Judge Dee At Work

by Robert Van Gulik

  Irritated by Judge Dee’s peremptory tone, Mao replied coldly:

  Those objects were collected in two separate containers, which I asked the Commander to seal. They are locked away in my office. We of the military police are, of course, not as clever and experienced as officers of the tribunal, but we know our job, I trust!’

  ‘All right, all right!’ the judge said impatiently. ‘Take us to your office!’

  Colonel Mao asked Judge Dee to sit down at his large desk, which was littered with papers. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai remained standing by the door. Mao unlocked an iron chest and took from it two packages wrapped up in oiled paper. Placing one in front of the judge, he said:

  ‘This is what we found in the leather folder the Vice-Commander carried on a string round his neck, under his mail jacket.’

  Judge Dee broke the seal and arranged on the desk a folded identification card of the Imperial Army, a receipted bill for the purchase of a house dated seven years before, and a small square brocade carrying-case for a personal seal. He opened the latter, and seemed pleased when it proved to be empty. ‘I presume,’ he said to Mao, ‘that the seal itself was found in the drawer of the dead man’s desk?’

  ‘It was. It’s in the second package, together with the papers we found in the drawer. I thought it rather careless of Soo to let his personal seal lie about in that unlocked drawer. As a rule people always carry their seal on their person.’

  ‘They do indeed,’ Judge Dee said. He rose and added, ‘I don’t need to inspect the other package. Let’s go and see whether the Commander is through with his conference.’

  The two sentries who stood guard outside the door of the council room informed them that the conference had just ended and that tea would soon be brought in. Judge Dee brushed past them without more ado.

  Commander Fang was seated at the main table in the centre of the room. At the side table on his left sat Colonel Shih Lang, and another officer the judge did not know. At the table on the other side two senior officers were sitting, and Lieutenant Kao was sorting out a pile of papers on a small table apart; evidently he had been taking notes of the proceedings. All rose from their chairs when they saw the judge enter.

  ‘Please excuse this intrusion,’ Judge Dee said calmly as he advanced to the Commander’s table. ‘I came to report my findings regarding the murder of Vice-Commander Soo. Am I right in assuming that the officers assembled here form the quorum for a court martial?’

  ‘If you include Colonel Mao over there, they do,’ Fang replied slowly.

  ‘Excellent! Please let Colonel Meng be brought in, so that we can have a regular session of the court martial.’

  The Commander gave an order to his aide, then he pulled a chair up to his table and invited Judge Dee to sit down by his side. Ma Joong and Chiao Tai went to stand behind their master’s chair.

  Two orderlies came in with trays. All drank their tea in silence.

  Then the door opened again. Four military police in full armour came in with Colonel Meng in their midst. Meng stepped up to the central table and saluted smartly.

  The Commander cleared his throat. ‘We are convened today to hear a report by Magistrate Dee, drawn up at my request, and to decide whether the said report shall necessitate a review of the case against Colonel Meng Kwo-tai, convicted of the premeditated murder of Soo, Vice-Commander of this fort. I request Magistrate Dee to make his report.’

  “The motive for this murder,’ Judge Dee began in an even voice, ‘was to prevent the Vice-Commander from starting an investigation of a clever fraud, by which a criminal hoped to acquire a large amount of money.

  ‘I must remind you of the office routine regarding requests for the purchase of military supplies needed for this fort. After a request has been drafted by the Commander in council, a clerk writes the text out on official paper and it is passed on to the Vice-Commander, who checks its contents and impresses his seal on every page. He then gives the document to the Commander who rechecks it and impresses his seal at the end. When the customary number of copies have been made, the original is put in an envelope addressed to the Board of Military Affairs in the capital, sealed and forwarded there by dispatch riders.’

  Judge Dee took a sip of his tea, then went on, ‘This system has only one loophole. If the document consists of more than one sheet, a dishonest person here who has access to the official correspondence may destroy all sheets but the last one that bears the Commander’s seal, substitute spurious ones and then send the document to the capital, including the authentic last page.’

  ‘Impossible!’ Commander Fang interrupted. “The other sheets must bear the seal of the Vice-Commander!’

