The Lacquer Screen

They got up soon after dawn and went downstairs. There was no one yet in the taproom. The inmates of the Phoenix Inn evidently did not believe in early hours. Chiao Tai rekindled the kitchen stove and they made a perfunctory toilet. When Chiao Tai had prepared a pot of hot tea for the judge, he went off to deliver the letter to the coroner. Judge Dee sat down at the corner table, and sipped his tea.

Carnation came down, woke up the waiter by thumping the counter hard with her fist, and then went to the kitchen to prepare the morning gruel. Soon afterwards the Corporal and his four assistants also made their appearance. The Corporal drew up a chair to Judge Dee's table, but indig­nantly refused a cup of tea. He shouted at Carnation to warm a bowl of wine for him. When he had drunk that with evident satisfaction, he asked:

'How did it fare last night, brother?'

'The dead woman must have been a wealthy lady,' the judge replied. 'And the fellow who did it was rich too, for he left these baubles on her.' He took the earrings and the bracelets from his sleeve and laid them on the table. 'When I have disposed of these, you'll get half the proceeds.'

'Heaven!' the Corporal said admiringly, 'that was well worth a trip to the marsh, eh? She was surely murdered by a man of her own sort; you must have a fat purse to let such good stuff go! Keep on trying to find the bastard, you might blackmail him. And tell him at the same time that, if he has other women to kill, I'd thank him for doing the job outside my city.'

A ragged vagabond came in and asked for a free bowl of gruel. When he had greedily gobbled it down, standing at the counter, he called out to the Corporaclass="underline"

'Have you heard the news, boss? They've just brought the dead body of the magistrate's wife to the tribunal. She's been murdered in the marsh.' The Corporal hit his fist on the table and cursed violently. 'You were damn well right when you called her a lady!' he shouted at the judge. 'You'd better find that murderer quick, brother! Bleed him for as much as you can, then bring him to the tribunal. Hell and Heaven—the magistrate's wife, of all people!'

'Why the excitement?' Judge Dee asked astonished. 'You know what an Imperial official is, don't you? If your or my wife gets her throat cut and we report it, the con­stables just beat us up and say that we should look after our household goods better. But the wife of a magistrate, brother, that's something else! If the fellow who did it isn't found plenty quick, this whole town'll be crawling with military police, secret police, special agents from the Prefecture, special investigators and their men, and all the other vermin that call themselves the law. They'll comb the city, brother, and make arrests left and right. You and me'll have to pack up in a hurry and leave! That's why I am excited, brother, and that's why I tell you: set to work and get the bastard!'

He stared moodily at his wine-cup. Judge Dee said:

'It won't be so easy though, seeing that the fellow was a member of her own class.'

'He was her sweetheart, of course!' the Corporal growled. 'Those so-called gentlewomen! The knots of their trouser-cords are tied as loosely as those of our own jades! The fellow got tired of her, she made a fuss, and he bashed her head in. Old story! Well, I'll call my men together, and let them have a look at these baubles. They'll ferret out where the slut used to play her games with our magistrate's belly-cousin. That'll help you to trace the son of a dog.'

'That's a good idea,' the judge said, just to humour his host. Suddenly he looked up from his gruel and asked curiously: 'How would your men go about that? None of them will even know her by sight!'

'They'll know her baubles, won't they?' the Corporal asked impatiently. 'It's their job! When you or me see an expensive skirt go by, either on foot or carried in a litter, we try to get a peep at her muzzle. But a beggar looks only at the trinkets she carries. He has been trained to do that, it's his rice-bowl! If he sees a valuable earring behind a veil, or a nice bracelet on the hand that moves the curtain of a palankeen, he appraises its value, and, if it's good stuff, he knows it'll be worth while to follow that woman. She may let drop an expensive handkerchief, or even a few coins. Now these baubles are high-class workmanship and made to order, so there's a good chance that one of my men noticed them. Do you get it now?'

Judge Dee nodded. He pushed the jewels over to the Corporal, reflecting that he was picking up interesting know­ledge that might come in useful on a future occasion. He saw Chiao Tai coming in and said to his host:

'I'll be off now to look after a little affair of mine. I'll be back presently.'

While the two men were walking towards the market place, Chiao Tai asked:

'I suppose now we go straight to your colleague Teng with the story of that banker's malversations?'

'Not so fast!' the judge replied. 'First we go to visit Leng Chien, and verify the truth of Kun-shan's story by blackmailing the banker.'