The Lacquer Screen

V

The Student took Judge Dee along some less frequented streets and alleys down to the northern section of the town. He explained that the Phoenix Inn was located in the hilly, central quarter. The town was built on the mountain slope, and the northern quarter was the lowest part. The judge didn't say much. He was preoccupied with his own thoughts. It was clear that the Corporal knew nothing about the murder or about Kun-shan's plans. A number of facts pointed to his theory being right, yet ...

'Do many people pass that marsh during the day?' he suddenly asked the young man.

'Yes, in the morning there's a lot of traffic there,' the Student replied. 'The peasants come in from the plain be­yond the north gate, bringing vegetables and so on for the market. But at night it's a very lonely place. They say it's haunted.'

'Why didn't the authorities have the marsh filled up?'

'We had a big earthquake four years ago, I was fourteen then, I remember it well. It was especially bad in the north quarter, and it destroyed the houses built where the marsh now is. There was a fire. Heaven, you should have seen it, it was a beauty! People with their clothes burning came rush­ing to the river, screaming their heads off, I never laughed so much in my life! A pity the fire didn't get to the tribunal, though! Well, later, when they started to clear the ruins, they found that the ground there had sunk below river level, it was too soggy to build there. So they let it lie waste, and now it's overgrown with weeds and shrubs.'

Judge Dee nodded. He reflected that a region which has many hot springs often suffers from earthquakes.

They were passing through a narrow, quiet street. The curved roofs of the dark houses stood out against the moonlit sky.

'I would like to leave that gang of the Corporal's, you know,' the Student resumed.

The judge shot him a quick look. He had thought him a rather offensive specimen, but apparently he had done him an injustice.

'Would you now?' he remarked non-committally.

'Of course!' the Student said scornfully. 'You can see that I am quite different from that riff-raff, can't you? My father was a schoolmaster, I got a good education, graduated from the town school. I ran away because I wanted to become something really big. But the Corporal's was the only gang I could join in this town. Petty thieving and begging, that's all they do! And the stupid dogs are always taunting me, just because they know I am a better man than they are!'

'I see,' Judge Dee said.

'You and your mate are different,' the Student went on wistfully. 'I dare say you two have slit a few throats! You only told the Corporal you didn't like murder because you heard the waiter say that the Corporal won't have killings in this town. Don't worry about me, I can put two and two together!'

'Is it still far?' the judge asked.

'Next street. It comes to a dead-end behind the tribunal, where the ruined houses are. Say, did you often torture women when you were still headman?'

'Let's hurry!' Judge Dee said curtly.

'I wager they squealed like pigs when you put the hot irons to them! All women go for me, you know, but I have no use for them, the stupid bitches! When they put them on the rack, they also crush their arms in screws, don't they? Do they scream a lot?'

The judge gripped the Student's elbow in a wrestler's lock. His iron fingers dug deep into the flesh and nerves. The Student yelled frantically until Judge Dee released him.

'You dirty bully!' the youngster sobbed, supporting his bruised arm with the other.

'You asked a question, didn't you? ' the judge said affably. 'Now you have supplied yourself the correct answer!'

Silently they picked their way among half-ruined, deserted houses. They came out on a wide, open space. A hot grey mist hovered low over a stretch of small trees and thick undergrowth. Farther on loomed the crenellated watch-tower of the north city gate.

'That's your marsh!' the Student announced sullenly.

It was very still. The din of the busy shopping streets farther uptown did not penetrate here. There were only the eery cries of waterfowl.

Judge Dee followed the slippery footpath that seemed to run round the marsh, peering intently among the low shrubs. Then he halted. He had seen a patch of red, shimmering under the bushes. He quickly went up to it, his boots squelching in the mud. He parted the branches. A dead body was lying there, wrapped from neck to feet in a sumptuous long coat of red brocade with a golden flower pattern.

Stooping he studied the still face for a moment, looking silently at the regular, handsome features and the curious, completely serene expression of the dead woman. Her extra­ordinarily long hair, of a strange silken beauty, had been clumsily bound up by means of a coarse cotton band. He put her age at about twenty-five. The earlobes were torn, but only a very few drops of blood were visible. He opened the coat, then quickly closed it again.

'Go down the path and watch!' he brusquely ordered the Student. 'Whistle if you see somebody coming!'

As the young man slunk away, the judge folded the coat back. The woman was completely naked. A dagger had been buried to the hilt under her left breast, and around it was a patch of dried blood. Scrutinizing the hilt, of beautifully chased silver but blackened by age, he decided that it was a valuable antique. The beggar hadn't recognized it as such, and therefore he hadn't taken it when he stole the earrings and the bracelets. He felt the breast. It was clammy. Then he lifted one of the arms, and found it was still limp. The woman had been murdered only a few hours before, he thought. The serene face, the clumsily gathered wealth of hair, the naked body and the bare feet pointed to her having been killed while she was in bed and asleep. Then the mur­derer had hastily bound up the hair, wrapped the body in the coat, and brought it out here. That fitted well with his reasoning.

He pushed aside the branches overhead and let the moon­light fall on the slim body. He sat back on his haunches, rolled up his sleeves and carefully examined the lower part of the corpse. He had a wide knowledge of medicine, including the special science of the coroner. As he wiped off his hands on the wet grass, his face bore a perplexed expression. The woman had been raped. That upset his entire theory ! He stood up and wrapped the body in the red coat again, then dragged it farther under the overhanging branches so that it could not be seen from the path. He walked back.

The Student was sitting hunched on a large boulder, nurs­ing his elbow. 'I can hardly move it!' he muttered.

'You distress me!' Judge Dee said coldly. 'Wait here for me. I am going to search those houses over there.'

'Please don't leave me alone here!' the youngster whined.

'They say the ghosts of the people who died here during the fire still haunt this place!'

'That's bad!' the judge said. 'You said just now that their cries amused you. The ghosts will have heard that. But wait, I'll help you!' He walked three times round the boulder with measured pace, muttering some weird spells under his breath. 'You are safe!' he announced. 'I learned to make that magic circle from an old itinerant Taoist monk. No ghost can come inside.'

He left, convinced that the youngster wouldn't meddle with the dead body while he was away.

After he had made his way through the ruins, he came on a row of inhabited houses. On the next street-corner he saw the lighted lampions of the teahouse where he had been sitting that afternoon with Chiao Tai. A short walk brought him to the back door of the tribunal compound. He knocked.