The Phantom of the Temple
- Автор: ван Гулик Роберт Ханс
- Серия: Judge Dee #13
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «The Phantom of the Temple». Краткое содержание книги:
On a wooded hill in the Lan-fang district, a phantom stalks in a century-old Buddhist temple and three mysteries unfold-the vanishing of a wealthy merchant's daughter, the disapperance of twenty bars of gold, and the discovery of a decapitated corpse. In the Phantom of the Temple, the clever Judge Dee pieces together these strange occurrences to reveal one complex and gruesome plot.
'I didn't notice it when I was in the temple this afternoon. Must have been a dead bat; the place is swarming with them. Now that you mention the sorceress: when we were having dinner, the headman came to report that Tala has either left or gone into hiding, just as I feared. The constables searched the neighbourhood in vain. The people there were most co-operative, apparently they fear and hate her, and would be glad if we arrested the woman. You know how it is with those barbarians. As long as their sorcerers are successful, they venerate them like gods. But as soon as they fail, they show them no mercy. The Tartars there would like to kill Tala, if they dared. See whether there's some hot tea left in the tea-basket, will you?'
While Ma Joong was pouring the tea, Judge Dee went on, 'During dinner the Abbess told me that her maid is a flirtatious wench who makes up to the vagabonds that visit the temple. You might go there and make her talk a bit, Ma Joong. But don't let the Abbess know, for she said she wanted to be there when the girl was questioned. But in the presence of the Abbess the girl won't say a word, of course.' He set his cup down and suppressed a yawn. 'Well, let's now have a look at those clothes.'
Ma Joong opened the bundle. He draped a neat blue jacket and a pair of trousers over the back of his chair, and felt the sleeves. Then he also went over the seams. 'Not a thing, sir! The murderer took no chances.'
Judge Dee had been staring at the clothes, slowly tugging at his whiskers. Suddenly he looked up. 'You told me that Lee was looking for his assistant Yang who has disappeared. And the tailor told you that Yang associates with hoodlums and is a good-for-nothing. Ah-liu, on the other hand, informed us that Seng-san was working on some secret plan with a tall man, neatly dressed in blue, looking like a shop clerk. It's a long shot, of course, but isn't it possible that our unknown victim is no one else but that elusive painter's assistant?'
'Well,' Ma Joong said slowly, 'we might summon Lee Ko tomorrow and show him the corpse. Those painters have sharp eyes; he might recognize the shape of the hands, or the general stature and—'
Judge Dee raised his hand. 'No, I prefer to keep Lee out of this, as long as the matter of the ebony box hasn't been clarified. Fill the basin on the wall table over there to the rim with clean water, Ma Joong!’
When his astonished lieutenant had done so, Judge Dee said, 'Put it down here in front of me. Good. Now take that jacket and beat it with my ruler, over the basin!’
While Ma Joong set to work, the judge drew the candle closer and looked intently at the dust descending into the water. After a while he raised his hand. 'That'll do. Now for the trousers!' After Ma Joong had beaten those vigorously with the long wooden ruler, the judge said, 'All right. Let's see what we have got!’
He bent his head over the basin and examined the water closely. 'Yes,' he said with satisfaction as he righted himself. 'It was indeed Yang! Look, those grey patches floating on the surface are common housedust. But do you see those very small particles that have sunk down to the bottom? Round the two on the right a diminutive red cloud is developing in the water, and there, where I point with my finger, you can see a yellow tinge, mixed with blue. Those are particles of powdered painter's colours. Yang must have got them in his clothes when cleaning up the mess on the table in Lee's atelier. We are making progress, Ma Joong!'
He rose and began to pace the floor. All his drowsiness had left him. Ma Joong tilted the water-basin with a happy grin. More small coloured clouds developed in the water.
The judge halted. Folding his arms in his sleeves he resumed, 'Now that one long shot has gone home, Ma Joong, I'll make another one. About the motive of the double murder. I don't think the blackmail theory will hold, at least not in exactly the way you meant. If, however, we take the word "gold" tattooed on Seng-san's back literally, it evidently refers to a hoard of gold hidden in the temple. Now Sergeant Hoong has studied all records relating to the temple's history with painstaking care, but he failed to find even a hint at a treasure having been buried there in the course of its long history. And even if there had been a hidden treasure, the constables would have discovered it when the authorities had the temple vacated. Trust them to have interrogated the inmates, and to have gone over the grounds with a fine tooth comb!'
He sat down again.
'My long shot is, Ma Joong, that they were after the gold of the Imperial Treasurer. Fifty heavy gold bars.'
'But that theft dates from last year, sir!'
'Precisely. However, the thief had to lie low for a long time, waiting till the authorities had given up looking for the gold. Suppose he only told his accomplices, or his principal, that he had hidden it somewhere in the temple, without disclosing exactly where? And that the thief died before they had retrieved the treasure? Then the others would be in a quandary. They would have to search the temple and the entire extensive grounds. Yang and Seng-san, separately or together, caught them at it. First they tried to blackmail them — that's where your theory comes in, Ma Joong. But Yang and Seng-san had under-estimated their opponents, and were murdered.'
Ma Joong nodded eagerly. 'I think you've hit the nail on the head, sir! You can pack fifty gold bars in many different ways: in a large square package, in a flat or oblong one, in several small parcels, and so on. That would explain why the searchers looked both under the floors of the cells and behind the wainscoting in the towers.'
'Quite true. And the gold is still there, Ma Joong! For if the murderer or murderers or Yang and Seng-san had found it, then there would have been no sense in the switching of the corpses. They would have fled with the gold immediately after the murder; there would have been no need to prevent us from finding the tattooed clue. Nor would they have come back to the temple tonight, and tried to murder you. The gold is still in the temple somewhere, and we have to find it! We shall go to the temple tomorrow morning, Ma Joong. And now to bed!’
XI
The next morning at dawn, Ma Joong and the young constable called Fang burned Seng-san's body and head in the brick oven behind the prison. Afterwards Ma Joong had breakfast with Sergeant Hoong in the guardroom, giving the sergeant a circumstantial account of his adventure on the preceding night. Then they went together to Judge Dee's private office.
The judge briefly repeated his conclusions for the benefit of Sergeant Hoong. 'So we have now a double task before us,' he wound up. 'To discover the hidden gold, and to catch the murderer. This morning we shall proceed to the deserted temple with — Yes, come in!’
The headman entered. After he had wished the judge a good morning he said, 'The retired prefect, the honourable Mr Woo, wants to see Your Honour on an urgent matter. He is accompanied by Mr Lee Mai, the banker.'
'Ex-prefect Woo?' Judge Dee asked crossly. 'Oh yes, I remember. Met him once or twice at official functions here. A very lean man, with a slight stoop?' As the headman nodded, the judge went on: 'Quite a dignified, elderly gentleman. He was a diligent and scrupulously honest official, but his career came to an untimely end through an unfortunate affair. His uncle went bankrupt and Woo insisted on paying all the debts, although he was not bound in law to do so, of course. It nearly ruined him, for, since the uncle died soon afterwards, Woo never got a single copper back. He tendered his resignation, left his native city and settled down here, because the standard of life is much lower here than in one of the larger cities, and there are fewer social obligations. Who is that other man? Lee Mai, you said?'