The Chinese Nail Murders

Tenth Chapter

In the broad street leading to the thermal bathhouse an excited group of people had gathered. The warden of the market stood with his assistants in front of the gate. They wanted to stop the judge but he impatiently pulled his scarf down. Recognizing the magistrate they hastily stood aside.

In the large hall a thickset man with a round face came forward to meet them and presented himself as the proprietor. Judge Dee had never been to the bathhouse, but he knew that the hot water came from a spring, and was supposed to have medicinal proper­ties.

"Show me where it happened," he ordered.

When the man had led them into a hot anteroom full of steam, Ma Joong and Chiao Tai started to take off their robes.

"Better take off everything except an undergarment, Your Honor," Ma Joong warned. "It's still hotter inside."

While the judge undressed, the proprietor explained that in the corridor beyond they would find on the left the large com­munal pool, and on the right the ten rooms with private baths. Master Lan always used the private bath room at the very end of the corridor, because it was quiet there.

He pulled a heavy wooden door open, and gusts of hot steam blew in their faces. The judge saw vaguely the figures of two attendants, clad in coats and trousers of black oilcloth, to protect them against the hot steam.

"These two officers told all the bathers to leave," the proprietor remarked. "Here is Master Lan's room."

They entered a large bath room. Sergeant Hoong and Tao Gan silently made way for the judge. He saw that one-third of the smooth stone floor was taken up by a sunken pool full of steam­ing water. In front stood a small stone table and a bamboo bench. The large body of Lan Tao-kuei, completely naked, lay crumpled up on the floor, between the table and the bench. His face was distorted, it had a strange, greenish color. His swollen tongue pro­truded from his mouth.

Judge Dee quickly looked away. On the table he saw a large teapot, and a few pieces of cardboard.

"There's his cup!" Ma Joong said, pointing at the floor.

The judge stooped and looked at the broken pieces. He picked up the base of the broken cup. It contained a small quantity of brown liquid. Putting it carefully on the table, he asked the pro­prietor :

"How was it discovered?"

"Master Lan," the proprietor answered, "had very regular hab­its. He used to come here every other evening at about the same time. He would first soak in the water for half an hour or so, then have his tea, and do some exercises. We had strict orders never to disturb him until, after about one hour, he would open the door and call the attendant for new tea. He drank a few cups, then dressed in the anteroom, and went home."

He swallowed, then continued:

"Since all the attendants like him, one of them usually stands waiting with the tea outside in the corridor toward the time the master is accustomed to leave. Tonight he did not open the door. The attendant waited for about half an hour, then came to get me since he did not dare to disturb Master Lan himself. Knowing his regular habits I feared he had become ill. I immediately opened the door . . . and saw this!" ' For a while all were silent. Then Sergeant Hoong said:

"The warden sent a man to the tribunal, and since Your Honor was out we immediately came here to see that nothing was dis­turbed. I questioned the attendants together with Tao Gan, while Ma Joong and Chiao Tai took the name of every bather as he left. But none of them has seen anybody entering or leaving Master Lan's room."

"How was the tea poisoned?" Judge Dee asked.

"It must have been done in this very room, Your Honor," the Sergeant said. "We found that all the teapots are filled with ready-made tea from a large jar in the anteroom. If the murderer had put the poison in it there, he would have killed all the other guests. Since Master Lan never locked his door, we assume that the murderer walked in, put the poison in his teacup, and left."

Judge Dee nodded. Pointing at a small white flower stuck to one of the shards of the teacup he asked the proprietor:

"Do you serve jasmine tea here?"

The man shook his head emphatically. He said:

"No, Your Honor. We can't afford to serve such expensive tea!"

"Pour the rest of the tea in a small jar," the judge ordered Tao Gan. "Then wrap up the base of the cup and the shards in oil paper. Be careful not to disturb that jasmine flower! Seal the tea­pot, and take it along also. The coroner will have to decide whether the tea in the pot also contains poison."

Tao Gan nodded slowly. He had been looking intently at the pieces of cardboard on the table. Now he said:

"Look, Your Honor, Master Lan was playing with the Seven Board when the murderer entered!"

All looked at the pieces of paper. They seemed arranged at random.

"I see only six pieces," Judge Dee remarked. "Have a look for the seventh. It must be the second small triangle."

While his lieutenants searched the floor, Judge Dee stood still, looking down at the corpse. Suddenly he said:

"Master Lan's right fist is closed. See whether there is something inside."

Sergeant Hoong carefully opened the dead hand. A small tri­angular piece of paper was sticking to the palm. He handed it to the judge.

"This proves," Judge Dee exclaimed, "that Master Lan worked on the figure after he had taken the poison! Could it be that he tried to leave a clue to his murderer?"

