Bill for the Use of a Body (24 page)

Then, having taken the letter, he shut the door.

As Julian walked back to his room he felt more than ever distrustful of the Paos, and even thought it possible that they had been got at by Hayashi. But it was no good worrying about that now and, anyhow, they knew nothing about his own intentions. The important thing for him to decide at the moment was at what time he should make his attempt to get into Hayashi's house.

Hayashi could be counted on to leave it a few minutes before eight, but for how long he would remain away was an unknown factor. Perhaps two hours; but as he was not a personal friend of Urata's their conversation over the meal was unlikely to be more than an exchange of banalities, and if Hayashi proved impatient to see the Kuan-yin the whole business might be concluded in an hour. There then occurred to Julian the possibility that events might move much faster. He felt certain that
Hayashi would have thought up some plan for attempting to get hold of the goddess without making any return for her and if the Paos were in with him they might help him to pull a really fast one. They would not take the Kuan-yin direct to Hayashi's house, as to do so would be plain theft, but if he received it in the Phoenix they could not be accused of that. The dinner would be in a private room and Urata could be given a ‘Mickey Finn' which would knock him out within a few moments of his drinking it. If that happened the Paos could also sham having been doped and Hayashi be back in his house with the Kuan-yin under half an hour.

There were quite a lot of snags to such a plan; but Julian knew the man he had to deal with and, although he would greatly have preferred to give the servants plenty of time to go out for the evening, fear that Hayashi might have hatched some plot of that kind decided him to go in soon after eight o'clock.

Having collected his sword stick and the torch he always kept beside his bed, he went downstairs and gave his letter to the police to an under-manager with very clear instructions that only if he were not back by eleven o'clock should the police be called in and the letter given to them. Then he asked for two taxis to be at the door at twenty to eight.

A few minutes later the Paos emerged from one of the lifts and the porters carried the big wicker basket containing the Kuan-yin to a place near the door, where Pao Ping sat down beside it while her husband went to fetch the little van. As soon as he had brought it round from the garage Julian watched the basket being loaded into it, then he gave instructions to the driver of one of the taxis he had ordered to lead the van to the Phoenix. Having given the party ten minutes' start he got into the other taxi and told the man to put him down on the corner of the street in which lay Hayashi's house.

By the time he arrived there it was fully dark and,
having paid off his taxi, he walked round to the north wall of the garden. During his reconnaissance of the place that morning he had noticed the branch of a catalpa tree that hung down over the tall wall. After a quick glance to right and left to make certain that no-one was about, he tensed the muscles of his legs and jumped. His outstretched fingers caught the branch and it did not break. For a few seconds he swung there, then he pulled himself hand over hand along it until he was leaning against the top of the wall. Sending up a prayer that he might succeed in rescuing his beautiful Merri, he scrambled over and dropped down into the garden.

While Julian had been giving lunch that day to the Paos, Inosuke Hayashi had been in consultation with his Chief of Staff, Udo Nagi.

They were dressed in the rich garments of their country and sat cross-legged opposite each other across a low table of exquisite workmanship. On it were a number of photographs. They were enlargements of films taken that morning through a telescopic lens on a dock in Osaka. Studying one that was of Tilly Sang, Hayashi said with a grim little smile:

‘As I felt sure it would be, this woman is Matilda Cray, who later became Madame Lo. She has changed little and is still beautiful. From her body I derived much pleasure. When I tired of her I sold her into a brothel in Macao. I do not recall the name of the man who bought her from me, but about a year later he sold his place to one Lo Kung. He took a fancy to her and made her his mistress. Later, when she had his child, Lo married her and for a while she acted as his “Madame” in the brothel. On Lo's death she employed the man Ti Chang, who is now known in Hong Kong as Mok Kwai, as her manager. By then she was quite a wealthy woman and evidently decided to become respectable. It is true that she is an Australian, but the story you picked up that she met Lo there and married him in Singapore is false. As far as I know she has never been there, but transferred herself direct from Macao to Hong Kong. Brothels, as we well know, can be very
profitable concerns and, it seems, she was loath to lose the big income she was making out of girls; so having sold her place in Macao for a handsome sum, she took Ti Chang with her to Hong Kong and set him up in the Moon Garden.'

