Bill for the Use of a Body (27 page)

He then began to speculate on how Hayashi had managed to get away with the Kuan-yin. About that two things seemed certain: he could hardly have done so unless he had had the co-operation of that shifty couple, the Paos; and, with their help, he had stolen it. If so he could, anyhow, be charged with theft and, as it was still well before nine o'clock, the odds were that provided he had kept his appointment with Urata, he would still be at the Nest of the Phoenix.

Restarting the engine, Julian turned the van in the direction of the geisha house and, after twice losing his way but soon getting back on to it, drove up near the Phoenix. As he got out from the cab he noticed that he had pulled up just behind another van of the same make and colour as the one he had been driving. Then, as he walked
past it, he saw that on its side were painted the same Japanese signs and spray of chrysanthemums. Another moment and the penny dropped. Hayashi must have had another green Ford van painted to appear the twin of the one hired in Osaka by Tilly Sang, and had somehow rung the changes. No doubt the Paos had done that part of the job for him, but what did the van standing in front of the Phoenix contain?

Stepping round to the back of the van, Julian saw that the key was in the lock. Opening one of the doors he saw that the van was empty. Returning to the van he had driven there he got a screwdriver out of the tool-kit under the seat in the cab and with it forced the van's lock. Inside lay the big wicker casket. Satisfied that he really had got the Kuan-yin, he entered the geisha house. A uniformed porter touched his cap to him, but he took no notice of the man. He was staring across the wide low dimly lit hall. Against the wall at the far end of it Pao Tin-yum and his wife were sitting cross-legged, and between them reposed another wicker casket.

Walking over to them, Julian asked Pao Tin-yum what time they had got there.

‘Half-past-eight,' the man replied with a surly look. ‘On way we have double. Police stop us and insist to see our passports. But makes no matter. The two Japanese upstairs are still eating. You said Kuan-yin not to be shown until dinner finished.'

Julian pointed at the wicker basket and said, ‘Are you quite sure the Kuan-yin is still inside that? I've an idea that it may have been removed while you were talking to the police.'

‘Then you are wong,' Pao Tin-yum returned. ‘If so we tell by weight. Still very heavy when carried in here.'

‘But the Kuan-yin may have been removed and some bricks substituted,' Julian suggested. ‘Open it up so that we can find out.'

‘No!' retorted Pao, his manner suddenly becoming
suspicious and hostile. ‘Mrs. Sang's orders. She say to be opened only front of Mr. Hayashi. Me responsible to her. She my boss. She give orders I take. Only from her.'

For a few minutes they argued the matter, but the man proved adamant; so Julian was more than ever inclined to believe that the couple were in the pay of Hayashi and assisting him in some deep-laid plot. Leaving them he went over to the porter and, with his assistance and that of another man he called up, they got the other wicker basket out of the van and carried it into the hall.

At the sight of it both the Paos came to their feet, their eyes round with surprise. When the second basket was set down alongside the first Julian said, ‘Now, which of these contains the Kuan-yin? We had better open them both.' But again Pao flatly refused to allow the basket he had brought to be opened.

Meanwhile Pao Ping had been carefully scrutinising the two baskets. Suddenly she addressed her husband in a spate of Chinese. He bent and examined the fastenings of the one that had just been brought in. Then, turning to Julian, he said angrily, ‘My wife right. This one belong us. Why you play dirty trick? How you get hold of?'

Julian shrugged. ‘That is nothing to do with you. I am only concerned that the right basket should be carried upstairs when it is sent for.'

‘Me too, me too!' declared Pao Tin-yum. ‘Mrs. Sang very old friend. I never let down; never!'

He spoke with such ardour that Julian suddenly felt that he might have been wrong in believing the couple to be in the pay of Hayashi, and that while their attention had been distracted from the van the casket had been swapped without their knowledge.

‘All right,' he said. ‘You stay here and in no circumstances let anyone take it from you before I come back. I'm going upstairs to see how things are going there.'

