Tao Gan bent over to the judge and whispered:
‘He is the chief of the section charged with the supervision of brothels and gambling houses, sir. Good man, I hear.’
‘Show him in!’ Judge Dee ordered.
A small, wiry man entered, clad in a simple blue gown and wearing a round skullcap. At first sight one would take him for a shopkeeper, but one glance at his face belied that impression. Deep lines divided it as it were into segments. The left eye opened and shut continually through a tic of the drooping eyelid, the other had a cold, unwavering stare. He reminded the judge forcibly of a lizard. He made to kneel, but the judge said impatiently:
‘Skip the formalities, and state your business!’
‘My office received orders to make a search for a dancer called Porphyry, my lord,’ the small man began quietly. ‘Since brothels and gambling houses do little business in this emergency, I decided to take the matter in hand personally, and devoted all night to it. I had a talk with the secretary of the Brothel-keepers’ Guild and with some of its leading members, while my secret agents questioned the stool pigeons we maintain all over the licensed quarters. The result may be summed up as follows. In the first place, it is out of the question that the girl is an apprentice. Apprentices are allowed to work outside the quarter only when accompanying a full-fledged courtesan, to assist her changing dress, serve wine to the guests, and to sing or play a musical instrument. They are not allowed to dance in public before they have passed their examination, and certainly not lascivious dances performed in the nude; for that is the privilege of a special class of courtesans, who receive an extra allowance. Second, the name Porphyry does not appear on any official or unofficial list. Third, none of the brothels or houses of assignation has received during the past two weeks any order from the late Mr Yee, despite the fact that before that he had been a most regular customer.’
Fixing the judge with his one unblinking eye, the small man resumed:
‘My conclusion is, my lord, that the said girl and the man acting as her tout are imposters. The secretary of the gild was highly incensed at this fraud. He passed the word around and put up a reward at once. I expect they will be found very soon.’ It was difficult to know whether he winked with his left eye or whether it was just the tic when he concluded in his dry voice: ‘The gild council and its members don’t take kindly to poaching on their preserve.’
‘Thank you,’ the judge said. ‘This is most useful information.’ He wanted to dismiss the lizard-like man, but Tao Gan bent over and whispered something in his ear. After some hesitation, the judge cleared his throat and asked:
‘You are accustomed to handle confidential matters, aren’t you, Mr Fang?’
‘That’s why I could keep my post for twenty years, my lord,’ the small man replied with a thin smile.
‘The fact is,’ Judge Dee resumed, ‘that I would like you to gather, with the utmost discretion, data about the antecedents of Mrs Mei, the widow of my valued friend Merchant Mei. It has been suggested that originally she was a courtesan.’
‘It so happens, my lord, that I can supply that information right away. The little I have, that is. No, she was not a real courtesan. An apprentice, rather. She was registered under the professional name of Sapphire. In a brothel of the old city, thirteen years ago.’
‘Did Mr Mei redeem her?’
‘He did not, my lord. She just went to live with him.’ Seeing that Judge Dee raised his eyebrows, he continued hurriedly: ‘I am very sorry, my lord, but this is one of the very few cases within my jurisdiction which I could never solve satisfactorily. I found myself up against two barriers which are particularly difficult to surmount. In the first place, the brothel she worked in belonged to the “old world"—and I have standing orders to leave that milieu alone as long as no crimes are committed there. Moreover, the brothel burned down shortly after, and the keeper and most of the inmates perished in the flames. She was bought out, but I could not discover by whom. Second, the man she went to subsequently was Merchant Mei. Although he was a progressive member of the old set, he would yet become remarkably reticent when their particular problems were brought up. On top of that, he was the wealthiest merchant of the capital, not the kind of person to brook snooping into his private life. That’s why I remember the case so well, my lord. Because it is one of the very few that remain open in my books.’
‘I don’t doubt that,’ the judge said. ‘I have full confidence in your ability, Mr Fang. Let me know at once when the pseudo-courtesan Porphyry has been traced.’
