The Poisoned Bride and Other Judge Dee Stories

by The Poisoned Bride(Lit)

  Seeking the lost traces of the Child, one descends the couch,And finds the answer to all past riddles.Asking Yao Foo about the secrets of divination,It proves hard to discover the man in Szuchuan Province.

  These lines intrigued the judge, and he asked the old gentleman: “One would expect to find on the walls of a tea house some well-worn lines by famous poets about the delights of drinking tea. Why did they put up this verse here? It mentions historical persons who must be unfamiliar to most of the guests that frequent this place, and moreover the verse does not scan well.”

  “Your remarks”, the old gentleman answered with a smile, "are very much to the point. But then, who knows whether they did not put up this verse not for the common guests, but especially for such a learned gentleman like you? Some day you may make some sense out of it”.

  Judge Dee did not quite get his meaning and he was just debating with himself whether it would be impolite to press the old gentleman for a further explanation, when suddenly he heard a terrific clanging of gongs and the strident sounds of music that nearly deafened his ears. Looking up he found that the tea pavilion had disappeared altogether and that he was standing in a theater, right among the noisy crowd of spectators.

  On the scene an acrobatic act was in progress, there were speardancers, sword swallowers, jugglers, and what not. Among these acrobats he especially noticed a woman of about thirty years of age, who was lying on her back on a high tabouret. On her raised legs she balanced a huge earthenware jar, making it spin round on her footsoles like a wheel. Then a good looking young man approached the tabouret and smiled at the woman. She seemed overjoyed at seeing him, and giving the jar a kick, she sent it up flying in the air. Then she jumped up with amazing swiftness, and caught the jar in her arms when it came down. Having performed this feat, she said with a smile to the young man: “So you have come again, my husband!”

  Then a tiny girl climbed out of the jar’s mouth, and crawling to the young man, clutched at his robe.

  Just when those three were laughing together, the crowd of spectators suddenly melted away, the stage was empty, and Judge Dee found himself standing there all alone. Before he could start wondering, however, suddenly the old gentleman with the white beard again appeared at his side, and said to him:

  “You have now seen the first act, but not yet the second! Come along with me quickly!”

  Without giving the judge time to ask a question, he took him along over what seemed a lonely plot of land, overgrown with weeds. There was a thick mist all around, through which weird birds could be seen fluttering about. Every now and then they came upon a corpse, lying among the weeds.

  Suddenly Judge Dee came upon a naked corpse, of a greenish colour. A bright red adder came out of one of its nostrils and started crawling towards the judge.

  Judge Dee was terribly frightened, perspiration broke out all over him, and he woke up.He found himself again on his couch in the temple hall and heard the third night watch being sounded outside.

  He sat upright and remained thus for some time, trying to collect his thoughts. His mouth was parched, so he called out to Sergeant Hoong. The sergeant brought the portable teastove, and poured him a cup of hot tea. After the judge had thus refreshed himself, the sergeant asked:

  “Your Honour has been here now for the greater part of the night. Did you sleep at all?”

  “Yes, I did sleep for a while”, Judge Dee answered, “but I still feel very confused. What did you dream when you were asleep there below?”

  “To tell Your Honour the truth”, the sergeant answered, "these last days I have been so busy running hither and thither on this case, and so worried over the trouble you got into over Bee Hsun’s murder, that I slept like a log. And if I had any dreams, I don’t recall a single one of them! But perhaps Your Honour was more lucky”.

