Poisoned Bride and Other Judge Dee Mysteries (18 page)

“I plead guilty to having used unbecoming language, and having behaved in an unseemly manner. But I deny most emphatically that I have poisoned young Mrs. Hua. And as to my having had the opportunity to put the poison in the teapot, I respectfully draw Your Honour’s attention to the fact that at least forty other guests had this same opportunity, not to mention the servants!”

Thereupon Judge Dee ordered the maid servant Chen brought before him. To her he said:

“Your master has accused this Hoo Dso-bin of having poisoned your young mistress, but he persistently professes his innocence. Now you are an important witness. Tell me again exactly what happened on that night. Leave out no detail, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you”.

“Your Honour’s slave,” the maid said, “can testify that, until the bride and bridegroom came back with the group of guests, nobody entered the bridal room after I had filled the teapot for the second time. They all were laughing and shouting and making good-natured jokes, only Mr. Hoo said all kinds of unpleasant things, and pushed people about. I myself saw him repeatedly approach the couch and the tea table. Later he threatened His Excellency the Senior Graduate, and I am convinced that it was he who put the poison in the teapot”.

“Your Honour”, Candidate Hoo exclaimed, “this is outrageous slander! I beg you to ask her whether see actually saw me as much as touch that teapot!”

The old maid had to admit that she could not testify to that. Then Judge Dee asked her:

“Now when did you go to the kitchen to eat your evening rice?”

“I don’t remember the exact time,” she answered, “but I left the room when I heard that the wedding ceremony had started in the main hall. Soon after I came back, I heard the guests laughing in the distance. So then the ceremony must have beenover, and the wine must have been served.”

Judge Dee shouted at Candidate Hoo:

“So when the guests in the main hall were busy observing the ceremony, and this servant was in the kitchen eating her meal, you sneaked into the bridal room and poisoned the tea! Confess your crime!” Candidate Hoo knocked his head on the floor, and said:

“I beg Your Honour’s favourable consideration. I did not leave the hall once, as can be attested by two of my friends who stood right by my side all the time. After the ceremony I personally drank some toasts with the bridegroom. The first time I entered the bridal room was when we all went there together. This is the complete truth”.

Judge Dee remained in thought for a while, slowly caressing his beard. He did not think for a moment that Hoo was guilty. His questioning was merely meant to show old Mr. Hua behind the screen that he did not overlook any possibility. Neither did he think that the old maid had a hand in this affair. He was trying to formulate some more questions when a servant bringing him a cup of tea gave a welcome opportunity for a longer pause.

While he was slowly raising the cup to his lips, Judge Dee noticed some particles of white dust floating on the surface. He said to the servant: “How dare you to bring me this dirty tea?” The servant looked at the cup, and said hastily:

“This is not the fault of this person. I saw to it that the cup was clean, and I personally put the tea leaves in the teapot. It must be that some dust or plaster fell down from the ceiling when the cook was heating the water in the kitchen. Allow your servant quickly to prepare another cup”.

On hearing this, Judge Dee was suddenly struck by a new thought. He sternly asked the old maid servant of the Hua mansion:

“Where did you get the hot water to make the tea that night? Are you sure you took it from the pan in the large kitchen?”

She was greatly startled by this sudden question and answered in a faltering voice:

“As your Honour’s slave stated before, I used the water that had been boiled in the large pan in the kitchen of the mansion”.

Judger Dee gave her a sour look and said to her and to Candidate Hoo:

“Now I know the key to this mysterious case of poisoning. Both of you shall be temporarily detained until tomorrow when I shall have solved this case”.

Having thus spoken, Judge Dee left the dais and went back to his private office. Old Mr. Hua, hearing all that had been said through the screen had worked himself up into a great rage, because Judge Dee did not put the screws on Candidate Hoo. Seeing Judge Dee, he said with a sneer:

“I have followed your interrogation with considerable interest. I observe that the methods of judges have changed greatly since my own days. In my time we treated a criminal as a criminal. When he refused to confess, we put the screws on him. You will forgive that I, seeing that your methods fail to produce the slightest result, plan to bring this case before the prefect. We will see whether he shares your views.”

