The Lacquer Screen

As he paused and rubbed his hand over his face, Judge Dee said:

'If you remain silent, Mrs Ko, the court assumes that you agree with this man's statement. Have you any remarks?'

Mrs Ko, who had been looking fixedly at the Student, now shook her head listlessly.

'Proceed!' Judge Dee ordered the Student.

'Well, after that I went to visit her regularly. She told me a lot about how rich her husband was, but that he was very stingy, and never let her have enough money. She said he kept all the keys, and therefore she couldn't give me more. I said I didn't care about such chicken-feed. Then she said her husband always kept two hundred gold pieces in his safe. If he were out of the way, we could take those and flee to some distant place together. Well, two hundred in gold is good money, but murder isn't a small matter. If we do it at all, I said, we must do it well, there's no hurry. But she kept urging me, she said she hated the life she was leading. Then I worked out a good plan. I gave her a box with arsenic and taught her how she could give her husband a small dose in his morning tea every other day, just enough to cause a stomach ache. I also gave her a powder to make the pain subside. Wasn't the old fool grateful to her, that she looked after him so well! All his own fault! He shouldn't have married a lewd woman!'

Mrs Ko uttered a suppressed cry, but he ignored her and continued:

'The other day she tells me that a soothsayer has warned Ko that on the fifteenth he'll be in danger of his life. She says that that's nonsense of course, but we can use it for executing our plan. It'll do nicely as a motive for suicide. She coaxes him into giving a dinner that night. Before he goes to the pavilion, she gives him a good dose of the arsenic. I climb over the wall. She has sent all the servants to the other wing, to help with the dinner preparations. We push the bedstead away, I dig the hole. When we replace the bed, the earth and the loose slabs are safely underneath. Then we wait. Heaven, wasn't I afraid! But not she, she's as cold as a fish! At last we hear footsteps. I stand against the wall, and the old man comes in. She says, as sweet as sugar: " I fear your stomach is bothering you again, dear. I'll make the powder!" He says: "Thank you! You are always so thoughtful! My friends out there only laugh at my troubles." She looks at me over his shoulder, and nods. I think: now or never! I jump forward and stick my knife in his back. Fortunately there wasn't much blood. We take off his robe and she notices there's a sealed envelope in his sleeve. She pushes it into my hands and says: "Take that — it may be money!" I put it in my jacket. Then we place him in the clothes-box, seal the lid with plaster, and let it down into the hole. I shovel back the earth, replace the stone flags, and we push the bedstead back. As I am going to put the old man's robe on, she suddenly embraces me and says, "Take me!" I say I have work to do, what does she think, the crazy slut! I put his cap on my head. Then she says: "The moon is out, they'll recognize you!" She takes her scissors and cuts me here, under my hair. I bleed like a pig! I smear that blood over my face, and run out into the gar­den. When I have given the fellows in the pavilion a good look at me, I make for the river and jump in. Our house was on the bank, so I have known that river since I was a child. But I tell you that the water was cold! And with that extra robe on, I was glad when I saw a good place on the bank, with a lot of shrubs. I climb on land, make a bundle of the old man's robe, throw his cap into the water, and creep into the undergrowth to wring my clothes dry.'

He looked over his shoulder, smirking. Judge Dee knew that the misguided youngster, carried away by his tale, had now got over his fright and was actually enjoying himself. He had now reached his wretched ideal, being looked upon as a dangerous criminal. The judge had learned all he wanted, he could tell the Student to shut up and sign his confession. But he decided to let him finish. The youngster had cowardly killed a defenceless old man, but the judge was convinced that the woman had goaded him on. And there were worse crimes, much worse than an actual mur­der. He thought with distaste of the task ahead, after the session.

The Student took a sip of tea, spat on the floor and con­tinued:

'Back in the inn I open that envelope. No money, no such luck! Only a book with financial notes. I think I'll show it to her, perhaps she can find out from it whether the old geezer had other cash somewhere in the house. I went to see her the next day. We open the safe, but no two hundred gold pieces! I should have understood then what she was really up to! But, fool that I am, I help her search. Nothing doing, of course! I show her the notebook, but she can't make head or tail of it. There we were! She says she'll look everywhere for the gold, it must be there. If she doesn't find it, she'll sell her trinkets, we'll go away as soon as we have the necessary cash. I think, all right, I am fed up with this town anyway, I can sell her to a brothel on the road and perhaps make a gold bar. She isn't so new any more, but she knows at least what men want! When I am back at the inn I want to throw that notebook away. Then I think, you never know, I better have a second look at it, some time. I give it to the girl there to keep for me, she's sweet on me too, you see. And the men are always snooping around in my room. Well, I think that's about all.'