The Celebrated Cases Of Judge Dee

by Robert Van Gulik

  “Now madam, your husband’s name was Bee, but what is your maiden name? Then I want to explain to you that the other day when I went to your house, it was solely because of your dead son. He died under highly suspicious circumstances, and it is my opinion that he was killed by his wife. Since I as magistrate have the duty to avenge the wrongs suffered by the people in my district, the ghost of your dead son requested me to punish his murderer. I have had you brought before me to-day only because your daughter-in-law stubbornly refuses to confess, and moreover accuses me of wantonly slandering her. If the corpse is not exhumed and an autopsy performed, this case can never be brought to an end. I felt it my duty to tell this to you, who are his mother.”

  Mrs. Bee, however, was not mollified by this kind address. She said:

  “My son has now been dead for almost one year. What could be the use of examining his corpse? That very evening on which he died, many people saw it. Your Honour says that he wishes to redress the wrong that my son suffered, but in fact my son did not suffer any wrong. Why did you subject my poor daughter to torture without having a shred of proof? You are the father and mother of the common people, how can you harm us like this on such flimsy pretexts? Now my maiden name is Tang. I belong to a family that has been living in this locality for generations. We are decent people, as everyone around here knows. I tell you frankly that I shall not leave this tribunal before you have set my daughter free, if it should be my death! Neither am I going to listen to any more speeches from you, who, not content with having harmed the living, now are out to disturb the peace of the dead!”

  Having thus spoken, she burst into tears. Judge Dee, seeing that she was as stupid as she was honest, and believed implicitly all that her daughter-in-law chose to tell her, said impatiently:

  “You stupid woman, the death of your son failed to cause you even the slightest misgivings. And when I explain everything to you, you refuse to understand. But let me tell you that if your daughter should prove to be innocent, I, the magistrate, am willing to undergo the punishment that was destined for her myself. I am fully prepared to do this, for the sake of your dead son. But you, his mother, even refuse to have his corpse exhumed, so that his wrong will never be redressed. Now I am the magistrate here, and I cannot allow this murder to remain unsolved. I am going to risk my black cap in order to find the truth. I therefore decide that this exhumation shall take place, whether you consent or not!”

  He ordered her to be led away, and fixed the exhumation for the following day. He would leave the tribunal at eight o’clock, and the exhumation would be started at two o’clock. Then, returned to his private office, he drew up a detailed report to the higher authorities.

  The constables outside now saw their worst fears come true. Amongst each other they criticised the judge, but nobody dared to ask him to stop the exhumation. Thus they reluctantly set to work to collect the necessary implements.

  Early the following day the constables assembled in the courthall, the gong was sounded three times, and Judge Dee seated himself behind the bench. He first addressed himself to the coroner:

  “This is quite an extraordinary case. If no wounds or other signs of a violent death are found, then my name and my position are lost. That is my least concern, but more important is that in such an event also you, and the constables who assist in the exhumation, will get into trouble. Therefore I enjoin you to perform the autopsy with the greatest care, so that this case can be disposed of, and the dead avenged.”

  Then he had Mrs. Bee and Mrs. Djou brought before him, and thus addressed the latter:

  “The other day you preferred torture to confessing your crime. Perhaps you have thereby succeeded in deceiving others, but I shall not let myself be caught by your wiles. Today you and your mother shall be present at the autopsy and we shall see what you will say then.”

  Mrs. Djou fully realised that the judge was in dead earnest about the exhumation, but she could not imagine that he would discover any trace of a crime when the autopsy took place. Therefore she thought that at least she should show him that she was not to be trifled with. She said:

  “That I have been tortured and grievously slandered, that at least leaves the dead in peace. But that you now, after one year, are going to disturb the corpse of my poor husband, that is outrageous. But go ahead, if the corpse shows one single trace of his having been murdered, I shall gladly say that it was I who killed him. But if such proof should be lacking, I assure you that although you are a ranking official, the law provides for stern punishment for you! The laws of the land shall not be considered as child’s play, they don’t allow that innocent people are falsely accused!”