When the door had closed behind Fang, Judge Dee exclaimed angrily:
‘Hoo told us a pack of lies! If I hadn’t that ear-pendant, I would believe that the dancer and her companion never existed except in the imagination of Hoo and the maid. I am all the more glad that I issued that warrant for Hoo’s arrest, for…’ He looked round at the orderly and asked, annoyed: ‘What is it now?’
‘A messenger from the municipal tribunal reports that Mrs Yee has hanged herself, my lord. Doctor Lew discovered her. The constables…’
‘I shall deal with the case personally,’ the judge told him curtly. He rose and said to his lieutenants: ‘What next, I wonder! And Doctor Lew found her! That suave philanderer again. What is my schedule for this morning, Tao Gan?’
‘In an hour’s time you have to preside at a council of the wardens, sir, to devise means for persuading the farmers to continue bringing their vegetables to the city. Thereafter you will have to receive…’
‘All right all right! We have an hour to see what happened at Yee’s. Get me my robe and cap, we shall go there at once. The four of us.’
XIV
A large military sedan chair carried Judge Dee and his three lieutenants to the Yee mansion. The coroner and his assistant followed in a second chair. The fog had lifted to make place for a thin haze laden with humidity; the empty streets seemed to quiver in the hot air.
It was Doctor Lew who opened the small door in the iron gate. He stared in consternation at the judge.
‘I…I had expected an officer of the municipality, my lord. I…’
‘I decided to take the case myself,’ Judge Dee told him curtly. ‘Lead the way.’
Doctor Lew made a very low bow. They passed the same courtyards as on their previous visit. Arrived at the walled-in garden, however, the doctor did not take them to the gold-panelled door but to a side room which apparently had served as Mrs Yee’s boudoir. After a quick glance at the elegant furniture of rosewood, the judge went straight to the couch where the still body was lying, covered by a white piece of cloth. Judge Dee folded back the top. One look at the distorted face with the protruding, swollen tongue sufficed. He motioned the coroner and his assistant to set to work. Having bestowed a pensive look on the maid, who was crouching on the floor in the corner, sobbing convulsively, he decided to question her later. He turned round and went outside, followed by Doctor Lew. His three lieutenants were standing about by the small lotus pond. The judge sat down on the rustic stone seat there and asked Lew:
‘When did you find her?’
‘Only half an hour ago, my lord. I had come to inquire after Madame Yee’s health. Her husband’s murder had been a severe shock, of course, and I feared’
‘Never mind that. Come to the point!’
The doctor gave him a pained look. He resumed in a resigned voice:
‘The maid Cassia took me straight to the boudoir. She said she was glad I had called, for her mistress had not answered when she knocked on the door to bring her morning tea, and the door had been locked on the inside. Madame Yee’s locking herself in always meant that she had had a bad night and was in a depressed mood. I said I would give her a palliative, knocked on the door, and called out that it was I who had come to see her. When I had repeated this several times without eliciting any response, I feared that she had become unwell during the night and would need immediate attention. I asked the maid to call her son, and he broke the lock with a hatch
et.’
The doctor fingered his thin goatee and shook his head.
‘She was hanging from the central rafter, my lord. We cut the cord at once, but her body was already stiff and cold. It appears that she had pushed the toilet table to the centre of the room, and, since an overturned chair was lying on the floor, she must have put that on top of the table, climbed on it, put the noose round her neck and kicked the chair away. I found that her neck was broken so she must have died at once. As her attending physician, my lord, I would suggest a verdict of suicide during temporary insanity.’
‘Thank you. You will now join the coroner. Perhaps he will want to ask you some questions.’ When Doctor Lew had gone inside again, Judge Dee told his three lieutenants: ‘While they are busy here, we shall have a look around. First, the gallery. In broad daylight we may discover clues we overlooked last night. Where’s that doorman?’ He clapped his hands. As no one appeared, he said: ‘Oh well, I think I remember the way.’
He took them through the empty corridors and, after but one wrong turn, found the steps that led up to the gallery. Judge Dee went in first, followed by Tao Gan. Seeing that all the roll curtains were down, he told Tao Gan:
‘Better roll those——’
He was interrupted by a loud exclamation behind him. It was Ma Joong. He stood stock-still, staring dumbfounded at the gallery.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Chiao Tai asked testily.
