Judge Dee at Work by Gulik Robert van

Author:Gulik, Robert van [Gulik, Robert van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, China, Police Proceedural
Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons
Published: 1967-03-21T05:00:00+00:00

SHE WAS STANDING IN THE DOORWAY, HER TORSO NAKED

frogs, and feared there was an intruder. So I came to have a look and…’

‘And asked the intruder to come inside quickly! If you must lie, you’d better be more clever about it! Show me your bedroom where you were waiting for your lover!’

Silently she took the candle from the table, and led the judge to a small side room. It only contained a narrow plank-bed, covered by a thin reed mat. The judge quickly stepped up to the bed and felt the mat. It was still warm from her body. Righting himself, he asked sharply: ‘Do you always sleep here?’

‘No, Your Honour, this is the servant’s room, the boy uses it for his afternoon nap. My bedroom is over on the other side of the hall we passed just now.’

‘Take me there!’

When she had crossed the hall and shown the judge into the large bedroom he took the candle from her and quickly looked the room over. There was a dressing-table with a bamboo chair, four clothes-boxes, and a large bedstead. Judge Dee pulled the bedcurtains aside. He saw that the thick bedmat of soft reed had been rolled up, and that the pillows had been stored away in the recess in the back wall. He turned round to her and said angrily, ‘I don’t care where you were going to sleep with your lover, I only want to know his name. Speak up!’

She didn’t answer, she only gave him a sidelong glance. Then her loin-cloth slipped down to the floor and she stood there stark naked. Covering herself with her hands, she looked coyly at him.

Judge Dee turned away. ‘Those silly tricks bore me,’ he said coldly. ‘Get dressed at once, you’ll come with me to the tribunal and pass the night in jail. Tomorrow I shall interrogate you in court, if necessary under torture.’

She silently opened a clothes-box and started to dress. The judge went to the hall and sat down there. He reflected that she was prepared to go a long way to shield her lover. Then he shrugged. Since she was a former courtesan, it wasn’t really such a very long way. When she came in, fully dressed, he motioned her to follow him.

They met the night watch at the entrance of the Willow Quarter. The judge told their leader to take Mrs Meng in a sedan chair to the tribunal, and hand her to the warden of the jail. He was also to send four of his men to the dead poet’s house, they were to hide in the hall and arrest anyone who knocked. Then Judge Dee walked back at a leisurely pace, deep in thought.

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