The Chinese Maze Murders

by Robert Van Gulik

  Chiao Tai's voice faltered. A strangled sob rose from his throat.

  Judge Dee looked at him affectionately. He said gravely:

  "Fate decided, Chiao Tai, that your good sword would not be soiled by a traitor's blood. Another man decided that General Ding should die and executed his sentence.

  What you have just told me shall remain strictly between ourselves. But I shall not keep you here against your will. I have known all along that your heart is in the army. How would it be if under some pretext or other I sent you to the capital? I shall give you a confidential letter of recommendation to the head of the Board of Military Affairs. You will certainly be appointed a commander over a thousand!"

  A bleak smile crossed Chiao Tai's face.

  "I much prefer", he said quietly, "to wait until in due time Your Honour has been appointed to high office in the capital. I beg to be allowed to continue serving Your Honour until my services are no longer required."

  "So be it!", the judge said with a happy smile. "I am grateful to you for your decision, Chiao Tai. I would have missed you greatly!"

  Twenty second Chapter

  JUDGE DEE EXPLAINS THE MURDER OF GENERAL DING; HE REVEALS THE SECRET OF THE SCROLL PICTURE

  In the meantime Headman Fang, had had a long talk with Woo.

  Evidently Woo was interested in nothing but White Orchid's disappearance. He had completely forgotten his days in jail and the whipping he had received in the tribunal. For a few moments he listened absent-mindedly to the headman's explanation of how General Ding had met his end. Then he interrupted peevishly:

  "I have not the slightest interest in that accursed Ding clique. What I want to know is how we shall go about locating your eldest daughter! You realize, by the way, that I intend to approach a middle-man about our marriage as soon as she is found!"

  The headman bowed in silence. Secretly he was very proud that such a distinguished young man wanted to marry his daughter. But he was shocked by his casual reference to these matrimonial plans. As most middle-class householders, Fang was a stickler for formality, and it is a fundamental rule of propriety that the prospective groom shall not touch upon this subject directly with the father of the bride until a middle-man has approached him. It was his strict sense of propriety that had made the headman tell his daughter Dark Orchid to gather information about Mrs. Lee, as Sergeant Hoong had ordered. Fang did not like to execute that order himself for he reasoned that it might reflect on Mrs. Lee's good name if a man made inquiries about her.

  Headman Fang hastily changed the subject, saying:

  "I expect that His Excellency will tomorrow evolve a new plan for the search. In the meantime you, Mr. Woo, could perhaps paint four or five real portraits of my missing daughter, to be circulated among the wardens of the other quarters of this town."

  "That is an excellent idea!", Woo exclaimed enthusiastically, "I shall go back home and set to work immediately!"

  He jumped up but the headman laid a restraining hand on his arm. He said diffidently:

  "Would it not be better, Mr. Woo, if before leaving the tribunal you requested to see His Excellency? You have not yet taken leave of him properly, and perhaps you might thank him for clearing you of suspicion."

  "Later, later!", Woo said airily and rushed away.

  Judge Dee had partaken of a frugal luncheon in his private office with Sergeant Hoong attending upon him.

  The sergeant saw that the judge looked tired. He ate in silence.

  When the meal was over Judge Dee lingered over his tea. At last he said:

  "Sergeant, call my other lieutenants. I want to tell all of you the full story of the General's murder."

  When his four lieutenants were gathered in front of him, Judge Dee settled back in his armchair and told them the substance of his private conversation with Candidate Ding.

  Tao Gan shook his head in perplexity. Heaving a deep sigh he said:

  "Your Honour, it seems to me that never before have we been confronted with such a mass of complicated problems!"

  "Superficially it looks that way", the judge replied. "In fact it was only the local background that complicated everything. Now the confused threads are gradually becoming untangled and a clear pattern emerges.

  We have but three real cases. First, General Ding's murder. Second, the case Yoo versus Yoo. Third, the disappearance of Fang's daughter.

  Our measures against Chien Mow, our discovery of Yoo Kee's scheme, and the solution of Magistrate Pan's murder, must be viewed as local background. They are separate issues and have nothing to do with the substance of our three cases."

  Sergeant Hoong nodded. After a while he remarked:

  "I have been wondering all along why Your Honour did not proceed immediately against Woo. At first all evidence pointed strongly to his guilt."

  "At our very first meeting", the judge answered, "Candidate Ding behaved in a suspicious way. When I and Ma Joong met him in the street, he could not conceal his consternation when I disclosed my identity. Since I have the undeserved reputation of a detector of crimes, Ding evidently thought for a moment of abandoning his plan of poisoning his father and throwing the blame on Woo. Then he decided that his scheme was flawless and that after all he could take his chance. He invited us to a tea house and dished out his story of Woo's designs on General Ding's life."

  "That bastard Ding fooled even me!", Ma Joong exclaimed angrily.

  Judge Dee smiled and went On:

  "Then the General was killed. Young Ding had not the slightest idea of what could have happened. I checked that again this morning. You saw that I suddenly produced the fatal writing brush, pointing the open end of the shaft right at Ding's face. If it had been Ding who had tampered with that brush after the Governor had presented it to the General, Ding would certainly have betrayed himself.

