The Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee

by Robert Van Gulik

  AFTER THE MAID SERVANT had been dismissed, Judge Dee said to Mr. Hua:

  “You see that the case against Hoo Dso-bin rests only on suspicion. This investigation has only just begun. I shall now inspect the scene of the crime.”

  With Mr. Hua leading the way, they crossed a few courtyards, and finally arrived at the bridal room. Inside Judge Dee saw the large bridal couch against the back wall; the bed curtains were drawn close, and two constables stood on guard in front of it. By the side of the head of the couch there stood a small table of carved blackwood, and at the foot a chair of the same material. On the table Judge Dee saw a large teapot in a padded rattan basket. Mr. Hua informed him that the two tea cups were unfortunately removed during the excitement following the bride’s death. The teapot itself had not been disturbed.

  Judge Dee ordered a constable to bring him a clean teacup, and told two others to go outside on the street and procure a stray dog. While they were gone, Judge Dee carefully examined the room, but he could find nothing of special significance. He lifted the lid of the teapot and saw that it was half filled with a thick, black liquid that resembled syrup rather than tea. Moreover it had a penetrating, musty smell. Judge Dee reflected that it would be exceedingly difficult to determine what kind of poison had been mixed with the tea. It might have been arsenic, but this would not have caused the blue spots on the victim’s body. He poured out a little of the liquid in the clean teacup and noticed again the musty smell. It was black as ink, but the judge could discover no particles of alien matter in it.

  The two constables brought the dog, a miserable half-starved animal. Judge Dee had a few pieces of meat fetched from the kitchen, and having soaked these in the cup of tea, he threw them on the steps leading down to the small courtyard. The dog swallowed them with amazing quickness, and started sniffing about for more. After a while, however, his hairs stood on end, and he growled angrily. His growls soon changed into drawnout howling. He ran about in circles a few times, and then the poor beast dropped dead.

  Judge Dee was greatly perplexed by the nature of this poison. He ordered the constables to place the dead dog in a box and seal it. It was then to be conveyed to the tribunal as an exhibit.

  He entered the bridal room again and opened the curtains. The corpse of the unfortunate young bride was lying on the couch where she had died. Blood had trickled out of her mouth, and dark-blue spots covered her slender body.

  Judge Dee drew the curtains and asked for Mrs. Lee. Then he addressed himself as follows to Mr. Hua and Mrs. Lee:

  “You represent the families of the bride and the bridegroom. Both your houses are ‘permeated by the fragrance of books,’ and that this terrible thing happened to people of your standing is a great calamity. I shall not increase your grief by having an autopsy performed, and have the corpse of your poor daughter subjected to exposure and the indignities incident to every postmortem. It suffices that I have seen the clear evidence of poisoning with my own eyes. The problem of this case is not how she was killed, but who committed this foul deed. I shall, therefore, now seal the death certificate, stating that she died having drunk poison, administered by an unknown person. The corpse can be forthwith encoffined.”

  Mrs. Lee tearfully thanked Judge Dee for this kind consideration of their feelings, but old Mr. Hua was very doubtful. “After all”, he said, “according to the regulations an autopsy should be performed on the corpse of a murdered person. Who knows what additional evidence of Hoo’s crime may come to light?”

  His son, however, sank to his knees before his father, imploring him to spare the body of his poor wife.

  Finally Mr. Hua reluctantly agreed, and ordered the servants to start the preparations for dressing the corpse. Judge Dee walked out into the courtyard and stood about for some time, looking absentmindedly at the servants running in and out busily. His official business here was finished, and he should have returned to the tribunal. However, somehow or other, he could not bring himself to leave Mr. Hua’s mansion. He had a strong feeling that the key to the mystery was right here, and not outside.

  When the corpse had been dressed and brought to the front courtyard to be encoffined there, Judge Dee went back to the bridal room alone. The constables had just placed the teapot and the cup in a leather box. Judge Dee impressed his seal on the slip of paper pasted over the lid. After they had left, Judge Dee closed the door and seated himself on the chair at the foot of the bed.

