Ian Morson - Deadly injustice

I think Li felt very comfortable about accusing me of the confidence trick involving Ho’s thefts and the return of stolen goods by the agency of the priestess in the Temple of the Earth Goddess. He thought my accusing him of being involved would not be believed in the circumstances. And if the situation had been as he imagined, I would have agreed with him. I would sound like a trickster trying to shift the blame. But he was unaware of one thing.

A con is nothing more than a play. Everyone knows it is a play except the victim, until he is stung. But sometimes the con is more convoluted, and involves the victim thinking he has seen the trick. At this point the victim is dragged into joining in the con. This is where the real con starts. Li had willingly joined the stolen goods scam, and had missed the real con. He didn’t know it, but he was still playing a part in my play, even though we were not in a theatre. I addressed those present.

‘Master Li is going to accuse me of having been involved in a confidence trick concerning burglary, and the return of stolen goods for money. I think he is the one who planned the scam, however.’

Li looked at me angrily.

‘Very well, if you wish to force my hand, I will unmask you. Lin, you can ask my men what they witnessed in the theatre the other night, when your man tried to bribe me with money obtained by his trickery.’

At this point, the two bodyguards appeared in the doorway — the same two guards I had trusted, and who had then turned on me. Lin looked at the two bodyguards, a truculent smile on his face. He asked them what they had seen happen in theatre. One of them looked at Li questioningly.

‘You really want us to say, Master Li?’

The prefect lifted a hand, giving his man permission to speak.

‘Tell him what you saw.’

The two men grinned at each other, and the taller one spoke up.

‘Master Li, we saw you trying to bribe this man — ’ he pointed at me — ‘who said he knew about your scam. You offered him the money the priestess gave you as her pay-off for the scam. When he refused to be bribed, you told us to beat him up, so we did. That was all right, wasn’t it?’

Li was speechless, gasping for breath as though someone had punched him in his not inconsiderable stomach. I told the bodyguards to leave, and pushed my face in Li’s.

‘Now, don’t imagine for one moment that you will try to impede our search for justice in the case of Jianxu and Old Geng. Just come with us, and watch us take the real killer. Then you can release the girl.’

Jianxu sat up on her cot where she had been lying. The sun had just set, turning the blood red colour on the wall of her cell to grey. She listened for a while, thinking she had heard the cry of a wild beast as she lay half asleep. Whatever had roused her, the sound did not come again. The countryside beyond the walls of her grim cell was silent. Not even the chirp of a bird or the call of a wild creature stirred the darkness. But as she sat, now alert to the turning of the world around her, she knew her time had come. As long as Wenbo stuck to what they had agreed, she would be free soon. She recalled the dream she had been having in which the boy had been stumbling through the woods of the place where she had been born. He was scared and didn’t know that hunters used the woods to catch game. He was lost and afraid, stomping carelessly through the long grass. Somewhere behind him, the cries of the hunters could be heard. She knew the dream’s interpretation. It meant that Wenbo had been found out. And that she would soon be freed. The sound that woke her had been the scream of the boy as the trap snapped viciously closed, trapping his leg.

Li was reluctant to come with us to that part of Pianfu where the Geng house stood. It had once been a prosperous district, but now the encroaching houses told their own story. Geng lived amidst poor people, their shanties leaning against his walls for support. It was not a place where the prefect wished to be after dark. But come with us he did, as he now had no choice. As we marched grimly through the town, Gurbesu came to my side.

‘Now I see what you were up to. I recognized those two bodyguards as actors from the play we saw. I would know those manly torsos anywhere.’

I grinned at her recollection of the half-naked acrobats she had ogled that night when we watched ‘The Three Princes at Tiger Palace’.

‘I thought you might. They were out of work, so were glad to play a part for me. They were my bodyguards until Li thought he had turned them against me with money. But that was all part of the plan too. Mind you, they did get a bit carried away with the fake beating.’ I touched my bruised body and winced. ‘But the clincher as far as Li was concerned was when they kicked my teeth in, and drew blood from my mouth.’

Gurbesu was horrified.

‘They hit you hard enough to draw blood?’

I laughed.

‘No. Before we started our little charade, they gave me a bladder with chicken’s blood in it. At the right moment, I slipped it in my mouth and bit down on it. Lots of blood to spit out, and a pleasant sight for Li.’ I shuddered. ‘Mind you, the chicken’s blood was so awful, I had to drink two goblets of wine before the taste was washed away. Li was completely taken in by greed, as you always hope a mark will be. He didn’t see the inconsistencies in my scam, which I had to put together very quickly.’

I looked back at the prefect to make sure he was still behind us, and had not sneaked away. His cheeks wobbled, and his face was red with the exertion, but he was still there glaring at me as he strove to keep up with our fast pace. Finally, we stood in front of Geng’s house in all its run-down glory. A light burned dimly in the courtyard, but no servants were in evidence. I knew they had all gone, as there was no one in a position to pay them any more. I strode towards the range of rooms that I knew was where Old Geng had lived. Wenbo was bound to be in there somewhere. I slid the outer door open and began searching the rooms leading off the long corridor. The others would have followed, but Lin raised a hand to stop them.

‘Let Zhong Kui do his job. He is good at winkling out little devils.’

He was right, in the second room that I looked in, I found Wenbo huddled in a tangle of blankets. He was barely awake, having only just been roused by the noise I had made upon entry to his quarters. He scratched his head, and yawned.

‘What…?’

I grabbed him by his grubby shirt and hauled him to his feet.

‘You are coming with me, Geng Wenbo.’

He turned a ghastly shade of green, perhaps thinking he was having a nightmare. After all, he didn’t seem truly awake yet. He rubbed his eyes, but the demon didn’t go away. Flame-haired and big-nosed, Zhong Kui, as Lin was fond of calling me, had come for the boy.

‘You are brought to account for the murder of your father. And for the death of the actor too, I have no doubt.’

The boy’s legs gave away, and he fell to the floor, vomiting his stomach’s contents between his knees.

Matters progressed swiftly once we had arrested Geng Wenbo. The only hitch came when I dragged him out into the courtyard to face the prefect. A voice screeched out from the other side of the yard, wanting to know what was happening. We had forgotten Madam Gao, and she flew out of her quarters like a harpie, her outer robe pulled roughly around her night attire for modesty’s sake.

‘Who are you? What right do you have coming into the house of law-abiding citizens, and making such a bother?’

Her eyesight was poor or she would have recognized Lin and me straight away. It was Li who stepped in and quietened her down.