The Chinese Nail Murders

Eighth Chapter

When Ma Joong and Chiao Tai arrived at the tribunal together with the two soldiers, the guards at the gate said that Tao Gan was back already, and now closeted with the judge and Sergeant Hoong in the private office. Ma Joong told them that soon the warden of the market would come bringing two men and two women. The men could be handed to the warden of the jail, and they were to summon Mrs. Kuo to take care of the two prosti­tutes. These things having been attended to, they went on to Judge Dee's office. They told the two soldiers to wait in the cor­ridor outside.

The judge was deep in conversation with Hoong and Tao Gan, but when he saw his two other lieutenants enter he ordered them to report immediately.

Ma Joong gave a detailed account of what had happened in the market, saying in conclusion that the two soldiers were wait­ing outside.

Judge Dee looked very pleased. He said:

"Together with what Tao Gan found out, we now have at least a general idea of what happened to that girl. But bring those soldiers in first."

When the two soldiers had respectfully greeted the judge, he made them tell their story again in detail. Then he said:

"Your information is very important. I'll give you a letter to the military commander, proposing that you two be assigned to garrison duty in the neighboring district, so that I can summon you to deliver testimony should that prove necessary. The Sergeant shall now take you to the jail and confront you with a suspect there, then you'll go to the chancery and dictate a statement to the clerk. You can go."

The soldiers thanked the judge profusely, overjoyed to get this extension of their leave. When Sergeant Hoong had left together with them, the judge took a sheet of official letter paper and wrote the note to the military commander. Then he told Tao Gan to give Ma Joong and Chiao Tai an account of what he had learned in the gambling den and in the restaurant. When Tao Gan had finished, Hoong came back and reported that the two soldiers had immediately recognized Pan Feng as the horseman they had seen outside the city.

Judge Dee emptied his teacup, then he spoke:

"Let's now survey what we have. First, as regards the murder of Mrs. Pan. Now that Pan Feng's story about his meeting with the so-called robbers has proved true, I hardly doubt that the rest of what he said is also correct. To be quite sure we'll wait till the constables I sent to Five Rams Village are back, then we'll set Pan free. Personally I am convinced he is completely innocent. We must concentrate on getting a clue to the third person, the man who murdered Mrs. Pan sometime between noon of the fif­teenth, and the morning of the sixteenth of this month."

"Since the murderer must have known in advance that Pan would be leaving the city that afternoon," Tao Gan observed, "he must be someone who knew the Pans well. Yeh Tai could give us information on Mrs. Pan's acquaintances, he was apparently very intimate with his sister."

"We shall examine Yeh Tai in any case," Judge Dee said. "What you heard about him in the gambling den shows that a thorough investigation of that fellow's activities is indicated. And I myself shall question Pan Feng about his friends and acquaint­ances. Now we come to the disappearance of Miss Liao Lien-fang. Tao Gan's friend, the rice merchant, told him that she had a secret tryst with a young man in a house of assignation in the market, near a wine house called The Breeze of Spring. Evidently that is the same house mentioned by the tout. A few days later a woman accosts Miss Liao in that same neighborhood, and she slips away with her. I presume that the woman told her that her lover was waiting for her, therefore she immediately went away with her. The role played by the hooded man we can only guess at."

"Evidently he was not the girl's lover," Sergeant Hoong said. "The rice merchant described him as a thin young man, while the dumb boy spoke about a big, burly fellow."

Judge Dee nodded. He pensively caressed his side whiskers for some time. Then he pursued:

"As soon as Tao Gan had told me about Miss Liao's secret meeting, I sent the headman to the shop of the rice merchant, who is to take him to the market and point out the house. Then the headman was to go to Chu Ta-yuan's mansion, and summon Yu Kang, Go and see whether the headman has come back, Sergeant."

When Hoong came in again he said:

"The house which Miss Liao left was indeed the one across the street from the wine house. The neighbors told the headman that the proprietress died day before yesterday, and that the only maid employed there went back to the country. They knew that queer things were happening in that house, often there was much noise till deep in the night, but they thought it wise to pretend they didn't notice it. The headman had the door broken open. The house was better furnished than one would have expected in that neighborhood. It has been standing empty since the proprietress died, nobody has yet shown up to claim it. The headman has made an inventory, then he had the house sealed."

