The Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee

by Robert Van Gulik

  Judge Dee ordered two constables to bring the man in. As he knelt down before the bench, Judge Dee thus addressed him:

  “Who are you, and what grievous wrong did you suffer, that you beat the gong before the hour on which this tribunal convenes?”

  “This insignificant person”, the man said respectfully, “is called Koong Wan-deh. I live in the Six Mile Village, outside the southern gate of this city. Since my house is fairly large, and I have only a small family, I use the greater part of it as a hostel. For more than ten years I have been peacefully engaged in this business. Yesterday, towards twilight, there arrived two traveling silk merchants. They said they had come from Kiangsu Province, and were only passing through, doing business along the road. As it was getting dark, they wanted to stay overnight at my hostel. I, seeing that they were much-travelled men, accordingly gave them a room. They had their dinner, drank wine, laughed and talked, as can be attested by several witnesses. This morning, just before daybreak, these two merchants departed.

  “Then, unexpectedly this morning the village warden Pang Deh at nine o’clock, came to see me, saying that two dead men had been found lying by the roadside, before the gate of the marketplace nearby. ‘these two men’, he said, ‘stayed as guests in your hostel, and you murdered them to rob them of their money. Then you dragged their dead bodies to the market gate’. Having thus addressed me, before I could say one word in my defense, he had the two corpses dragged to my hostel, and threw them down right in front of my door. Thereupon he started to shout, and threaten me, demanding five hundred pieces of silver for hushing up this crime. ‘these two men came from your hostel’, he roared, ‘it is therefore evident that you murdered them there, and then dragged their bodies to the market, to cover up the traces of your crime’. I immediately rushed here in great anguish, praying Your Honour to redress this wrong.”

  Having heard this statement, Judge Dee looked at the man kneeling in front of the bench, and thought that he certainly did not look like a dangerous criminal. On the other hand this was apparently an important murder case, and of course he could not decide its merits on the statement of this man alone. Hence he said:

  “You claim to be a law-abiding citizen of this locality. Why then did Warden Pang immediately pounce on you as the criminal? I find it hard to believe that you are really the innocent citizen you profess to be. I will have to hear Warden Pang, in order to check your statement.”

  Thereupon he ordered a constable to fetch the warden, and soon a man of about thirty years was brought in. His face was covered with wrinkles, and he wore a blue robe. Kneeling down before the bench, he said:

  “I, Pang Deh, warden of Six Mile Village, respectfully greet Your Honour. This murder falls under my jurisdiction. This morning I saw the bodies of two men lying by the roadside, in front of the market gate. At first I did not know where these two men had come from, but on questioning the people living in the neighbourhood, I found that they all said that these men had stayed as guests in the hostel of this man Koong last night. Therefore I questioned Koong, pointing out that it was evidently he who had dragged these two corpses to the market, having murdered them in his hostel for the purpose of robbing them. For according to Koong these two men left his hostel before daybreak. Now at that time there were already a number of people on that road, and none of them reported having seen any suspicious characters about. Furthermore, on questioning the people living near the market, it appeared that none of them had heard any cries for help. These facts prove to my satisfaction that the victims were killed during the night in Koong’s hostel, and that afterwards Koong dragged their bodies to the market gate, in order thus to divert suspicion from him. Since the culprit is already here, I beg Your Honour to proceed against him.”

  Judge Dee thought to himself that Warden Pang’s argument seemed not without reason. On the other hand, giving Koong another good look, he still felt that that man could hardly be a brutal criminal, murdering people in cold blood in order to rob them. After some reflection, he said:

  “You two have made conflicting statements. Without having held an inquest, I cannot proceed with this case. The investigation shall be continued after inspection of the scene of the crime”.

  He had Koong Wan-deh and Warden Pang led away by the constables, and ordered the necessary preparations for proceeding to the scene of the crime with the tribunal.

  Chapter 2

  WARDEN PANG’S SLANDER BRINGS HARM ON HIS OWN HEAD; SERGEANT HOONG OBTAINS A CLUE BY A CLEVER SURMISE

  AFTER RETURNING to his private office, Judge Dee ordered a constable to summon the coroner. After three beats on the gong, he donned his official robe and cap, and proceeded to Six Mile Village in his palanquin, surrounded by the constables and other servants of his tribunal. The people living along the road had heard about the double murder. Knowing Judge Dee’s reputation as a great detector of crimes, a vast crowd gathered and followed the procession, in order to see what was going to happen.

  Before noon they arrived at the market of Six Mile Village. Warden Pang, his assistant Djao San, and the village-headman had already arranged a temporary tribunal, and came forward to bid Judge Dee welcome.

  After the customary exchange of amenities, Judge Dee descended from his palanquin, and said:

  “I shall first go to Koong’s hostel for a personal investigation, and then open the tribunal and proceed with the inquest”.