He rose to take his leave. Judge Dee, however, detained him, saying:

“The case that was born in your honourable mansion is already perfectly clear to me. I beg you to have patience until tomorrow. Then I shall give myself the honour of calling on you personally for an experiment. If that should fail, I will insist that this case be brought before the higher authorities.”

Mr. Hua evidently thought that this was another attempt at procrastination, but he could not well decline the polite proposal. So he said stiffly:

“I shall welcome the honour of receiving your visit”, and took his leave.

A young constable in the guard house, seeing Mr. Hua stalk by, said to the headman:

“That old gentleman looks very angry. Why has our judge waited two days before starting the second interrogation?”

“Young man”, the headman said condescendingly, “I see that you have still much to learn. Now listen to me. The case of Six Mile Village was just a common street murder. The only time that I saw money change hands in that case was when His Excellency gave a reward of a hundred silver pieces to that fellow Djao Wan-chuan. And did Djao give one copper of that sum to us? After all it was the constables, under my expert supervision, who brought the criminal to confess, while Djao only made a nice trip on the tribunal’s expense. The boorish yokel! And take now that case of Bee Hsun, that is just a vulgar domestic brawl. But this case of the Senior Graduate Hua”

The headman smiled broadly, and, caressing his side whiskers, continued:

“This is a very important case. Don’t you know that Mrs. Lee owns most of the large houses in the main street, and have you figured out what she receives every month in rent alone? And old Mr. Hua, well, he was prefect in Kwantung Province, and he managed his affairs exceedingly well; he owns the two largest silver shops in this city, to say nothing of the land he owns outside the East gate. Both he and Mrs. Lee are highly cultivated persons who know how one should behave in a crisis like this. Has not Mr. Hua given us a silver piece for all the trouble we took the other day when the judge made his investigation in his mansion? Did we not have two fine meals there? And has not Mrs. Hoo given the constables guarding her son in the School of the Classics two silverpieces for looking after his food? Moreover has she not given them a certain sum for allowing her to visit him every day? And don’t think that that was a small sum just because the guards gave me only a few coppers of it!”

Having said this the headman gave two constables standing there a nasty look, which they pretended to ignore. Then the young constable asked: “But is it not true that Candidate Hoo is guilty?”

“Of course he is guilty, you stupid person”, the headman said, “but our judge knows that such a refined young gentleman will confess as soon as we lay our hands on him. And if we solve such an important case the very next day, will not Mrs. Lee and Mr. Hua think that it was all too easy? No, young man, a case involving our local gentry must be treated with much circumspection. It must be studied from every angle and without undue hurry, so that they see with their own eyes how diligent we are on our jobs. When at long last the case is solved, they will have to give us a reward in proportion to our labours.”

While the constables were engaged in this idle talk, Ma Joong went to Judge Dee’s private office, and tried to find out from him what new clue he had discovered. But Judge Dee only smiled and repeated that the following day the case would be cleared up. While they were talking, Sergeant Hoong and Tao Gan entered and respectfully greeted the judge. He asked the sergeant:

“You have been gone now for several days. Did your watch in Huang-hua village produce any results?”

