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Chinese Lake Murder ◆

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r o b e r t l A K E G U L I K THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

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the judge holds a vigil for a dead woman; he studies poems and passionate letter ◆

J

ust when Judge Dee sat down on the tabouret in front of dressing table a peal of thunder rent the air. A torrential rain clattered down on the roof. The boat started to rock.

Chiao Tai Tai hurried outside to fasten the shutters. The judge stared silently ahead of him, slowly caressing his side whiskers. The sergeant and Ma Joong stood looking at te still form on the couch.

When Chiao Tai had come back and bolted the door, Judge Dee looked up at his three lieutenants.

“Well,” he said with a bleak smile, “only a few hors ago I complained that nothing happened here!” He shook his head, then went on gravely: “Now we are confronted with a murder, complete with all angles of out and suspicion including even the supernatural elements.” Seeing Ma Joong giving Chiao Tai an anxious look, he continued quickly: “If during the hearing I didn’t discourage the idea that a ghostly being was concerned in this crime, it was only to lull the criminal’s suspicions.

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the chinese lake murder

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Don’t forget that he doesn’t know how and where discovered the body. he must be greatly puzzled by the fact that it didn’t sink down to the bottom of the lake. For I can assure you, my friend that the murder is a man of flesh and blood! And I know also why he had to murder the dance!”

Then the judge told them about Almond Blossom’s startling announcement. “As a matter of course,” he concluded, “Han Yung-han is our most likely suspect, for he was the only who, feigning to asleep could have overhead what she said to me. Although in the case he must be a consummate actor.”

“Han also had the opportunity,” Sergeant Hoong observed. “ Nobody could confirm the story about his handing around the foredeck. Perhaps he walked aft on the portside, and beck the dancer from outside the window to follow him.”

“But what can be the meaning of that knife the maid was talking about?” Ma Joong asked.

Judge Dee shrugged his shoulders.

“Imagination played an important role there,” he said. “Don’t forget that the maid started telling her weird story only after she had heard that the dance had been murdered. She saw in fact only the shadow of a man dressed in wide, long-sleeved robe such as all of us are wearing. He beckoned, and in his other hand he held a filed up fan. That must have been the knife she was talking about.”

The boat was rocking violently now. A large wave hit its side with a resounding crash.

“Unfortunately,” the judge resumed, “Han is far from being our only suspect. It is true that he is the only one who could have overheard her words, but any one of other guests could have noticed that she whispered something to me and concluded from her secretive manner-I told you that she wasn’t even looking at me- that she was giving me important information. And therefore he decided to take no chances.”

“That means” Chiao Tai said, “that next to Han we have four other suspects, namely the guild masters Wang, Peng and Soo, and Liu Fei-po.

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The judge holds a vilgi

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Only the Kang brothers go free, because Your Honor said that they didn’t leave the room. All of four others left the room for a shorter or longer period.”

“Indeed,” Judge Dee said. “Peng is probably innocent, for the simple reason that he lacks the strength for knocking down the dancer and carrying her to the gangway. It was only therefore that I questioned the crew: I though that Peng might have an accomplice among them. But none of them has left the hold.”

“Han, Liu and the guildmasters Wang and Soo seem perfectly capable for killing her,” Chiao Tai remarked. “Especially Soo, he is a hefty fellow.”

“After Han,” the judge said, “ Soo seems our best candiate. If he is the murdered, he must be a dangerous, cold-blooded criminal. For then he must have planned the murder in all detail while Almond Blossom was still dancing. He must have soiled his sleeve expressly in order to have a good excuse for leaving the dinning room later, and at the same time a good excuse for changing, in the case his robe would get while letting the body down in the water. He must then have gone directly to the window of dressing room, beckoned the dancer, stunned her and put her in the water. Only thereafter did he go to his cabin and change in his clothes. You’d better goto that cabin now, Chiao Tai, and see whether the robe Soo took off is wet!”

“I’ll go, Your Hornor!” Ma Joong said quickly. He had noticed that Chiao Tai was getting pale, he knew that his fiends was not a good sailor.