  He ordered them to lead him to Koong’s hostel, where he found the dead bodies of the two men, showing several wounds apparently inflicted with a knife, lying on the ground in front of the door. Judge Dee asked Warden Pang: “Where were these two corpses originally found?” Warden Pang answered hurriedly:

  “By Your Honour’s leave, these men were killed by Koong Wan-deh for gain; thereafter he removed the bodies to the market gate, so as to be able to repudiate his crime later. Since I would not have innocent people become involved in this affair, I had the bodies moved to this place in front of Koong’s hostel. I beg Your Honour to verify this”.He had hardly finished speaking, when Judge Dee roared at him:

  “You dogshead, I am not asking to be advised by you as to the identity of the criminal. What I demand to know is, how can you, charged with an official function, and supposed to know the rules and regulations, thus offend against the law? You ought to know what the punishment is for wilfully moving dead bodies, and thus tampering with important evidence. Quite apart from the question whether or not Koong is guilty of murder, you had no right to remove the two bodies from the place where they were originally found, before having duly reported to me, explaining your reasons, or before I held the inquest and drew up and sealed the official report. Why, I ask you, did you thus dare to offend against the laws of the land, and were you so bold as to tamper with the bodies without authorisation? Evidently you yourself are trying to cover up some nefarious scheme. Probably you planned this crime together with Koong, and having quarreled with him over the division of the loot, now try to shift all the blame on to him. Now I shall first have you beaten with the heavy bamboo, and then I shall question you under torture.”

  Judge Dee ordered the constables to let Warden Pang have hundred strokes with the heavy bamboo, then and there. Warden Pang’s wails rose to heaven, and soon blood began to trickle from his bursting skin. By now all the onlookers were convinced that Koong had been wrongly accused, and they admired Judge Dee for his shrewdness.

  After Pang had received the full hundred strokes, he still persisted that he was innocent. Judge Dee decided for the time being not to press him further, but entered Koong’s hostel with his retinue. First he asked Koong:

  “Your hostel has a great number of rooms. Give me a clear account of where the two murdered men stayed”.

  “The three rooms at the back of the house are the living quarters of myself and my wife, and our small daughter. The two rooms on the east side are used as kitchen. Thus these five rooms are never used by the guests: for them I have reserved the rooms in the
first and the second courtyard. Since the two guests that arrived yesterday night were silk merchants, I knew that they would not grudge expense, and so offered them the best room of the second courtyard, this being more comfortable than the first, by reason of its being further removed from the noise and dust of the street”.

  Koong then led Judge Dee and his assistants to the second courtyard, and showed him there the room that had been occupied by the two murdered merchants.

  Judge Dee and his lieutenants carefully scrutinised this room. They saw that the remainder of yesterday’s dinner was still on the table, and that in front of the couch two night utensils were still standing about. There was not the slightest evidence of a struggle, let alone of a murder having been committed there. Judge Dee, thinking that Koong might still be holding back something, asked him:

  “Since you have been keeping this hostel for more than ten years, surely there is much coming and going of guests. I presume that yesterday you had also other guests staying here, next to the two silk merchants?”

  “Aside from them there were three others. One was a leather merchant on his way to Shansi, and the two others were a gentleman with his man servant, from Honan Province. Since the gentleman became ill, he and his servant are even now resting in their room in the first courtyard.”

  Judge Dee had the leather merchant and the man-servant of the sick traveller brought before him. He first questioned the leather merchant.

  “I am a leather merchant from Shansi”, the man said, “and I have been engaged in this trade for a number of years. When passing through here I always stay in this hostel. I actually saw the two silk merchants leave here just before daybreak, and I can also attest that during the night I heard no cries, nor any commotion. Of course, I am completely ignorant as to how and where the two men met their death”.

  Judge Dee then turned to the man-servant. This man confirmed what the leather merchant had said, adding that, owing to his master’s illness, he had hardly slept during the night, if anything out of the ordinary had happened in the hostel, he would certainly have noticed it.

  On hearing this evidence, Judge Dee thought that it tended to confirm his doubts of Koong Wan-deh’s guilt. To be doubly sure, however, he ordered his men to go over every single room of the hostel inch by inch. This they did, but they failed to discover any trace of a crime having been committed there.

  Judge Dee was now convinced that the murder had been committed somewhere outside, after the merchants had left the hostel. For even if one assumed that all three witnesses were in the plot together with Koong, how could they have obliterated all the traces of the crime?

  Deep in thought he took his retinue back to the market place, and closely scrutinised the spot where the two bodies had been discovered. There, ample evidence sprang to the eye that the murder had been committed right on the spot: the ground showed that much blood had been shed.

  There were no houses in the immediate vicinity, but some stood a little farther away, on the market place itself. Judge Dee had the people living there brought before him, and questioned them. But this produced no results. The first thing they knew about were the shouts of some early passers-by that woke them calling out that a murder had been committed. Thereupon they had immediately reported to the warden, and during his investigation it had become known that the victims had been staying at Koong’s hostel.

