Judge Dee at Work

'Would she want him?' the tailor sneered. 'She does better alone!'

The judge quickly turned round. He stooped and scrutinized the floor. He noticed among the confused, bloody footprints those of small pointed shoes leading to the door. He asked the tailor in a tense voice: 'What direction did she go?'

To the watergate!' the man answered sullenly.

Judge Dee pulled his fur coat round him. "Take that rascal upstairs!' he ordered the constables. Going to the door, he whis­pered hurriedly to the headman, 'You wait for me inside here. When Wang returns, arrest him! The pawnbroker must have looked in here to get his handkerchief just when Wang, quarrel­ling with his wife, discovered it. Wang killed him, and his wife fled.'

The judge went out and tramped through the snow to the next street. He mounted his horse and rode to the watergate as fast as he could. One death was enough, he reflected.

Arriving at the bottom of the stone steps leading up the gate tower, he jumped down and went hurriedly to the steep stairs, slippery with the frozen snow. On top of the tower he saw a woman, standing on the farthest parapet. She had gathered her robe round her, and with bent body looked down at the water of the city moat far below.

Judge Dee ran up to her, and laid his hand on her arm. 'You shouldn't do that, Mrs Wang!’ he said gravely. 'Killing yourself won't bring the dead back to life!’

The woman shrank back against the battlement and looked at the judge with startled eyes, her lips parted in fright. He saw that although her face was drawn and haggard, she was still handsome in a common sort of way.

'You must be from the tribunal!' she faltered. That means they have discovered that my poor husband murdered him! And it's all my fault!' She burst out in heart-breaking sobs.

'Was it the pawnbroker Shen he murdered?' Judge Dee asked.

She nodded her head forlornly. Then she cried out: 'I am such a fool! I swear there was nothing between Shen and me; I only wanted to tease my husband a little... .' She pushed a wet lock back from her forehead. 'Shen had ordered a set of embroidered handkerchiefs from me, to give to his concubine as a New Year's present. I had not told my husband, I wanted to surprise him with the money. Tonight, when Wang found the last handkerchief I was working on, he went to get the kitchen knife, shout­ing that he would kill Shen and me. I fled outside; I tried to get to my sister in the next street, but the house was closed. And when I came back to our place, my husband was gone and ... there was all that blood.' She covered her face with her hands, then added sobbing: 'Shen ... he must have come for the handkerchief and ... Wang killed him. It's all my fault, how can I go on living when my husband ...?'

'Remember that you have your son to look after,' Judge Dee interrupted her. He gripped her arm firmly and led her to the stairs.

Back at the house he told the headman to take the woman upstairs. When the headman had done so, the judge said, 'We shall stand close to the door, against the wall. We have only to wait for the murderer's return. Wang killed Shen here, then went out to hide his victim's body. He planned to come back here to clean up that blood, but his son brought us here, and his plan has fallen through.' After a while he added with a sigh, 'I am sorry for that boy, he's a likable little fellow!’

The four men stood against the wall, two on either side of the door, Judge Dee next to the pedlar's box. Upstairs, some coarse voices were shouting in argument.

Suddenly the door opened and a big, broad-shouldered man came in. The constables jumped on him. Taken by surprise, be­fore he knew what was happening they had chained Wang's arms behind his back, and pressed him down on his knees. A package wrapped in oil paper fell from his sleeve, noodles spilled on the floor. One of the constables kicked the package into a corner.

Upstairs some people were dancing. The thin boards of the ceiling bent and creaked.

'Don't throw away good food!' Judge Dee barked, irritated at the constable. Tick that up!'

Thus rebuked, the constable made haste to scoop up the noodles. When placing them on the table, he muttered, 'They aren't much good any more, the dirt that came down from the ceiling has spoiled them.'

'The rascal has blood on his right hand, Your Honour!' the headman who had been inspecting Wang's chains exclaimed excitedly.

Wang had been staring with wide eyes at the blood on the floor in front of him. His lips were moving but no sound came. Now he lifted his face up to the judge and brought out: 'Where is my wife? What has happened to her?'

Judge Dee sat down on the box and folded his hands in his wide sleeves. He said coldly: 'It is I, the magistrate, who asks questions here! Tell me ...'

'Where is my wife?' Wang shouted frantically. He wanted to scramble up but the headman hit him over the head with the heavy handle of his whip. Wang dazedly shook his head, and stammered: 'My wife ... and my son ...'

'Speak up! What happened here tonight?' the judge asked.

'Tonight ...' Wang said in a toneless voice, then hesitated.

The headman gave him a kick. 'Answer and speak the truth!' he growled.

Wang frowned. He again looked at the blood on the floor. At last he began, 'Tonight, when I was walking home, the grocer told me that the pawnbroker Shen had been here. And when I came in, there was nothing to eat, not even our New Year's noodles. I told my wife I did not want her any more, that she could go to that fellow Shen, and stay there. I said that the entire neighbourhood knew that he visited her when I was out. She would not say yes or no. Then I found that handkerchief there by the bed. I went for the chopper. I would first kill her and then go and finish off that fellow Shen. But when I came back from the kitchen with the chopper, my wife had run away. I grabbed the handkerchief, I wanted to throw that in Shen's face before I cut his throat. But I scratched my hand on the needle stuck in it.'