  Judge Dee then told him all, from his consulting the divination slips to the strange dream he had had. Again taking up the divination book, he read out aloud to the sergeant the verse he had found there. The sergeant said:

  “Usually the explanations given in these books are very obscure. Yet although I am but an unlettered man, the meaning of this particular entry seems obvious to me. I don’t look for an explanation in the old story the poem refers to, but take the words as they stand. Now, as for the first line, this refers plainly to the last hour of darkness, before daybreak. That is the quietest time of the night, and that is the usual time for secret lovers to sneak out of the house of their lady love. The intimacies mentioned in the fourth line don’t refer to wedded love, but to the illicit relations of Mrs. Djou and her paramour. You assumed from the very beginning that there must be such a person. Now this poem advises us that he was present when the crime was committed, and probably an accessory. This would fit in with the time schedule. We know that Mrs. Bee, her son and his wife, after they had come back from the races, had an elabourate dinner. Then they drank wine, and talked some. When Bee Hsun complained of his stomach ache, it must have been quite late in the night. Then Mrs. Bee told his wife to bring her son to bed. She tidied up, made her toilet, and it was thus very late in the night when she was awakened by her son’s cry. Now is it not probable that Mrs. Djou’s lover came during the third night watch, was surprised by Bee Hsun, and that Mrs. Djou thereupon killed him, in a manner as yet unknown to us? That must have been the way it went."Judge Dee nodded and said:

  “There is much in what you say. I assumed that there was a third person involved, because else Mrs. Djou would have had nothing to gain and everything to lose by killing her husband. But I was sure that she would confess, and then we could know who her lover was, and what part he took in the murder. Thus I made no attempt to locate this man. This was a bad mistake. Now, however, it is even more important to find him, for now it is he who must tell us how the crime was committed. But how do we find him?”

  “That”, Sergeant Hoong said, “cannot be difficult. When you have returned to the tribunal, set Mrs. Bee and Mrs. Djou free. Then we secretly send some of our best men to Mrs. Bee’s house and watch it closely, especially during the night, the last hours before daybreak. This lover is certainly somewhere about, and when he hears that Mrs. Bee has been released, he will try to contact her sooner or later. And then we catch him.”

  Judge Dee was very pleased with this plan, and complimented the sergeant on his clever reasoning. Then he asked him what he thought about the dream."When you meditated here”, asked Sergeant Hoong, “did you think only about Bee Hsun’s murder, or also about the double murder of Six Mile Village?”

  “As a matter of fact”, Judge Dee answered, “before I went to sleep I had been going over in my mind again all features of both of them. But I fail to see what bearing my dream can have on either case”. The Sergeant said:

  “I must confess that this dream is completely obscure to me also. Would Your Honour perhaps kindly again recite for me the verse that you saw in the tea pavilion? There was something about a child, and about a couch”.

  Twelfth Chapter

  A VERSE IN A DREAM DIRECTS SUSPICION TO A MR. HSU; MA JOONG OBTAINS IMPORTANT CLUES IN A VILLAGE INN.

  Judge Dee, seeing that the sergeant was not familiar with the literary allusion contained in that verse, said with a smile'

  “The word ‘child’ here is a name. In olden times there lived a wise man, whose surname was Hsu, while his sobriquet was ‘the Child’. In the same locality where this sage lived, there was a certain gentleman who had a great admiration for him, and everytime he had some decision to make, he invited this sage to his house for consultation. He had placed a large couch in his main hall, especially for Mr. Hsu and nobody else was ever allowed to sit on it. Now this story of Mr. Hsu and the couch is often quoted as an illustration of how the ancients used to honour wise men. But I fail to see how it could have any bearing on either of the two murder cases”.

  The sergeant quickly interposed: “Your Honour, it seems to me that there is little doubt about the meaning. The verse in
the book pointed out that we should search for Mrs. Djou’s lover. Now there exists a direct link between that verse, and the first line of this: it is clearly meant to convey to us that this lover bears the surname Hsu. Now could Your Honour instruct me further as to Yao Foo, mentioned in the second line?”

  “The second half,” Judge Dee answered, “is fairly clear. Yao Foo also refers to an historical person, it was the sobriquet of Shao Yoong, the great authority on divination. So this is in perfect accord with our surmise that the murderer of Six Mile Village is that missing merchant Shao, and that either now he is being hidden by natives of Szuchuan, or that he has fled to that province. In any case it will be useful if you and your men be on your guard, as soon as you meet some one during your investigations who speaks the Szuchuan dialect.”

