The Lacquer Screen

However, Judge Dee did not notice that. He was staring at the floor, slowly stroking his beard.

When the maid came back the judge went down on his knees and, with the kitchen knife, prised loose two slabs. The earth underneath was moist. He took the shovel and removed other slabs, piling them up by his side. He found six loose slabs, which together formed a rectangle of about five by three feet. Judge Dee rolled back his long sleeves, then began to shovel the loose earth away.

'You can't do such work, sir!' old Pan shouted aghast. 'Let me call a few servants!'

'Shut up!' snapped the judge. His shovel had struck something soft. As he went on, he noticed a nauseating smell coming up out of the hole. A piece of red leather became visible.

'There we have our missing clothes-box, Pan!' he exclaimed. He turned to the maid, who was squatting by the side of her mistress, trying to revive her. He shouted at her: 'Run to the gate! Tell the doorkeeper that Counsellor Pan orders him to go immediately to the tribunal and tell them that the counsellor wants the headman to come here right away with four constables and the matron of the jail. And, on your way back here, bring me a bundle of burning incense-sticks from the house altar! Get going!'

Judge Dee wiped the perspiration from his forehead. Pan had been looking unhappily at the prone figure of Mrs Ko. Now he asked diffidently:

'Shouldn't we make her more comfortable, sir? She ...'

'No,' the judge said curtly. 'The cool floor is the best means of making her come to again. She knew very well that the corpse of her husband was buried under the floor here. She is the accomplice of a murderer.'

'But her husband jumped or fell into the river, sir. I myself saw him!'

'His body was never found, was it? I tell you that Ko Chih-yuan was murdered here in this room, when he came to take his medicine.'

'Who came rushing out of the house, then?'

'The murderer!' Judge Dee replied. Leaning with his arms on the shovel, he went on: 'It was a very clever scheme. When the murderer had buried Ko under the floor here, he put on Ko's robe and cap, and smeared his face with blood. Then he rushed out on the terrace and into the gar­den. All of you expected Ko to come out of the bedroom, and you saw the familiar robe and cap, and were alarmed by his shouting and the blood on his face. No wonder none of you realized it wasn't Ko. He first made for the pavilion, but he took good care not to come too near. Half-way he changed his direction, ran to the river-bank and jumped into the water. I suppose he let himself drift downstream till he saw a deserted spot on the bank, and climbed out. He threw the cap into the river, as a false clue.'

Pan nodded slowly.

'Yes,' he said, 'now I understand! But who could have been that man? Perhaps Kun-shan?'

'Kun-shan is indeed our most likely suspect,' Judge Dee replied. 'He must have stolen the banker's notebook after he had killed Ko. Kun-shan doesn't look very strong, but maybe he is a good swimmer.'

'He probably got that blood on his face by a self-inflicted wound,' Pan remarked.

'Or used Ko's blood. Here's the maid. Now we'll verify how Ko was killed. Take that burning incense from her, will you, and hold it close to my face!'

As Pan did so, the judge pulled up his neckcloth over his mouth and nose, and began shovelling the earth away from the lid of the red box. When the upper part of the box was free he knelt and ripped off the strip of oil-plaster that was pasted around the four sides of the lid. He righted himself and lifted the lid with the point of the shovel.