The Lacquer Screen
- Автор: ван Гулик Роберт Ханс
- Серия: Judge Dee #8
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «The Lacquer Screen». Краткое содержание книги:
Early in his career, Judge Dee visits a senior magistrate who shows him a beautiful lacquer screen on which a scene of lovers has been mysteriously altered to show the man stabbing his lover. The magistrate fears he is losing his mind and will murder his own wife. Meanwhile, a banker has inexplicably killed himself, and a lovely lady has allowed Dee's lieutenant, Chiao Tai, to believe she is a courtesan. Dee and Chiao Tai go incognito among a gang of robbers to solve this mystery, and find the leader of the robbers is more honorable than the magistrate.
One of the most satisfyingly devious of the Judge Dee novels, with unusual historical richness in its portrayal of the China of the T'ang dynasty.-—New York Times Book Review
Even Judge Dee is baffled by Robert van Gulik's new mysteries in The Lacquer Screen. Disguised as a petty crook, he spends a couple of precarious days in the headquarters of the underworld, hobnobbing with the robber king. Dee's lively thieving friends furnish some vital clues to this strange and fascinating jigsaw.-—The Spectator
So scrupulously in the classic Chinese manner yet so nicely equipped with everything to satisfy the modern reader.-—New York Times
Robert Van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. He drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially from the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century.
'That's a pity,' Judge Dee said, 'I would have liked to read her poetry, to enable me to say a few sympathetic things to the magistrate about it, when I go to offer him my condolences.'
'Well,' Pan said, 'perhaps I can help you. Last week Mrs Teng sent me a copy-book containing her poems, written out by herself. She added a note asking me to verify whether there were mistakes in some references to the historical sites of Wei-ping. I'll have to return the manuscript to the magistrate soon, but if you want, you can have a look at it now.'
'Excellent!' Judge Dee exclaimed. 'I'll just sit down with it over by the window there, so that you can get on with your work!'
Pan opened a drawer and took out a bulky volume bound in plain blue paper. The judge went over to the armchair in front of the window.
First he quickly leafed through the volume. It was written in the same neat hand as the second couplet of the poem he had seen in the house of assignation, with only some minor differences. These could, of course, be explained by the fact that the copy-book had been written out carefully in the quiet library, while the couplet was jotted down during a secret rendezvous.
Then he began to read the poems, from the beginning. Soon he found himself completely captivated by this truly magnificent poetry. Judge Dee took the narrow Confucianist view that the only poetry worthy of the name served either an ethical or didactic purpose. In his youth he himself had written a long poem on the importance of agriculture. He had little interest in verses that were just lyrical effusions or that recorded only fleeting moods. But he had to admit that Mrs Teng's masterful command of the language and her original imagery lent her poetry a compelling beauty. She had the gift of the adjective; as a rule she used only one to define a mood or scene, but that one word summed up all the essential features. Some of the striking similes he remembered having encountered in the magistrate's published poetry also, evidently the pair had worked together very closely.
He put the volume in his lap and sat there staring at nothing, pensively caressing his side-whiskers. Pan shot him an astonished look but the judge did not notice it. He asked himself how it could be possible that a great poetess, a refined, sensitive woman, happily married to a husband with whom she shared the same interests, could ever become an adulteress. That a woman whose delicate sentiments were so convincingly recorded in her poetry, could ever stoop to the sordidness of secret meetings in a bawdy house — the smirking madame, the sly tips — it seemed utterly incredible. A sudden, passionate affair with a rough-and-ready youngster, violent and brief — such a thing might not be wholly impossible. Women were strange creatures. But the young painter had been the same type of man as her own husband, with the same interests. He angrily tugged at his moustache. It didn't fit at all.
Suddenly he remembered the slight differences in the handwriting. Could it be that the woman who secretly met the painter was not Mrs Teng, but her elder sister, the young widow? She had worn Mrs Teng's earrings and bracelets, but sisters often lend each other their trinkets. The painter had been a distant relative, so the young widow had had even more opportunities for meeting him than had Mrs Teng. Moreover, there were two other sisters. He asked Pan:
'Tell me, are Mrs Teng's other sisters also living in the country house outside the north gate?'