  ‘That’s why he was murdered!’ the judge said. The criminal purloined Soo’s seal, and Soo discovered it. However, before going further into that, I’ll first explain how the laudable devotion to office routine of a clerk here put me on the criminal’s track.

  ‘Three days ago, a request for the promotion of four lieutenants offered the criminal his chance. The proposal, as written out in its final form, consisted of two sheets. The first contained the request together with the names, ages, etc. of the four persons concerned. The second sheet contained only the Commander’s recommendation for speedy action (in general terms, mind you!), the date and the file number: P for Personnel and the figure 404. The first page bore Soo’s seal, the second that of the Commander.

  ‘The criminal got hold of this paper on its way to the dispatch section. He destroyed the first sheet and replaced it by one on which he had written an urgent request for the purchase of three war junks from the Korean merchants Pak and Yee, adding that the Board of Military Affairs was to pay out the purchase price- a small fortune!-to the said two merchants. After the criminal had marked this spurious page with Soo’s purloined seal, he himself put it in an envelope and addressed it: Board of Military Affairs, Section of Supplies. Finally he wrote in a corner of the envelope the number of the paper it contained, namely P-404, as prescribed. He gave the closed envelope to the dispatch clerk; the extra copies of the original letter containing the request for the promotion of the four lieutenants he himself entered into the archives. Since he was not familiar with the new rules for distribution, he omitted to have one of those copies sent to my tribunal.

  ‘Now it so happened that the same dispatch clerk who sent out the sealed envelope marked P-404 received that same day another letter numbered P-405 containing a request for the purchase of leather goods. He remembered that the two Ps for Purchase and Personnel sometimes gave rise to confusion in the archives. Therefore, being a good bureaucrat, he added to this number P-405 a note saying, “Refer back to P-404”; for although he had not seen the paper P-404, he remembered that the Section of Supplies had been mentioned on the envelope. The clerk distributed the copies of P-405 correctly, including one extra copy for me. But when I checked my Purchases file, I found P-404 missing. That annoyed me, for I believe in keeping my files complete. Therefore I asked the Commander here to let me have an extra copy. He gave me a letter concerning the promotion of four lieutenants, which belonged therefore to Personnel.’

  The Commander, who had been shifting impatiently on his chair, now burst out: ‘Couldn’t you skip all these details? What is all that nonsense about three war junks?’

  ‘The criminal,’ Judge Dee replied calmly, ‘was in collusion with the merchants Pak and Yee. Having received in the capital the money for this imaginary purchase, they were going to share it with the criminal. Since it would be many weeks before the routine checks in the Board of Military Affairs revealed the discrepancy with your reports on supplies received, the criminal had plenty of time to prepare his abscondence with the money.

  ‘It was a clever scheme, but he had bad luck. On the night preceding the murder, Colonel Meng and my two assistants met the two Korean merchants in the city and they got drunk together. The merchants thought the three men were highway robbers, and said something about the junks and the money they were go
ing to get for them in the capital. My assistants reported that to me, and I put two and two together. I may add that when Meng came back to the fort he boasted to the captain of the guard about the munificence of Pak and Yee, and that there was more to come. The murderer overheard this and concluded-wrongly- that Meng knew too much, which fortified him in his plan to make Meng the scapegoat. When the criminal learned the next morning that Meng had a hangover and had decided not to go up to the armoury, he sent him a faked message, sealing it with Soo’s seal which he still had in his possession.’

  ‘I don’t follow all this!’ the Commander exclaimed crossly. ‘What I want to know is: who shot Soo, and how?’

  ‘Fair enough!’ the judge said. ‘Colonel Shih Lang murdered Soo.’

  It was very still. Then the Commander spoke angrily:

  ‘Utterly impossible! Lieutenant Kao saw Colonel Shih Lang enter and leave Soo’s room; Shih Lang didn’t even go near Soo’s couch!’

  Judge Dee continued calmly, ‘Colonel Shih Lang went up to Soo’s room a little before two, directly after wall-scaling drill. That means that he was clad only in an undergarment, and was barefoot. He couldn’t take any weapon, and he didn’t need to. For he knew that Soo was in the habit of throwing his quiver into the window recess, and his plan was to grab an arrow and stab Soo to death in his sleep.

