Murder in Canton by Gulik Robert van

Author:Gulik, Robert van [Gulik, Robert van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9780226849058
Google: h_Egg_bsI40C
Amazon: B004HO5M8A
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2010-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

XIII

Chiao Tai had arrived at the palace two hours earlier, shortly after Judge Dee had left for the visit to Liang Foo. The majordomo ushered him into the hall of Judge Dee’s wing.

Since that solemn palace employee had told Chiao Tai the judge was not expected back till noon, he went to the sandalwood couch, stepped out of his boots and threw himself down on the soft pillows. He intended to take a good nap.

But tired as he was, he could not get to sleep. He tossed about for a while, his spirits sinking lower and lower. Don’t you get sentimental, at your age, you blasted fool! He told himself angrily. Didn’t even pinch the behinds of those twin hussies at Nee’s, and they were practically asking for it! And what the hell is wrong with my left ear? He stuck his little finger into it and turned it round vigorously, but a ringing noise persisted. Then he located the sound. It came from his left sleeve.

He groped inside and brought out a small package about an inch square, wrapped up neatly in red paper. On it was written in a thin, spidery hand: To Mr Tao. Personal.

‘So it’s from her! ‘ he muttered. ‘Must have got a girl friend, the wench that bumped into me in front of the captain’s house. The quick-fingered hussy slipped this into my sleeve. How did she know I would be visiting Nee, though? ‘

He got up and went to the entrance of the hall. He put the package on the side table there, as far as possible from Judge Dee’s desk. Then he returned to the sandalwood couch and laid himself down again. This time he slept at once.

He woke up only towards noon. He had just stepped into his boots and was stretching his stiff limbs luxuriously when the door opened and the majordomo showed Judge Dee and Tao Gan inside.

Judge Dee walked straight to his desk in the rear of the hall. While Chiao Tai and Tao Gan sat down in their accustomed seats, the judge took a large city map from a drawer and spread it out in front of him. Then he said to Chiao Tai:

‘We had a long talk with Liang Foo. Our first assumption seems to have been right, after all. The Censor must have come back to Canton because he had discovered that the Arabs here are planning to make trouble.’

Chiao Tai listened intently while Judge Dee gave him a summary of the conversation. The judge concluded:

‘Liang confirmed what the prostitute in the temple told me, namely, that the Arabs frequent the Tanka brothels. So there is plenty of opportunity for those two groups to get together. That explains why the Censor was murdered with a poison peculiar to those sinister waterfolk. And the dwarf whom you two saw in the wine house on the quay, together with the Arab assassin, was evidently a Tanka. Now the unknown person who strangled that assassin in the passage used the silk scarf of a Tanka murderer.

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