  Judge Dee, however, only had a cold smile.

  Chapter 9

  THE UNDERTAKER SHOWS THE LOCATION OF THE GRAVE; JUDGE DEE HAS THE COFFIN EXHUMED FOR AN AUTOPSY

  THE CONSTABLES made Mrs. Bee and Mrs. Djou enter a separate sedan chair and set out for Gao-djiawa.

  Thereafter Judge Dee, having ascended his official palanquin, also left the tribunal, accompanied by his entire retinue, including the coroner and his assistants.

  The people living along the road, on hearing that the corpse of Bee Hsun would be exhumed, were unanimously of the opinion that this was a very serious matter. When the judge and his retinue passed along the highway to Huang-hua Village, young and old followed the procession, to see what would happen.

  Shortly after noon they reached Huang-hua Village, where Warden Ho Kai and the old undertaker came to greet the judge. They reported that out on the graveyard in Gao-djiawa everything had been put in readiness.

  Before proceeding there, however, Judge Dee called Sergeant Hoong to the side of his palanquin, and said to him in a low voice:

  “The other day the attendant in the bathhouse here told you about a young man who used to be Bee Hsun’s neighbour. You had better go there now, and see what you can find out from him. Furthermore, since this will be a long day, I shall not return to the city tonight, but stay here in the same hostel where we had a room a couple of days ago.” Then he went on to Gao-djiawa.

  In the graveyard, near Bee Hsun’s tomb, a large shed of reed matting had been erected, and therein a temporary tribunal had been set up. A group of constables had already assembled there and laid out the implements necessary for the exhumation. Judge Dee descended from his palanquin, and first went to have another look at Bee Hsun’s grave. Seeing that nothing had been disturbed since his last visit, he seated himself behind the bench, and had the old undertaker and Mrs. Djou led before him. He first spoke to the undertaker.

  “The other day you told me that this grave is that of Bee Hsun. It is my duty to warn you that, if after the exhumation this should prove to be the wrong grave, you will be guilty of a heinous crime. And then all remorse will be too late.”

  “How would I dare,” the undertaker said, “to lie about this, seeing that both the dead man’s mother and widow are present here?”

  “It is not,” Judge Dee said, “that I am an incredulous man. Put Mrs. Djou here has tried to deceive me in every possible way, and even threatened me with the punishment for those guilty of making false accusations. If this should turn out not to be Bee Hsun’s grave, not only would the investigation be obstructed, but I should be guilty of having wantonly desecrated the grave of an innocent person. Therefore I want you now to impress your thumbmark on this document, testifying that this is indeed Bee Hsun’s grave. Should there be a mistake, then you will have to bear the consequences.”

  Then, turning to Mrs. Djou, he said: “Listen well to this. I am having this exhumation executed in the interests of justice, and not to prove that I am always right. This exhumation, however, is cruel to the remains of your husband. You are his wedded wife, and irrespective of whether or not you killed him, it is your duty now, before the work starts, to offer a prayer to his soul.”

  He ordered the undertaker to lead her in front of the grave. Old Mrs. Bee, knowing that now the body of her son was really g
oing to be exhumed, was beside herself with grief, and crying bitterly she said to her daughter, clutching her sleeve:

  “My daughter, terrible indeed is our lot. That my son died when he was still in the prime of life that was apparently not enough. Now, his bones are going to be disturbed and we must face this cruel official.”

  Mrs. Djou, however, was quite calm. She said in a loud voice to her:

  “There is no need for crying now. At home you never leave me in peace. You brought all kinds of people to our house and thus caused this affair. To cry now won’t do you any good. But wait till after the exhumation, when it has been proved that Bee Hsun was not murdered. Then I shall not be afraid of this magistrate. The laws established by our august Emperor enjoin him to rule the people, not to harm them. He himself shall have to undergo the punishment he wanted to mete out to me. If he orders me to offer a prayer to my husband, I shall do it, to get over with this affair!”

