Robert Gulik - The Chinese Gold Murders

"As to Fan Choong, we shouldn't attach too much value to what that innkeeper said. Those people are often prejudiced against the tribunal; they don't like our controlling the rice price, the enforcement of the taxes on liquor and so on. We'll form our own opinion of him when he has turned up again."

The judge took a few sips from his tea, then resumed.

"By the way, Tang told me that there's really a man-eating tiger about here. A week ago he killed a farmer. As soon as we have made some progress with the murder investigation, you two might have a try at getting that brute."

"That's a job we like, magistrate!" Ma Joong said eagerly. Then his face fell. After some hesitation he told about the murderous attack they thought they had witnessed on the bank of the canal.

Judge Dee looked worried. Pursing his lips, he said, "Let's hope the mist played you a trick. I wouldn't like to have a second murder on my hands just now! Go back there tomorrow morning and see whether you can't find out more from the people living in that neighborhood. Perhaps there is a quite normal explanation for what you saw. And we'll see whether someone is reported missing." Then Chiao Tai reported on their meeting with Yee Pen's manager, Po Kai, and gave a chastened version of their visit to the floating brothels. He said they had drunk a cup of wine there, and talked a bit with the girls.

To their relief the two friends saw that the judge seemed pleased with their reports.

"You didn't do badly at all!" he said. "You have gathered much information, and brothels are the meeting place of all the riffraff of a town. It is good that you know your way about there now. Let's see where exactly those boats are located. Sergeant, give me that map we were looking at."

Hoong unrolled a pictorial map of the city on the desk. Ma Joong rose and, bending over it, he pointed at the second bridge over the canal, east of the watergate in the southwest quarter.

"Somewhere near here," he said, "we saw that man in the litter. Then we met Po Kai in the restaurant here, and went by boat east, along the canal. We left by the other watergate."

"How did you get through there?" the judge asked. "Those watergates are always barred by heavy trellises."

"Part of that trellis is loose," Ma Joong replied. "A small boat can get through the gap."

"We'll have that mended first thing tomorrow," Judge Dee said. "But why are those brothels located on boats?"

"Tang told me, your honor," Hoong put in, "that some years ago a magistrate was serving here who didn't want any brothels inside the city. Thus they had to move to boats, moored in the creek outside the east city wall. After that prudish magistrate had been transferred they stayed there, because the sailors found it convenient. They could go there directly from their ships, without having to pass the guards at the city gates."

Judge Dee nodded. Caressing his side whiskers, he observed,

"That Po Kai sounds an ínteresting fellow, I'd like to meet him sometime."

"He may be a poet," Chiao Tai said, "but he's a clever customer all the same. He placed us at a glance as ex-highwaymen, and on the boat he was the only one who noticed they were beating up that girl."

"Beating up a girl?" Judge Dee asked, astonished.

Chiao Tai hit his fist on his knee. "The package!" he exclaimed. "What a fool I am! I had forgotten all about it! That Korean girl gave me a package that Magistrate Wang had entrusted to her." The judge sat up in his chair.

"That may prove our first clue!" he said eagerly. "But why did the magistrate give it to a common prostitute?"

"Well," Chiao Tai replied, "she says Magistrate Wang met her once when she had been hired to liven up a party in a restaurant, and the old scoundrel took a liking to her. He could not of course visit her on the boat, but he often had her spend the night with him here in his own house. One day, about one month ago, when she was about to leave in the morning, he gave her a package, saying that the most unlikely place was always the best for hiding something. He told her to keep it for him, and not to tell anybody about it; he would ask for it back when he needed it. She asked what was in it, but he just laughed and said it didn't matter. Then he grew serious again, and told her that in case something should happen to him, she was to hand it over to his successor:"

"Why then didn't she bring it to the tribunal after the magistrate had been murdered?" Judge Dee asked.

"Those girls," Chiao Tai replied with a shrug, "stand in deadly terror of the tribunal. She preferred to wait till someone from there would visit the boat, and I was the first who happened to come along. Here it is."

He took the flat package from his sleeve and gave it to the judge.

Judge Dee turned it around in his hands, then said excitedly, "Let's see what is inside!"

He broke the seal and quickly tore off the wrapping paper. They saw a flat box of black lacquer. The lid was decorated with a design of two bamboo stems and a cluster of leaves, beautifully molded in raised gold lacquer, and surrounded by an ornamental frame, inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

"This box is a valuable antique," Judge Dee said as he lifted the lid. Then he uttered a cry of dismay. The box was empty. "Somebody tampered with it!" he exclaimed angrily. He quickly took up the torn paper. "I have indeed much to learn," he added peevishly. "Of course I should have examined the seal carefully before I tore off the paper! Now it's too late."

He leaned back in his chair, knitting his eyebrows. Sergeant Hoong curiously examined the laquer box.

"Judging by its size and shape," he said, "I would think that it was used for keeping documents in."

Judge Dee nodded.

"Well," he said with a sigh, "it's better than nothing. The dead magistrate must have put some important papers in it, more important than those he kept in the drawer of his desk. Where did the girl keep it, Chiao Tai?"

"In her cabin, in the space between her bed and the wall," Chiao Tai answered promptly.

Judge Dee gave him a shrewd look. "I see," he said dryly.

"She assured me," Chiao Tai went on quickly, to cover his embarrassment, "that she had never talked about it or shown it to anybody. But she added that when she was away the other girls used her cabin, and the servants and the guests went in and out there freely."

"That means," the judge said, "that even if your girl told the truth, practically anybody could have got at the package! Another dead end." He thought for a while, then shrugged his shoulders and went on. "Well, when I went over the books in the magistrate's library, I found a notebook. Have a look whether you can make anything of it."

He opened his drawer and gave the notebook to Ma Joong. He leafed it through, Chiao Tai looking over his shoulder. The tall fellow shook his head and gave it back to the judge.

"Couldn't we arrest some violent rogue for you, magistrate?" he asked hopefully. "My friend and me aren't too good at brain work, but we know all about the rough stuff."

"I must first identify the criminal before I can have him arrested," the judge replied with a bleak smile. "But don't worry, I have some special work for you, this very night.

"For certain reasons I must examine the back hall of the White Cloud Temple, without anybody knowing about it. Have a look again at this map, and tell me how it can be done."

Ma Joong and Chiao Tai put their heads together over the map. Pointing with his forefinger, judge Dee said, "You see that the temple lies east of the city, on the opposite bank of the creek and south of the Korean quarter. Tang told me that the back hall of the temple is right under the wall. The hill behind it is covered by a dense forest."

"Walls can be scaled," Ma Joong remarked. "The point is, how to get behind the temple without attracting attention. There can't be many people on the road this time of the night; the guards at the east gate won't be able to keep their mouths shut when they have seen us about there so late."