The Willow Pattern

XVIII

About half an hour before the night session of the tribunal, Tao Gan was helping Judge Dee to put on his ceremonial robe, in the ante-room of his private office. Handing the judge his winged cap, Tao Gan remarked:

'I never liked that doctor, sir.'

'Neither did I,' the judge replied dryly. He carefully adjusted the cap in front of the special mirror, mounted on the black lacquered box in which the cap was kept.

'You went to Mei's library to look for a possible murder weapon, didn't you, sir?'

Judge Dee turned round.

'I went there in the first place to verify whether Mei had been writing something just before his death. I was think­ing of the black smudges on his cheek, you see. As you yourself pointed out to me, the ink might have spattered accidentally onto his face while he was preparing it by rubbing the ink-cake on the stone slab. I found that he had been reading, however, and that the ink-slab and writing brush on his desk were perfectly clean. I then knew that his head must have been bashed in by another ink-slab; a large and heavy one, that had been used shortly before the murder, and therefore was still wet with ink. I found the murder weapon in the guest-room downstairs.' He looked out through the window and said disconsolately: 'The weather isn't changing, after all.'

'When did you begin to suspect that Mei had been murdered, sir?' Tao Gan asked keenly.

The judge folded his arms.

'Until the housemaster had told me that the lampion in the hall burns till midnight, I had only a vague feeling that something was wrong. A real accident, Tao Gan, can rarely be reconstructed as completely as that which allegedly happened to Mr Mei, you see. Consider the candle dropped at the head of the stairs, the slipper halfway down, the blood on the top of the newel, and the dead man's head lying close to that newel! It was all too pat. It seemed as if someone had deliberately charted the way it happened, so to speak, step by step. Further, the fact that Mrs Mei was a former courtesan and that her husband was twice her age, brought to mind, of course, the all too familiar trio: old husband, young wife, secret lover. That I gave Mrs Mei the benefit of the doubt was because of my high opinion of Mr Mei's staunch character and brilliant mind. I assumed that a man like him would never have chosen the wrong woman. Unfortunately I was quite wrong.'

'The guest-room downstairs was an ideal place for clande­stine amorous meetings,' Tao Gan observed.

'That is why I insisted on seeing the room, as soon as the housemaster had told me that it had a back door that gave access to the garden and the street. I did indeed find there all the clues I needed. Mrs Mei had said herself that the room had not been occupied for weeks. Yet the dressing-table had been used quite recently, and by a woman. The covers of the porcelain powder boxes still bore the traces of fingertips, and the set for painting eyebrows had been recently used. And the bedstead had been slept in. The stain on the floor and on the curtain provided the final clues to what had actually happened. Old Mr Mei had evidently surprised the lovers at midnight or thereafter, and one of them killed him by striking his head with the heavy ink-slab, the other acting as accomplice. Then they dragged his dead body to the hall and deposited it at the bottom of the staircase. All was dark there, hence their mistake about the candle Mei had allegedly been carrying.'

Judge Dee paused. Giving his lieutenant a shrewd look, he resumed:

'Trying to make a crime too perfect is a mistake of many murderers, Tao Gan. They will try to lead investigators astray by adding superfluous details, not realizing that it's exactly those that arouse suspicion. In this case the candle, the slipper, and the blood on the newel were quite super­fluous. As you pointed out very correctly when we were standing in the hall, Tao Gan, the fall from those steep stairs would have proved fatal to an old man like Mei any­way. Anybody who would find him at the foot of the stairs with a crushed skull, would have accepted it as death by accident. It was the superfluous clues that did for them.' He nodded pensively and continued: 'Doctor Lew made that mistake twice, as a matter of fact. The second time was when I talked with him alone in the Yee mansion, after Mrs Yee's suicide. I then asked Lew whether Mrs Mei was an ex-courtesan. Mr Fang had told me already that she had indeed been a courtesan, and I asked Lew only in order to make him talk about her, so as to find out more about their relationship. For I then had only a very vague feeling that there was something wrong with Mr Mei's accident. Lew could just have replied that he did not know anything about Mrs Mei's antecedents — which would have left me exactly where I was. When, however, he emphatic­ally denied that she was an ex-courtesan, and told me a cock and bull story about her belonging to an old and distinguished family, and having married old Mei against her father's will, I understood that he knew everything about her real past. His telling me a perfectly superfluous string of lies suggested that he wanted to protect her against being suspected of the crime that comes to mind first in the case of a married ex-courtesan, namely, that of adultery. Thus Lew's lies gave substance to my vague doubts, and I started to ...' He broke off and looked round.

