I gave a harsh and braying laugh.
‘Do you know how they obtain a confession here? They use a bastinado, beating the soles of the person’s feet until they cannot stand the pain any more. Then they confess.’
‘Are you saying there is no place for torture in extracting the truth?’
I thought of all the ways a suspected person would be abused in the West – the rack, the head crusher, or thumbscrews – and shook my head.
‘Not if you are a seeker of the truth. A confession is easily obtained – the truth needs winkling out. Tadeusz, do you have any observations to make before we reach P’ing-Yang-Fu?’
The little man leaned away from the circle of light and stroked his beard. When he spoke from the darkness, it was with a quaver in his voice.
‘Do you not think, Nick, that the girl has been deliberately placed in the picture to allow the real killer to escape free and clear? Are not Chinee girls very obedient sorts, who would go out of their way to please? How could she possibly be the killer?’
I nodded, agreeing with him as far as it went.
‘You are right. There is something that stinks in this whole case. Not least the involvement of Ko Su-Tsung in its being brought to our attention. We will tread cautiously, but we will find out the truth.’
I marvelled at how, under Lin’s tutelage, I had become so enamoured of the truth. Maybe such an obsession came with being in your thirties and no longer a youth. Before being appointed Investigator of Crimes by Kubilai Khan, I was more concerned with what gave me the most profit; whether it was within the law or not. In fact I much preferred sailing close to the wind, and then on beyond the boundaries of legality. It made for greater excitement and a lot more pleasure when the enterprise came off. I looked at Tadeusz, who had once more leaned forward into the lamplight. The side of his face burned in the fire set by marauding Mongols was red and shiny, but his eyes were cool and impassive. I slapped his back.
‘Now pass me the wine before I start crying like a baby at my own softness.’
The girl wiped a tear from her eye, and looked through the bars at the boy who stood outside.
‘Thank you, Wenbo. You have saved my life. I owe you everything, and I will show you my gratitude when I am released.’
She accompanied the final sentence of her outpouring with a modest, but meaningful look. After all, it did not harm to promise, when the chances of having to repay that promise were so slim. Still, she had taken the first step, and the flow of yun was moving in the right direction. The boy had come with the news that very morning that an investigator had been appointed in Tatu, which some called Khan-balik, and that he was on his way. The executioner’s sword had been stayed, and that was what mattered. It was no good to her if she were exonerated after her death. Some may think her soul would be saved, and her reputation restored. But what good was that to her if she was dead and buried?
The spotty face of Wenbo swam before her eyes, and she once again wiped away the tears of joy. She fixed a smile on her face, and glanced modestly down at the ground.
‘I thank you, Geng Wenbo.’
The boy seemed transfixed, unclear as to what he should do next. He was already beginning to irritate the girl, and, without raising her eyes, she hinted that she would like to be alone now.
‘My fate is still uncertain, and I wish to compose myself should the wheel of fortune not turn in my favour in the end.’
The boy stammered an apology for intruding on her contemplations and slouched away. She waited a moment and gave a cautious look up. He was walking down the unlucky road that led to her cell. When he was far enough away, she breathed a sigh of relief, and hugged herself. She hoped the next person she would see coming towards her cell along the road would be the investigator. In her mind, she began to marshal her thoughts. If he was as clever as she imagined, it would not do to get her story all mixed up. Let the others be tripped up by him, she would play her part well.
‘That play we saw made me think.’
As the light from the lamp got lower, we had moved closer to each other to stay in its beam. Alberoni rubbed his smooth jaw and yawned.
‘I didn’t follow all of it, as I couldn’t hear Lin’s explanation. What was it about the play that got you thinking?’
Gurbesu stared into my eyes with those big brown orbs of hers.
‘Was it the wife, Yu-Niang, confessing under torture? Just like this case of ours?’
I shook my head.
‘No. I liked that chief clerk, Chang Ting, best. He reminded me of myself.’
Tadeusz threw his head back and laughed. I wanted to know what he found so funny in what I said.
‘I understand some Chinee, you know, and followed a few of the lines. The clerk said he hated those who – how did he put it? – who “fiddled the law.” ’ He put a solemn look on his ruined face. ‘How could he then have been like you?’
I took it that Tadeusz was teasing me about my fondness for skirting round the borders of legality, and wasn’t seriously taking me to task. In fact, I was glad he seemed to be more relaxed, more like his normal self. He was usually such a quiet and uncritical man, but he had been more than a little edgy during our journey. I put it down to the strains of the long trip.
‘I may flirt with what is unlawful, that is true. But no, it wasn’t that I was thinking of. Chang Ting cracked the case of the Mo-Ho-Lo Doll by filling in the missing facts. Facts that had been ignored before. No one checked on the unidentified man who brought Yu-Niang news of her husband’s illness. It was only when she remembered the doll that she could trace the doll-maker and he provided crucial information about the real murderer. Another witness was bribed to say Yu-Niang planned the murder with her lover. But when Chang Ting investigated, it turned out there was no lover. But, most importantly of all, no one had checked the source of the poison that killed Yu-Niang’s husband.’
There was silence as everyone pondered my great exposition. I looked around expecting admiration, but all I saw were puzzled expressions.
‘Damn it, don’t you see? It’s the same with this case. No one has followed up the mystery of the origins of the poison.’ I turned to the little silversmith.
‘Tadeusz, I want you to make that your job when we get there. You have some of the Chinee tongue as you have just reminded us, and can talk to the locals. But if you get stuck, you can always talk to Lin.’
He nodded, and looked down at the floor, embarrassed by everyone’s attention suddenly being on him.
‘What about the Mongol overlord – Taitemir?’ This was Gurbesu’s question. ‘He looked a fierce fellow at the theatre, surrounded by all his cronies.’
A shiver ran down my spine.
‘I would rather not get entangled with him, if I can help it.’
Gurbesu would not leave it, however.
‘But if some wrong has been done, he could be at the centre of it. You will have to talk to him along with the Chin prefect.’
I sighed, knowing that Gurbesu had a point, and that she would not give up, if she felt she was in the right. So I diverted her from her purpose by giving her a task I knew she would relish.
‘You are right. Lin and I will have to deal with him, I suppose. And I want you to talk to the girl. Find out the truth from her.’
I stroked her hair, which, as she leaned into the light, hung like a curtain over her round, olive-skinned face. The others must have noticed my tender gesture towards Gurbesu, because both Tadeusz and Alberoni rose, and wished us goodnight. I recalled that when they had arrived, Alberoni had said he wanted to ask me something.
‘What was it you wanted to know, Friar?’
There was a distant look in his eyes, and he shook his head.
‘Oh, it will keep for another day, Niccolò.’
The two men discreetly left the room. The lamp flickered, went dim, and died. In the darkness, I felt Gurbesu squeeze my arm.