Poets and Murder

Making himself comfortable in the cushions, Lo asked crossly:

'Did you see that dress and the hair-needles, Dee? She borrowed them from my First Lady! Well, our poetical meet­ing didn't last very long. The Academician and Chang seemed a bit reluctant to give their candid opinion of my poetry. And the sexton didn't even try to hide his boredom! Unpleasant chap! Must say that Yoo-lan made a couple of very pertinent remarks. Fine feeling for language, the old girl has.' He turned up the points of his small moustache. 'Well, as to their whereabouts at the time of General Mo's trial, Dee, there I had no trouble at all. As soon as I had mentioned the case, the Academician promptly delivered a lecture on it. The Censor had summoned him for advice on the local situation, you see. As to Chang Lan-po, he was stay­ing here too, for negotiations with discontented tenant farmers. The fellow's family owns about half the arable land in this district, you know. Chang attended the sessions of the tribunal, in order to observe conflicting human pas­sions. That's what he said, at least. And Sexton Loo was stay­ing in an old temple here, delivering a series of lectures on a Buddhist text. Didn't get around to asking them whether they were in the Lake District two months ago, when the poetess was arrested. Where did you put that girl from the Black Fox Shrine, Dee?'

'She's dead, Lo. From rabies. Must have got it from a fox. Was always fondling them, you know, even let them lick her face. And so ...'

'Holy heaven, that's bad, Dee!’

'Very bad. For now we've no one to ...' He broke off, for there was a loud clanging of gongs.

The palankeens had been carried from the residence to the tribunal, and had now arrived at the main gate of the com­pound. Twelve constables drew themselves up at the head of the cortиge, four of them beating brass gongs. The others carried long stakes, with red-lacquered boards, some inscribed in golden letters with 'The Tribunal of Chin-hwa', others with 'Make way!’ The rest had lanterns with the same inscriptions, which would be lit when the party returned to the city that night.

The heavy, iron-bound main gate was pushed open, and the cortиge moved out into the street. First the constables, next the three palankeens, escorted by ten soldiers on each side, and lastly ten soldiers, armed to the teeth, bringing up the rear. The milling crowd, dressed up for the feast, hastily made way for them. There were repeated shouts of 'Long live our magis­trate!’ Judge Dee noticed with satisfaction this further proof of his colleague's popularity in the district. After they had left the shopping street and it had become more quiet outside, the judge resumed:

'I had counted on Saffron to identify our man. Her death is a terrible blow, Lo. For I haven't a shred of proof. I do have proof, however, that it must have been one of your three guests. One of them must be Saffron's father, the same man murdered her half-brother, the student Soong — as I told you after my visit to Saffron's aunt. Now I can add that it was also the same man who murdered the dancer Small Phoenix.'

'Merciful heaven!' the magistrate shouted. 'That means that I...'

Judge Dee raised his hand.

'Unfortunately my discovery doesn't help you much as long as we can't prove who of the three is our man. Let me try to sum up the situation. The murder of the dancer Small Phoenix yesterday supplies a convenient starting-point. Then I shall take the murder of the student the day before yesterday, taking into account the background of General Mo's trial eighteen years ago. Finally we shall tackle together the mur­der of the maid in the White Heron Monastery. In this man­ner we shall be able to see all these problems in the correct chronological setting.

'Well, to begin with the murder of the dancer. The crucial point is that Small Phoenix had seen Saffron's father on the wasteland, when he was on the way back from a visit to his daughter. The meeting did not mean anything to the dancer at that time, for she had never seen the man before. Yesterday afternoon Small Phoenix wanted to have a look at your ban­quet hall where she was going to perform in the evening, and Yoo-lan, who was enamoured of her, took her along to your residence. She had told the poetess that she was going to per­form "A Phoenix among Purple Clouds", which she con­sidered her best number. Then she met your three guests. It was that brief meeting, Lo, that made the dancer suddenly decide to change her programme. She dropped the plan for the Purple Cloud dance which she knew so well and which always made a hit with the audience, and changed to the "Black Fox Lay" — which she had never performed in public before, and of which she didn't even have a good musical score!’

'By heaven!’ Lo shouted. 'The wench had recognized the man she met on the wasteland!’

'Exactly! She had recognized him, but he had given no sign of recognizing her. Well, she would jog his memory! The Black Fox Dance would remind him! After her dance, when she would sit for a while with each of the guests for a cup of wine, as is customary, she would tell him she knew he was Saffron's father, and make her demands. Since she was an ambitious girl devoted to her art, I assume that in the case of Shao or Chang, she would ask to be introduced into the highest circles of the capital, probably adding a demand for a substantial monthly income. And in the case of the sexton, insist that he constitute himself her patron, adopt her as his daughter, for instance, and put all the weight of his great name behind her artistic career. Blackmail, pure and simple.'