The Lacquer Screen

Sooner than he had expected the door opened. The old steward said with evident relief:

'So you did get the message our headman left in the hostel! My master has been waiting up for you, Mr Shen, hoping that you would come.'

He led the judge straight to Magistrate Teng's library. They found him dozing in the armchair behind his desk. The light of two large silver candelabra shone on his shrunken face. When the steward had woken him up, he rose quickly and came round the desk to meet the judge. He waited till the steward had left, then exclaimed agitatedly:

'Thank Heaven that you came! I am in an awful predica­ment, Dee! I badly need your advice. Take a seat, please!'

When they had sat down at the tea-table, Judge Dee said:

'I presume that it concerns the murder of your wife.'

'How did you know? ' Magistrate Teng asked aghast.

'I'll first tell you what I know. Then you'll explain what happened.'

Teng raised his teacup with a shaking hand, spilling some tea on the polished table top.

'When I visited you this afternoon,' Judge Dee began, 'I couldn't help noticing how ill and perturbed you were. Con­cerned about you, I later asked Pan Yoo-te what was ailing you, but he said that you had been perfectly all right in the morning. Thus I knew that you must have had a severe shock, just before my arrival. I remembered that when your steward inquired about your wife, you said that during the siesta she had unexpectedly received a summons to go and visit her elder sister. But the steward had said that her bedroom door was locked. That struck me as curious. Why should your wife have locked her bedroom when she left? Surely the maids would have to go there to make the bed and so on? At the same time the steward informed you that an antique vase in your wife's ante-room had been broken. You took that news very calmly, yet Pan told me afterwards that it was a costly heirloom which you valued highly. Evidently you knew already about that mishap, and more important things than a broken vase were weighing on your mind. Thus I concluded that during the siesta something must have happened in your wife's bedroom that greatly upset you. Since, however, your household affairs are no concern of mine, I didn't give those matters further thought.'

The judge took a sip of his tea. As Magistrate Teng remained silent, he pursued:

'Then fortuitous circumstances placed in my hands some jewellery which a beggar had stolen from the dead body of a woman, said to be lying out in the marsh. Among those jewels was a pair of earrings, silver lotus flowers, in a very elaborate, costly setting of gold and rubies. Since the value of the setting must be twenty or thirty times that of the silver lotus flowers, evidently the motif of the lotus had a special meaning. I feared that they belonged to your wife, whose name is Silver Lotus. Of course I couldn't be certain that there wasn't another lady in this town called Silver Lotus, but remembering your agitation and the curious sudden departure of your wife, I suspected that there was a connection.'

'Just when I had arrived at that conclusion, your headman came to the hostel asking for me. I assumed you wanted to consult me. But I felt that, before seeing you, I must learn more about the murdered woman. Therefore I hurriedly left the hostel by the back door, and found someone who took me to the marsh. I examined the body. There could be no doubt that she was a gentlewoman, while the fact that she wore no clothes pointed to her having been killed in her bed. The condition of the body confirmed that death had occurred during the siesta hour. Since the marsh is near the tribunal, I concluded that the dead body was indeed that of your wife, killed during the siesta in her bedroom, and after dark deposited in the marsh. This is an unfrequented neighbour­hood at night, and in addition your residence has a secret exit to the usually deserted back street, so that the body could be transported with small risk. Am I right?'

'All your deductions are quite correct, Dee,' the magistrate said slowly. 'But . . .'

Judge Dee raised his hand.

'Before you say anything further I wish to state that no matter what happened here, I'll do everything I can to help you. But don't expect me to transgress the law, or to impede the course of justice. Therefore I warn you that if you choose to give an explanation, I'll have to consider that as evidence, and shall quote it in court if summoned as a witness. It is for you to decide whether we continue this conversation or not.'

'I quite understand,' Magistrate Teng said in a toneless voice. 'Of course this terrible tragedy must be brought before the Prefect. But you'll help me greatly by letting me tell you everything, and by advising me as to how to for­mulate my defence. For it was indeed I who killed my wife.'

'Why? ' Judge Dee asked quietly.

The magistrate leaned back in his chair. He said wearily: 'The answer to that question goes back a long way. More than seventy years.'

'I put your age at not more than forty, and that of your wife at twenty-five!' the judge said astonished.