The door had burst open and Ma Joong came rushing inside.

'Bluewhite is in the Chancery, sir! She says she absolutely must speak to you.'

Judge Dee darted a quick glance at his excited lieutenant.

'I would certainly like to make her acquaintance,' he said calmly. 'However, there's no time now. We must proceed to the tribunal at once. We are late, and Chiao Tai is waiting for us there.'

'She said it's terribly important, sir!' Ma Joong protested.

'Tell her to wait, then. Come along!'

The judge descended the stairs, followed by his two lieutenants. While passing the chancery on the ground floor, Ma Joong slipped inside.

He rejoined Judge Dee and Tao Gan when they were about to ascend the sedan chair, in front of the gatehouse.

'I told her to wait, sir,' he reported with a crestfallen look. 'She seemed very angry. And she refused to tell me what it was all about.'

'She is a very independent young woman,' Judge Dee said and climbed into the sedan chair. When they were being carried away, he asked:

'What about those scavengers, Ma Joong?'

His tall lieutenant clasped his hand to his forehead.

'I clean forgot to tell you!’ he exclaimed, annoyed at himself. All went well, sir. Our men arrested about sixty of them. It turned out that there were only two ringleaders, an ex-chief of a robber band and a renegade Taoist priest. They had been planning to organize a popular uprising, under the guise of a religious, anti-government movement. They wanted to take over the old city, plunder to their heart's delight, then clear out with the loot. The two ring­leaders will be beheaded tonight. The others we let go, after a dressing-down they'll remember for a long time to come! To my great regret, sir, I have to report that Doctor Lew did not know about the plot. Guess why he frequented the scoundrels, sir! Just because he wanted them to inform him if they came upon a corpse that showed unusual symptoms of the sickness! I can't make out the bastard at all!'

'I had Lew arrested one hour ago.' the judge told him. Then he gave Ma Joong an account of what he had dis­covered in the Mei residence. When he had finished, he looked anxiously up at the sky. Shaking his head dubiously, he said:

'I still think the clouds are less stationary than before. And the air is even more humid than at noon. I still haven't given up hope that the rain will come, at last.'

They descended from the chair in front of the high gate of the military tribunal. Since martial law had been declared in the capital, all criminal cases had to be dealt with here instead of in the Municipal Tribunal or in Judge Dee's own High Court. The guards presented arms and a captain in full dress led the judge to the reception room. Chiao Tai came to meet them.

After he had invited the judge to be seated at the simple tea table, Chiao Tai presented to him the captain who would look after the court procedure. While the judge was sipping his tea, the captain explained all the details respectfully. By and large the procedure was the same as that followed in a civilian court, but greatly simplified. It was about eleven when Chiao Tai and Ma Joong led the judge and Tao Gan to the court.

The large hall was lit by torches, military fashion. Against the back wall stood rows of long halberds, peaks and spears, and in front of them was a raised platform with the bench: a high table covered by a piece of scarlet cloth. To the left and right stood a dozen military police with drawn swords. In the comer two orderlies were seated face to face at a small table littered with rolls of blank paper and writing instruments. They would act as scribes, noting down the proceedings verbatim.

Chiao Tai took the judge up to the platform, and pulled out the high armchair behind the bench. The judge seated himself, and Chiao Tai stood himself at Judge Dee's right side, Ma Joong on his left. Tao Gan sat down on the stool at the end of the bench.

Chiao Tai barked an order at the captain. He advanced in front of the bench, saluted and announced:

'Everything is ready, sir!'

Judge Dee took the gavel.

As Emergency Governor of the Imperial capital, I here­with declare the session open.' He rapped the gavel. 'This court shall deal with the murder of Mr Mei Liang, a merchant of this city. I shall first hear the accused, Doctor Lew. Have him led before me, Captain!'

The captain gave an order to the military police. Two soldiers marched off through the arched door opening on the left.

Judge Dee inspected the forms that lay before him. They were blanks made especially for the emergency. Since each sheet bore already the impression of the large red Imperial seal countersigned by the Prime Minister, each leaf was carefully numbered. Ordinarily every capital sentence pro­nounced in the empire had to be submitted to the Grand Council, then to the Emperor himself for the final approval. Now, however, the emergency rules allowed summary justice.