  Everything was quiet now. He could hear only vaguely the distant noise in the front courtyard. Judge Dee reflected that poisoners often use weird means for killing their victim, and wondered what strange mystery this room concealed. The musty smell still hung in the air. Somehow or other it seemed part of the room. Determined to find its origin, the judge looked under the couch, behind the furniture, and walked out into the small kitchen. It was very small, without a fire place, and had only a cold water basin for washing cups and dishes. It had evidently been thoroughly cleaned in preparation for the homecoming of the bride. The walls were newly plastered, and the judge did not notice the musty smell here that hung over the room itself.

  Judge Dee shook his head and slowly walked back to the large reception hall. There he said to Mr. Hua:

  “You accuse Hoo Dso-bin, but I find that the maid servant Chen had the same opportunity for committing the crime. I shall question Hoo again in the tribunal, but I also want to question again this maid servant. I hope you will permit me to place her under detention”.

  Mr. Hua did not like this at all, but he knew he could not well refuse. He gave his permission, and when Judge Dee had left, two constables took the maid servant to the tribunal. Mr. Hua, however, vented his rage on his son, saying:

  “That Mrs. Lee allowed the body to be encoffined without an autopsy is only to be expected. Women never understand these things. But you, as the son of a high official, should have known better. Don’t you see that that smug judge is only out to make matters easy for himself? Let me tell you that officials are always trying to avoid difficulties; much do they care if somebody has been murdered, if only it does not interfere with their easy lives! I have been an official myself and I know what I am talking about!”

  When no news came from the tribunal by the evening of the next day, old Mr. Hua’s resentment against Judge Dee increased. He stampeded through the halls and courtyards of his mansion with swinging sleeves, scolding the servants and making himself generally disagreeable. When night had fallen, he swore that the next day he would go to the tribunal himself and urge the judge to question Hoo Dso-bin under torture.

  In the mean time Judge Dee had ordered Ma Joong to consult a famous old coroner living retired in the city, and some elder managers of medicine stores. But none of them knew of a poison that produced the symptoms shown on the corpse. Thereafter Judge Dee had sent Ma Joong and Chiao Tai to make discreet inquiries among the people living in the neighbourhood of the mansions of Mr. Hua and Mrs. Lee, and had them check the list of the wedding guests. But neither in Mr. Hua’s nor in Mrs. Lee’s mansion did there seem to have been any irregularities. The guests who had attended the wedding were all well-known members of the local gentry, none of whom was known to harbor any grudge against either Mr. Hua or Mrs. Lee.

  On the third day after his investigation in the Hua mansion, Judge Dee was sitting in his private office, discussing the features of the case with Ma Joong.

  “This murder in the Hua mansion”, Judge Dee observed, “looks as if it will prove as hard to solve as Bee Hsun’s case. One wave has not yet subsided, and another is already rising!”

  Just then a clerk entered and handed to Judge Dee a visiting card. Judge Dee read Mr. Hua’s name, and said with a sigh:

  “Here is Mr. Hua. Doubtless he has come to urge me to question Hoo Dso-bin again. Bring him to the reception hall.”

  When Judge Dee had seated himself in the reception hall, he soon saw Mr. Hua ascending the steps, clad in full ceremonial dress, looking very sour. After the exchange of t
he usual amenities, Mr. Hua asked: “To-day is the third day after my daughter-in-law met her death. Would the Father-official deign to inform this ignorant person as to the progress made with this case?”

  “You have come at a most opportune time”, Judge Dee answered, “I was just going to question the accused Hoo Dso-bin again, and the maid servant of your honourable mansion. If you will please be seated in my private office, you will be able to follow the proceedings from there.”

  The judge took Mr. Hua to his private office, and had a chair placed for him just behind the screen separating this room from the court hall. Then Judge Dee himself ascended the dais and had Candidate Hoo brought before the bench.

  Chapter 22

  JUDGE DEE FINDS A CLUE TO THE MURDER OF THE BRIDE; SERGEANT HOONG CONDUCTS A SECRET INVESTIGATION

  JUDGE DEE addressed him in a stern voice:

  “I have investigated the scene of the crime and established beyond doubt that young Mrs. Hua died of poison. Now you threatened the Hua family before many witnesses. You had the opportunity to put the poison in the teapot. Tell the truth!” Candidate Hoo answered:

  “I plead guilty to having used unbecoming language, and having behaved in an unseemly manner. But I deny most emphatically that I have poisoned young Mrs. Hua. And as to my having had the opportunity to put the poison in the teapot, I respectfully draw Your Honour’s attention to the fact that at least forty other guests had this same opportunity, not to mention the servants!”

