around in my satchel and pulled out a bundle of money.
‘I do indeed, mistress. Though it is not for you, but for a man who will come today and give you a gift in return for the money. It is a gift intended for me, and not for your shrine, though.’
She grimaced.
‘Then why should I do all this, if the god does not benefit?’
I could hear the obvious implication of her question. She didn’t care about the god, but about herself, and she played her part well. I added a slimmer bundle on top of the fat one I had already proffered.
‘That is to placate the god.’
She felt rather than saw the thickness of the bundle and she grinned.
‘Will you then return later today to see if the god is pleased?’
I nodded, playing out the charade.
‘Indeed I will. This very afternoon.’
‘I hope you will not be disappointed.’
‘I hope so too, or someone will be very unhappy.’
I did not say that it would be Ho if he did not come up with what he promised me. If he took my money and fled, he would be a dead man. The old priestess cackled and I left the temple. Waiting for the information I needed was going to be frustrating, so I returned to the house where I thought I could make good use of the time. As it turned out, it was more useful than I had imagined. The rumours being spread about Lin Chu-Tsai were troubling me, and, if they were driven by Ko Su-Tsung, I wanted to know who his agent was in Pianfu.
As I had made up my mind to tell Lin, I went straight to his quarters. Crossing the courtyard, I saw through the window a figure moving in his rooms. It was not Lin; it was a taller person, more awkward in his movements. I slid the door open with a bang, and a shocked Po Ku, his face pale, looked over his shoulder at me. He was sifting through Lin’s papers that lay on the low desk in the centre of the room. They were the meticulous notes that Lin had made to date of our whole investigation. The gangly servant was so surprised by my abrupt arrival that he struck one of Lin’s brushes with his palm, and set it rolling across the latest set of notes. It left a black scar over the careful Chinee script. He groaned with horror, his eyes boggling out of his head. I shouted at him.
‘What do you think you are doing?’
I was immediately convinced I had caught Ko’s spy in our camp, and if Po Ku was the spy, then he was also the perpetrator of the rumours. Stories that would ruin Lin, and by connection with him, me also. I grabbed Po Ku’s arm and spun him round so I was staring him in the face.
‘How much did Ko pay you to betray your master and spread all those evil rumours? Or does Ko have some hold over you that has made you do his bidding, and try to ruin our investigation here?’
Po Ku’s mouth flapped open and closed in fear, but no coherent words came out. I would have slapped his stupid, peasant face but a voice rang out behind me.
‘Nick, stop it now.’
It was Lin’s voice — a little high-pitched, but authoritative nevertheless. I dropped my open palm to my side, but still kept hold of his servant.
‘He was rifling through your papers in a way that made me think that he is Ko’s spy. You know Ko Su-Tsung will do anything to ruin both you and me, and then he can get closer to Kubilai.’
‘Yes, but what makes you think he has infiltrated a spy into our little band of fellows?’
I knew I would have to tell Lin now what evils Po Ku had spread about him in Pianfu.
‘I think it because that is just what Ko would do.’ I took a deep breath. ‘And because this servant of yours, while he was out shopping in the market no doubt, has been spreading rumours about you.’