"It looks as if he disturbed the pieces with his arm when he fell to the floor," Tao Gan remarked. "As they are now they can't mean anything."

"Make a sketch of the position of those pieces, Tao Gan," the judge said. "We'll have to study it at leisure. Tell the warden, Sergeant, to have the body conveyed to the tribunal. Then you people had better make a thorough search of this room. I shall now go and question the cashier."

He turned around and left the room.

Having dressed again in the anteroom, Judge Dee told the pro­prietor to lead him to the cashier's office at the entrance of the bathhouse.

The judge sat down at the small desk near the cash box, and asked the perspiring cashier:

"Do you remember Master Lan coming in? Don't stand there fidgeting, man. Since you were here in this office all the time, you are the only man in this place who could not have committed the murder. Speak up!"

"I remember quite well, Your Excellency!" the cashier stam­mered. "Master Lan came in at the usual time, paid five coppers and went inside."

"Was he alone?" Judge Dee asked.

"Yes, Your Honor, he always is," the man replied.

"Now I take it," the judge pursued, "that you know most of the bathers by sight. Can you remember some of the people who came in after Master Lan?"

The cashier wrinkled his forehead.

"More or less, Your Honor," he said, "because the arrival of Master Lan, our famous boxer, was always a kind of landmark for me, dividing the evening into two parts, so to speak. First came Butcher Liu, two coppers for the pool. Then Guildmaster Liao, five coppers for a private bath. Then four young fellows together, scalawags from the market. Then . . ."

"You know all four of them?" the judge interrupted.

"Yes, Your Honor," the cashier said. Then, scratching his head, he added: "That is to say, I know three of them. The fourth came here for the first time. It was a youngster, dressed in the black jacket and trousers of the Tartars."

"What did he pay for?" Judge Dee asked.

"The entire group paid two coppers for the pool, and I gave them their black tallies."

As the judge raised his eyebrows, the proprietor hastily took two pieces of black wood, each attached to a string, from the rack on the wall.

"This is the kind of tally we use, Your Honor," he explained. "A black tally means the pool, a red one a private bath. Each guest gives one half of his tally to the attendant in the anteroom who puts their clothes away, the other half, marked with the same number, they keep with them. When they leave the bath they give that half to the attendant, and he hands them their clothes."

"Is that the only control you have?" the judge asked sourly.

"Well, Your Honor," the proprietor replied apologetically, "we only aim at preventing people slipping in without paying, or walking off with other people's clothes."

Judge Dee had to admit to himself that one could really not expect more. He asked the cashier:

"Did you see all four of those youngsters leave?"

"I really couldn't say, Your Honor," the cashier answered. "After the discovery of the murder there was such a crowd that I . . ."

Sergeant Hoong and Ma Joong came in. They reported that they had found no more clues in the bath room. Judge Dee asked Ma Joong:

"When you were checking out the bathers together with Chiao Tai, did you see among them a young fellow dressed like a Tar­tar?"

"No, Your Honor," Ma Joong replied. "We took the name and address of every one of them, and I would certainly have noticed a fellow in Tartar dress, because you don't see them often here."

Turning to the cashier the judge said:

"Go outside and see whether you can find any one of those four youngsters among the crowd in the street."

While the man was gone Judge Dee sat silently, tapping the table with the wooden tally.

The cashier came back with a grown-up boy, who stood awk­wardly before the judge.

"Who is that Tartar friend of yours?" the judge asked.

The youngster shot him an anxious look.

"I really don't know, sir!" he stammered. "I noticed the fellow day before yesterday, he was loitering near the entrance here, but he didn't go inside. Tonight he was there again. When we went in, he followed behind us."

"Describe him," Judge Dee ordered.

The youngster looked uneasy. After some hesitation, he said:

"He was rather small, and thin, I would say. He had a black Tartar scarf wrapped around his head and over his mouth, so that I could not see whether he had a mustache, but I saw a lock of hair coming out from under the scarf. My friends wanted to talk to him, but the fellow gave us such a mean look that we thought better of it. Those Tartars always carry long knives, and ..."

"Didn't you get a better look at him when he was in the bath?" the judge asked.

"He must have taken a private room," the youngster said. "We didn't see him in the pool."

Judge Dee shot him a quick look.

"That's all!" he said curtly. As the young man scurried away, the judge ordered the cashier: "Count your tallies."

While the cashier hurriedly started to sort out the tallies, Judge Dee looked on, slowly caressing his side whiskers.

At last the cashier said:

"That's strange, Your Honor. A black one, No. 36, is missing."

Judge Dee rose abruptly. Turning to Sergeant Hoong and Ma Joong he said:

"We can go back to the tribunal now, we have done all we can at this end. We know at least how the murderer went in and out of the bath room unobserved, and we have a general idea of what he looks like. Let's go!"