“Following Your Honour’s instructions”, the sergeant said, “we have been staying under cover during the daytime in Warden Ho Kai’s house. Every day after dark we have gone out to watch Mrs. Bee’s house. We could not, however, discover anything unusual. At last we became impatient. Yesterday Tao Gan and I decided that we would try to have a closer look at things. So when the second night watch had sounded, we climbed on the roof of Mrs. Bee’s house and stretched ourselves out on the tiles to hear what the two women were talking about. First Mrs. Djou scolded her mother for quite some time, saying that it was she who had started all the trouble by inviting Your Honour in doctor’s disguise to their house. This seems to be Mrs. Djou’s favourite theme for their after dinner conversation. Then the dumb daughter suddenly started to make some loud noises. Mrs. Djou shouted at her ‘You little brat, what are you startling us for? That is just some rats under the floor. Go to sleep. Your grandmother and I are also going to bed.’ This seemed queer to Tao Gan and myself. Why should that girl get so excited just because she heard a rat? Soon afterwards Mrs. Bee and Mrs. Djou apparently went to bed, each in her own room. We stayed where we were. An hour or so later we heard some sounds in Mrs. Djou’s room. We glued our ears to the roof but we could not hear clearly. Still we got the definite impression that two people were talking in low voices; one was the voice of Mrs. Djou, the other we could not recognise, but it sounded like a man’s voice. I thought this incident important enough to report to Your Honour”.

“Although we could not find a Mr. Hsu living in the neighbourhood, we checked on the right neighbour of Mrs. Bee as a matter of routine; for that is the compound adjoining Mrs. Djou’s room. We found that there is but one single dividing wall. It would seem that Mrs. Bee’s house was part of that larger compound originally. So we thought that there might be a secret passage in that wall, and that Mrs. Djou and her lover went in and out by way of that neighbouring compound, or perhaps met clandestinely in a room of that house. We made inquiries, but it turned out that the inhabitants of that compound are eminently respectable people. It belongs to a Doctor of Literature, called Tang Deh-djung. Although he is living in retirement in that small village, it seems that he is quite famous in the literary world. He hardly ever goes out, spending day and night among his books in his library. There are half a dozen or so of the doctor’s disciples living there, all sons of prominent families of this province whom Doctor Tang instructs in the Classics. Warden Ho Kai has their names in his register, but there is no one among them of the surname Hsu. Even so, I would like very much to make an investigation there. But since Doctor Tang is such a distinguished gentleman, I did not dare to go there without a good excuse”.

Judge Dee thought for a while. Then he smiled and gave one of his official visiting cards to Sergeant Hoong.

“Take this card with you,” he said, “and go with Warden Ho Kai to Doctor Tang’s house. You tell him that the district magistrate desires to see the doctor in the tribunal to consult him regarding an official matter. Tomorrow I also shall proceed to Huang-hua Village. Then I shall tell you the further details of my plan”.

Early the next morning Judge Dee put on a simple blue robe and an ordinary small black cap. Taking with him only Ma Joong, Chiao Tai and two constables, he proceeded to the mansion of Mr. Hua.

When the house steward was leading them to the reception hall, Mr. Hua was standing there, clad in his house robe, supervising the servants putting everything in order for the reception of the judge. Seeing Judge Dee crossing the courtyard, he wanted to leave hurriedly to change into his official dress. But Judge Dee retained him, saying:

“Don’t go to any trouble on my account. Today I have come here rather as a friend of your esteemed family than as the magistrate. Please call the person in charge of boiling the water for the use of the household for me.”

Old Mr. Hua did not know what to make of all this. But he sent his steward to the family kitchen, who soon returned with a young maid of about eighteen. She hastily prostrated herself in front of the judge and knocked her head on the floor. Judge Dee said kindly:

“We are not in the tribunal here, so don’t be so formal. Just stand here and listen to me. Now you remember the day of the wedding. Did not the maid servant Chen fetch hot water from the kitchen two times?” When the maid had affirmed this, Judge Dee continued: “Now tell me exactly what happened in the kitchen. Did you fill the pitcher for her from the large water pan or did she take it herself?”