"I doubt whether that inventory will be very complete," the judge remarked. "Most of the movable property'll now be dec­orating the headman's house, I presume. I mistrust those sudden attacks of zeal of that fellow. Well, it's a pity that proprietress had to die just at this time, she could have told us much about Miss Liao's secret lover. Has Yu Kang arrived?"

"He is sitting in the guardhouse, Your Honor," replied Hoong. "I shall get him now."

When Sergeant Hoong brought Yu Kang in, the judge thought that the handsome young man was really looking ill. His mouth twitched nervously, and he could not keep his hands still.

"Sit down, Yu Kang," the judge said kindly. "We are making some progress with our investigation but I feel we should know more about the background of your fiancee. Tell me, how long have you known each other?"

"Three years, Your Honor," Yu Kang replied softly.

Judge Dee raised his eyebrows. He remarked:

"The ancients have said that when a match between two young persons has been agreed upon, it is to the advantage of all con­cerned if the wedding takes place as soon as they have reached marriageable age."

Yu Kang's face went red. He said hurriedly:

"Old Mr. Liao is very fond of his daughter, Your Honor, and seemed loath to part with her. As to my own parents, since they live far away in the south, they have asked the Honorable Chu Ta-yuan to act on their behalf in all matters concerning me. I have been living in Mr. Chu's mansion ever since I came here, and he fears, quite understandably, that after I have established my own household, he will no longer be able to command my time. He has always been like a father to me, Your Honor, and I felt I could not insist on his consent to an early marriage."

Judge Dee made no comment. He asked instead:

"What do you think happened to Lien-fang?"

"I don't know!" the young man cried out. "I have been thinking and thinking, I am so afraid . . ."

The judge looked silently at Yu Kang as he was sitting there wringing his hands. Tears were flowing down his cheeks.

"Is it not," he asked suddenly, "that you fear that she has gone away with another man?"

Yu Kang looked up. Smiling through his tears he said:

"No, Your Honor, that is absolutely out of the question! Lien-fang and a secret lover! No, that at least I am sure of, Your Honor."

"In that case," the judge said gravely, "I have bad news for you, Yu Kang. A few days before her disappearance she was seen leaving a house of assignation in the market, together with a young man."

Yu Kang's face turned ashen. He stared at Judge Dee with wide eyes, as if he had seen a ghost. Suddenly he burst out:

"Now our secret is known! I am lost!"

He broke down in convulsive sobs. On a sign of Judge Dee the Sergeant offered him a cup of tea. The young man greedily gulped it down. Then he said in a calmer voice:

"Your Honor, Lien-fang killed herself, and I am responsible for her death!"

Judge Dee leaned back in his chair. "Explain yourself, Yu Kang."

With an effort the youngster mastered his emotion. He began:

"One day, now about six weeks ago, Lien-fang came with her duenna to the Chu mansion to deliver a message from her mother to Mr. Chu's First Lady. The lady was taking her bath, and they had to wait. Lien-fang went to take a walk in one of the gardens, and I saw her there. My own room is located in that part of the compound; I persuaded her to go inside with me. . . . Thereafter we had a few secret meetings in that house on the market. An old friend of her duenna had a shop nearby, and the old woman did not mind Lien-fang's going to look at the street stalls alone while she had an interminable talk with the other old lady. We had our last meeting there two days before her disappearance."

"Thus it was you who was seen leaving that house!" Judge Dee interrupted.

"Yes, Your Honor," Yu Kang replied in a forlorn voice, "it was me. That day Lien-fang told me that she thought she was pregnant. She was frantic, because our shameful conduct would now become known. I also was in great consternation. I knew that Mr. Liao would probably expel her from his house, and Mr. Chu would certainly send me back to my parents in disgrace. I promised her that I would do my utmost to obtain Mr. Chu's consent to an early marriage, and Lien-fang said she would do the same with her father.

"I approached my master that same evening, but he flew into a rage and called me an ungrateful rascal. I wrote a secret note to Lien-fang, urging her to do her best with her father. Evidently Mr. Liao also refused. The poor girl must have become desperate, and killed herself by jumping into a well. And I, miserable wretch, am responsible for her death!"

