Judge Dee at Work

'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 despatch 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 despatch 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 despatch 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 despatch 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.'