Robert Gulik - The Chinese Gold Murders

He looked at the floor.

Judge Dee studied him silently. Suddenly he barked, "Look at your magistrate, Pei Chin! Tell me, what happened to the woman?" The peasant gave the judge a startled look. Then he swung round and darted to the door. Ma Joong sprang after him, grabbed his collar and dragged him back. He forced him down on his knees in front of the judge.

"I didn't do it!" he shouted.

"I know exactly what happened here!" Judge Dee snapped. "Don't lie to me!"

"I can explain everything, excellency," Pei Chin wailed, wringing his hands.

"Speak up then," Judge Dee said curtly.

Pei Chiu wrinkled his low forehead. He took a deep breath, then began slowly.

"It was like this. The same day as I said, Woo comes up here leading three horses. He says the master and his wife will stay the night on the farm. I don't know the master has married, but I don't ask. Woo is a bastard. I call Soo-niang. I tell her to kill a chicken, for I know the master is coming for the rent. I tell her to make the master's bedroom ready and to fry that chicken with a piece of garlic. Then I take the horses to the barn. I rub them off and I feed them.

"When I come back to the house, the master is sitting at the table here. The red cashbox is standing in front of him. I know he wants the rent. I say I haven't got it, I had bought new seed. He curses me, then he tells Woo to look if there are sacks with seed in the barn. Then, he says, I must show Woo all over our fields.

"When we come back to the house, it's getting dark. The master shouts from the bedroom that he wants food. Soo-niang takes it there. I eat a bowl of gruel with Woo, in front of the barn. Woo says I'll have to pay him fifty coppers, then he'll say that I tend the fields well. I give him the coppers, then Woo goes to sleep in the barn. I sit outside, thinking how I can get the rent. When Soo-niang is through cleaning the kitchen, I send her up to sleep in the loft. I lay me down to sleep next to Woo. Later I wake up. I think about the rent. Then I see that Woo is gone."

"Up to the loft," Ma Joong put in with a grin.

"I'll dispense with your levity!" Judge Dee barked at him. "Shut up and let this man tell his story."

The peasant had not noticed this byplay. Knitting his eyebrows, he went on.

"I go outside, and the three horses are gone too. I see a light in the master's bedroom. I think he is still awake, I must report to him. I knock on the door, but there's no answer. I walk round the house and see the window is open. The master and his wife are in bed. I think it's a waste to let the lamp burn when you sleep, oil being ten coppers a catty now. Then I see that the master and his wife are all covered with blood.

"I climb inside and look for the cashbox. The only thing I find is my sickle. It's lying on the floor, blood all over it. I know the bastard Woo has killed them. He went away with the cashbox and the horses."

Chiao Tai opened his mouth to speak, but the judge peremptorily shook his head.

"I know they'll say I did it," Pei Chin muttered. "I know they'll beat me till I say I did it. Then they'll chop my head off. Then Soo-niang has got no place to stay. I get my pushcart from the barn and put it under the window. I drag the bodies from the bed. That of the woman is still warm. I push them over the window sill into the cart. I push the cart to the mulberry bush, shove the bodies under the shrubbery and go back to the barn to sleep. I think that at dawn I'll go back there with a spade, and bury them properly. Next morning I go there. The bodies are gone."

"What did you say?" Judge Dee shouted. "Gone?" Pei Chiu nodded emphatically.

"They were gone. I know someone has found them and he is gone to tell the constables. I run back to the house, pack the sickle in the master's clothes. I take the wife's robe, and wipe the bed mat and the floor with it. But I can't get the blood off the bed mat, so I take it off the bed and wrap up everything in it. I take the roll to the barn and hide it under the hay. I wake up Soo-niang and tell her all left before dawn for the city. This is the truth, I swear it's the truth, excellency! Don't let them beat me. Excellency, I didn't do it!"

He started knocking his}read frantically on the floor.