As Julian was still not prepared to trust the Paos, he went over to the porter and gave him a good tip to see that
the basket he had helped bring in was not moved; then he had himself shown to the wash place. The cut on his cheek had stopped bleeding and on feeling his shoulder gingerly he decided that it was only very badly bruised. After cleaning himself up as well as he could, he took off his socks and shoes, put his socks on again and, carrying the shoes out to the hall, put them down beside a number of other pairs belonging to people who were dining upstairs. The porter then summoned one of the ‘Mesdames' whose duty it was to chaperone the geishas and go in and out of the rooms to see that no improprieties took place during dinners. Having kowtowed to him she took him upstairs, slid back a door in the wall and signed to him to enter.

It was one of the smaller rooms and furnished somewhat differently from the usual Japanese restaurant, as a concession to the richer Westerners who could afford to pay for a proper geisha dinner. Instead of having to sit cross-legged or sideways at the table, those dining could sit on the floor with a backrest for support and could stretch their legs out at full length under it.

Hayashi and Urata, both dressed in the type of short black European coat that goes with striped trousers, were seated opposite one another, with a pretty young geisha kneeling beside each of them. They had evidently finished their dinner, as the geishas were entertaining them with childish games. At the moment all four were in turn passing round a saki vase and letting trickle from it a drop or two into an already nearly full saki cup, the game being to see who could do so last without the cup overflowing.

When Julian appeared they all stood up. Urata bowed and said, ‘Mr. Day, I am much regretting that you were detained. Please to meet Mr. Hayashi.'

It was twenty-five years since the two men had been face to face, so Julian had very little fear that the Japanese would recognise him as Hugo Julian du Crow Fernhurst; nevertheless, when they had exchanged deep bows he took
his eyes quickly from Hayashi's shrewd ones and said to Urata:

‘I owe you both a sincere apology; but a private matter suddenly cropped up that had to be attended to, and I could not possibly get here earlier. I see you have finished dinner; so you must not bother about me. I can easily get some supper later at the Miyako. When I arrived here I saw the Paos in the hall, with the Kuan-yin. As you have finished dinner, shall we have it up and get down to business?'

The Madame said something to Urata in Japanese, and he said to Julian, ‘Four special girls I have booked to sing, also do ritual dance with fan for us.' Then he looked questioningly at Hayashi.

At that moment Hayashi was not thinking about geishas; he was wondering how Julian had managed to slip through Nagi's fingers. Rinzai had telephoned before Hayashi left his house to say that the Englishman had, without prompting, thought of attempting to rescue the girl. But perhaps when he had arrived outside the house he had got cold feet and decided not to risk going in after all. Yet he had a slight cut on his cheek, his collar was badly crumpled and he had a button off his coat, all of which suggested that he had been in a fight. Perhaps, though, he had got as far as climbing in over the wall then, after prowling round for a while, lacked the courage to break into the house so climbed out again; such activities would be enough to account for the mark on his cheek and his slightly dishevelled appearance.

However, what had happened to Julian during the past hour was of no special importance to Hayashi, because half-way through dinner a note had been brought up to him which said that the vans had been switched successfully and that the Paos, suspecting nothing, were then on their way to the Phoenix with the one that had been substituted for theirs. Had Julian been within sight of the vans when the exchange was carried out it was certain
that he would have interfered; but no mention of him had been made in the note. Obviously he must have been somewhere else at the time and knew nothing about the switch; so Hayashi felt that he had nothing to worry about.

As he had not yet signified whether he wished to see the dancers before inspecting the Kuan-yin, Urata repeated to him what Julian had said. Now, he was anxious to have done with them both; so that he could get home and make Tilly Sang squeal by prodding her with a knitting needle thrust through the wickerwork of the basket in which she had concealed herself. So he smiled, shrugged and said:

‘Without disparaging the excellent entertainment provided by my honourable host, such creatures do not particularly amuse me. By all means let us delay no longer delighting our eyes with this beautiful representation of the Queen of Heaven.'