Hayashi paused, so Nagi put in deferentially, ‘May it not be, honourable master, that the woman being already rich had Ti, or Mok as he is known there now, open the Moon Garden mainly for the purpose of obtaining information about Japanese visitors to Hong Kong? My reports show that all the girls there were instructed to show special willingness to oblige such visitors in any way, make them drunk if possible, and question them about their war experiences. Doubtless Mok passed on such information to Madame Lo—or Sang, as she now calls herself—thus enabling her to ensnare such men as visited the Moon Garden and were so foolish as to admit that they had served with the 230th Regiment during its victorious occupation of Hong Kong.'

‘Sagacious Nagi, about her method of learning that persons on whom she sought to be revenged were in Hong Kong, you are unquestionably right,' Hayashi conceded. ‘But she might have employed other methods, and to secure five victims I could have thought of better ways than running a brothel for some twelve years; so the profit motive must have entered largely into that. However, it is certain that she received her information through her girls and, even if they were not successful in finding out where the men were staying, Mok could have had them followed to their hotels. After that she could have met with few difficulties. What virile Japanese could resist the temptation to pick up a beautiful big blonde woman if he saw her sitting alone in a lounge and she indicated that she was willing to talk to him? On learning that she was not a prostitute but a woman of the world and, as she would have told him, a lonely widow, his urge to overcome such scruples as she showed would have been
irresistible. No doubt she made a great play of her reputation and not wishing to be seen in Hong Kong with a Japanese, then made casual mention of her little villa in Macao, and that she was going there for the week-end. So, it must have been, that the five men went to their deaths. But tell me in more detail about her departure from Hong Kong and arrival in Osaka this morning.'

‘The
Luheck
sailed from Hong Kong on Sunday last, honourable master. That morning, according to our agent's report, a Chinese couple collected the Kuan-yin from the woman's house in a small van, and drove with it to the dockside in Victoria. As my honourable master will be aware, Hong Kong being a Free Port there is no examination of outgoing baggage; so, having shown their passports at the emigration desk, the couple had the basket carried straight on board. It was locked up in a cabin next to the one they were to occupy and remained there throughout the voyage.'

‘And none of your people saw Madame Sang either on the dock or aboard the ship before it sailed?'

‘No, honourable master.'

‘Yet she must have been in the ship, for she was seen to walk off it this morning.'

‘Indeed, yes, honourable master. And, most fortunately, I suspected that she might somehow have smuggled herself on board, owing to a report I received that on the same day as the Kuan-yin was taken from her house she had disappeared from Hong Kong. That was why I went to the dock myself this morning, with several of our people, to keep observation.'

‘Describe to me exactly the landing of her party.'

‘It was a little before eight when the
Lubeck
docked, honourable master. At about half past the passengers began to come off; first a few, then in a crowd. Madame Sang was among the crowd. Immediately I saw her I ordered that photographs should be taken. She was carrying only a small suitcase, and she appeared to be
with another woman, to whom she spoke once, but only briefly. The woman was, I think, American, and had with her three children and much luggage. They went through the passport office together, but in the Customs shed Madame Sang left her, went out and took a taxi. By then all the passengers had disembarked, the last to do so being the couple with the Kuan-yin. When they came out of the Customs shed a small green van was waiting to meet them. Later I learned that it had been hired by cable. The Kuan-yin was loaded into it. Having given its driver some money and received from him a key, the man and his woman got into the cab and he drove off.'

‘You had both the taxi and the van followed, of course?'

