Poets and Murder

The small magistrate was sitting at the tea-table, which was strewn with papers, a writing-brush in his hand, his lips pursed. He looked up and said eagerly:

'I am sifting out and correcting my recent work, Dee. Do you think the Academician would approve of the recurrent rhyme of this ballad?' He was going to recite the poem he had been correcting, but Judge Dee said quickly:

'Another time, Lo! I have a strange discovery to report.' He sat down opposite his colleague. 'I shall be brief, for you'll have to go presently to your library. It's getting on for four o'clock.'

'Oh, no, there's plenty of time, elder brother! The luncheon out in my fourth courtyard turned out to be a protracted affair, you know! The Court Poet and Yoo-lan wrote a few poems, and we discussed those, with lots of wine! All my four guests went straight to their rooms for a siesta, and none of them has shown up yet.'

'Good! So none of them went out, and so you needn't bother to mobilize your housemaster's agents to follow them. Now then, the mother of the murdered student was a con­cubine of General Mo Te-ling. Later she committed adultery with an unknown person, and their illegitimate daughter was abandoned. She's none other than Saffron, the guardian of the Black Fox Shrine.' Seeing Lo's astonished face, he raised his hand and went on, 'The abandoned child had been wrapped up in a piece of saffron wool, and people often call foundlings after the dress they had on when found. This means that Saffron is Soong's half-sister, and that's why the student told Saffron he could never marry her. It also means that Saffron's father and the student's murderer are one and the same man. One day before the old general was arrested, he told his concubine that he had discovered she had com­mitted adultery with one of his friends, adding that he would kill them both with his own hands. The concubine promptly hanged herself. And the general was arrested the next day, before he could settle with her lover.'

'Good gracious! Where did you find all that, Dee?'

'In your archives, mainly. The student Soong was evidently convinced that his mother's lover had falsely accused the general of high treason in an anonymous letter, to prevent the general from accusing him as an adulterer. Soong was wrong as to the first point. I read through the official record, and I am convinced the general was guilty. And his concu­bine's lover must have been in the plot. As to the second point, Soong was perfectly right. The man did write the anonymous letter, because he knew it would take the Censor some time to get round to the general, and he wanted to make sure that the general was arrested on the very first day of the investigation, so as to prevent him from taking action against him.'

Magistrate Lo raised his hand.

'Not so fast, Dee! If the general was guilty of high treason, why then should his denouncer have murdered the student? The chap had done a meritorious deed by informing against the general!'

'He must occupy a prominent position, Lo, and therefore he can't afford to have an adultery charge brought against him. Also, he evidently was deeply involved in the general's plot, else he wouldn't have known where the incriminating letters from the Ninth Prince were hidden. That's why he didn't come forward, although the government had promised him a reward.'

'Holy heaven! Who is the fellow, Dee?'

'I am afraid it must be one of your three guests, Shao, Chang or Loo. No, don't protest! I have irrefutable proof that it must be one of the three. Saffron shall tell us who. Even though her father kept his face covered when he visited her, I trust she'll be able to recognize him by his voice and general appearance.'

'You can't be serious about Sexton Loo, Dee! What woman would ever take that ugly man as a lover?'

'I am not so sure about that, Lo. The student's mother was a perverse woman. Her family ascribes that to her being possessed by the spirit of a lewd black vixen, by the way. However that may be, a perverse and frustrated woman — she was barely seventeen when she entered the general's house, and he getting on for sixty — might well have felt attracted to the sexton because of his very ugliness. Besides, he has a masterful and extraordinary strong personality, and many women are susceptible to such men. During the poetical gathering you might try to find out whether Chang and the sexton were here in Chin-hwa at the time of General Mo's trial, Lo. We know that the Academician was here, serving as Prefect of this area. Could you have your housemaster called?'

Lo clapped his hands, and gave an order to the boy servant. Judge Dee resumed:

'I would like you to find out also, Lo, whether any of our three suspects was in the Lake District this spring, at the time Yoo-lan was arrested in the White Heron Monastery.'