The Chinese Nail Murders

But curiosity now dominated the onlookers. A thickset butcher in the front row shouted:

"My guildmaster himself sealed the tomb. Hold your peace, woman, we want to see what that thing is!"

"Verify your statement!" the judge barked at Kuo.

The coroner took a pair of clippers from his sleeve. Mrs. Loo sprang over to him, but the headman grabbed her and held her back. While she was fighting like a wildcat, Kuo extracted a long nail from the skull. He held it up to the crowd, then de­posited it on the bench in front of the judge.

Mrs. Loo's body went limp. When the headman released her, she staggered blindly to the table of the scribe and stood there with bent head, supporting herself on the table edge.

The spectators in the front row shouted what they had seen to those behind them. The people started talking noisily; some men in the back row rushed outside to tell the people in the street.

The judge hammered on the bench. When the noise died down he addressed Mrs. Loo:

"Do you confess having murdered your husband by driving a nail into the top of his head?"

Mrs. Loo slowly raised her head. A long shiver shook her body. Pushing a lock of hair away from her forehead, she said in a toneless voice:

"I confess."

A ripple of noise came from the audience as this final news also was relayed through the court hall. Judge Dee leaned back in his chair. When the hall was still again, he said in a tired voice:

"I shall now hear your confession."

Mrs. Loo drew her robe around her slight frame. She said forlornly:

"It seems so long ago now, does it really matter?" Leaning her back against the table, she looked up at the window high in the wall. Then she said suddenly:

"My husband, Loo Ming, was a dull, stupid man, what did he understand? How could I go on living with him, I, who was searching ..." She heaved a deep sigh, then went on: "I had a daughter of him, then he said he wanted a son. I could not bear it any longer. One day he complained of a stomach ache, and I gave him strong wine as medicine, mixed with a sleeping powder. When he was sound asleep, I took the long nail I use for punching the holes in the soles of my shoes, and drove it with the mallet into the top of his skull, till only the head showed."

"Kill the witch!" someone shouted and angry exclamations fol­lowed. Quick to change their attitude, the fury of the crowd now directed itself against Mrs. Loo.

Judge Dee crashed on the bench with his gavel.

"Silence and order!" he shouted.

The hall was still at once. The authority of the tribunal had been restored.

"Dr. Kwang stated it was a heart attack," Mrs. Loo continued. She added contemptuously: "I had to be the mistress of that man in order to obtain his help. He thought he knew the secrets of magic, but he was only a useless beginner. As soon as he had signed the death certificate, I severed our relations. Then I was free . . .

"One day, about a month ago, I slipped in the snow when leaving my shop. A man helped me up, and led me inside. I sat on the bench in my shop, and he massaged my ankle. With every touch of his hand I felt the vital force with which this man vi­brated. I knew that this was at last the partner I had been waiting for. I concentrated all my mental and physical powers to draw this man toward me, but I felt him resisting. Yet, when he left, I knew he would come back."

Something of her former animation came back to Mrs. Loo as she continued:

"And he came back! I had won. That man was as a burning flame. He loved and hated me at the same time, he hated himself for loving me, yet he loved me! It was the very roots of life that bound us together ..."

She paused. Then she bent her head, and her voice was again tired as she went on:

"Then I knew that I was losing him again. He accused me of sapping his strength, of interfering with his disciplines. He told me we would have to part. ... I was frantic, I could not live without that man, without him I felt the forces of life ebbing away from me. ... I told him that if he left me, I would kill him just as I had killed my husband."

Shaking her head disconsolately she went on:

"I shouldn't have said that. I knew it by the look he gave me. All was over. Then I knew also that I had to kill him.

"I put the poison in a dried jasmine flower, and went to the bathhouse dressed as a Tartar youth. I said I had come to offer him my apologies, that I wanted to part from him on good terms. He was coldly polite. When he didn't say anything about keeping my secret, I dropped the flower in his teacup. As soon as the poison took effect, he gave me one terrible look. He opened his mouth but he could not speak. But I knew that he had cursed me, and that I was lost. . . . Heaven, he was the only man I ever loved . . . and I had to kill him."

Suddenly she raised her head. Looking straight at the judge she said:

"Now I am dead. With my body you can do what you like!"

Judge Dee looked with horror at the sudden change that had come over her. Deep lines had appeared on her smooth face, her eyes had become dim, she had suddenly aged ten years. Now that her indomitable, fierce spirit was gone, there was indeed nothing left but an empty shell.

"Read out the confession!" he ordered the scribe.