Murder in Canton: A Judge Dee Mystery Read online

  Staring straight ahead, Chiao Tai told him the whole story of Zumurrud. When he had finished, he added in a toneless voice, looking the judge full in the face, ‘I thought it all out on my way here, sir. She and I were lost, either way. If the assassin hadn't murdered her, I would have killed her myself, then and there. Her life for that of the Censor, a life for a life, she would have understood that. It's in her blood, as it is in mine. Then I would have killed myself. As it is, I am still alive. But as soon as this case has been disposed of, I beg you to release me from my oath to serve you, sir. I want to go and join our northern army, now fighting the Tartars beyond the border.’

  There was a long silence. At last Judge Dee spoke quietly:

  ‘I never met her, but I understand. She died a happy woman, happy because she thought her one and only dream would now come true. But she had died already before she was killed, Chiao Tai. For she had only that one dream left, and one needs many dreams to stay alive.’ He straightened his robe, then looked up and said pensively, ‘I know exactly how you feel, Chiao Tai. Four years ago, in Peichow, when I was solving the nail murders, the same thing happened to me. And I had to make the decision which Zumurrud's murderer took out of your hands. Moreover, she had saved my life and my career.’

  ‘Was she executed, sir?’ Chiao Tai asked tensely.

  ‘No. She wanted to spare me that. She committed suicide.’ Slowly stroking his long beard, he went on, ‘I was going to give up everything. I wanted to retire from a world that suddenly seemed grey and lifeless, dead.’ He paused, then he suddenly laid his hand on Chiao Tai's arm. ‘No one can give you any help or advice. You must decide yourself what course to follow. But whatever your decision may be, Chiao Tai, it will never change my friendship and my high regard for you.’ Rising, he added with a wan smile, ‘I must finish my toilet now; I probably look like a scarecrow! And you had better order my four agents at once to go to her boat, apprehend the maid who was her patron's spy, and question the crew. For we must learn the identity of her patron. Then you go back to your inn with a dozen constables, fetch the body, and take the routine measures for tracing the murderer.’

  He turned round and disappeared behind the door-curtain.

  Chiao Tai rose and went downstairs.

  XXI

  Shortly after Judge Dee had sat down to his breakfast, Tao Gan came in. After he had wished the judge a good morning, he eagerly asked whether someone had turned up to claim the reward. The judge shook his head and motioned him to be seated. He finished his rice gruel in silence. After he had laid down his chopsticks, he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms in his wide sleeves. Then he told Tao Gan everything about the unexpected result of the faked proclamation.

  ‘So it was a love affair that brought the Censor back to Canton !’ Tao Gan exclaimed.

  ‘Partly. At the same time he wanted to investigate Mansur's seditious plot. For he told Zumurrud clearly that he had to see some Arabs here.’

  ‘But why did he keep everything to himself, sir? Why didn't he take up the matter with the Grand Council on his return to the capital, after his first visit here, and…’

  ‘He knew little about women, Tao Gan, but he was indeed well versed in all affairs of state. He suspected that it was his enemies at court who were behind the plot. Therefore he could take no one into his confidence until he had concrete proof; his enemies are highly placed officials, they may well have their spies in the Chancery who keep them informed about the secret deliberations in the Council. In order to obtain that concrete proof, the Censor came back to Canton. And was killed here by the misguided woman he loved.’

  ‘How could a refined gentleman like the Censor lose his head over a vulgar Arab dancer, sir?’

  ‘Well, for one thing she was quite different from the elegant, cultured Chinese ladies the Censor used to meet in the capital. And she must have been the first Arab woman he ever saw. For unlike Canton, in the capital one hardly sees any Arabs, and certainly no Arab girls. I imagine that it was the novelty of the experience that first appealed to him. Thereafter her strong sexual attraction must have roused his long-suppressed desire. Such burning passion would have bridged any gap in race, social status and education. Chiao Tai was also extremely fond of her, Tao Gan. You had better not mention her to him; the tragedy shocked him deeply.’