‘Certainly, honourable master. The taxi took Madame Sang to a small hotel, the Fushimi, in Gojo Street; but she did not book a room, and remained there only half an hour while she had breakfast. When she came out she did not take a taxi. Carrying her small suitcase, she walked about a mile, asking the way several times by showing a slip of paper which must have had an address on it, until she reached Kitaoji Street. In this poor part of the city she looked about until she found a side turning with a row of lock-up garages in it. Meanwhile, it was to the same place that the man had driven the van. Unlocking one of the garages he had run the van inside and shut the door. Madame Sang went into it and also shut the door behind her. Ten minutes later the van came out, the Chinese woman locked the door, joined her husband in the cab and he drove off. About an hour ago they arrived at the Miyako. The couple were met by the Englishman, Day, about whose activities, honourable master, I have reported to you, and the Kuan-yin was taken up to a room he had booked for the couple who brought it.'

‘And Madame Sang?'

Nagi spread out his great hands. ‘Disappeared, honourable master. After waiting till the van had been gone half
an hour, our people forced the lock of the garage and it was empty.'

‘Then Madame Sang must have been inside the van and is now at the Miyako.'

‘One cannot doubt that, honourable master. Equally I do not doubt that Madame Sang left Hong Kong in the big wicker basket that we believed to contain the Kuan-yin, and that by the same means she arrived in the room upstairs at the Miyako. The purser and stewards of the
Lubeck
have been questioned. There was no Madame Sang on the passenger list and no person resembling her was seen during the voyage. She must have travelled in the locked cabin reserved for the Kuan-yin. Her couple would have brought her food and if she wished she could have taken exercise on deck late at night with little risk of being challenged. One may be sure that her wicker basket is well lined with much padding, so she would have experienced little discomfort while being carried aboard at Hong Kong. On arriving at Osaka she would, of course, have had to leave it; otherwise she would have been found in it by the Customs. But there were over two hundred passengers in the
Lubeck
, so for a woman they had not previously seen to mingle with them when coming off would have aroused no comment. She attached herself temporarily to the American woman because that woman had a lot of luggage, and some of it would have been taken for hers; but had she had none at all the Customs would have thought that queer. That is why she took a suitcase with her and—'

Hayashi made an impatient gesture. ‘Nagi, your deductions are excellent; but having made your point you should not labour it so much. What we have to consider now is why the woman should arrive in Kyoto in this way. For reasons that you well know I have long been set on inducing her to come here; but I expected her to do so openly, in the hope of redeeming her daughter. But no; by subtle means she succeeds in reaching Kyoto in secret,
obviously with the intention that I should remain in ignorance of her presence. But why? What can her intentions be?'

Nagi bowed his head almost to the floor. ‘Honourable master, for having allowed my stupid tongue to wag idly I abase myself. I should have known that your lightning like mind would become aware of these assumptions without your humble servant mentioning them.'

Ignoring the apology from his henchman, Hayashi remained silent for a moment; then he said, ‘For her to have come in secret there can be only one explanation. She plans to take me by surprise and murder me. Yes. I see her design quite clearly. Tonight I am invited to dine with the ship-owner Yutaka Urata at the Phoenix geisha house, and afterwards to inspect the Kuan-yin. But when the casket is opened it will not contain the Kuan-yin. Madame Sang will be lying in it, and as the lid is raised she will rise up and shoot me.'

‘May the gods protect you, honourable master,' murmured Nagi. ‘But should she commit such a crime in the Phoenix she could not escape being charged with murder, and executed.'

‘She could,' replied Hayashi tersely. ‘She would plead justifiable homicide. She would say that I had had her daughter kidnapped and the police would at once search this house. The Englishman, Day, would insist on their doing so. They would find the girl here and she would bear out her mother's story. At the trial it would be pleaded that the mother had believed that to kill me was the only way of obtaining her daughter's release. She might get a year or two in prison, but no more; and Madame Sang, as she now calls herself, would willingly submit to that for the pleasure of having revenged herself on me.'

‘One who is warned avoids danger in time,' observed Nagi. ‘Honourable master will not then go to this dinner.'