He made to hand the letter to Kou, then suddenly checked himself. He said with an apologetic smile:
‘No, I shouldn’t show official letters to outsiders, I suppose! I shall study it afterwards.’
He folded the document up and put it back in his sleeve.
‘People should think twice before making such preposterous accusations!’ Mr Kwang said, annoyed.
‘I wouldn’t say off-hand it’s preposterous,’ Judge Dee remarked, suddenly grave. ‘As a matter of fact I have grounds for suspecting that the criminal we are looking for is the same type of maniac as this letter refers to.’
Leaning back in his chair, Judge Dee watched the three men across the table. Their faces, just within the cone of light thrown by the candle, had become tight. The agreeably relaxed mood had dropped away from them.
The judge quietly surveyed the room. Sergeant Hoong had retreated to the round table in the comer. He sat there, staring at the small candle on the tea-tray. The rest of the room was a mass of black shadows. The smell of the snuffed-out wall candles hung heavily in the close air.
Judge Dee let the uncomfortable silence drag on for a while. Casually turning his head, he looked at the door. It was very dark there, he could only distinguish the thin ray of light that came through the slit between door and threshold, from the lamp in the corridor. If someone had been standing outside to listen, he would have set the door ajar; the judge had given him plenty of time. The judge thought that his intuition must have been wrong, after all. That meant that he could now concentrate on the three men in front of him.
‘I said just now,’ he resumed, ‘that I suspect the criminal to be a maniac. A dangerous maniac. I have come to that conclusion because …’
He broke off in mid-sentence. He thought he had heard the door being closed softly. He quickly looked round to the right. He saw nothing but the thin ray of light over the threshold. His ears must have deceived him. He cleared his throat and went on:
‘I think I have a fairly clear idea of the criminal’s personality. Mainly thanks to a curious mistake he made.’
He noticed that Kou was shifting uneasily in his chair. Dr Pien looked fixedly at the judge, his thin lips tightly compressed. The bruised, blue left side of his face contrasted sharply with the pallor of his skin. Kwang had recollected himself, he had now assumed an expression of polite interest.
‘Everyone who murders in cold blood,’ Judge Dee went on in an even voice, ‘thereby proves himself to be abnormal. And if the motive is perverted lust, then such a man is in fact continually on the verge of becoming insane. Such a person lives a terrible life. He must keep up appearances and go on with the normal daily routine, all the time trying to keep under control the compelling urges that torment him. Convicted lust murderers have related all this in their confessions. They have described in detail their desperate struggle to retain their mental balance. They said they were visited by horrible hallucinations, that the forces of darkness were constantly lying in wait for them, that the ghosts of their victims persecuted them. I remember one case I dealt with where …’
He paused and listened intently. Now he was sure he had heard the door close. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something move in the darkness, over in the corner, between the door and the cabinet with the curios. Someone had come inside. This was a possibility he had overlooked. He had counted on the intruder to set the door ajar so as to overhear what was being said. And that the man would betray himself only later-much later. But it couldn’t be helped now. He had to go on.
‘When I interrogated that murderer he maintained that every night the severed hand of the woman he had killed and mutilated came crawling over his breast, trying to strangle him. He-‘
‘Must have been only a dream!’ Dr Pien blurted out.
‘Who knows!’ Judge Dee said. ‘I may add that the man was found strangled in his cell, the morning before the execution. Of course I stated in my report to the higher authorities that he had done it himself, half-crazed by fear and remorse. And perhaps he did just that. On the other hand …’
He shook his head doubtfully and considered for a few moments, stroking his long beard. Then he continued:
‘Anyway, it explains why in our present case the murderer made that mistake. Was compelled to make it, I should say perhaps-since he risked stirring up forces that are better let well alone. The murder of Tong Mai may have pleased the White Goddess, it may have reminded her of the ancient human sacrifices, when the veins of a young man were cut on the altar before her, and his blood sprinkled over her marble statue. But the murder of the Amber Lady, a woman like herself, and hard by her sacred grove-that seems a reckless taunting of forces we know very little about, really.’ He paused, shrugged his shoulders and went on: ‘However this may be, I have proof that the murderer made a mistake that can be explained only by a very strange lapse of memory. He is an extremely clever man, but he had apparently completely forgotten that on the scene of the crime he–—’
‘Which crime?’ Mr Kou asked hoarsely. He quickly looked at the two others, then stammered to the judge: ‘Please excuse my … my interruption. But … I mean to say, there were four murders, were there not?’