  Tao Gan nodded sagely.

  ‘Brother Chiao always has bad luck with his women,’ he remarked. ‘Who could have murdered her, sir?’

  ‘Chiao Tai thinks it was Mansur. He says that Mansur was in love with her too, and that when she was introduced to Chiao Tai at Mansur's party, the Arab took her interest in Chiao Tai very badly. Mansur may have followed her when she went to Chiao Tai's inn, and climbed on the roof of the house behind it to watch them. When he saw them together, scantily dressed, he thought it was an amorous meeting, and killed her in an excess of jealousy. Plausible, but not convincing.’

  Judge Dee took a sip of his tea, and resumed:

  ‘However that may be, this tragedy has now been reduced to a side issue. The main issue is to discover who her patron was. The man who tried to involve the Censor in the Arab plot, who wanted to conceal the Censor's death, and who is responsible for the murder of Dr Soo and Mrs Pao. We must finish the task the Censor had to leave unaccomplished, namely to obtain the concrete proof needed to unmask his enemies, the cowardly traitors at court. Since it was they who took Zumurrud's patron into their employ, it is he who must reveal to us their identity. We could not have prevented the Censor from being murdered, but it is our duty to prevent his enemies from reaping the results of their infamous crimes. And they have already begun to do just that, as evidenced by the bad news contained in the secret letter from the Grand Council. I must therefore locate this man, before I return to the capital today. My agents are questioning her maid and the crew of her boat, but I don't expect much from that routine measure. The fellow will have seen to it that no one knew his true identity.’

  ‘What are we to do then, sir?’ Tao Gan asked worriedly.

  ‘After Chiao Tai had left,’ Judge Dee replied, ‘I surveyed again all that has happened here these last two days. I have tried to arrange the known facts into a more or less logical pattern, and have formed a theory. On the basis of this theory I shall take action, this very morning.’ He emptied his teacup and continued, slowly tugging at his sidewhiskers:

  ‘We do have some clues to the identity of the dancer's patron. They open up some quite interesting possibilities.’ He pushed a sheet of notepaper over to Tao Gan. ‘You'd better note down my list of clues, for I shall refer to them when I explain my theory.

  ‘Now then. First, our man must occupy a fairly important position here in Canton, else the Censor's enemies at court would never have chosen him as their agent here. Those traitors are no fools; they would never select a common crook who would sell them out to the highest bidder. Second, it follows that the man's motive must be a compelling ambition. For he is risking his position and his life. They must have promised him, as a reward, a high official position, perhaps even a post in the central government. Third, he must have friends or relations in the capital, for the court hardly bothers with this region in the far south, and someone in the capital must have recommended him. Fourth, he must live in the palace or be closely connected with affairs here, for he knows every move we make. The implication of this point is that we may confine our suspicions to those people we are in regular contact with here. Fifth, he must have good connections with the underworld, as proved by his employing both Arab hooligans and Tanka stranglers. Note, Tao Gan, that these contacts are maintained through henchmen; Mansur, for instance. I shall come back to that later. Sixth, he must have a special reason for wanting to eliminate Chiao Tai; and he must hate Captain Nee, because he wanted Nee to be accused of Chiao Tai's murder. Seventh, he is interested in crickets. Eighth, he must have close relations with the blind girl. Yet that does not prevent him from making two determined efforts to kill her, as soon a
s he knows that she is turning against him. She, on her part, tries to help us in an indirect way. She can't bring herself to denounce him openly to us. Jot down as a query: Is she his daughter, or his mistress, perhaps? Ninth, he must, of course, qualify as lover and protector of Zumurrud. Have you got all that?’

  ‘Yes sir.’ Tao Gan perused his notes, then resumed, ‘Shouldn't we add, sir, that he hasn't got an official position? For Zumurrud told Chiao Tai clearly that her patron, though very wealthy, had no official status, and could not, therefore, procure Chinese citizenship for her.’

