Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Robert van Gulik

Author:Robert van Gulik
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789085241522
Publisher: For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Published: 1947-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

15

DJAO GIVES A CLEAR ACCOUNT OF THE REAL MURDERER; JUDGE DEE ALLOWS MRS. DIOU TO RETURN TO HER HOME.

This story impressed Judge Dee, but it failed to convince him. He thought that this man Djao had all the marks of a hardened criminal. Djiang Djung, after all, was a former highway robber. He would not put it beyond them to have invented this story just to avert suspicion.

Ma Joong guessed the judge’s train of thought, and said:

“Your Honour, there is no reason to doubt. Since brother Djiang has guaranteed that this man Djao is an honest merchant, it is certain that he is not implicated in this case. Perhaps he himself can give an adequate explanation of how he happened to have the bales of the murdered man.”

“Brother Djao,” Warden Djiang said, “report to His Excellency here exactly what happened. In our brotherhood everything must be clear and honest. Moreover I am the warden of this village, on the border of the Chang-ping district and so I am also partly responsible for seeing that the real murderer is brought to justice.”

“This,” Djao began, “is a most vexing story. The murder was committed by a man called Shao, who, not content with having done this foul deed, also managed to drag me into it. The full name of the fellow is Shao Lee-huai, a native of Kiangsu Province. Just as I, he is a travelling silk merchant, who buys the raw silk cheaply in Kiangsu during the season and then peddles it along the highways here in Shantung. I often met him on the road.

“Last month, when I was buying raw silk in Kiangsu, he left there earlier, together with a young colleague of ours, called Liu. Now the other day I met Shao alone on the road near Chang-ping, pushing a cart loaded with bales of silk. I asked him where young Liu had gone and why he was travelling alone. That is not a wise thing to do if you carry valuable merchandise. He sighed and told me a long tale of woe. Liu had succumbed from a sudden and violent illness on the road; by dint of much trouble he had purchased a coffin for him and had it temporarily put up in some temple, spending the last copper of his travelling funds on a fee for the priests. Then it proved that, through this delay, he had missed the right time for selling his silk at a good profit. If it were not for his efforts to help a dead colleague, and have his body decently encoffined, he would have been back home again by now with a sizable profit in his pocket. I believed this story and asked him where he was going. He said that for the time being he did not intend to go back south since he feared that Liu’s family would hold him responsible for his death. He borrowed 300 pieces of silver from me and gave me the cart with the silk as a security.

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