  As it was, Candidate Ding must have been as puzzled by this mysterious murder as we. He must have had an anxious half hour, trying to find out what had happened. Had his paramour had a hand in the killing? Was it someone who had found out about his murder plot and who would in due course ask for a substantial reward for having executed his scheme for him? Then Ding decided that his original plan of making Woo the culprit must be carried out anyway. With Woo's guilt established, Ding need not be afraid of the real murderer intimidating or blackmailing him. Thus he came rushing in here and accused Woo. Ding, however, did not realize that the false trail he had so carefully constructed was extremely poor."

  "That is beyond me, Your Honour!", Tao Gan interrupted. "That box of poisoned plums pointed straight to Woo!"

  "Too much so", the judge replied. "It was badly overdone and moreover based on a wholly mistaken evaluation of Woo's character. Woo is an over-clever and excitable young man of a type that, I must confess, is not very sympathetic to me. But he undoubtedly is a great artist. Such persons are usually rather vague and casual about the routine of daily life, but they show a tremendous capacity for concentration as soon as it regards things they are really interested in. If Woo chose to poison some one he would certainly never use gamboge, and never overlook such a blatant clue as his seal on the paper inside the box."

  Tao Gan nodded.

  "The final proof of Woo's innocence", he said, "was his willingness to eat the new plums I had put inside that box."

  "Exactly!", Judge Dee said. "However, let us keep to the chronological order of developments. When Ding had reported the murder, I immediately went to see Woo. I wanted to compare the personalities of accuser and defendant. I forthwith decided that Woo was hardly the type to commit a premeditated murder, let alone because of such a far-fetched motive as suggested by Ding.

  I assumed that the actual killing had been done by a third person. I could well imagine that a man who had committed such a black crime as General Ding would have many enemies, and I took it that Ding utilized this fact for discrediting Woo. As to Ding's reason for persecuting Woo I assumed that they were rivals in love. The recurring portrait of a girl in Woo'
s paintings and Ding's love letters convinced me that both young men were in love with the same girl.

  Our discovery of the box with poisoned plums strengthened me in my conviction that Ding was scheming against Woo. I assumed as a matter of course that Ding had taken due precautions that the poison would be discovered before his father ate the plums. I reasoned that a man would never risk his father's life in order to get rid of a rival in love."

  "Yes", Sergeant Hoong interrupted, "I now understand why Your Honour ruled out Woo as the culprit."

  "Indeed", Judge Dee replied, "I considered Ding as a treacherous and mean character. This prepared me for the next development, namely when I discovered that Woo and Ding were not in love with the same girl. This fact reduced the connection between Woo and Ding to the latter's false accusation. But why then had Ding accused Woo at all? The only possible answer was that Ding himself had killed his father and planned to use Woo as scapegoat.

  Then I formed the theory that Ding had prepared two murder weapons. One had been actually used, but I had yet to discover it. The other was the box of poisoned plums, a second weapon that Ding held in reserve in case the first would fail to work. This being so, it was of the utmost importance to find Ding's motive for this hideous parricide. Could it have something to do with the girl Ding was so passionately in love with? I sent Dark Orchid back to the Ding mansion to collect more data."

  Here Judge Dee paused and slowly drank a cup of tea. Deep silence reigned in the room. Then the judge continued:

  "At the same time, however, I was worrying about a curious inconsistency. Since Ding had made such elaborate preparations to ensure that his second weapon, the box of plums, would be traced to Woo, it was evident that he would have taken good care that also his first weapon pointed straight at Woo. I cudgeled my brain but failed to find in the actual murder the slightest clue pointing to Woo.

  Therefore I decided to return to my first theory, namely that the real killing had been done by an unknown third person, whose deed happened to coincide with Ding's despicable poison plot. As a rule I do not like coincidences, but I had to admit that this case pointed forcibly to the fact that a coincidence had occurred."

  "It was a coincidence", Chiao Tai remarked, "brought about by the fact which Your Honour mentioned a few moments ago, namely that General Ding had many enemies. And after all it was indeed because of the General's betrayal of his own men, that the old Governor killed him!" Judge Dee nodded and went on:

  "This conclusion did not bring me any nearer to the solution of the actual murder, but it helped me in so far that I could now rule out both Ding and Woo as suspects. When I had discovered Ding's motive for wishing to kill his father, that part of the case was solved."

  Sergeant Hoong interrupted:

  "So that was that Your Honour meant by referring to half of the murder being clear! Your Honour had then connected Dark Orchid's report about the General's fourth wife having an unsightly mole on her breast, with the reference in Ding's poem!"

  "Exactly", Judge Dee said. "As to the other half of this case, the real killing of the General, I confess that I would probably never have solved that riddle if the old Governor had not signed his name to his deed.

  The only conclusion I had arrived at was that the General must have been killed by some mechanical device, for it was absolutely impossible for the killer to have entered or left that sealed room. But I would never have discovered the secret of the writing brush. I am no match for the old Governor's brilliant mind! You will have noticed that after the knife had left the shaft, the coils straightened out along the inside; I would not have seen them even if I had peered inside the shaft.