  She pushed her mother back, went to stand in front of the grave, and there bowed three times. She did not only not show any grief, but on the contrary seemed full of defiance. She even reviled the old undertaker, calling him an old dogshead, and promised to get even with him after the exhumation. “What are you waiting for?” she added. “The lady has done, get to work!”

  The old undertaker was highly indignant on being thus reviled, but he did not like to start a quarrel with a woman right there. He went before the judge to ask whether he could start.

  Judge Dee had closely observed what was happening. He had ordered Mrs. Djou to pray before the grave, only because he wanted to see her reactions. Now he had seen that she did not show the least grief, but even spoke in this heartless way, he was all the more convinced that she had murdered her husband. He ordered the undertaker to start the exhumation.

  The old man and his assistants took their tools, and started digging. After half an hour, the front part of the mound had been shoveled away, and the coffin became visible. They slowly dragged it out, and wiped it clean of the earth and mud that were covering it.

  Judge Dee ordered them to bring the coffin to the mat shed, and there had it placed on two trestles by the side of the bench.

  Mrs. Bee, seeing the coffin of her son right in front of her, promptly fell in a swoon. Two constables helped her up and made her sit down.

  Judge Dee then ordered Warden Ho Kai and his assistants to open the coffin.

  When the heavy sliding lid was pushed off, the crowd of onlookers who, in their eagerness to miss nothing, had come nearer and nearer, drew back hastily.

  The corpse was slowly lifted out of the coffin, together with the thick mat on which it had rested inside, and placed on the reed mats that had been spread out for that purpose in front of the bench. The hermetically sealed coffin of heavy wood and the dry air had preserved the corpse in fair state, but in some parts decomposition had set in. All in all it still was a gruesome sight, especially since the eyes were still open, and showed the shrunken, ash-coloured eyeballs. Several people in the crowd of villagers commented on this fact, and said to each other that this was a sure sign that Bee Hsun had met a violent death.

  Judge Dee left his seat behind the temporary bench, and went to the corpse. He looked for a long time at its sightless eyes. Then he said gravely:

  “Bee Hsun, Bee Hsun, today I, the magistrate, have come here to redress your wrong. Should you have met with a violent death, and your soul still be there, I ask you to show your presence by closing your eyes.”

  Then, to the horror and amazement of all present, the dried out lids of the corpse started to flutter, and closed over the eyeballs.

  When the excitement over this ghostly phenomenon had abated, Judge Dee ordered the coroner to do the autopsy.

  The coroner, having looked over the corpse, said:

  “Your Honour, this corpse has been interred for a considerable time. It cannot be examined in its present condition. I beg to be allowed to cleanse it first.”

  Judge Dee having given him permission, the coroner and his assistants first tried to remove the shroud. On most places the cloth came off easily, but there where decomposition had set in, it proved difficult to peel it off without damaging the skin underneath. The coroner then told the undertaker to heat water in a large iron pan. When the water was hot, he soaked the corpse several times with it, and then the shroud was removed.

  The coroner took two gallons of undiluted wine, and therewith carefully washed the corpse from head to feet. When this was done, he reported to the judge that he would now begin with the examination.

  Although there were more than several hundred people assembled there, not one sound was heard. They all craned their necks to see, following the coroner’s every movement.

  The coroner first closely observed face and throat, and then went on downwards, examining the corpse inch by inch. The crowd watched his progress in tense silence. When he had finished with the belly, and still not reported to the judge, the people became restive, and some began to whisper to each other. When the coroner had finished with the legs, he told his assistants to turn the corpse over. Then he examined the back, giving special attention to the back of the skull and the neck. But still there was no report.