'As far as I know,' Pan replied, 'there's only one sister there, Mr Shen, and that is the landowner's widow.'
The judge returned the volume to him. 'Excellent poetry!' he commented. He now felt sure that the young widow had been Leng Te's paramour. Of course her handwriting would resemble closely that of Mrs Teng. When they were still young girls they would have been taught by the same private tutor. Probably the elder sister had planned to marry the painter as soon as the years of mourning prescribed by the rites had passed. Their secret meetings were of course utterly wrong, but that was no concern of his. Neither was he interested in the depraved taste of the mysterious man who had spied on the couple. He had been wrong. He rose with a sigh and asked Pan to announce him to the magistrate.
When Judge Dee was seated with Magistrate Teng at the table in his library, he said:
'Tomorrow we'll leave here for the prefectural city, Teng. I did my best, but I have failed to discover the slightest indication that my theory about an intruder being implicated in the death of your wife was correct. You were right, it would indeed have been too much of a coincidence. I am sorry, Teng. Tonight I shall try to evolve a plausible explanation for Mrs Teng's body having been found in the marsh, and I shall take full responsibility for the delay in reporting the tragedy to the Prefect.'
Teng nodded gravely. He said:
'I deeply appreciate all you have done for me, Dee! It is I who must apologize for the trouble I put you to, and that on your holiday! Your presence in itself is a great comfort to me. Your sympathetic understanding and readiness to help are things I shan't easily forget, Dee.'
The judge was touched. Teng would have been fully justified in showering reproaches on him, for he had tampered with evidence and retarded a murder investigation. Moreover, he had given Teng idle hopes. It flashed through his mind that he was glad indeed he had sent the coroner away with a faked message. In this hot weather decomposition would have so far advanced by now that a detailed autopsy would be impossible. Thus Teng would fortunately never know what he had done before killing his wife. Judge Dee still thought it very strange, but one really knew very little about the vagaries of a sick mind. He said:
'I hope you'll give me a chance to try to make myself useful in another respect, Teng. Namely, in the case of Ko Chih-yuan's demise. I expect that you'll say you are sick and tired of my theories, but the fact is that I happened to stumble on some rather interesting ramifications of that case. The banker Leng Chien is involved in it. He confessed to me that he had been swindling Ko for large amounts. That is why I sent you the message asking you to have him arrested. I just heard that you complied with my request at once. I am really quite embarrassed by your confidence in my slender abilities, Teng! But I trust that in this case at least I shan't disappoint you!'
The magistrate passed his hand over his eyes with a weary gesture.
'That's true!' he said, 'I had quite forgotten about that case!'
'Today you won't feel like going into that further, I suppose. You would really do me a favour if you would allow me to conduct an investigation, together with your counsellor.'
'By all means!' Teng replied. 'You are perfectly right in thinking that I couldn't give that complicated case the attention it deserves. I can't think of anything but our interview with the Prefect tomorrow. You are really very thoughtful, Dee!'
The judge felt embarrassed. Outwardly Teng might seem a cold man, but his reserve concealed a warm nature. He had been a fool to assume that his wife had been deceiving him. He said:
'Thank you, Teng! I would propose that you tell Pan my real identity, so that I can go over the official records of the case with him.'
The magistrate clapped his hands. When the old steward appeared he told him to summon Pan Yoo-te.
The old counsellor was taken aback when he learned Judge Dee's identity. He immediately started upon a long apology for his casual attitude towards him. But Judge Dee cut him short, and asked Teng to excuse them.
When the still confused Pan was leading him to his private office, the judge noticed that it had grown dark outside. He said to Pan:
'I think that both of us are entitled to a bit of fresh air! I would be pleased if you would join me for dinner in a restaurant, and order some local specialities for me.'
Pan protested that he couldn't possibly accept that honour; but the judge insisted, adding that to the outer world he was, after all, still Mr Shen, the commission agent. At last the old counsellor agreed. They left the tribunal together.