He burst out in tears. After a while he said in a broken voice:

"My secret has been oppressing me all these days; every hour I expected to hear that her body had been found. And then that horrible man Yeh Tai came and said that he knew about my meeting Lien-fang in my room. I gave him money, but he wanted more every time! Today he came again and . . ."

"How," Judge Dee interrupted him, "did Yeh Tai come to know your secret?"

"Apparently," Yu Kang answered, "an old maidservant called Liu had spied on us. She had formerly served in the Yeh family as Yeh Tai's nurse, and she told him about it when they stood gossiping together in the corridor outside Chu's library. Yeh Tai was waiting there to see him on some business transaction. Yeh Tai assured me that the old woman had promised him to tell no one else about it."

"The old woman herself did not bother you?" the judge asked.

"No, Your Honor," Yu Kang replied, "but I myself tried to talk to her to make sure that she would keep her promise. Until to­day, however, I did not succeed in getting hold of her." Seeing Judge Dee's astonished look, Yu Kang quickly explained: "My master has divided the mansion into eight separate households, each with its own kitchen and its own servants. The main part of the compound is occupied by Mr. Chu himself, his First Lady, and his office, also including my quarters. Then there are separate quarters for each of my master's seven other wives. Since there are scores of servants, and since all have strict orders to keep to their own part of the compound, it is not easy for me to seek out one for a private talk.

"This morning, however, I happened to see the old woman Liu when I came out of my master's office, having talked over the accounts of the tenant farmers with him. I quickly asked her what she had told Yeh Tai about Lien-fang and me, but she pretended not to know what I was talking about. Apparently she is still completely loyal to Yeh Tai." Then he added miserably: "In any case it doesn't matter now any more whether she keeps the secret or not!"

"It does matter, Yu Kang," the judge said quickly. "I have proof that Lien-fang did not kill herself, but that she was ab­ducted."

"Who did it?" Yu Kang cried out. "Where is she?"

Judge Dee raised his hand.

"The investigation is still in progress," he said calmly. "You shall keep your secret, so as not to give warning to Lien-fang's kidnaper. When Yeh Tai comes again to ask for money, you shall tell him only to come back in a day or two. I trust that in the meantime I shall have located your fiancee, and apprehended the criminal who abducted her by a mean ruse.

"You have behaved in a most reprehensible manner, Yu Kang. Instead of guiding that young girl, you took advantage of her affection and gratified a desire you had not yet the right to gratify. Betrothal and marriage are not a private affair. It is a solemn pact involving all the members of the two families concerned, whether alive or dead. You offended the ancestors to whom the betrothal was announced before the family altar, and you also debased your future bride. At the same time you provided a criminal with the means for getting her in his clutches, for he lured her away by falsely saying that you were waiting for her. You also wantonly prolonged the misery she must be living in now by not reporting to me the truth as soon as you learned about her disappearance. You have much to make good to her, Yu Kang! Now you can go, I shall summon you again when I have located her."

The young man wanted to speak but he couldn't manage to bring out a word. He turned around and staggered to the door.

Judge Dee's assistants broke out in excited speech. But the judge raised his hand. He said:

"This information solves the case of Miss Liao. It must be that scoundrel Yeh Tai who organized the abduction, for next to the old maid he was the only one who knew their secret. And the description the dumb boy gave of the hooded man fits him exactly. The woman he used for delivering the faked message must have been the proprietress of the house of assignation. But she didn't take her there, she must have brought her to some other secret haunt where Yeh Tai keeps Miss Liao now confined—whether for his own lust or for selling her to others we have yet to find out. He knows he is quite safe, for the unfortunate girl will now of course never dare to approach her fiancee or her parents. Heaven knows how she is being maltreated! And as if that were not enough, the brazen rascal dares to blackmail Yu Kang!"

"Shall I go now and get that sunny character, Your Honor?" Ma Joong asked hopefully.

"By all means!" Judge Dee said. "Go together with Chiao Tai to Yeh's house; the brothers will probably be eating their evening rice now. Just watch the house. When Yeh Tai goes out, you fol­low him, he'll take you to his secret haunt. When he is inside you arrest him and everybody else there who seems involved. You needn't be too careful while handling Yeh Tai, only don't damage him so much that I can't question him any more! Good luck."