Poets and Murder

The judge emptied his third cup.

According to one of the maids who used to serve Soong, he had visited this city before. And apparently he had a girl friend here.'

Lo sat up. 'The devil he had! But not in the Sapphire Bower, at any rate. I described him to the girls, and they had never set eyes on him.'

'Second,' Judge Dee continued, 'I suspect that Soong came here for a special reason which he wanted to keep secret, and that his historical research was just a pretext.' He took the student's notes from his sleeve and handed them to Lo. 'These six pages are all the notes he made during those two weeks!’

Lo glanced through the notes. When he nodded, the judge continued:

'Every afternoon Soong visited your archives, to keep up appearances. In the night he went out about his real business. The maid saw him slip outside, in a dark gown, and in a stealthy manner.'

'Not a single clue as to where he went or what he did, Dee?'

'No. The maid knows a waiter in a tea-house near-by who seems to be rather a gay blade, and he never saw Soong any­where in that neighbourhood.' He cleared his throat. 'That maid firmly believes in fox-magic, you know. Maintains that Soong's girl was in fact a fox, and murdered him!’

'Oh yes, the fox plays an important role in local folklore, Dee. We have a fox shrine in the residence, it's supposed to guard the premises. And there's a big one on a piece of waste­land, near the south city gate. Place is haunted, people say. Well, we'd better keep the supernatural out of this, Dee! Case is sufficiently difficult as it is!’

'I couldn't agree more, Lo. You also reckon with the possi­bility that it was an inside affair, don't you?'

'Yes, indeed. Meng's reputation is of the best, but that doesn't mean a thing, of course. Might have known Soong when the student visited this district formerly. And Meng did quite a bit of detective work all on his own, Dee, just after his discovery of the dead body. And was very eager to pass his theory on to us. Easiest thing for Meng to walk round the block, and knock on his own garden door! And I don't like this business about Soong having a girl friend. Don't like it at all. Girls mean trouble.' He heaved a sigh. 'Anyway, there are no sessions of the tribunal tomorrow, because of the Mid-autumn Festival. That gives us a little respite, at least.'

Lo poured himself another cup, and sank into a morose silence.

Judge Dee looked at him expectantly, waiting for Lo to explain how he was planning to proceed with the investiga­tion. If this case had happened in Poo-yang, he would at once have ordered his three lieutenants, Ma Joong, Chiao Tai and Tao Gan, to make inquiries in the tea-merchant's neighbour­hood, about Meng himself, his family and his lodger. It was amazing how much information experienced officers could collect in vegetable, fish and butcher shops. Not to forget the cheap street-stalls where the chairbearers and coolies gather. As his colleague remained silent, Judge Dee said:

'We can't do anything about this case ourselves tonight, because of the dinner. Did you send out members of your staff to make further inquiries?'

'No, Dee, I employ the staff of the tribunal for routine matters only. All confidential inquiries are organized by my old housemaster.' Seeing Judge Dee's astonished face, he went on quickly, 'The old geezer was born and bred here, you see, knows the city like the palm of his hand. He has three distant relatives, slick fellows who work as clerks in a pawnshop, at a silversmith's, and in a popular restaurant in the market. I pay them a generous salary out of my own pocket, for acting as my stool pigeons and secret inquiry agents. System works quite well. Enables me to keep a check on my counsellor and the rest of the tribunal personnel too.'

The judge nodded slowly. He himself relied unreservedly on his old adviser Hoong and his three lieutenants. But every magistrate was free to work in his own way, and Lo's system didn't seem too bad. Especially since during his previous visit to Chin-hwa he had come to know Lo's housemaster as a crafty old rascal. 'Have you told your housemaster to ...' he began. Then there was a knock on the door. The headman came in and reported: