The Phantom of the Temple

The sergeant and Ma Joong had listened in astonished silence to Judge Dee's account of what Mrs Woo had said. The judge rearranged his notes and concluded: 'Mrs Woo is a vulgar woman, with a shrewd, intuitive insight into the carnal relations between the sexes, but who is wholly incapable of understanding the mentality of a man like her husband. Mr Woo wants to know what happened to his daughter, but at the same time he wants to protect his wife, regardless of what misdeeds she may have committed. That's why at the end of our interview he insisted on my promising I would acquaint him of the evidence at my disposal before taking legal action. For, should I discover that his wife was indeed concerned in his daughter's disappearance, Woo plans to persuade me to drop the case.'

'Do you think, sir, that there might be some substance to Mr Woo's suspicions?' Sergeant Hoong asked.

Judge Dee pensively stroked his moustache.

'I confess that I haven't the slightest idea,' he said at last. 'What I do know is that Mrs Woo's theory about Jade's eloping with a secret paramour is arrant nonsense. If Jade really had a lover, you may be sure that Mrs Woo would have ferreted out who he was! As to Mrs Woo's guilt... . She told my wife about her husband's suspicions with perfect candour, but that proves nothing, of course; she was firmly convinced that he had gone to me to accuse her. Mrs Woo is an extremely sensual woman, and protracted frustration often leads such women to excesses.'

'I can't understand,' Ma Joong spoke up, 'why the painter Lee Ko engaged Yang as his assistant after old Woo had kicked him out. And Yang was apparently gallivanting with Mrs Woo. We ought to know a lot more about Mr Yang. After all, he was the second vic­tim of the murder in the temple!’

The judge had been glancing through his notes. Now he looked up and said slowly, 'It's a curious coincidence that Yang figures both in Jade's disappearance last year and in our present murder case. I don't like this affair. Not a bit! The fact that the sorceress Tala knew Jade suggests that there's a Tartar angle too.'

' AT might consult Tulbee again and ask her to make inquiries among her people about a kidnapped Chinese girl,' Ma Joong said. He reflected that, compared with women like Tala and Mrs Woo, Tulbee wasn't so bad, after all.

'Yes, do that, Ma Joong. Perhaps Jade has been kept prisoner in some low den there in the Northern Row. First, however, you must get more data on Seng-san. If Miss Jade has really been kidnapped, we'll sooner or later get those scoundrels. But it is our urgent duty to find the temple murderer before he commits another outrage like the brazen attempt on your life last night.'

There was a knock on the door and a clerk came in.

'Mr Lee Mai the banker has come back here, Your Honour. He would be most grateful if Your Honour could see him for a moment.'

'Show him in!' To his two lieutenants the judge said, 'I noticed that Lee had something on his mind, but the prefect didn't let him speak.'

The banker seemed taken aback when he saw that the judge was not alone.

'Sit down, Mr Lee!' the judge told him impatiently. 'These two are my confidential advisers.'

Lee Mai took the chair Sergeant Hoong offered him. He carefully straightened his grey robe. Then, looking at the judge levelly with his hooded eyes, he said, 'I am most grateful that Your Honour grants me this interview. I couldn't speak freely in the presence of Mr Woo.' He cleared his throat. 'In the first place, I want to repeat that I consider Miss Jade still my fiancee, and that I shall marry her as soon as she has been traced, regardless of what happened to her during the past half year.' He resolutely closed his thin lips. Then he resumed: 'Second, I felt that Your Honour hesitated to tell Mr Woo the new evidence obtained by this tribunal because Your Honour didn't want to hurt him. Regarding me Your Honour doesn't need to have any such scruples. I am fully prepared to hear the truth, sir, no matter how dis­tressing it might be.' He looked expectantly at the judge.