Poets and Murder
- Автор: ван Гулик Роберт Ханс
- Серия: Judge Dee #16
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Другие детективы
Электронная книга - «Poets and Murder». Краткое содержание книги:
Master detective Judge Dee sets out to solve a puzzling double murder and discovers that complicated passions lurk beneath the seemingly tranquil landscape of academic life. A student has been murdered; a beautiful poetess is accused of whipping her maidservant to death; and further mysteries lie in the shadows of the Shrine of the Black Fox.
'The poetess Yoo-lan was greatly distressed about the dancer's demise. Was there any special interest, on either side?'
The madame lowered her eyes.
'The honourable Yoo-lan was visibly impressed by the dancer's shy, youthful deportment,' she replied primly. Then added quickly, 'And by her great talents, of course. I am most tolerant of female friendships, sir. And since I had the honour to know the poetess in the capital, formerly ...' She shrugged her heavy shoulders.
Judge Dee got up. While the madame was conducting him to the gate, he remarked casually:
'His Excellency the Academician, the Honourable Chang Lan-po and His Reverence Loo were all disappointed not to see Small Phoenix dance. They must have seen her perform before, I imagine.'
'That seems hardly possible, sir! Those two illustrious persons honour this district with a visit sometimes, but they never partake in any public or private parties. It's the talk of the town that they have accepted His Excellency's invitation this time! But His Excellency Lo is such a wonderful man! Always so kind and understanding... . What was the name of the religious gentleman you mentioned, sir?'
'It doesn't matter. Good-bye.'
Back in the tribunal, Judge Dee had a clerk announce him to Magistrate Lo. He found his colleague in his private office, standing in front of the window, his hands clasped behind his back. He turned round and said listlessly:
'Hope you slept well, Dee. As for me, I had a rotten night! One hour after midnight I crept into the main bedroom, thought that was my best bet for a good night's rest, for my First Lady always goes to sleep early. But I found her wide awake, with my Third and Fourth standing in front of her bed, shouting at each other! My First said I had to resolve their quarrel. In the end I had to accompany my Fourth, and she kept me awake for another hour, telling me in great detail how the quarrel had begun!' Pointing at the large official envelope on his desk, he added dramatically, 'That letter was brought for you by a special messenger from the Prefecture, If it's a summons from the Prefect, I'll jump into the river!'
Judge Dee slit the letter open. It was a short official notice that, the Prefect not requiring his presence, the judge should return to his post without undue delay. 'No, I am ordered back to Poo-yang. I'll have to leave here tomorrow morning, at the latest!’
'Heaven preserve me! Well, that leaves us today, at least. What did you find out from the madame?'
'Only facts that aggravate the case against Yoo-lan, Lo. First, the poetess did indeed conceive a liking for the dancer. Second, none of our three guests has ever visited the Sapphire Bower and the madame thought it most unlikely any of them had ever met the dancer before.' As the small magistrate nodded morosely, he asked, 'Do you know what our guests' plans are for this afternoon?'
'At four we'll gather in the library, to read and discuss together my latest volume of verse. And to think I had been looking forward to that session so eagerly!’ He sadly shook his round head.
'Do you think that your housemaster's men are good enough at their job to follow one of your guests, should he go out after the noon rice?'
'Good heavens, Dee! To follow them, you mean?' Then he shrugged resignedly. 'Well, my career is probably ruined anyway. Yes, I think I could take the risk.'
'All right. I also want you to order the sergeant in charge of the South Gate to post two armed guards in one of the street-stalls opposite the entrance to the wasteland, to keep an eye on the gate. Let them arrest anyone who wants to visit the Black Fox Shrine. I wouldn't want anything untoward to happen to that poor girl there, and I might need the men when I go there myself, this afternoon. Where are your guests now?'
'They're having breakfast. Yoo-lan's with my First Lady. That gives me time to take you to the chancery archives, Dee!’
He clapped his hands, and when the headman appeared, he ordered him to proceed personally to the South Gate and instruct the sergeant of the guard. On his way out he was to tell Counsellor Kao that he was wanted in the archives.
The magistrate took Judge Dee through a maze of corridors to a cool, spacious room. The walls were covered up to the lofty, coffered ceiling with broad shelves, loaded with red leather document boxes, ledgers and dossiers. There was an agreeable smell of wax, used for polishing the boxes, and of the camphor strewn among the papers to keep insects away. At one end of the huge trestle table in the centre of the red-tiled floor, an old clerk was sorting out some papers. At the farthest end Sexton Loo sat bent over a file.
XIV
The obese sexton was now dressed in a brown robe of hemp, fastened on his left shoulder by a clasp of rusty iron. He gravely accepted the greetings of the two magistrates, then listened silently to Lo's effusive thanks for the scroll he had written for him the night before. Then he tapped the dossier in front of him with his thick forefinger and said in his hoarse voice:
'Dropped in here to read up on the peasant revolt, two hundred years ago. There was a massacre at the South Gate. If all the people who were then put to the sword were still about there, you wouldn't be able to shoulder your way through the gate! You need this particular file, Lo?'
'No, sir. Just came to locate a document.'
The sexton gave him his toad-like stare.
'You did, did you? Well, if you can't find it, just seal this room, and light a stick of incense in your fox shrine. When you come back here, you'll find the dossier you want sticking out beyond the others on those shelves. The fox spirit'll help an official. Sometimes.' He shut the file and got up. 'Well, isn't it time to view your Moon Altar?'
'I'll take you there now, sir! Hope you'll join us later, Dee. Ha, there's my counsellor! Help my colleague to find his way among the dossiers, Kao!’
Lo went out, respectfully opening the door for the sexton.
'What can I do for you, sir?' Mr Kao asked in his precise voice.
'I was told that in the Year of the Dog there occurred an unsolved murder here, Mr Kao. I'd like to have a look at the dossier on that case.'
'The Year of the Dog is notorious because of the conspiracy of the Ninth Prince, sir! But an unsolved murder, no, I don't remember ever having read about that. Perhaps the greybeard over there'll know, sir. He was born and bred here! Hey there, Liu, do you recall an unsolved murder in the Year of the Dog?'
The old clerk thought, fingering his ragged chinbeard.
'No, sir. It was a bad year for us here in Chin-hwa, all right, with the high treason of General Mo Te-ling. But no unsolved murder, no, sir.'
'I have read about the case of General Mo,' Judge Dee remarked. 'He was a confederate of the rebellious Ninth Prince, wasn't he?'
'Oh yes, sir. All the documents are in that large red box, up on the fifth shelf on the right there. The paperbound dossiers beside it deal with other judicial cases of that same year.'
'Let's get the whole lot down here on the table, Mr Kao.'
The old clerk put the stepladder up against the shelves, and took the files down one by one, handing them to the counsellor who placed them in chronological order on the table. As the row grew longer and longer, Judge Dee realized the magnitude of his task. It needn't have been an unsolved murder, of course. It might as well have been a case recorded as solved, but where an innocent man had been convicted. His accuser was then technically the murderer of the executed man.
'You keep the archives in excellent order, Mr Kao,' he remarked. 'There isn't a speck of dust on them!’
'I have the clerks take all the dossiers down once every month, sir,' the counsellor said with a pleased smile. 'The boxes are polished, and the documents aired, which also keeps insects out!'