  Thereupon Judge Dee ordered the maid servant Chen brought before him. To her he said:

  “Your master has accused this Hoo Dso-bin of having poisoned your young mistress, but he persistently professes his innocence. Now you are an important witness. Tell me again exactly what happened on that night. Leave out no detail, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you”.

  “Your Honour’s slave,” the maid said, “can testify that, until the bride and bridegroom came back with the group of guests, nobody entered the bridal room after I had filled the teapot for the second time. They all were laughing and shouting and making good-natured jokes, only Mr. Hoo said all kinds of unpleasant things, and pushed people about. I myself saw him repeatedly approach the couch and the tea table. Later he threatened His Excellency the Senior Graduate, and I am convinced that it was he who put the poison in the teapot”.

  “Your Honour”, Candidate Hoo exclaimed, “this is outrageous slander! I beg you to ask her whether see actually saw me as much as touch that teapot!”

  The old maid had to admit that she could not testify to that. Then Judge Dee asked her:

  “Now when did you go to the kitchen to eat your evening rice?”

  “I don’t remember the exact time,” she answered, “but I left the room when I heard that the wedding ceremony had started in the main hall. Soon after I came back, I heard the guests laughing in the distance. So then the ceremony must have beenover, and the wine must have been served.”

  Judge Dee shouted at Candidate Hoo:

  “So when the guests in the main hall were busy observing the ceremony, and this servant was in the kitchen eating her meal, you sneaked into the bridal room and poisoned the tea! Confess your crime!” Candidate Hoo knocked his head on the floor, and said:

  “I beg Your Honour’s favourable consideration. I did not leave the hall once, as can be attested by two of my friends who stood right by my side all the time. After the ceremony I personally drank some toasts with the bridegroom. The first time I entered the bridal room was when we all went there together. This is the complete truth”.

  Judge Dee remained in thought for a while, slowly caressing his beard. He did not think for a moment that Hoo was guilty. His questioning was merely meant to show old Mr. Hua behind the screen that he did not overlook any possibility. Neither did he think that the old maid had a hand in this affair. He was trying to formulate some more questions when a servant bringing him a cup of tea gave a welcome opportunity for a longer pause.

  While he was slowly raising the cup to his lips, Judge Dee noticed some particles of white dust floating on the surface. He said to the servant: “How dare you to bring me this dirty tea?” The servant looked at the cup, and said hastily:

  “This is not the fault of this person. I saw to it that the cup was clean, and I personally put the tea leaves in the teapot. It must be that some dust or plaster fell down from the ceiling when the cook was heating the water in the kitchen. Allow your servant quickly to prepare another cup”.

  On hearing this, Judge Dee was suddenly struck by a new thought. He sternly asked the old maid servant of the Hua mansion:

  “Where did you get the hot water to make the tea that night? Are you sure you took it from the pan in the large kitchen?”

  She was greatly startled by this sudden question and answered in a faltering voice:

  “As your Honour’s slave stated before, I used the water that had been boiled in the large pan in the kitchen of the mansion”.

  Judger Dee gave her a sour look and said to her and to Candidate Hoo:

  “Now I know the key to this mysterious case of poisoning. Both of you shall be temporarily detained until tomorrow when I shall have solved this case”.

  Having thus spoken, Judge Dee left the dais and went back to his private office. Old Mr. Hua, hearing all that had been said through the screen had worked himself up into a great rage, because Judge Dee did not put the screws on Candidate Hoo. Seeing Judge Dee, he said with a sneer:

  “I have followed your interrogation with considerable interest. I observe that the methods of judges have changed greatly since my own days. In my time we treated a criminal as a criminal. When he refused to confess, we put the screws on him. You will forgive that I, seeing that your methods fail to produce the slightest result, plan to bring this case before the prefect. We will see whether he shares your views.”

  He rose to take his leave. Judge Dee, however, detained him, saying:

  “The case that was born in your honourable mansion is already perfectly clear to me. I beg you to have patience until tomorrow. Then I shall give myself the honour of calling on you personally for an experiment. If that should fail, I will insist that this case be brought before the higher authorities.”