  ‘No, Tao Gan, not necessarily. For my first point, namely that he must be a man of some prominence here, implies that he must have met her incognito. Arab dancers are never invited to Chinese parties, of course. He must have made her acquaintance while visiting the flowerboat where she was employed, and kept his real identity hidden from her ever since. There was no risk of her finding that out, for she would never meet him in company.’ As Tao Gan nodded, Judge Dee went on, ‘The Governor heads our list. To all appearances he is a loyal, industrious, slightly fussy official; but perhaps he is at the same time a consummate actor. He has, of course, many friends in the capital who could have recommended him to the Censor's enemies, when they were casting about for a possibility of compromising the Censor in some out of the way place. That he answers my fourth point goes without saying. As to his motive, he is devoured by ambition, and they may well have promised him the post of Metropolitan Governor he is hankering after. The intermediary for his Arab contacts is Mansur, whom he employs as a kind of sub-agent.’

  Tao Gan looked up and exclaimed:

  ‘How could the Governor ever condone Mansur's scheme for sacking Canton, sir? Such a major disturbance here would break his career, no matter who supported him at court!’

  ‘Of course he does not intend that scheme ever to be executed. He needed it only for bringing about the Censor's ruin. That aim achieved, he will doubtless eliminate Mansur. The simplest way would be to accuse Mansur, and have him executed as a rebel. Who would believe a wretched Arab criminal if he stated in court that a man like the Governor had abetted a plan to burn and plunder his own city? If the Governor is our man, it was he who had the rumours about the Arab scheme spread, probably by a second sub-agent of his, a Chinese, who maintains contact with the Chinese underworld on his behalf. As to the Governor's attempt at eliminating Chiao Tai, that is easily explained by Chiao Tai's rendezvous with Zumurrud; Chiao Tai crossed the Tanka boats on his way to her junk, and Tanka spies must have reported that visit. The Governor hates Chiao Tai as a rival in love, and at the same time he is afraid that Zumurrud may disobey the iron rule of the “world of flowers and willows”, which forbids a girl ever to talk about her clients, and tell Chiao Tai something about him that would give us a clue to his identity. As to the Governor's hatred for Captain Nee, I have a certain theory that would offer a plausible explanation; I can easily verify it, but I prefer not to go further into this now. As regards point seven, we know that the Governor is interested in crickets, and concerning point eight, I told you already that I have reason to believe he knows the blind girl. Add a query there, Tao Gan: Is she perhaps the Governor's illegitimate daughter? All right, now we come to the last point: Does he qualify as the lover of Zumurrud? Well, reputedly he has a happy family life, but the novelty of the experience may have attracted him—as it did in the case of the Censor—and I have reason to believe that he is not averse to foreign women. Further, he wouldn't mind her being a pariah, for he is a northerner. One has to be born and bred in Canton to develop that abhorrence for the pariah class. Finally, it appears that the Censor distrusted him.’

  Tao Gan put his writing-brush down.

  ‘Yes,’ he said pensively, ‘we have quite a substantial case against the Governor. But how are we going to prove it?’

  ‘Not so fast! There are others on our list besides the Governor. What about Prefect Pao? The man is emotionally perturbed, for the Governor is a hard taskmaster, and he thought that his beautiful young wife was deceiving him with Captain Nee. Frustrated, he may have taken up with Zumurrud; her sneering references to her patron suggest an elderly man. Being a native of Shantung, he would have no prejudice against her race and status. And he may have fallen for the proposals of the Censor's enemies at court when they promised him a high position in the capital as reward. That would give Pao an opportunity for getting even with the Governor, and at the same time for gratifying Zumurrud's wish to obtain citizenship. As a career civil servant, the Prefect has of course plenty of acquaintances in the capital who could have recommended him to the court clique. Further, he maintains a close and continuous contact with us. He is no amateur of crickets, but his wife knew the blind girl—probably better than she made it appear. The blind girl suspects Pao, but in deference to Mrs Pao she does not want to come out into the open and say so. The Prefect hates Nee, of course, and Chiao Tai too, for the same reasons as stated in our hypothetical case against the Governor.’

