The Emperor's Pearl
- Автор: ван Гулик Роберт Ханс
- Серия: Judge Dee #9
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «The Emperor's Pearl». Краткое содержание книги:
In The Emperor’s Pearl, the judge discovers that these two deaths are connected by an ancient tragedy involving a near-legendary treasure stolen from the Imperial Harem one hundred years earlier. The terrifying figure of the White Lady, a river goddess enshrined on a bloodstained altar, looms in the background of the investigation. Clues are few and elusive, but under the expert hand of Robert van Gulik, this mythic jigsaw puzzle assembles itself into a taut mystery.
“If you have not yet discovered Judge Dee and his faithful Sgt. Hoong, I envy you that initial pleasure which comes from the discovery of a great detective story. For the magistrate of Poo-yang belongs in that select group of fictional detectives headed by the renowned Sherlock Holmes.”—Robert Kirsch, Los AngelesTimes
“The title of this book and the book itself have much in common. Each is a jewel, a rare and precious find.”—AtlantaTimes
For a while Judge Dee watched the tortoise that was nibbling contentedly at the green leaves. Then he spoke:
'This small animal did his duty, Hoong But things turned out quite differently from what I had thought. Now it is clear what actually happened, of course. When I ordered our headman to round up all the servants in this house, I had completely forgotten about Mrs Kou. Our good headman has a one-track mind, he collared also the maids assigned to look after that poor lady. Left alone in her room, she went out and started to wander about in the empty house. She must have seen Yang going to this room, but he didn't see her. Yang had avoided meeting her ever since his raping her in the ruined temple. He told me he had made it a point never to go farther than the reception room when visiting here, allegedly because he couldn't bear to see Kou's beautiful collection. The real reason was of course that he didn't dare to risk meeting Gold Lotus, who might recognize him and remember. Tonight she did not, at first, recognize Yang, but the mere seeing of him must have stirred something in her deranged mind, and she followed him to the library here. You saw her come inside, Hoong. She passed by Yang, who was standing in the corner to the left of the door, went on towards the light circle and stood herself behind my chair. Now it so happened that tonight a storm was threatening, it was exactly the same tense and oppressive atmosphere as on that night four years ago, when Yang abducted her. Mentally deranged persons are especially sensitive to weather conditions, and the similar atmosphere prepared the way for what followed. When I put the white hand with the red ruby on the table, she saw the marble hand of the goddess, the hand she had looked up to in that terrible moment when she was lying helpless on the altar. Suddenly she connected the hand with the man she had just seen, and in a flash everything came back. She was cured by the shock.'
Sergeant Hoong nodded.
'Heaven has been kind to Mr Kou' he remarked. 'In its mercy it took the adulterous Amber Lady away, and restored his faithful wife to him, completely cured.' He frowned, then asked curiously: 'How did Your Honour know that, on the night that Yang abducted Mrs Kou, a storm was threatening? I don't remember her mentioning that.'
'Nobody mentioned it. But don't you see that the ghostly apparition of the White Lady that four years ago frightened the Tong family so much was in fact Mrs Kou? Her mind distracted by the terrible experience in the temple, she must somehow or other have found her way to the edge of the grove. Everything fits! She was half naked, her hair was hanging loose, and the thorny branches had torn her hands and limbs, hence the blood the Tong family saw. Then the tempest started, and the poor deranged woman walked round the grove and wandered the rest of the night through the fields, till she collapsed from sheer exhaustion outside the east gate, where the next morning the farmers found her. I'll check the precise dates, of course, but I don't doubt for one moment that the abduction of Gold Lotus and the ghostly phenomenon in the Tong villa will prove to have occurred on one and the same night!'
Alone in the large room, the two men sat listening silently to the rain. At last Sergeant Hoong spoke up with a satisfied smile:
'So Your Honour has solved two baffling puzzles tonight! One concerning no less than four murders, and also that old riddle of the White Goddess.'
Judge Dee took a sip from his tea. After he had set his cup down he gave the sergeant a thoughtful look and said slowly:
'The murders, yes, I solved those. And also that one appearance of the goddess, four years ago.' Shaking his head he went on: 'As to her part in all that happened here . . . no, I haven't solved that, Hoong.' He got up from his chair and replaced the small tortoise in his sleeve. Straightening his robe he said: 'It seems the rain has abated a little. Let's go back to the tribunal.'
XX
The following morning, shortly after dawn, Judge Dee and Sergeant Hoong left the city by the south gate and rode out into the country. The storm of the preceding night had cleared the air, and it promised to become a beautiful, cool day.
The judge had sat up till deep in the night, drawing up a full report on the murders, to be forwarded to the higher authorities. He had slept badly. He had found it difficult to ban the tense moments in Kou's library from his mind, and he did not relish the prospect of hearing Yang's confession all over again, during the morning session of the tribunal.
Having risen after a fitful slumber, he had decided to make an early trip with Hoong to the Mandrake Grove in order to survey the possibility of having the forest cleared. He planned to append a proposal to that effect to his report on the murders, pointing out that the continued existence of such a place would tempt miscreants to make their lair there.
They took the short cut through the rice fields indicated by the curio-dealer. Soon the tall trees of the forest came into sight.
They easily located the white elm trees that marked the pathway leading to the ruined temple. However, they found that the tempest had played havoc there; uprooted trees had fallen across the path amidst a tangle of thick creepers and thorny shrubs, effectively barring their progress.
The two men circled the grove, looking all the time for other gaps. But they found nothing but an impenetrable wall of old trees and thick undergrowth.
At last they found themselves at the back of the deserted house. They rode along its outer wall, to the entrance. Judge Dee dismounted there. He said to the sergeant:
'Let's have a look at the grove from the walled-in garden. Four years ago Mrs Kou emerged somewhere there from among the trees. It is our last chance of finding a way to get inside!'
They passed through the tunnel-like entrance, and went to the side garden to the east of the main building.
Standing at the low wall, they scanned the forbidding mass of trees. No leaf stirred in the still morning air. Twittering birds flew in and out from under the eaves of the pavilion, but they shunned the forest. There everything was as quiet as the grave. A strange air of silent expectancy seemed to linger among the dark foliage.
After a long time Judge Dee shook his head. He spoke:
'No, I shan't disturb the abode of the White Goddess, after all. We shall leave her in peace, standing there in her ruined temple, in the middle of her sacred grove. There are things, Hoong, that are better let well alone. Let's go back to the city!'
As he turned round, his eye fell on a young bird that was struggling helplessly among the grass, near the wall of the pavilion. It frantically flapped its undeveloped, naked wings. Judge Dee carefully took it up in his cupped hands and said:
'Poor fellow fell out of its nest! It doesn't seem to have hurt itself, though.' Lifting his head he went on: ' Look, the nest is up there under the eaves of the pavilion, the mother is flying around it. I'll put it back.'
He climbed on the low wall and put the bird in the nest. But instead of stepping down he remained standing there. Raising himself on tiptoe, he had a close look, not heeding the mother bird that flapped anxiously round his head.