‘There were indeed,’ Judge Dee said dryly.
A distant roll of thunder was heard outside.
‘You mustn’t let this awful weather get hold of you, Mr. Kou,’ Kwang Min remarked. It was meant to be reassuring, but his voice sounded unnaturally high in the still room.
‘I think I saw the door move, sir!’ a worried voice suddenly spoke up. ‘Shall I have a look?’
It was Sergeant Hoong. He had left his corner and was coming up behind the three men at the table.
For a moment the judge did not know what to do. For a special reason he had not told the sergeant that his plan included the possibility of a secret listener. Apparently Hoong had seen the intruder leaving, and had got the wrong impression that he was coming inside. But the judge could take no chances. If the man were still in the room, he must not know that the judge was aware of his presence, else all had been in vain. He said sharply to the sergeant:
‘Must have been a trick of the light, Hoong! Go back to your place and don’t interrupt me!’ He thought he heard the sergeant’s cotton robe rustle as he went back to his corner. No, it wasn’t Hoong’s clothes! The sound came from behind him, he now heard it quite distinctly. It was a slithering sound, as if of silk. Someone was coming up behind him. He quickly searched the faces of the three men opposite, but realized at the same time that they could not see beyond him. His own face was just inside the light circle, the rest must be only a mass of black shadows to them. He would have to be quick.
‘Well,’ he resumed, ‘for the moment I won’t dwell on that curious oversight of the murderer. I shall mention another fact that is even more important. The murderer employed as henchman the vagrant student Sia Kwang, and Sia talked too much when in his cups. I have traced a vagabond who used to drink with Sia. That man said that Sia’s principal employed also another helper. But of a quite different type. He …’
Again Judge Dee heard the slithering sound, now quite near. His muscles grew tense. He had counted on the danger coming from the right, where he could half see an attacker and defend himself. But now someone was breathing directly behind him.
The three men had noticed the sudden change that had come over Judge Dee’s face. Pien brought out in a strangled voice: ‘What’s the matter, sir? Why-‘
A loud thunderclap made him give a violent start.
It flashed through Judge Dee’s mind that he had better jump up now and grab the intruder who was standing behind him. But no, that person’s mere presence was no proof of his guilt. He could say that he had not wanted to disturb the conference, and that he therefore … Something was stirring in his sleeve. No, he had to go on as planned. Perspiration was streaming down his face but he did not notice it. He spoke in a voice he hardly recognized as his own:
‘That third man w
as a well-known citizen. Yet he was not only concerned in the murder of Tong Mai, he was also directly responsible for the strangling of the old procuress. She was strangled from behind, her weak, white hand clutched in vain at the silk cutting her throat. She died a violent death, only a few hours ago. If her ghost walks among us now, it …’
Suddenly he uttered a suppressed cry. Sitting up in his chair, he stared with wide eyes over the heads of the three men opposite and shouted at the sergeant the prearranged question:
‘Who is standing there behind you, Hoong?’
Dr Pien turned round in his chair abruptly, Kou and Kwang looked behind them with choked curses. Sergeant Hoong had jumped up, now he came running towards them, wildly waving his arms. Judge Dee quickly took a bulky object from his left sleeve. Placing it on the table’s edge he exclaimed, horrified:
‘Look! Help me, for Heaven’s sake!’
As the three men turned to him again, Hoong stood himself close behind them, groping in his sleeve. At the same time Kou and Pien let out a scream of terror. Kwang moved his lips spasmodically, but no sound came forth. All three stared aghast at the white hand that seemed to be clutching at the table’s edge. The red stone on the forefinger shone with a wicked gleam as the hand slowly crawled towards the candle. It was a severed hand, the wrist ended in a red, ragged stump. It changed its course, now it began making for the three men.