“The first time Aunt Chen came”, the young maid said, “Your Honour’s slave herself ladled hot water from the pan into her pitcher. The second time she came I had just gone to the reception hall to help serving the tea and cakes there. When I came back to the kitchen, Aunt Chen was standing on the porch outside the kitchen, with a pitcher of hot water in her hand; she looked sourly at a small waterpan overturned on the floor. It turned out that while I was away the cooks had been so busy preparing the meal for the wedding guests that they had let the fire under the large waterpan go out. Aunt Chen, seeing that there was no hot water, and that it would take a long time to rekindle the fire under the large pan, had taken a small portable stove out to the porch. She lighted it with coal from the large oven and heated a small pan of water. When it boiled, she had filled her pitcher, but then the pan slipped from her hands and overturned on the floor. I asked her if she had scalded her feet. She said not and left the kitchen. That is all I know about this affair.”

Judge Dee nodded contentedly and ordered Ma Joong to go to the tribunal quickly and fetch the maid servant Chen; he was also to instruct the headman of the constables to go to the School of the Classics and bring Candidate Hoo from there to the tribunal.

In the mean time Judge Dee sipped several cups of tea, and exasperated old Mr. Hua by talking about other matters, refusing to say one word about the case.

As soon as the old maid Chen was before him Judge Dee took on his role of magistrate again, and shouted angrily at her: “You stupid old woman, why did you lie to me? Why did you say that both times you went to fetch water from the kitchen, you took it from the large pan? I have found out now that the second time you heated the water yourself on a small stove outside on the porch. Why did you not report this, although I, the judge, instructed you to omit no detail?”

The old maid, thus harshly addressed, knocked her head on the floor several times in great consternation. She said in a quavering voice:

“I beg Your Honour’s pardon. The other day in the tribunal I was so confused by everything that I completely forgot about this occurrence. I pray that Your Honour’s slave will be treated leniently”.

Judge Dee pounded the table with his fist, and said angrily: “Your stupidity, woman, has deferred the solution of this case several days. I shall presently give you the punishment that you deserve”. Then Judge Dee said to Mr. Hua: “We shall now go to the family kitchen”.

By now old Mr. Hua was completely at a loss as to what to think about all this. Without a word he rose and preceded judge Dee through various galleries and courtyards till they reached the large kitchen of the mansion.

Judge Dee looked around. On the right was a large brick oven, where three cooks were busy with their pans and ladles. By its side stood a second brick stove; on top of it a huge iron pan, where the water for the use of the household was boiling. The kitchen opened on a small well yard and a porch with a floor of stamped earth. Judge Dee went out on the porch and looked up. He saw that the roof over the porch was very old. The eaves were covered with cobwebs and one beam especially was blackened by age, and seemed rapidly mouldering away. The whole roof seemed to be so old that it might crash down any day. Judge Dee turned to the maid Chen, and asked her:

“It was out on this porch that you lighted the small stove, was it not?” When the old maid servant had affirmed this, he continued: “Now I shall tell you how you shall be punished for delivering false testimony in court. Bring out a portable stove. Put it in exactly the same place as that day of the wedding and boil here water till I tell you to stop. I shall sit here and see to it that this order is carried out properly”. To Mr. Hua he said: “I beg you to have two chairs placed here”.

Old Mr. Hua had now recovered from his astonishment and become very cross. He said:

“You are the judge and I suppose you know what you are doing. But if you think that I am going to take part in this theatrical performance, you are completely wrong. I decline all responsibility for this farce”.

He wanted to leave, but Judge Dee said to him with a cold smile:

“All this may seem a farce to you, but I, the magistrate, assure you that this farce will solve the case. So I advise you not to engage in idle talk”.

In the mean time the servants had brought two armchairs and placed them side by side on the porch. Judge Dee sat down gravely and offered the other chair to Mr. Hua. The old gentleman was fuming with suppressed rage, but he did not want to make a scene in front of the cooks and the servants who were crowding the kitchen, curious to see what was going to happen. So Mr. Hua sat down by the judge’s side.

The old maidservant had placed a portable clay stove on the porch and started fanning the coals to heat the water in the iron pan standing on top. After a while it started to boil and steam curled up to the eaves.Judge Dee seemed to find this proceeding of absorbing interest. Leaning back comfortably in his chair, he watched the old maid’s every movement, slowly caressing his beard.