  ‘However, when Shih Lang came in he saw that Soo had got up. He had stepped into his boots and was standing in front of his couch, wearing his mail jacket. Thus Shih Lang couldn’t stab him as planned. But then the murderer saw that one arrow had dropped out of the quiver and lay on the floor pointing at Soo. Shih Lang stepped on it, put his big toe and the next around the shaft directly behind the point, and with a powerful kick sent it flying into Soo’s unprotected abdomen. At the same time he put on an act for Meng, in case he was looking out of the armoury window: he waved his arms and started to shout-drowning the cries of his victim as he fell backwards on the couch. When he had made sure his victim was dead, he went outside and called the guards. Then, having come back to the room together with the Commander and Colonel Mao, he slipped Soo’s seal into the drawer of the desk during the general confusion. It was neatly done; he overlooked only one fact, namely that the dead man would be found with his boots on. That suggested to me that Soo had not been killed in his sleep. It was understandable that Soo should have kept his mail jacket on while taking a brief nap, for it’s quite a job to get it off. But he had thrown his helmet on the desk, and one would have expected him also to have stepped out of his boots before lying down.’

  The judge paused. All eyes were now on Colonel Shih Lang. He gave Judge Dee a contemptuous look and asked with a sneer: ‘And how do you propose to prove this fantastic theory?’

  ‘For the time being,’ the judge replied calmly, ‘by the fact that you have a nasty scratch on the big toe of your right foot. For where the arrow was lying, the sharp edge of a nail head protruded from the floorboards. It tore the red tape round the arrow’s shaft when you kicked it up, and also scratched your toe. Small bloodstains mark the spot. The final proof will be here later, when Pak and Yee have been arrested, and the false document traced in the Board of Military Affairs.’

  Shih Lang’s face had become livid, his lips were twitching. But he pulled himself together and said in a steady voice, ‘You needn’t wait for that. I murdered Soo. I am in debt and needed the money. In ten days I’d have applied for sick leave, and never come back. It hadn’t been my intention to kill Soo. I had hoped to be able to return the seal by leaving it on his desk. But he discovered the loss too soon, so I decided to stab him with an arrow while he was asleep. But when I came in I saw that Soo was up and about. He shouted at me: “Now I have verified my suspicions, it was you who stole my seal!” I thought I was lost, for tackling Soo armed only with an arrow would be a difficult proposition, and if Meng looked out of the window he would see our struggle. Then my eye fell on the arrow on the floor, and I kicked it up into Soo’s guts.’ He wiped the perspiration from his brow and concluded: ‘I am not sorry, for Soo was a mean bastard. I regret that I had to make you the scapegoat, Meng, but it couldn’t be helped. That’s all!’

  The Commander rose from his chair. ‘Your sword, Shih Lang!’ As the colonel unbuckled his swordbelt he said bitterly to the judge: ‘You sly devil! How did you get on to me?’ Judge Dee replied primly: ‘Mainly by red tape!’

  3 He Came With the Rain

  The scene of this third story is also laid in Peng-lai about half a year later. In the meantime Judge Dee’s two wives and their children arrived in Peng-lai, and settled down in the magistrate’s private residence at the back of the tribunal compound. Shortly afterwards, Miss Tsao joined the household. In Chapter XV of The Chinese Gold Murders the terrible adventure from which Judge Dee extricated Miss Tsao has been described in detail. When Judge Dee’s First Lady met Miss Tsao, she took an instant liking to her and engaged her as her lady-companion. Then, on one of the hottest, rainy days of mid-summer, there occurred the strange case related in the present story.

  ‘This box won’t do either!’ Judge Dee’s First Lady remarked disgustedly. ‘Look at the grey mould all along the seam of this blue dress!’ She slammed the lid of the red-leather clothes-box shut, then turned to the Second Lady. ‘I’ve never known such a hot, damp summer. And the heavy downpour we had last night! I thought the rain would never stop. Give me a hand, will you?’

  The judge, seated at the tea-table by the open window of the large bedroom, looked on while his two wives put the clothes-box on the floor, and went on to the third one in the pile. Miss Tsao, his First Lady’s friend and companion, was drying robes on the brass brazier in the corner, draping them over the copper-wire cover above the glowing coals. The heat of the brazier, together with the steam curling up from the drying clothes, made the atmosphere of the room nearly unbearable, but the three women seemed unaware of it.