Judge Dee half rose. Dr Pien sprang up, his chair crashed to the floor. His distorted face was livid. His eyes glued to the moving hand, he shrieked: ‘I didn’t kill her!’
He turned round and stumbled into Hoong’s arms. ‘Help me!’ he shouted. ‘I didn’t kill her. Only Tong. By mistake! I had been told that …’ He broke out in convulsive sobs.
The judge had not heard him. Having half risen from his chair, he had turned his head while raising his right arm to ward off whatever danger was threatening him from behind. But he had suddenly frozen in that attitude. He was staring up in nameless terror at the other white hand that had appeared from the shadows behind him, close to his head.
Chapter 17
FOR ONE TERRIBLE MOMENT Judge Dee thought he had wantonly evoked the dead. Then the white hand rose. He saw with immense relief a black sleeve. The hand pointed at the door that now was standing ajar, letting in the light from the lamp in the corridor outside. It revealed a large man, who stood there leaning against the doorpost.
A soft but firm voice spoke up close by the judge:
‘You can’t hide from me. Come nearer!’
The voice startled Kou and Kwang from their horrified contemplation of the hand on the table. Dr Pien let go of Hoong and turned round. All three looked in speechless astonishment at the tall woman, clad in a long-sleeved black robe, who had appeared in the light circle and now was standing next to Judge Dee. While they were staring at her pale, strangely beautiful face, the judge leaned forward, quickly took the wooden hand on the table, and put it away in his sleeve. Then he rose, seized the candelabra and raised it high above his head.
They saw the huge man, who was cowering, close to the wall now, in the corner by the cabinet. His thick shoulders were hunched forward, his arms half raised, his fists clenched, as if trying to defend himself against some unseen force. His eyes were fixed on the woman’s face.
Her white hand beckoned him. He righted himself and came towards her, step by step, with the jerky movements of an automaton.
The door was pushed wide open. The headman appeared, a number of constables crowded the corridor. The headman made to step inside, but the judge halted him with a peremptory gesture.
The large man kept on moving towards the woman, gazing at her face with his sunk, dull eyes as if in a trance.
‘I didn’t do it!’ Pien shouted again. He was about to sink to the floor. Sergeant Hoong quickly supported him by his arms.
Kou and Kwang had risen too. Kou addressed the woman in black in a faltering voice:
‘You must … How did you …?’
She did not heed him. Her eyes, aglow with a strange fire, were riveted on the giant, who was now standing stock-still in front of her, his long arms pressed to his sides. Then she spoke in an even voice:
‘You had plotted your scheme very well, tonight. You were waiting for me in the next street, with two horses, as we had agreed. We left the city by the south gate. You had promised to take me by a short cut to the Mandrake Grove. There I myself must gather the magic herb that would cure my sterility, and give me and my husband the long-desired son.’
She took a deep breath, then went on in the same, nearly impersonal voice:
‘When we had come to the grove, you said that the herb grew inside, near the temple of the White Goddess. I was afraid crossing that dark forest, and still more afraid when you had stuck the torch between the bricks of the crumbling wall, and I saw that large marble statue. But it was you I ought to have been afraid of, Yang! Not her!’
The curio-dealer’s lips moved, but she went on inexorably:
‘First you brazenly spoke about your love, you said I was the most beautiful woman that ever was, you said we would go away together, nothing else mattered, only our love. When I told you aghast what I thought of you and your evil scheme, you fell on your knees, imploring me to reconsider. You wanted to kiss my feet, but I quickly stepped back, told you what you were, a treacherous lecher. Then you suddenly changed into a horrible monster.’