  The judge paused and emptied his cup. As Tao Gan refilled it for him, he resumed:

  ‘If Prefect Pao is indeed our man, then I have to abandon of course my theory that Mrs Pao was killed by mistake. Disgusted by the failure of the two Arab assassins to murder Chiao Tai in Nee's house, the Prefect sends that same afternoon Tanka strangles to Yau Tai-kai's establishment, to kill there his adulterous wife together with Captain Nee. Mrs Pao is indeed strangled, but the captain fails to turn up. Didn't you notice that Pao received a written message during the conference yesterday? That may have been the news that the attack in Nee's house had miscarried.’

  Tao Gan looked dubious. After a while he said:

  ‘In that case, sir, Pao must indeed have a remarkably large and efficient secret organization.’

  ‘Why shouldn't he? He is the head of the city administration, which gives him facilities for secretly maintaining contact with Mansur as well as Chinese hooligans. Finally, both he and the Governor have the education, experience and mental capacity to organize a complicated plot, and supervise its execution by underlings such as Mansur, while they remain in the background and pull the strings.

  ‘Education, experience and mental capacity are there also in the case of our third suspect, namely Liang Foo. Liang, by the way, answers exactly Zumurrud's description of her patron: a wealthy man without official position. And his frequenting the Flowery Pagoda to play chess with the abbot could be a cover for visiting Zumurrud in the house behind the temple. These points, however, are not important—as I shall explain presently. As to Liang's motive, it is true that he occupies already a prominent position in this city and possesses vast wealth, but he may well be chafing under his status as a merchant, and yearn for an influential official post in the capital, as occupied by the late Admiral, his illustrious father. Being born and bred in this city, and being well versed in Arab affairs, it would be an easy matter for him to establish secret contact with Mansur. The fact that he went out of his way to draw our attention to Mansur's seditious plans would indicate that he is preparing to make Mansur the scapegoat, as I explained when reviewing the case against the Governor. He is not interested in crickets, and he has no relations with the blind girl, but to those two objections I shall come anon. For there is a third, and much more serious snag. Namely, that it is utterly unthinkable that Liang Foo, a well-born Cantonese gentleman, since his youth steeped in local prejudice, would ever stoop to associate with an Arab dancer of pariah blood. In order to solve this problem, we must assume just as in the case against the Governor, that Liang has two henchmen. One is Mansur, the other a Chinese. This second sub-agent must be the other Arab expert, Mr Yau Tai-kai. All clues that don't apply to Liang, apply to him.

  ‘Yau cannot be the main criminal. He is a self-made man, well-known locally, but without the connections in the capital to recommend him to the traitors at court. Moreover, he is a shrewd businessman, but utterly incapable of evolving a complicated political plot. However, he is a vulgar leche
r, and his depraved appetite for variety in his amorous exploits may well have made him overcome his prejudice against a pariah. Yau, too, answers exactly Zumurrud's description of her patron. He hates Chiao Tai because of his rendezvous with Zumurrud, and Nee because the captain meets in Yau's own house Mrs Pao, an attractive, wellborn lady whom Yau could never hope to make his mistress. He also covets the blind girl, but when he discovers that she is getting on his trail and may denounce him and his boss Liang Foo, he decides to have her murdered. When the attempt in his own house fails, he sends his Tanka stranglers after her in the Examination Hall. Only a man who knew her well could be aware of the fact that she used to hide herself there.’

  Tao Gan slowly wound the three long hairs that sprouted from his left cheek round his long bony forefinger.

  ‘Yau would indeed do nicely as patron of Zumurrud,’ he said.

  Judge Dee nodded and resumed:

  ‘Finally, I come back to this morning's outrage. Mansur has gone into hiding; he wouldn't dare to follow and spy on Zumurrud. I think it was either her patron or his henchman who sent the javelin-thrower, to kill her. For he was afraid that she would reveal his identity, and he had to sacrifice her to his own safety.