  Judge Dee now became worried. He left his seat, and standing near the coroner, anxiously followed his examination. At last the coroner had finished, and turned to the judge to report:

  “Having now completed the examination of the outside of the body, I report that there are no marks whatsoever that could point to this man having been done to death. I now, therefore, ask Your Honour’s permission for employing the usual means for an inside examination, to see whether poison has been administered.”

  Before Judge Dee could answer, Mrs. Djou had started already to protest vehemently. She cried that even if her husband had been poisoned, there would have been outside signs of it. She would not allow the corpse to suffer further indignities.

  Chapter 10

  MRS. DJOU REFUSES TO LET HER HUSBAND BE BURIED; JUDGE DEE VISITS THE TEMPLE FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE

  “SINCE THE OUTSIDE of the corpse shows no traces, its inside must be probed,” Judge Dee said firmly. “This is the fixed rule for an autopsy.”

  He did not allow Mrs. Djou to say another word, and ordered the coroner to proceed.

  The coroner poured hot water into the mouth of the corpse, and by exercising pressure with the palms of his hands on its breast and belly, made the water first enter, and then come out again. Then he took a thin lamella of polished silver, of about eight inches long, and slowly pushed it down till it had entered deep down in the throat. He left it there, and turning to the judge, asked him to witness the withdrawal of the lamella.

  Judge Dee left his seat and stood next to the corpse while the coroner drew the lamella out again. Its surface did not show the slightest discolouration. The coroner was perplexed, and said:

  “This, Your Honour, is passing strange. I cannot but state that I did not find one single trace of this man having met with a violent death. I beg to advise, however, that an older coroner of established reputation be ordered to perform a second autopsy, to see whether he confirms my findings.”

  Judge Dee now was in great consternation. He slowly resumed his seat, and said to Mrs. Djou:

  “Since no trace of a crime having been committed was revealed by this autopsy, I shall so report to the higher authorities, and take full responsibility for the consequences. In the meantime we cannot leave this corpse lying exposed here. We shall replace it in its coffin, so that it can be interred again.”

  Before he had quite finished, however, Mrs. Djou had already kicked away one of the trestles from under the empty coffin; it fell down with a crash, and broke to pieces. She cried:

  “I maintained that he died of an illness, but you, dog-official, insisted upon an autopsy. And now, having failed to discover any trace of a crime, you want to bury it again as if nothing had happened. What kind of a magistrate are you? Although I am but a poor
woman of the common people, you have no right to beat and torture me when I am innocent. Yesterday you tried to compel me to make a false confession, to-day you are desecrating a grave. Since you have had the corpse exhumed, it shall not be interred again. Although we are but common people, we need not let ourselves be trod upon in this way. This corpse shall not be interred again until the day this case is solved, and you have lost your black cap!”

  She went on reviling Judge Dee, and her mother soon joined in the chorus. Judge Dee could answer nothing in return.

  The crowd of onlookers, however, seeing that the judge, whom they knew as an honest official, was thus being insulted in public, were all of the opinion that this was a disgraceful situation. A few elders closed in on Mrs. Djou and her mother, and reprimanded them, saying that since the corpse had already been subjected to the disgrace of the autopsy, it was outrageous to let it lie there exposed in broad daylight. Others added that the judge was an honest official who, although he had erred in this case, had done so in good faith, and after all only for her dead husband’s sake. Others again declared that they would not stand for a woman of their village to shout at and curse an official in public. Would not the people from the neighbouring hamlets deride us of Huang-hua Village, and say that we did not know the rules of propriety? She had better follow the instructions of the judge, and consent to the corpse being buried again. Mrs. Djou, seeing that this was the general opinion of the crowd did not think it expedient to insist further. She thought by herself that by her threats and recriminations she had at least achieved that no other coroner would be asked to perform a second autopsy. The main thing was to have the corpse placed again in a coffin, and buried safely underground.

  Judge Dee, seeing that the old coffin could not be used anymore, sent a few constables to the village, to buy a temporary coffin. When this had arrived, the corpse was hurriedly dressed, and the coffin closed. For the time being it was to be left there on its bier.