I thought with admiration what a crafty manipulator he was. Our evidence against Li had become his. But it had served its purpose, and we had avoided Ko’s trap, it seemed. With the business out of the way, Taitemir was more relaxed, and he seemed keen to show us the extent of his preparations. He led us over to a curious device of wood and rope. Set on wheels, it was a large frame on which pivoted a long pole. The pole was set off-centre with ropes attached to a T-bar on the short end. The longer end had a sling attached. I recognized it as a siege engine called a trebuchet in the West. Taitemir patted it proprietorially.
‘Of course it can hurl rocks great distances, but we also now use projectiles made of gunpowder packed in a bamboo tube along with broken porcelain. When it explodes the results are devastating.’ He grinned evilly. ‘But even that is not enough. My Chin experts have created a device we call the excrement bomb.’
Lin grimaced in distaste at such an uncouth weapon. But I was interested.
‘What goes into it?’
‘The main ingredient is powdered human shit, croton oil — that blisters the skin on contact — white arsenic, and a sort of beetle that causes blistering. Oh, and aconite. We have heaps of aconite root here.’
TWENTY-FOUR
As Lin and I rode along the grey, stony track that led to the low building that was Pianfu’s prison, we discussed the interview with Taitemir. It had left me with an uneasy feeling.
‘Did you get the impression the governor was relieved we had found a culprit for the murder of Geng?’
Lin tried to be noncommittal, but he knew what I was intimating.
‘You think we should still consider him a possible suspect because of his reaction to our identifying Wenbo as the killer? Are you backing away from that position?’
‘No, no. Wenbo did kill his father. But think what Taitemir said about that dirty bomb. It is to be loaded with aconite. He has mountains of the very poison that killed Geng lying around outside his tent. The agent of the killing could still be Wenbo. The prime mover might have been Taitemir.’
‘Because he owed Geng money? He didn’t care about being indebted to him, Nick. It is a normal state for a Mongol governor to use his position to obtain goods for free.’
I groaned in frustration.
‘You are right. But you know how Kubilai is cracking down on corruption and building up his bureaucracy. Even the governor in a remote region such as Taitemir might feel he has to clean out his stables before more government officials arrive. Especially with Kubilai’s war-machine shedding light on the governor’s activities. The quiet disposal of a nuisance might have been a better option than the summary one of a slit throat.’
Lin remained unconvinced, but I was prepared to store my misgivings away for another day. Besides, as we approached the prison, I could see signs of unusual behaviour. It was still early morning, but the bulky figure of the prefect, dressed in his blue silk robe, was in evidence already. He was stomping around the compound in front of the cell block, waving an elegant bamboo cane at the cowering gaoler. The door to Wenbo’s cell stood half open, the interior dark and ominous. I murmured to the already shaken Lin Chu-Tsai.
‘I will go ahead and see what has happened. If they have let Wenbo slip through their hands, either deliberately or accidentally, then heads will roll.’
The mood I was in, I meant what I said quite literally. The executioner’s blade had been denied Jianxu — it could be slaked on Li’s blood for all I cared. I spurred my horse up the track towards the two men, who were still squabbling and had not seen my approach. I dismounted and called out.
‘What is going on here?’
Both Li and the gaoler turned to face me, startled by my sudden appearance. The gaoler cowered before the demon, and even Li looked crushed. He could not look me in the eye, and poked at the ground with his silver-topped cane.
‘There is a problem, Master Investigator.’
I was angry, and prodded the prefect in his soft breasts.
‘I hope Wenbo has not escaped, or worse still been deliberately released by you. I have to see him today.’
Li’s face was ashen.
‘Geng Wenbo is still in his cell, and you can see him. But it is going to be impossible to get a confession out of him.’
By this time, Lin, at his horse’s more sedate pace, had caught me up.
‘And why is that, Master Li? Are you denying us access to our suspect? The Great Khan himself will hear of this.’
Li blustered as Lin got off his mount.
‘No, you don’t understand me.’ He sighed, his whole fat face collapsing over the stiff collar of his gown. He waved his cane at the gaoler.
‘Show them what you found this morning.’
We followed the bandy-legged gaoler into Wenbo’s cell, and at first I thought it was empty. I could see no sign of the boy. I called out to Li.
‘Is this some sort of trick?’
In a quavering voice, he replied.
‘Look behind the door.’
Both Lin and I peered into the darkness immediately behind the half-open cell door. We gasped simultaneously. Wenbo was pinioned halfway up the door his legs folded under him. His head stuck out at an awkward angle and his face was red and bloated. My immediate reaction was that somehow Geng Wenbo had hanged himself from the bars of the cell door grille. Looking more closely, my suspicion was confirmed. I could see a thin cord embedded in his neck, which must have originally been used as a belt around his waist. From his neck, a loop of it went around one of the bars in the grille. Lin spoke in wonderment, and with not a little suspicion.
‘Is it really possible to kill yourself by hanging when your feet can still touch the ground? He is practically kneeling.’
I nodded my head.
‘I have heard that it is so. If you are determined to die and can tie a noose that will not slacken when you black out, then it is perfectly feasible. What we need to ask ourselves is whether this boy had that determination. He would only need enough desire to do it to carry him off into unconsciousness. After that, his own weight would ensure there was no return.’
Lin suddenly tipped his head to one side.
‘Listen. Can you hear something?’
I cocked my head, and concentrated on the sounds coming from the cell block. Li made as if to speak, but I held my hand up. There was no sound of birds in this desolate spot, but then I heard it. A soft mewling sound like the faint squeak of newborn kittens, followed by a scratching. I stepped out of the cell, trying to follow the sound. I realized it came from the cell next to Wenbo’s. As I stepped up to the door, the sound ceased, as though the kitten was aware of danger and was holding its breath. Silently, I tipped my thumb at the door, and raised an eyebrow, questioning what might be in there. Li hissed under his breath.
‘It’s the doctor. I had forgotten about him.’
Lin emerged from the death cell and offered a suggestion.
‘Then I propose that you open the door and see if he is alive or dead too.’
At the wave of Li’s pudgy hand, the gaoler rushed forward and thrust a key in the lock of the door. As he turned it, we all heard a scuttling sound like rats skittering through old straw to find a dark corner to hide in. The gaoler swung the door inwards, and poked his lamp into the darkness. A creature cowering in the farthest corner held up a claw of a hand over his face against the unwelcome intrusion.
‘Aiii, don’t kill me, demon.’
Something had terrified Doctor Sun out of his wits.
Gurbesu had risen early that morning, aroused by the fuss caused by the arrival of Taitemir’s messenger. She knew Lin and I would go straight to our interrogation of Geng Wenbo afterwards, and was glad of the time alone that our tasks gave her. She wanted to talk some more to Jianxu about her life, having the, in my opinion, forlorn hope that she could bring the young woman out of herself. It irritated Gurbesu more than a little that Jianxu had been no more than a slave all her life. First her father had sold her into slavery, and then she bowed down to her husband, and then when he died to her mother-in-law. I thought she was mad to try and change one girl who merely stood as an example of the fate of most women in Cathay. It would be like trying to push back the acqua alta in Venice with a broom. Raging high tides came and inundated the city whether we Venetians liked it or not. It was a force of nature. And so were the Three Duties and the Four Virtues in Cathay.