‘This gallery is exactly the same as I saw in Yuan’s peep show!’ Ma Joong exclaimed. ‘The scene of the man in black whipping a woman!’ He pointed excitedly at the portico.
‘Only the couch had been pushed over there, in the centre.
‘She was strapped to it face down, and——’
‘What are you talking about?’ the judge asked, astonished. ‘Who is Yuan?’
Ma Joong pushed his helmet back and scratched his head.
‘It’s quite a story——’ he began.
‘In that case we shall sit down,’ Judge Dee interrupted him. ‘First roll those curtains up, Tao Gan. I don’t like that musty smell in here.’
When they were seated on the couch, Ma Joong gave a detailed account of the puppeteer and his peepshow. ‘Finally,’ he said, ‘Yuan showed me a second scene, of a villa on the waterside. I saw that scene only briefly, for then the candle in the box went out. And last night, when I was standing on the bridge, it was too dark to see Hoo’s villa clearly. But now I recognize it all right.’ Pointing at the window, he added: ‘The second scene Yuan showed me was a picture of Hoo’s villa over there.’
The judge looked round at the window, pensively tugging at his moustache. Then he told Ma Joong gravely:
‘This can only mean that Yuan knows about Yee’s whipping the bondmaid to death here in this gallery six years ago, and that Hoo was also involved in that despicable crime. Since his daughter told you that her father had been in Hoo’s service, Yuan may even have been an eye witness. You must get hold of that puppeteer, Ma Joong. I must have a talk with him.’
‘I shall do my best, sir!’ Ma Joong said with a pleased grin.
Judge Dee got up.
‘I would like you and Chiao Tai to have a look at the balcony. Tell me whether I am correct in assuming that only a trained athlete could manage to climb onto it.’
The two friends went to the windows, and the judge and Tao Gan began to walk up and down the gallery, taking in all its unusual features again.
Ma Joong held a brief consultation with Chiao Tai. They stepped up to the judge.
‘Shinning up one of those pillars,’ Chiao Tai said, ‘that wasn’t much of a job, sir. But to get up to the ledge is quite a different proposition. You’ll have noticed that the ledge sticks out a foot or so over the pillars, then there’s three feet again from the ledge up to the windowsill, and nothing to get a hold on. To get inside that way asks for strength and skill. A hunter, accustomed to climbing difficult trees, could manage it all right. But he would have to be a tall fellow too.’
‘Hoo isn’t tall,’ the judge said pensively. ‘But I noticed that he has long, ape-like arms. Therefore I would’
Tao Gan was tugging at his sleeve.
‘I overlooked something, sir, last night!’ the thin man said ruefully. He pointed at the wainscoting. One of the panels had swung open, just beside the couch.
‘It isn’t even a secret door,’ Tao Gan resumed. ‘It has quite an ordinary knob. But those panels all look alike, and since the light was bad…’
‘Never mind,’ Judge Dee said. ‘Let’s have a look inside!’
It was a rather small room, without any window. The stale smell of cosmetics hung in the close air. Half of the space was taken up by a dressing-table with a large round mirror of polished silver. Apart from that there was only a tabouret and two high clothes-racks. In the back wall was another narrow door.
The judge pulled out the drawers of the dressing-table but found them completely empty. Suddenly he picked up a small object that had become stuck in a fissure of the wood.
‘Well well,’ he said to the others, ‘look at this! That girl Porphyry was in an awful hurry. This is the red stone that belongs to her other ear-pendant.’ He put it in his sleeve. ‘Now, let’s see where that door leads to.’
Ma Joong opened it. They saw a steep flight of narrow steps, which proved to lead down to a long passage without any windows. The small door at the end gave access to the front courtyard of the mansion.
‘Yee used this as a short cut to the gallery,’ Tao Gan observed. ‘Thus he could lead his visitors of questionable morals up there without the servants seeing them.’
‘And that stuffy little room was the dressin-groom of the wenches. Undressing room, mainly!’ Ma Joong remarked.