  Mr. Hua evidently thought that this was another attempt at procrastination, but he could not well decline the polite proposal. So he said stiffly:

  “I shall welcome the honour of receiving your visit”, and took his leave.

  A young constable in the guard house, seeing Mr. Hua stalk by, said to the headman:

  “That old gentleman looks very angry. Why has our judge waited two days before starting the second interrogation?”

  “Young man”, the headman said condescendingly, “I see that you have still much to learn. Now listen to me. The case of Six Mile Village was just a common street murder. The only time that I saw money change hands in that case was when His Excellency gave a reward of a hundred silver pieces to that fellow Djao Wan-chuan. And did Djao give one copper of that sum to us? After all it was the constables, under my expert supervision, who brought the criminal to confess, while Djao only made a nice trip on the tribunal’s expense. The boorish yokel! And take now that case of Bee Hsun, that is just a vulgar domestic brawl. But this case of the Senior Graduate Hua”

  The headman smiled broadly, and, caressing his side whiskers, continued:

  “This is a very important case. Don’t you know that Mrs. Lee owns most of the large houses in the main street, and have you figured out what she receives every month in rent alone? And old Mr. Hua, well, he was prefect in Kwantung Province, and he managed his affairs exceedingly well; he owns the two largest silver shops in this city, to say nothing of the land he owns outside the East gate. Both he and Mrs. Lee are highly cultivated persons who know how one should behave in a crisis like this. Has not Mr. Hua given us a silver piece for all the trouble we took the other day when the judge made his investigation in his mansion? Did we not have two fine meals ther
e? And has not Mrs. Hoo given the constables guarding her son in the School of the Classics two silverpieces for looking after his food? Moreover has she not given them a certain sum for allowing her to visit him every day? And don’t think that that was a small sum just because the guards gave me only a few coppers of it!”

  Having said this the headman gave two constables standing there a nasty look, which they pretended to ignore. Then the young constable asked: “But is it not true that Candidate Hoo is guilty?”

  “Of course he is guilty, you stupid person”, the headman said, “but our judge knows that such a refined young gentleman will confess as soon as we lay our hands on him. And if we solve such an important case the very next day, will not Mrs. Lee and Mr. Hua think that it was all too easy? No, young man, a case involving our local gentry must be treated with much circumspection. It must be studied from every angle and without undue hurry, so that they see with their own eyes how diligent we are on our jobs. When at long last the case is solved, they will have to give us a reward in proportion to our labours.”

  While the constables were engaged in this idle talk, Ma Joong went to Judge Dee’s private office, and tried to find out from him what new clue he had discovered. But Judge Dee only smiled and repeated that the following day the case would be cleared up. While they were talking, Sergeant Hoong and Tao Gan entered and respectfully greeted the judge. He asked the sergeant:

  “You have been gone now for several days. Did your watch in Huang-hua village produce any results?”

  “Following Your Honour’s instructions”, the sergeant said, “we have been staying under cover during the daytime in Warden Ho Kai’s house. Every day after dark we have gone out to watch Mrs. Bee’s house. We could not, however, discover anything unusual. At last we became impatient. Yesterday Tao Gan and I decided that we would try to have a closer look at things. So when the second night watch had sounded, we climbed on the roof of Mrs. Bee’s house and stretched ourselves out on the tiles to hear what the two women were talking about. First Mrs. Djou scolded her mother for quite some time, saying that it was she who had started all the trouble by inviting Your Honour in doctor’s disguise to their house. This seems to be Mrs. Djou’s favourite theme for their after dinner conversation. Then the dumb daughter suddenly started to make some loud noises. Mrs. Djou shouted at her ‘You little brat, what are you startling us for? That is just some rats under the floor. Go to sleep. Your grandmother and I are also going to bed.’ This seemed queer to Tao Gan and myself. Why should that girl get so excited just because she heard a rat? Soon afterwards Mrs. Bee and Mrs. Djou apparently went to bed, each in her own room. We stayed where we were. An hour or so later we heard some sounds in Mrs. Djou’s room. We glued our ears to the roof but we could not hear clearly. Still we got the definite impression that two people were talking in low voices; one was the voice of Mrs. Djou, the other we could not recognise, but it sounded like a man’s voice. I thought this incident important enough to report to Your Honour”.