The judge tugged at his mustache. Then he said to the peasant, "Rise and take us to that mulberry bush."

As Pei Chiu hurriedly scrambled up, Chiao Tai whispered excitedly to the judge.

"We met that fellow Woo on the road coming here, magistrate! Ask about the horses!"

Judge Dee ordered the peasant to describe the horses of his master and his wife. Pei said that Fan had ridden a gray horse, and Mrs. Fan a blazed one. The judge nodded and motioned Pei Chin to move on.

A short walk brought them to a mulberry bush. Pei Chin pointed at a spot in the undergrowth, "Here I shoved them under," he said.

Ma Joong stooped and examined the dry leaves. He gathered a few in his hands and showed them to the judge. "Those. dark stains must be blood," he remarked.

"You two had better search this bush," Judge Dee said. "This dogshead is probably lying!"

Pei Chiu started to protest but the judge ignored him. Pensively playing with his side whiskers he said to Hoong, "I fear, Hoong, that this affair is not as simple as it seems. That man we met on the road didn't look like a murderer who coolly slits the throats of two people and then makes off with the money and the horses. He looked to me rather like a man in a blind panic."

After a while the sound of breaking twigs announced the return of Ma Joong and Chiao T'ai. The former said excitedly, waving a rusty spade, "There's a small clearing in the middle! It looks as if something was buried there recently. I found this lying under a tree."

"Give that spade to Pei," Judge Dee said coldly. "The dogshead shall dig up himself what he has buried. Show me the way."

Ma Joong parted the undergrowth and they went among the trees, Chiao Tai dragging along the peasant, who seemed completely dazed.

In the middle of the clearing there was a patch of loose earth. "Set to work!" the judge barked at Pei.

The peasant automatically spat in his hands, and started clearing the loose earth away. A mud-soiled white garment appeared. Aided by Chiao Tai, Ma Joong lifted a man's body out of the cavity and laid it on the dry leaves. It was the corpse of an elderly man with a closely shaved head, clad only in a thin undergarment.

"That's a Buddhist monk!" Sergeant Hoong exclaimed. "Go on," Judge Dee said harshly to the peasant.

Suddenly Pei Chiu let his spade drop. He gasped, "That's the master!"

Ma Joong and Chiao Tai took the naked body of a large man from the hole. They had to be careful, for the head had been nearly severed from the body. The breast was a mass of clotted blood. Looking with interest at the heavy muscles of the corpse, Ma Joong said with appreciation, "That was a hefty fellow!"

"Dig up your third victim!" the judge barked at Pei Chiu.

The peasant stuck his spade in the earth, but it struck a layer of rock. There was no other corpse. He looked perplexedly at the judge.

"What did you do with the woman, you rascal?" Judge Dee shouted at him.

"I swear I don't know!" the peasant cried out. "I brought here only the master and his wife, and left them under the shrubs, I never buried nothing here! I never saw that baldpate! I swear it's the truth!"

"What is happening here?" A cultured voice spoke behind the judge.

Turning round, judge Dee saw a rotund man clad in a beautiful robe of gold-embroidered violet brocade. The lower half of his face was covered nearly entirely by a long mustache, flowing side whiskers and an enormous beard that spread out over his breast in three thick strands. On his head he wore the high gauze cap of a Doctor of Literature. He gave the Judge a quick look, then put his hands respectfully in his wide sleeves and bowed deeply. He said, "This person is Tsao Ho-hsien, landowner by necessity but philosopher by preference.: presume that your honor is our new magistrate?" As Judge Dee nodded he continued. "I was riding along here when a peasant told me that people from the tribunal weae on the farm of my neighbor Fan Choong. Thus I took the liberty to come and see whether I could be of any assistance." He tried to peer past the judge at the bodies on the ground, but the judge quickly stood himself in front of him. He said curtly, "I am investigating a murder here. If you'll kindly wait awhile down by the road, I'll presently join you there."