With a nod Julian left the room, went downstairs and had the porters carry up the big creaking basket. By the time he got back the Madame and the two young geishas had disappeared. The basket was set down at the end of the low table. Pao and his wife took up positions at either end of it, the porters left the room and Julian, having slid to the door behind them, remained standing near it. With pleasurable anticipation he was watching Hayashi's face to see how he would react when, instead of the pile of bricks he expected the basket to contain, he found that, after all, it held the beautiful Kuan-yin.

Pao and his wife undid the ties of the basket. Having eased the lid, they looked at one another; then in a loud voice Pao Tin-yum cried in Chinese, ‘Are you ready?' and, after a long moment's pause, ‘Now!'

On that, they both wrenched up the lid and threw it back. Everything then happened very quickly. Like a Jack-in-the-Box the head and shoulders of a woman emerged. Julian was a few feet behind her. He saw only that she had a mass of black hair, and he did not see her jerk up a hand holding a pistol. Next second a shot rang
out. Hayashi, his mouth half open, went over backwards. But only for a moment. He had been sitting at the table cross-legged but, with the dexterity of an old Judo expert, he came up in the same position, and he had whipped a small automatic out of his pocket. Flame and noise spat from it. The woman in the basket gave a violent jerk. The black wig she was wearing fell off and Julian saw then that she was Tilly Sang. With a moan she flopped back into the basket.

Urata and Hayashi were now both on their feet. The former's face showed amazement and horror; the latter's fiendish delight. With loud wails the Paos were about to bend over the basket and attempt to aid their mistress; but Hayashi had taken a pace away from the table and, threatening them with his pistol, he hissed:

‘Back! Get back both of you. Right back.'

Cowed by his expression, they did as he had ordered. Then he looked at the others and went on quickly, ‘The shots. People come. I was showing you my pistol. An accident. You understand. Say otherwise and I will shoot you also.'

He had hardly finished speaking when the door was thrust back and the Madame appeared in it. A moment later she was joined by the porter. They looked round anxiously; but Hayashi smiled at them, toyed with his weapon casually and spoke to them in Japanese. It was clear to Julian that he was telling his story and indicating that no-one in the room had been hurt. Satisfied that no violence was in progress, the Madame and the porter withdrew. Hayashi then looked across at Urata and said:

‘Honourable acquaintance, I condole with you that you should have been drawn into this plot to kill me, for your innocence is transparent. You need feel no compassion for the woman. She was already five times a murderess, and her two servants run a brothel for her in Hong Kong. But respected persons like you and I cannot afford to be mixed up in unsavoury scandals, and Mr. Day,' he bowed
slightly to Julian, ‘will also doubtless see the wisdom of keeping his mouth shut.' After a swift glance down into the basket, he went on, ‘The woman is either dead or dying. The coffin she has made for herself is thickly lined, so her blood will not trickle through to betray us. I intend to have her removed in it to my house. There I will take steps to dispose of her body.'

Turning his sharp glance on the Paos, he added:

‘You two will accompany the basket to my house. You run an illegal establishment in Hong Kong. Upon your obeying me depends whether I allow you to return there as free persons or whether you go under escort to be handed over to the Hong Kong police. But I do not propose to trust you with the basket. So I am about to telephone my people to come here and escort you back to my house with it.'

Walking forward, he waved his little gun at Julian and said, ‘Stand aside from the door please, Mr. Day; I wish to pass through it.'

‘No!' snapped Julian. ‘I'm not going to let you get away with this. I mean to send for the police.'

‘You are being very foolish, Mr. Day, because it would involve us all in a great deal of trouble. Please to stand aside. Otherwise there will be another accident. This time a real one. You will force me to disclose this plot of Mrs. Sang's. I shot her, you attacked me; so I was compelled to fire at you in self-defence and, most unfortunately, the bullet went through your heart.'

‘No!' Julian repeated firmly. ‘I mean to have the police make a full enquiry. If you want to know why, it's because you are holding Merri Sang a prisoner and they will find her in your house.'

Hayashi shrugged. ‘I see; and you are in love with her. I had temporarily forgotten that. Very well. She has served her purpose. I have no further use for her. If you will assist me to draw a veil over this affair of Mrs. Sang I will return the girl to you.'