  With a sigh he turned round and looked outside. From the bedroom here on the second floor of his residence one usually had a fine view of the curved roofs of the city, but now everything was shrouded in a thick leaden mist that blotted out all contours. The mist seemed to have entered his very blood, pulsating dully in his veins. Now he deeply regretted the unfortunate impulse that, on rising, had made him ask for his grey summer robe. For that request had brought his First Lady to inspect the four clothes-boxes, and finding mould on the garments, she had at once summoned his Second and Miss Tsao. Now the three were completely engrossed in their work, with apparently no thought of morning tea, let alone breakfast. This was their first experience of the dog-days in Peng-lai, for it was just seven months since he had taken up his post of magistrate there. He stretched his legs, for his knees and feet felt swollen and heavy. Miss Tsao stooped and took a white dress from the brazier.

  ‘This one is completely dry,’ she announced. As she reached up to hang it on the clothes-rack, the judge noticed her slender, shapely body. Suddenly he asked his First Lady sharply: ‘Can’t you leave all that to the maids?’

  ‘Of course,’ his First replied over her shoulder. ‘But first I want to see for myself whether there’s any real damage. For heaven’s sake, take a look at this red robe, dear!’ she went on to Miss Tsao. ‘The mould has absolutely eaten into the fabric! And you always say this dress looks so well on me!’

  Judge Dee rose abruptly. The smell of perfume and stale cosmetics mingling with the faint odour of damp clothes gave the hot room an atmosphere of overwhelming femininity that suddenly jarred on his taut nerves. ‘I’m just going out for a short walk,’ he said.

  ‘Before you’ve even had your morning tea?’ his First exclaimed. But her eyes were on the discoloured patches on the red dress in her hands.

  ‘I’ll be back for breakfast,’ the judge muttered. ‘Give me that blue robe over there!’ Miss Tsao helped the Second put the robe over his shoulders and asked solicitously: ‘Isn’t that dress a bit too heavy for this hot weather?’

  ‘It’s dry at lea
st,’ he said curtly. At the same time he realized with dismay that Miss Tsao was perfectly right: the thick fabric clung to his moist back like a coat of mail. He mumbled a greeting and went downstairs.

  He quickly walked down the semi-dark corridor leading to the small back door of the tribunal compound. He was glad his old friend and adviser Sergeant Hoong had not yet appeared. The sergeant knew him so well that he would sense at once that he was in a bad temper, and he would wonder what it was all about.

  The judge opened the back door with his private key and supped out into the wet, deserted street. What was it all about, really? he asked himself as he walked along through the dripping mist. Well, these seven months on his first independent official post had been disappointing, of course. The first few days had been exciting, and then there had been the murder of Mrs Ho, and the case at the fort. But thereafter there had been nothing but dreary office routine: forms to be filled out, papers to be filed, licences to be issued. … In the capital he had also had much paperwork to do, but on important papers. Moreover, this district was not really his. The entire region from the river north was a strategic area, under the jurisdiction of the army. And the Korean quarter outside the East Gate had its own administration. He angrily kicked a stone, then cursed. What had looked like a loose boulder was in fact the top of a cobblestone, and he hurt his toe badly. He must take a decision about Miss Tsao. The night before, in the intimacy of their shared couch, his First Lady had again urged him to take Miss Tsao as his Third. She and his Second were fond of her, she had said, and Miss Tsao herself wanted nothing better. ‘Besides,’ his First had added with her customary frankness, ‘your Second is a fine woman but she hasn’t had a higher education, and to have an intelligent, well-read girl like Miss Tsao around would make life much more interesting for all concerned.’ But what if Miss Tsao’s willingness was motivated only by gratitude to him for getting her out of the terrible trouble she had been in? In a way it would be easier if he didn’t like her so much. On the other hand, would it then be fair to marry a woman one didn’t really like? As a magistrate he was entitled to as many as four wives, but personally he held the view that two wives ought to be sufficient unless both of them proved barren. It was all very difficult and confusing. He pulled his robe closer round him, for it had begun to rain.