  When during my visit to old Master Crane Robe I learned that 'The Abode of Tranquillity' was the pen name of the old Governor, I remembered having seen that name engraved on the shaft of the brush General Ding had been writing with when he was killed. I thought of Tao Gan's suggestion about the blow-pipe and realized that the hollow shaft of a writing brush could serve the same purpose. The displaced candle taught me that there was some mechanical device inside the brush that was released as soon as the brush was heated. The rest was easy."

  "What shall we do if Candidate Ding does not kill himself?", asked Chiao Tai.

  "I shall accuse him and his paramour in this tribunal of adultery and torture them until they confess!", Judge Dee answered calmly.

  Slowly smoothing his long beard the judge looked at his lieutenants. When no one asked more questions he continued:

  "Now I come to our second case, the old Governor's testament."

  His lieutenants turned round and looked at the picture on the wall.

  "The written testament concealed in the lining", the judge said, "was a false clue deliberately planted there by the old Governor to delude Yoo Kee. The Governor's scheme was successful, for when Yoo Kee had found that document, he did not destroy the scroll but handed it back to Mrs. Yoo. The landscape picture itself contains the real clue, which is much more subtle!"

  Judge Dee rose and walked over to the picture. His lieutenants hastily left their seats and stood by his side.

  "I vaguely suspected", the judge began, "that there existed some connection between this landscape and the Governor's country estate. That was the main reason why I went out there myself."

  "Why should there be any connection?", Tao Gan asked eagerly.

  "For the simple reason", Judge Dee replied, "that those were the only two things which the old Governor wished to be preserved at all costs. He took clever precautions to ensure that this scroll picture should not be destroyed after his death, and he gave strict instructions to Yoo Kee that nothing was to be changed on his country estate;

  At first I thought that this landscape picture was a disguised map of the country house, indicating the location of a secret wall safe where we would find the Governor's real testament. But during my visit out there I failed to discover the slightest resemblance. Only last night I found the connecting link!"

  Judge Dee looked with a smile at his lieutenants. They hung on his lips.

  "If you study this landscape carefully", he said, "you will notice some queer points in its composition. There are a number of houses, scattered among the cliffs. Every one of them can be reached by the mountain path, except the largest and most elaborate building here on top right! It lies on the river, but there is no road at all! I concluded that that building must have a special significance.

  Now look at the trees! Is there nothing about them that strikes you as peculiar?"

  Tao Gan and Sergeant Hoong scrutinized the picture closely. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai had given up. They looked at the judge with fond admiration.

  When the sergeant and Tao Gan shook their heads the judge continued:

  "All the houses are surrounded by clusters of trees, painted rather carelessly. Only the pine trees are drawn in detail; each trunk stands out clearly against the background.

  Now you will notice that there is numerical sequence in those pine trees. Two at the top of the mountain where the path begins, three further down, four where the path crosses the river, and five near the large house on top right. I concluded that these pine trees are landmarks that indicate a route to be followed. The two pine trees on top are the link that connects this picture with the country estate: they represent the pair of pine trees that we saw at the entrance of the maze!"

  "Thus this landscape is a guide map to the maze, showing how one reaches a small house or pavilion that the Governor had built inside!", Tao Gan exclaimed.

  Judge Dee shook his head.

  "No", he said, "not exactly. I agree that it indicates a route to a pavilion inside the maze. Since the Governor went there nearly every day, it is evident that somewhere inside there must be a pavilion where he could read and write. I also agree that this elaborate building represents that pavilion. But I don't agree that it can be reached by following the path of the maze.

  The old Governor planned his abode inside the maze as a real s
ecret. He would never leave important documents there if anyone who had sufficient courage and patience to search the maze and follow its regular path could find it. Why did the Governor make such a sharp distinction between the first and the second half of the route. Why indicate the second half by a mountain river?"

  "To make it more difficult!", Tao Gan replied promptly. "No", Judge Dee said, "the Governor took special pains to indicate that the place marked by the four pines is an important point. Instead of the regular mountain path, from there on one 's course is indicated by the river. The bridge is a further indication that here there occurs an important change.

  I am convinced that at this point one leaves the regular path of the maze, and enters a secret short cut that leads to the hidden pavilion, located not on the real path, but somewhere in between its curves." Tao Gan nodded his agreement.

  "What a perfect hiding place!", he exclaimed. "It is safer than any stronghold! If one does not know the key to the secret short cut, one could explore the maze for weeks on end and never find the pavilion. But the Governor and everyone who knew the secret could reach it probably in a few minutes!"

  "Yes", Judge Dee said, "your last point is very important. The Governor would not like to walk for half an hour or so along the winding path of the maze every time he went inside. This consideration suggested to me the existence of a secret short cut.

  Let us now follow the route indicated on this picture!" The judge pointed with his forefinger to the small house on top of the mountain, with one pine tree on either side. "Here", he said, "is the entrance of the maze. We descend those steps hacked out in the rock, and follow the path downward. The first fork has no meaning, it does not matter whether one turns right or left. Coming to the second fork, three pine trees along the side of the path indicate that we must keep to the left.