The two soldiers led Doctor Lew before the bench. After he had knelt, the judge spoke:

'Doctor Lew, you have delivered false testimony twice. First when you stated that Mr Mei had died at or about ten o'clock in the evening, and the second time when you stated that Mrs Mei had not been a courtesan, but belonged to a distinguished family. Why did you make those state­ments, knowing full well that they were false? You stand accused oн being concerned in the murder of Mr Mei, and I advise you to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.' Doctor Lew raised his head. He was pale, but his voice was firm when he replied:

This person denies emphatically having been concerned in the murder of Mr Mei, but he confesses that he did give your lordship wrong information. I was foolish enough to believe the fancy tale Mrs Mei foisted on me. I was fully aware of the fact that she had been a courtesan, but I believed that she was an honest woman regardless, and genuinely in love with her husband, and——' The judge rapped his gavel.

'I want an orderly statement. You have said that on the night in question you had dinner with Mr Mei, and that Mrs Mei attended upon you both. Begin from there!'

'After I had taken leave of Mr Mei, I went indeed to the housemaster's room, my lord. After I had given him the medicine, however, I decided there was nothing to worry about, and I went home.'

'So your story of hearing Mrs Mei scream in the east wing, and of your rushing to her and so on, all that was a lie?'

'Yes, my lord. I humbly apologize. I went back to the Mei mansion very early the next morning, on my way to another patient, just to see how the old housemaster was getting along. I knew that he was the only servant left in the house, and I was worried about him. Mrs Mei opened the door herself and told me that he was all right and would be up and about at noon. Yet she seemed very upset. She dragged me to a side room, and told me an astonishing tale.

'She said that, after she had seen her husband up to his library the evening before, she had decided to pass the night in the guest-room downstairs. For she was worried about his health and wanted to be near at hand, in case he should want something. Shortly after midnight, she woke up. Her husband had come into the room. He told her he had been unable to sleep, and was not feeling well. She wanted to get up to make a cup of tea for him, when he suddenly clutched at his throat and gasped for air. Before she could rush to his assistance he had toppled over, and his head struck a corner of the carved leg of the bedstead. She knelt by his side, and found he was dead.'

THE JUDGE QUESTIONS A SUSPECT

Lew paused. Looking up at the judge, he said earnestly: 'I believed her, my lord. I knew that Mr Mei did indeed have a weak heart, and he had been working much too hard, lately. Then, however, she went on that she was terribly worried that people would start gossiping if she told the true facts. Neither she nor her husband ever used the guest-room, she said, and malicious people would whisper that evidently her husband had surprised her there with a lover, and that the lover had struck him down. I thought that was rather far-fetched. I asked to see the body, but she said she had dragged it to the stairs in the hall. Would I help her, and tell the coroner that her husband had fallen down the staircase after dinner the night before and that she had then called me at once? I hesitated, but she ... she is a very persuasive woman, my lord. She practically pushed me outside, saying, "Go now and fetch the coroner. If we wait too long, he'll get suspicious!"'

Doctor Lew wiped his moist face with his sleeve. Even in this high-ceilinged hall the heat was oppressive. He resumed:

'Now I come to the most painful part of my confession, my lord. I want to state formally that I fully realize that, by making this statement, I lay myself open to the charge of suppressing vital evidence. But the truth must be told. Well, I fetched the coroner, and told him that I had tried to find him the previous night; I could safely say that, for I knew he had to go every night to the communal pyre. Upon entering the hall, together with the coroner and his assistant, however, I got a terrible shock. I saw at once that Mei's skull had been crushed by a fearful frontal blow, a wound that could never have been caused by his hitting his head on the corner of the bedstead. Moreover, the suicide-scene had been so carefully set up, that I suspected that there had been an accomplice. Some blood and matter had even been smeared on the top of the newel! While the coroner was conducting his examination, I was thinking furiously. Now I understood that Mrs Mei's remarks about people gossiping about her husband having surprised her with a lover, were founded on truth: the truth, with a few judicious alterations! I realized the predicament I was in: she had made me an accomplice to murder! The only way out was to tell the coroner then and there that I was a fool, and denounce Mrs Mei. But ...' He suddenly fell silent.

'Why didn't you do so, then?' Judge Dee asked evenly.

Doctor Lew hesitated. He cleared his throat a few times, before he began, haltingly:

'Well, my lord, before the coroner was through, she called me. We ... we had a talk, in the side-room. She begged me on her knees to save her. Her husband had indeed caught her with her lover, they had quarrelled, and the other man had hit Mei. He had intended to stun him, then to flee. They had been distracted with fear when they saw he was dead, and after a long consultation had hit upon the suicide-scheme. She told me that no one would ever suspect that Mei hadn't actually fallen down the steep staircase, and ...'

