The Phantom of the Temple

The judge moved Lee Ko's card close to that of Mrs Woo, and regarded the two with a satisfied smile. 1 must confess that I like this combination! I like it very much indeed. The sensual woman married to an elderly husband, and the irresponsible painter who believes in romantic love. And both nearing middle-age, when passion burns with a more intense fire than in one's youth.'

'Lee Ko also knew that I was going to visit the temple,' Ma Joong muttered. 'I told him so when I met him on my way to the east city gate. And Lee had the ebony box in his possession! Besides, he is a mountaineer, a hardy chap! That's why he gave such a good account of himself when I tried to catch him in the temple hall!’

Judge Dee nodded. He moved Lee Ko's card closer to that of the Abbess. 'This combination,' he said, 'is de­cidedly less attractive. But we must remember that Lee Ko painted those awful Buddhist pictures most expertly. He must have made a close study of the originals that were formerly displayed in the deserted temple; and there he may have met the Abbess, who was already a fervent Buddhist when she was still Mrs Chang. Well, I take the sixth card. You see that I have put Yang's name there.'

'Yang is dead!' the sergeant exclaimed.

'We shouldn't ignore the dead, Hoong — to borrow one of Tala's pronouncements. I put Yang's card on top of Lee Ko's, and then I put Mrs Woo's card beside it. Look, now we have a combination that is even more plausible than that of Mrs Woo and Lee Ko! A frustrated, sensual woman and a much younger, gay student, living under the same roof! She'll have told Yang about the gold, and made him do the rough work. We saw Yang's dead body; he was a strong fellow who could have easily handled both Ming Ao and Miss Jade.'

'But later Yang himself was murdered, together with Seng-san!’ Sergeant Hoong protested.

'Precisely! That's why I laid Yang's card on top of that of Lee Ko. For in the course of the months that fol­lowed the theft, the pattern changed. Mrs Woo fell in love with Lee Ko. She told Yang that she was through with him, and that he could say goodbye to the gold. But Yang wouldn't stand for that. He went to Lee Ko and told him that he didn't care a tinker's curse about Mrs Woo, but that he wanted his half of the gold. In order to keep an eye on the pair, Yang forced Lee Ko to employ him, threatening to tell everything to old Mr Woo. Then, however, Yang realized that Lee Ko was not a man to be trifled with, and he decided to try to get the gold by himself, all of it. So he hired Seng-san, the profes­sional bully, who'd help him to search the deserted temple. There they were murdered by Lee Ko and Mrs Woo.'

Judge Dee picked up the six cards. Leaning back in his chair, he shuffled them and said, 'There are, of course, a few other possible combinations. But we have now sur­veyed, I think, the essential patterns we must reckon with.'

'There's still one more card on the table, sir,' the sergeant said.

The judge sat up straight. 'Ah yes, the seventh card!' He turned it over. It was black.

Holding it up, he said slowly:

'I had written a name there, tentatively. Perhaps the name of a phantom. The Phantom of the Temple. Then, however, I blacked it out. This card means death.'

He stuck the black card among the others, reshuffled them, and threw the package in his open drawer. He folded his arms and resumed, 'Ordinarily we should, now that we have arrived at this stage, initiate a laborious and time-consuming investigation. We should trace in detail the antecedents of all our suspects, find out where and with whom they were at the time the various crimes were committed, question domestic servants, shopkeepers, etc. That would take weeks, if not months, even if our friends Chiao Tai and Tao Gan were here to take part in the investigation. Fortunately, we are in a position to take a short-cut.' He pulled the floor-plan drawn by Spring Cloud towards him. Tapping it with his fore­finger, he resumed, 'Thanks to this excellent sketch, we can conduct this very night a decisive test.

'Half an hour ago, I had a clerk deliver two letters. One addressed to Mr and Mrs Woo, the other to their friend Lee Mai, the banker. I invited them to come to the deserted temple in two hours' time, because I wanted to tell them there the results of my inquiries regarding Miss Jade.'

'What about Lee Ko and the Abbess, sir?' Ma Joong asked.

'The Abbess I shall fetch personally from the Her­mitage. I want to go there anyway, to see how young Fang is getting along. As regards Lee Ko, you'll go to his house now, Ma Joong. Tell him that I ordered you to take him to the deserted temple, because I want to show him there something without anyone else knowing about it, to ask his opinion. Take him up the hill by the back road, for he should on no account see that I have other guests too. Keep him waiting behind the temple. When I need him, I shall let you know. Then you'll bring him into the hall by the small back door.' As Ma Joong rose, the judge added quickly, 'Watch him all the time, Ma Joong! He is a murder suspect!'

'I'll watch him all right!' the tall man said grimly as he went out. Judge Dee got up too. 'Come along, Hoong! I must be there before my guests arrive. I want to test my theory before I test my suspects!'