Poets and Murder

Sexton Loo pursed his thick lips. Turning his wine cup round in his large, hairy hand, he resumed pensively:

'I visited that girl too, once. Am interested in her because she has a definite affinity with foxes, you see. Place is crawling with them. Know her background? She was sold to a cheap brothel, but bit off the tongue of her first customer. Fox-like gesture, that! Effective too, for the fellow nearly bled to death, and in the confusion she jumped out of the window, and made straight for the fox shrine on the wastelands. Has been there ever since.'

'When did you see her last, sir?' Judge Dee asked casually.

'When? Oh, must have been about a year or so ago. When I came back here three days ago I wanted to spend more time with her. In order to find out exactly what the tie is between her and those foxes.' He shook his large head. 'Went there a couple of times, but turned back at the entrance gate of the wasteland each time. Because of the large crowd of spectres about there.' He refilled his cup. Turning to Magistrate Lo, he resumed, 'That girl you hired to dance for us last night also had a foxy look, Lo. How's her foot coming along?'

The small magistrate shot Judge Dee a questioning look. When the judge nodded, Lo said to the company in generaclass="underline"

'We didn't want to distress you last night, gentlemen, so you were informed she had an accident. In fact, she was murdered.'

'I knew it!’ the sexton muttered. 'Her dead body was lying there close by us, all the time we were drinking and talking.'

The Court Poet had been looking dumbfounded at Yoo-lan.

'Murdered?' he asked. 'And you found her?'

As the poetess nodded, the Academician said crossly:

'Should've told us, Lo! We aren't so easily distressed, you know. And with my long experience as investigating judge, I might have given you a useful hint or two. Well, so you have two murders on your hands, eh? Any clue to the scoun­drel who did the dancer in?'

Seeing that his colleague hesitated, Judge Dee replied in his stead:

'Both cases are narrowly connected, sir. As regards the stud­ent Soong and the research he was conducting here, I fully agree with you that his father had indeed been guilty of high treason, and that in this respect the student was barking up the wrong tree. But my colleague and I think that the student was well on the way to tracking down the person who had denounced his father, not for a patriotic, but for a most selfish reason, namely ...' He was interrupted by a startled cry from the poetess.

'Must you go on with all that horrible talk?' she asked in a trembling voice. 'With this sly stalking of your prey, closing in, in ever narrowing circles... . Have you forgotten that I am also an accused, with a death sentence hanging over my head? How can you ...'

'Steady, Yoo-lan!' the Academician intervened. 'You haven't to worry about anything! There's not the slightest doubt about your acquittal, of course. The judges of the Metropolitan Court are excellent men, I know them all. I can assure you that they'll hear your case as a mere formality, then summarily dismiss it.'

'Absolutely,' the Court Poet said. Judge Dee resumed quickly:

'I have good news for you, madam. I said a few minutes ago that the anonymous letter denouncing General Mo, and the one accusing you, were both written by a good scholar. Now we have found out that the writer must have been one and the same person. That opens up a new line of approach to your case, madam.'

The Academician and the Court Poet looked at the judge in blank astonishment.

'Let's have more about the murder of the foxy dancer,' the sexton croaked. 'Happened in the room next door to ours, after all!'

'Indeed, sir. You're familiar, of course, with the story of the Consort's Staircase. And with the fact that the consort of the Ninth Prince utilized the door behind the screen in the banquet hall to ...' There was a loud crash at Judge Dee's side.

The poetess had jumped up, overturning her chair. Look­ing down at the judge with flaming eyes, she shouted at him:

'You utter fool! You with your far-fetched, fumbling theories! You can't even see the simple truth right before your eyes!’ She pressed her hands against her heaving bosom, in a frantic attempt to regain her breath. 'I tell you I am sick and tired of all this pettifoggery. I've had nearly two months of it, I can't stand it any longer! I am through!' Hitting her fist on the table, she screamed, 'It was me who killed that blackmailing dancer, you fool! She was asking for it! Stuck the scissors into her scrawny neck, then went to you and acted my part!’

There was a deep silence while she surveyed the company with her burning eyes. Judge Dee looked up at her, dumb­founded.

'That's the end!’ Magistrate Lo muttered.

Then the poetess lowered her eyes. She resumed, calmer now:

'The student Soong had been my lover. I know he was obsessed by the idea that his father had been falsely accused. The dancer told me that Soong went to see Saffron. A poor half-wit, suffering from erotic hallucinations. Keeps a skeleton dressed up in a shroud as her lover. Smarting under the fact that she's a foundling, she dreamed up a father who came to see her regularly. Small Phoenix told me, said she fortified Saffron in that illusion, just to keep her in a good mood so she would teach her those weird songs. I tell you that Small Phoenix was a sly, malicious bitch who fully deserved to die. She had wormed my secret out of Soong. That's what she wanted to blackmail me with, as I found out yesterday after­noon. She was going to dance the "Purple Cloud", but after she had met me and thought over her chances, she changed to the "Black Fox Lay". As a gentle hint to me that she had met Soong out there in the ruined temple.'