'Who was her lover?' the judge cut him short.

'She wouldn't tell me, sir. I——' Suddenly he jumped up and clasped his hand to his forehead. 'Merciful Heaven!' he shouted. 'What an incredible fool I am! She will of course say it was me!' He fell to his knees again. 'Don't believe that woman, my lord! I beseech you, don't believe her! She is a depraved, deceitful creature, she——'

Judge Dee raised his hand.

'You are a very clever man, Lew!’ he remarked coldly. 'I never doubted that. Captain, let the orderlies read out the accused's statement.'

The two men read out their notes in a sing-song voice, occasionally stopping to make a small correction where their records differed. The captain gave the document to Lew, who impressed his thumbmark on it. The doctor wanted to address the court again, but on a sign from Judge Dee the two soldiers grabbed his arms and dragged him outside.

'The dirty rat!’ Chiao Tai whispered at Ma Joong. 'He hopes to put all the blame on his mistress, and get off with a stiff term in prison.'

The judge rapped his gavel.

'Lead the accused, Mrs Mei, before me, Captain,' he ordered.

The two soldiers came back at once, together with an elderly woman, dressed in black. It was the matron of the municipal women's jail.

'I beg to report, my lord,' she spoke, 'that the prisoner Mrs Mei is ill. She vomited several times, and I think she is running a fever. I advised her to request medical atten­tion, and file a petition for a deferred hearing. But she wouldn't listen to me. She insisted on appearing in court as soon as she was summoned. 'What is your lordship's pleasure?'

The judge reflected a moment, vexedly tugging at his beard. Then he spoke:

'Since a brief statement will suffice now, you can bring her before me. But warn the coroner to examine her directly after the hearing.'

Judge Dee looked worriedly at Mrs Mei as she slowly advanced to the bench, very slender in her long white mourning robe. The matron had wanted to support her, but she had refused peremptorily. As she made to kneel, the judge said quickly:

'The accused is allowed to remain standing. This court now ...'

'I killed my husband,' she interrupted him in a strange, hoarse voice. Fixing the judge with her large, too brilliant eyes she went on: 'I killed him, because I couldn't stand any longer the ineffectual attentions of that old man. I had married him because ...' Her voice trailed off. She raised her head, the blue stones in her ear-pendants sparkling in the light of the torches. Looking over Judge Dee's head, into some unseen distance, she went on: 'I married him because life owed me a large debt. I was fifteen when I was sold to the brothel in the old city. I was beaten and kicked, humiliated and maltreated in every conceivable way. I was cruelly whipped, and compelled to beg for more. It was ...' She put her hands to her face.

When she spoke again, her voice had regained some of its former rich timbre.

'Then I met someone who loved me. I was happy, for some time. Then I found our love was not enough to even the debt. I wanted more than love alone. So I married Mei. I then had everything I wanted .. . except love. I had lovers, many lovers. Mostly I found them clumsy louts who left me more miserable than before. The others ... I felt soiled by their greedy lust, degraded by their shameless demands for money. My husband discovered my affairs, and his pity-humiliated me. Humiliated me more than the worst whip­pings in the brothel. And after I had killed him, I had to beg for pity, beg that mean doctor, had to promise I would agree to his sordid proposals. ... I always wanted more. And the more I got, the more I lost. I fully realize that now. Too late.' A racking cough shook her frame.

'I am sick and tired of it all,' she stammered. 'Sick and tired ... tired ...'

She began to sway on her feet. After one forlorn look at the judge she collapsed on the stone floor.

The matron squatted down by her side and deftly loosened the front of her white robe. All of a sudden she jumped up, staggered back, and, covering her mouth with her sleeve, she pointed, horrified, at the tell-tale spots that covered Mrs Mei's neck and bosom. The captain drew back, away from the writhing woman. Her limbs shook convulsively. Then she lay still.

Judge Dee had risen from his chair. Leaning over the bench, he stared at the distorted face of the dead woman. He sat down and gave a sign to the captain. The captain shouted an order to the guards at the entrance. They hurriedly went outside.

The deadly silence that reigned in the hall was suddenly broken by a low, rumbling sound from afar off. No one seemed to notice it.

The guards came back with a reed mat. They covered their mouths and noses with their neckcloths, then they spread the mat over the dead body. The captain came up to the bench and told the judge: 'I ordered the guards to call the scavengers, sir.'

Judge Dee nodded. Then he said in a tired voice: 'Have the accused Hoo Pen led before me.'