  “This”, Sergeant Hoong said, “is certainly the right explanation. Now we have only the woman acrobat balancing the jar, and the field with the corpses remaining. These things can be explained in so many different ways, that I am at a loss where to begin. Perhaps we shall understand their meaning during a later phase of our investigation”.

  While Judge Dee and the sergeant were engrossed in these speculations, the red glow of dawn was already beginning to show on the paper windows, and, soon after, daylight filled the hall. Judge Dee did not feel like sleeping any more, so he rose from the couch and ordered his robes.

  When the superior, who had already been waiting for some time outside in the corridor, heard that the judge had risen, he hastily entered the hall, and wished the judge a good morning. Having prayed before the altar, he told a young priest to heat the water for Judge Dee’s morning toilet, and bring a cup of hot tea. When the young priest returned, Judge Dee washed his face, rinsed his mouth, and combed his hair. In the meantime Sergeant Hoong had packed their luggage, and given the bundle to the superior, to be kept in the temple until the judge could send someone to fetch it. Furthermore he gave the superior strict orders that not one word about their stay in the temple should be allowed to leak out. Then he left the temple together with Judge Dee.

  Upon his return to the tribunal, Judge Dee found Tao Gan waiting in his private office. Tao Gan eagerly asked Sergeant Hoong whether the stay in the temple had produced any results, and the sergeant gave him a brief account of what had happened. Then he told Tao Gan to go to the kitchen, and order Judge Dee’s breakfast.

  Since it was a fine morning, Judge Dee had his breakfast outside, in tile small courtyard in front of his private office, the sergeant and Tao Gan waiting on him.

  After breakfast Judge Dee ordered Sergeant Hoong to go with the runner on day duty to Huang-hua Village, and bring Warden Ho Kai. Then he had the scribes bring in the business of that day.

  In the afternoon the sergeant came back with Warden Ho Kai. Judge Dee this time preferred not to see him officially in the court hall, but had him brought in his private office.

  The warden respectfully greeted the judge, and then remained standing in front of his desk.

  “If”, Judge Dee opened the interview, “we cannot discover how Bee Hsun was killed, this affair will end in disgrace, not only for me, but also for you, the local warden. I assume, therefore, that you have been very busy these last days trying to discover some new clues. Speak up, what have you been doing and why did I have to send for you? Why did you not come here on your own accord to report to me?”

  Warden Ho Kai, thus reprimanded, hastily knelt down and knocked his head on the floor several times, saying:

  “This worthless person has been busy investigating day and night, without allowing myself one moment of rest. But up till now I have not found one single new clue, and I still do not see how this case could be solved”.

  “For the time being,” the judge said, “we shall not discuss the solution of this case, and I shall not go any further into your slackness. But I do want to know more about the situation in your village. How many families are living there, and how many of those bear the surname Hsu?”

  “In my village there are about three hundred families, and among them there are about ten by the surname of Hsu. About which family Hsu does Your Honour want more information? I shall immediately go back, and make the necessary inquiries.”

  “You blockhead”, said Judge Dee, “if I knew that, I would have had that man here for questioning a long time ago. The fact is that I know only that a man of the surname Hsu is involved in this case, and probably even was an accessory to Mrs. Djou’s crime. If we can locate that man, the case is solved. Therefore I now ask you whether any of those people called Hsu in your village had any connection with Bee Hsun or his household”. The warden thought hard for sometime, and then said:

  “I must confess that I don’t know much about the friends and acquaintances of Bee Hsun. But fortunately there are not many people by the surname of Hsu in my village. If Your Honour will allow me to go back, I shall make careful inquiries.”

  “Now,” Judge Dee said, “you think that that is an excellent idea. But let me tell you that your plan is the best method to ensure that our suspicions leak out, and to drive our man into hiding. So don’t you go running about, making inquiries openly. You first ask, in a roundabout way, those people living in Bee Hsun’s neighbourhood. And as soon as you get the slightest clue, you hurry back here to report. Then I shall look after the rest.”