  This information made Judge Dee incline to believe that Warden Pang might after all turn out to be the culprit. But since night was falling, it was too late to start holding the inquest. He decided to send his assistants out to do some private sleuthing that same night, and see what information they could gather. The inquest could be held early the next morning. He said to the village headman:

  “When I started investigating this case, one problem arose after the other, and each made the case more complicated. Therefore I came here today directly after the case had been reported, for the purpose of making a personal investigation. In a case like this it is of the utmost importance that an inquest is held as soon as possible; thus I shall stay right here over night, so that we can open the inquest tomorrow morning”.

  He ordered a close watch to be kept over the two bodies, and went to the official quarters set up for him. After having chatted there for some time with the village head, he finally allowed everybody to retire. But he retained Sergeant Hoong, and, after all the others had gone, he said to him:

  “This crime certainly was not committed by Koong. I rather suspect Warden Pang. He immediately accused some one, in order to prevent us from suspecting him. You had better go out tonight, and try to gather some information. As soon as you have found something worth while let me know immediately”.

  Sergeant Hoong took his leave, and first went to see Warden Pang’s assistant Djao San, taking three constables on duty with him.

  Djao San was with the people standing guard over the two bodies. Sergeant Hoong walked up to him, and addressed him in a conversational tone.

  “I have come together with His Excellency Judge Dee to take part in the conduct of this case. Until now I have not bothered your superior. The only conclusion I have come to is that old man Koong must be innocent. And although I and my companions here are government servants, we never bother innocent people. All in all we had, however, rather a trying day, and we have a rather empty feeling inside. Would it be too much to assume that your boss, Warden Pang, has a bit of food and a jar of wine lying around somewhere? It is not that we are out to get a gratis meal, everybody knows how honest our master is. Tomorrow he shall certainly give me and my colleagues some money for our trouble, and out of that we shall pay you for the meal. So, in the meantime, don’t let us go hungry!”

  Djao San hurriedly paid his respects to the sergeant, and said: “Please don’t be angry, Sergeant. Our warden is so occupied with this case right now, that he completely forgot to give the necessary instructions for the entertaining of His Excellency’s staff. But since you and your colleagues are hungry, allow me the honour of being your host. Let us go and have a snack and a drink in the market inn”.

  He then ordered a few men to take over the guard of the bodies, and took the sergeant and the constables to the inn. The servants there, seeing that this party consisted of official persons engaged in the investigation of the murder, stormed them with questions about this and that, and immediately brought a profusion of delicacies and plenty wine. Sergeant Hoong told them: “We are not like ordinary constables, who, as soon as they go somewhere to work on a case, immediately start gorging themselves with wine and food at their master’s expense, and on top of that demand a few pieces of silver from the inn to cover their traveling expenses. You bring only two dishes of plain food, and give each of us two cups of wine, that is all. We shall settle the bill later.”

  After Sergeant Hoong had made this nice gesture, they all sat down. Now Sergeant Hoong, of course, knew perfectly well that Warden Pang, after having received his punishment, was being detained in Koong’s hostel, guarded by Chiao Tai and Ma Joong; but the rules of propriety had prevented his mentioning this painful fact right at the start of his conversation with Pang’s subordinate Djao San. Now, however, he thus spoke to him:

  “Your boss is, frankly speaking, too careless about his duties. Why, yesterday he was out all night. Coming home early in the morning, upon learning about the murder, he suddenly remembered that old Koong was a wealthy man, who could afford some squeeze, and then hit on this wicked plan to remove the corpses to Koong’s hostel. Is that not overdoing it a bit? And where, now we come to it, did your boss go last night? The place where the bodies were found is on the open road. How is it that neither he nor you, who are supposed to make the nightrounds together, noticed them during your last watch? Today His Excellency the Judge let Pang have a hundred strokes with the heavy bamboo, and tomorrow he will certainly press the warden again to produce the criminal. Now say for yourself, is this not wilfully getting oneself into trouble?”

  “Serg
eant”, answered Djao San, “you don’t know the inside of this affair. Since all of us are gathered now together around this table as old friends, there is no harm in telling you. You must know that our warden has an old grudge against Koong. Every New Year this man Koong presents our warden with only a niggardly few coppers, and every time the warden thinks he can squeeze a nice gratuity out of Koong, that old skinflint persistently refuses.

  “Now last night Warden Pang happened to be engaged in a small gambling party at Lee’s place and lost heavily. He went on gambling till dawn, until he heard people shouting that a murder had been committed. As soon as he heard that the victims had come from Koong’s hostel, he immediately thought that this was a splendid opportunity to get even with old Koong, and squeeze some badly needed funds out of him. So you see that Warden Pang has nothing to do with the murder itself. He only tried to cheat old Koong, and got a sound thrashing as his reward! Rather than harming others, he has harmed himself!

  “Now as to this murder, this surely is a most baffling affair. It is perfectly clear that the deed was done at daybreak. It must have occurred after I had returned from that place after I had made the last round of the night, and then everything was still quiet. It is true that old man Koong is a skinflint, but as far as I can see, he certainly is not the murderer”.