Judge Dee nodded. They waited in silence for Ma Joong’s returned.

“Water all over the place!” Ma Joong muttered when he came back.

“Everywhere expect Soo’s robe! That was gone dry!”

“Good,” Judge Dee said. “It doesn’t prove that Soo is innocent, but it is a fact to keep in mind. Our suspects are now Han, Soo, Liu, Wang and Peng- in that order.”

“Why does Your honor put Liu before Wang?” Sergeant Hoong asked.

“Because I assum,” the judge answered, “that there was a love affair between the dancer and her murderer. If not, she would certainly not

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have gone to hime immediately when he called her, and she would not have gone with him to the cabin here. The position of a courts is quite different from that of an ordinary prostitute, who has to give herself to anyone who pays the price. One must win the favors of a courtesan, and if one doesn’t success in that, there is nothing one can do about it. Courtesans, and especially famous ones like Almond Blossom, bring in more money by their singing and dancing than by sleeping with the guests, so their owners don’t exercise pressure on them to grant their favors to the customers. Now I cold well imagine that Han or Liu, both well-preserved men of the world, could win the love of such a beautiful and talented dancer. And also, Soo, who suggested a kind of brutal strength that some find attractive. But hardly the rotund Wang, or the cadaverous Peng. Yes, I think we better scratch Peng entirely from our list.”

Ma Joong had not heard the last words of the judge. he was looking a the dead woman in the speechless horror. now she busy out: “She’s shaking her head!”

All turned to the punch. The head rolled to and pro. The handkerchief had dropped off. The flickering light of the candles shone on the wet hair.

Judge Dee rose hurriedly and went over to the couch. Deeply shocked, she looked at the white face. The eyes had closed. He placed a pillow on the either side of the head ad quickly covered it up again with handkerchief. He sat down and said in a clam voice: “Thus our first task is to find out who of the three persons mentioned had intimate relations with the courtesan. The best method will probably be to ask question the other girls of her house; those women usually have few secrets from each other.”

“But to make them tell outsiders about those things,” Ma Joong said, “it quite another matter!”

The rain had stopped, the boat was going more steadily now. Chiao Tai was looking better. He said: “I think, Your Honor, that’s there’s an even more pressing task ahead, namely that we search the dancer’s rim in the house in the Willow Quar-

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The judge holds a vilgi

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ter, the murderer had to improvise his crime after he hand boarded this boat and if she kept in her room letters or other proof of her relation with him, he’ll hurry there as soon as we landed in order to destroy those clues.”

“You are quite right, Chiao Tai,” Judge Dee said approvingly. “As soon as we have landed, Ma Joong shall run ahead to the Willow Quarter and arrest anybody who wants to enter the dancers’ house. I’’ll go there in my palanquin, and we shall search her room together.”

There were loud shouts outside, indicating that they were nearing the landing stage. Judge Dee rose and said to Chiao Tai: “You’ll wait there for constables. Tell them to seal this cabin, and let two of stand guard in the front of this cabin till tomorrow morning for encoffining the body.”

As they stepped out on desk they found that the moon had come out again. It rays shone on a dismal scene. The storm had blown away all the colored lamps and torn the bamboo curtains of dining room to shreds.

The gay boat now presented a disheveled appearance.

A very subbed crow awaited the judge on the landing stage. During the storm the guests had fled to that sitting room and the close air there, together with rocking, had made them feel all the miserable.

Soon as judge Dee had told that they could go home they rushed to their sedean chairs.

The judge ascended his palanquin. After they were out of earshot he told the bearers to take him to the Willow Quarter.

When the judge and Sergeant Hoong entered the first courtyard of Almond Blossom’s home they heard loud laughter coming from the dinning rome beyond. Despite the late hour a party was still in progress there. The manager of the house came rushing out to meet these unexpected visitors.

When he recognized the judge he fell on his knees and three times knocked his head on the floor. Then he inquired a cringing voice the magistrate’s pleasure.

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