  Then he dismissed the warden and when he had gone, he ordered Sergeant Hoong and Tao Gan to leave that same evening for Huang-hua Village, after dark. He told them to follow the warden secretly, and to see how he would go about making the inquiries. Thereafter they were to find a hiding place in the neighbourhood of Mrs. Bee’s house and keep watch the whole night.

  Judge Dee had a low opinion of Warden Ho Kai’s mental powers and he was none too happy to be obliged to use him for discreet inquiries. But since the inquest the villagers of Huang-hua Village had become familiar with Sergeant Hoong’s and Tao Gan’s faces. He feared that the suspect, on learning that Judge Dee’s assistants were making inquiries about a man called Hsu, would take to his heels. Moreover, to make inquiries of this kind was part of the routine business of a warden, so even if Warden Ho Kai went about it in a clumsy way, there still was little chance that the suspect would connect such questions with the investigation of the crime. But Judge Dee still thought it necessary that the sergeant and Tao Gan kept an eye on the warden’s activities, to step in in case of emergency. Further he wanted to verify at the same time whether Ho Kai was indeed neglecting his duties, or was just stupid.

  When he had dealt with the routine matters of that day, night was already falling. Judge Dee had candles brought in, and, alone in his private office, started to dispose of some matters that had accumulated during the last few days. Thereafter he had his dinner brought in and was just dozing off into an after-dinner nap, when he was startled by sounds outside the window. Before he had quite opened his eyes, Ma Joong and Chiao Tai were standing in the room.After they had greeted the judge, Ma Joong said:

  “We have found a clue, but as yet it is hard to assess its real value. As verifying this clue would be liable to get us into trouble, we decided to come back first in order to report to you, and to receive further instructions.”

  “Tell me what you have found, my braves”, Judge Dee said, “so that we can consider the problem together”.

  “After having received your instructions,” Ma Joong said, “I roamed over the countryside in the eastern part of the district, making discreet inquiries everywhere. A few days ago, when night was falling, I arrived at a small bridge, and decided to stay overnight in one of the small hostels that cluster about there. Engaging in a desultory conversation with the other guests, one said a few words about the murder of Six Mile Village, and his two friends smiled and nodded knowingly. I immediately started to sound them out further, but they shut up like clams. Now I knew from the waiter that these men were leather-merchants, so I offered them a round of wine, and said that I myself was a leather merchant. I added that
I was naturally curious about the murder, since another member of our guild had been staying in that hostel in Six Mile Village. Then they loosened up, and said that since I was a brother in trade, they need not fear that their story would go further. Then, over a few cups of wine, they told the following.

  “The day after the murder they were travelling along the highroad with a big cart, on their way to Six Mile Village. They met a tall fellow about thirty years old, pushing a smaller cart loaded with bales, going in the opposite direction. That fellow seemed in a great hurry, and he wanted to pass them without a few words such as are exchanged as courtesy on the road. But while passing their cart struck his, his left wheel got detached from the axle, and the bales fell into the mud. They expected some fisticuffs, or at least a stream of invectives. But no, the fellow did not say a word, but hastily adjusted the wheel and started to gather up his two bales. One had got loose and we noticed that it was packed with raw silk. He hastily stuffed it back in the bale, and mumbled a few words of excuse, whereby we noticed that he spoke the Kiangsu dialect. Then he hurried along. Now, when we heard about the double murder of Six Mile Village later, we were sure that this fellow was the criminal.

  “I asked them why they had not reported this occurrence to the proper authorities; they might have rewarded them for this information with a few good silver pieces. But the merchants laughed and asked me whether I thought they were fools. The murderer by then would have fled to some distant place already, and did I think they were going to get themselves mixed up in a criminal case? They were busy merchants and gladly left the apprehension of criminals to those who were paid to do so.

  “Having sought out Chiao Tai, we stayed together one more day at the inn, without, however, learning more than we already knew. So we set out together along the road taken by that tall fellow, taking many short cuts over mountain paths, where a man with a cart could not pass.