Judge Dee did not seem to have heard him. He was staring fixedly at the young doorman, who was crossing the yard, carrying a bucket and a broom. When he saw them he made an awkward bow, then scurried away. The judge turned round to Tao Gan and asked:
‘Doesn’t that youngster’s face remind you of someone?’
Tao Gan shook his head, bewildered.
‘He has Hoo’s traits,’ Judge Dee said firmly. ‘That’s why when I saw Hoo I thought his face looked familiar. Now that I have seen the boy in broad daylight, I am quite sure. You yourself mentioned the loose morals of the old set, Tao Can. The boy is Hoo’s bastard. That gave Cassia, beside her hatred for Yee, a second reason for trying to confuse the issue! It was she of course who wiped the windowsill clean, after she had discovered her master’s dead body up in the gallery. In order to obliterate the traces of Hoo’s presence.’
He paused, and reflected a long time, slowly combing his long beard with his fingers. The three men watched him intently. Lost in thought, he seemed to have forgotten their presence. At last he looked up and asked Ma Joong:
‘To come back to your meeting in the tavern, did the puppeteer know who you were?’
‘No sir. He took me for a common soldier. I had taken off my badge, and in battledress officers and men look pretty much the same to an outsider.’ He frowned, and added: ‘That was before he did his trick with the peepshow, though. After he had shown me that horrible scene, I told him I was a colonel of the guard, because I wanted Yuan to take me to the house behind the tavern to arrest the bastard.’
‘I see. That being the case, I have to see that puppeteer right now. Tomorrow will be too late. A pity his daughter didn’t give you their address, Ma Joong. Wouldn’t the keeper of the tavern know it?’
‘He doesn’t, sir. I asked him, but he said they have no fixed place to stay, It’s a travelling show, sir, after all.’
‘All right. As soon as we are through here, you go with Chiao Tai to the quarter behind the Taoist temple, and find them. You bring Yuan to my office, together with his daughter Coral. I don’t need her sister. Come along! The coroner’ll have finished, by now.’
He turned round on his heel and crossed the courtyard, his arms folded in his wide sleeves.
‘I have thoroughly examined the body, sir. She must have done it an hour or so after midnight, the time when the human spirit is at its lowest ebb. There were no signs of violence. I agree with the doctor that she did it in the manner reconstructed by him. I have noted all the details on this form. With your permission, sir, I shall now draw up the death certificate, then have the body placed in a temporary coffin. The maid has given me the address of an old uncle in the east quarter who is the next of kin. I shall have him informed, and he shall come and take charge here.’
Judge Dee nodded. ‘Leave two soldiers on guard here,’ he ordered. ‘I want to have a word with you, doctor. Let’s go to the front hall. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, you two may leave now and see about the matter I mentioned. Tao Gan, you had better go back to the office, and make the papers for the conference of the wardens ready. I shall join you there as soon as I have talked with the doctor here.’
The judge found a small tea table in a corner of the front hall. Wiping the dust off the chair with the tip of his sleeve, he sat down. Motioning Doctor Lew to be seated too, he began affably:
‘I am very interested to hear your opinion on Mrs Yee’s suicide, doctor. What was her motive, do you think?’
Dr Lew was visibly relieved at this opening. He had evidently been expecting a severe cross-examination. He stroked his goatee and said ponderously:
‘It is not always easy, my lord, to establish the correct diagnosis in mental cases. Since I attended upon Mrs Yee regularly, however, I think I might try to formulate an opinion.’ He cleared his throat, and continued: ‘One should not speak ill of the dead, of course, but it is my duty to inform you, my lord, that Mr Yee was a hard and cruel man, tormented by perverted lusts. He led a highly irregular dissipated life. Mrs Yee loved her husband, and she suffered deeply when she saw him sinking lower and lower. She then sought to escape from her sorrow by telling herself that her husband was a great and good man, and in course of time she ended up by genuinely believing in this wholly artificial image. This fiction gave her the mental rest her precariously balanced mind so desperately needed. When she heard that he was dead, the artificial image suddenly collapsed, and she was faced with the full extent of her self-deceit. That cruel shock was too much for her.’
The Willow Pattern: A Judge Dee Mystery (Judge Dee Mystery Series) Page 9