After half an hour or so, the water had nearly evaporated. The maid looked bewildered to Judge Dee. He shouted immediately at her:

“Why don’t you add more water? And keep on fanning the stove!”

She scurried to the cold water basin in the yard and added water in the pan. Then she squatted down again in front of the stove, and fanned the fire vigorously till the perspiration streamed down her face. Soon the steam was curling up again.

Mr. Hua, who had been fretting in his chair, now thought that this had lasted long enough and abruptly rose from his chair. But Judge Dee laid his hand on his arm, and said:

“Just wait a while, and look! There is the poison that killed your daughter”.

He pointed upwards to the roof of the porch. Mr. Hua followed his direction. On the mouldering beam, exactly above the stove, something red shimmered. Judge Dee kept pointing with his finger. Ma Joong, Chiao Tai, the constables, the servants, all came forward and looked intently at the roof.

They saw the shining body of a red adder slowly crawl out of the mouldering spot in the beam; when about two inches had become visible, the adder raised its evil small head, and moved it to and fro, apparently enjoying the warm moisture of the steam. Suddenly it opened its ugly mouth, and a few drops of venom dropped down into the pan with boiling water. Judge Dee dropped his hand, and said: “That is the murderer of the bride”.

The old maidservant, who had been squatting there looking up at the evil thing above, paralysed with fear, now emitted a piercing cry and the adder hastily withdrew into its hole. A murmur of astonishment and admiration went up from the crowd assembled there. Mr. Hua sat motionless in his chair, still looking up at the roof in complete stupefaction. Judge Dee rose from his chair, and said to Mr. Hua:

“Exactly the same thing occurred on the day that your daughter-in-law died. Fate had decided that her young life should thus be cut short. The water used for making tea in your household is always heated inside the kitchen itself, in the large iron pan. But it so happened on that particular day, that the old maid servant heated the water here outside on the porch. The adder nestling in the mouldering beam was attracted by the hot steam, and its venom dropped in the pan underneath. Fortunately the maid Chen let the pan slip from her hands, and the poisoned water was spilt on the earthen floor; else several other people would have died using it. But this happened after she had filled the pitcher which she took to the bridal room, and poured into the teapot by the side of the couch. From the beginning I noticed that peculiar musty smell in the bridal room, but I could not locate its origin. If the maid servant Chen had told me that she had heated the water here on the porch, I would have solved this case much earlier. Thus nobody is guilty, except that you, as head of this household, bear a heavy responsibility for being so lax in supervising affairs in your mansion as to allow the roof of this porch to fall into such a disgraceful condition of decay”.

Old Mr. Hua stood with bowed head while Judge Dee delivered this speech. He could not find one word in answer.

Judge Dee ordered all the servants to clear the kitchen, and told the two constables to fetch a long stake. He ordered the cook to hand Chiao Tai a pair of fire tongs and stand in the yard in front of the cold water basin. When file constables had brought the stake the judge ordered Ma Joong to pull the roof down. It crashed to the floor at the first push, and the adder appeared, trying to crawl to the well. Chiao Tai grasped it by its neck with the fire tongs, while Ma Joong crushed its head with the end of the stake. Judge Dee told the constables to burn it, and to pour the tainted water in the pan into an old pitcher. This he sealed, and ordered the constables to take it to the tribunal, to be destroyed together with the dead dog and the teapot. Then he asked Mr. Hua to guide him back to the reception hall.

Wen-djun and old Mrs. Lee were waiting there. Judge Dee explained to them what had happened and added some appropriate words about the Will of Heaven. Mrs. Lee and Wen-djun were crying softly, while old Mr. Hua tried in vain to comfort them.

Judge Dee advised Mr. Hua to have masses read in the Buddhist temple for the peace of the bride’s soul. Then took his leave.