His towering shape seemed to shrink; he made to turn away, but he could not detach his gaze from those burning eyes. Leaning forward she said harshly:
‘I accuse you here, before my dear husband, of having raped me there. You tied me naked to the marble altar, you said you would kill me slowly, cutting my veins one by one, and sprinkling my blood over the statue of the goddess. You said I would be given up as lost, no one would ever know what had happened to me. ” Pray! Pray to the goddess! ” you sneered. Then you left to gather more twigs for the dying torch.
‘Lying there helpless on my back at the feet of the goddess, I saw above me the red ruby on her hand, glittering in the flickering light. Its red rays seemed to warm my naked body, strapped to the cold marble slab. I prayed to her, a woman herself, to help a violated woman, about to be tortured to death. I thought I felt the rope round my right wrist slacken. I tore at it in a desperate effort, and the knot slipped. I could free my hand, and I untied the other ropes. Righting myself I looked up at her in humble gratitude. In the uncertain light of the smoking torch I thought I saw her lips curve in a reassuring smile.
‘Then I sprang down, wrapped my undergarment around me and slipped outside through a gap in the wall, behind the statue. I plunged into the thick undergrowth. As I struggled ahead I heard you shout for me. I went on in a blind terror, not heeding the thorns that tore my hands. Then …’
Suddenly she broke off. Turning hah round, she gave her husband a bewildered look. In a barely audible voice she added:
‘No, I don’t know what happened thereafter. But I have come back now, here to my own house. I …’
THE WHITE GODDESS
She swayed on her feet. Mr Kou hurriedly came round the table and took her arm. Looking at the judge, he stammered:
‘I don’t understand this at all! She didn’t go out tonight, how could she have …’
‘Your wife was speaking about what happened four years ago, Mr Kou,’ Judge Dee said gravely.
Chapter 18
MR KOU led her away, solicitously supporting her. The judge beckoned his men to enter. While the four constables stood themselves close by Yang, Judge Dee snapped at the headman:
‘Light the wall candles!’
There was another thunderclap. Then a torrential rain came clattering down on the roof. A strong gust of wind tore at the shutters. The tempest had broken loose at last.
Dr Pien pointed at Yang.
‘He … he gave me the powder!’ he said in a tremulous voice. ‘He said it was a sleeping-drug, how could I have known that it …’
&n
bsp; ‘You stole my domino, Pien!’ Judge Dee interrupted coldly.
‘I can explain, explain everything, Your Honour! Yang said that he wanted Sia to go to the deserted house in Tong’s place, later that night. In connection with a very important matter. Sia was to go there after the races. In the afternoon I asked Sia whether he had taken out a marker when leaving by the south gate. Sia said no. Therefore, when my eye fell on that double-blank domino, I took it and later handed it to Sia.’ Giving the judge an entreating look, he wailed: ‘Yang forced me to help him, sir, I swear it! I had borrowed money from him, too much money. … I had had such bad luck with my investments, my creditors were pressing me, my wife was harassing me, from morning till night. Yang could break my career, ruin me. … He gave me a small folder, told me it was a sleeping-drug, quite harmless. It looked exactly like it, I tell you! Later, when I realized I had poisoned Tong, I didn’t know what to do, I …’
He buried his face in his hands. ‘You knew the murderer, Pien!’ Judge Dee said sternly. ‘Your failure to denounce him makes you an accessory after the fact. The exact measure of your guilt shall be established later. Headman, let two of your men put the doctor in a palankeen and take him to jail.’
Sergeant Hoong picked up Dr Pien’s stick from the floor and handed it to him. The doctor stumbled to the door, escorted by two constables.
All that time the tall curio-dealer had been standing there, still as a graven image, his broad face blank.
Now Judge Dee turned to him. Folding his arms in his sleeves he spoke:
‘You abducted and raped Mrs Kou, Yang, and you shall be condemned to undergo the severest form of capital punishment, that of the lingering death. Make a full confession now, including how you had Tong Mai poisoned and the Amber Lady knifed, how you killed with your own hands Sia Kwang and Mrs Meng, and how you tried to kill your accomplice Dr Pien. If you tell the complete truth, I may propose to have the death sentence executed in a less terrible manner.’
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