into the portal.
The doctor took them to the sitting room opposite. He seemed still to nurse a grievance over Judge Dee's remark about his son's dissipated life. His face had a surly expression when he said:
'If Your Honor walks down the corridor you'll find the door of the bedroom. With Your Honor's leave I shall wait here.'
Judge Dee nodded. Followed by Sergeant Hoong he passed through the dimly lit corridor. At the end they saw a door hanging loose on its hinges. The judge pushed it open and surveyed from the threshold the darkish room. It was fairly small, and lit only by the sunlight filtering in through the translucent paper pasted over the latticework of the only window.
Sergeant Hoong whispered excitedly:
'So Candidate Djang was Almond Blossom's lover!'
'And the fellow drowned himself!' Judge Dee replied testily. 'We have found the Student of the Bamboo Grove and lost him at the same time! There is one curious point, though. His handwriting is quite different from that of the love letters.' He stooped and continued: 'Look, a film of dust covers the floor. Apparently the professor spoke the truth when he said that nobody entered this room after Moon Fairy's body had been removed.'
The judge looked for a moment at the broad couch against the back wall. The reed mat that covered it showed some dark-red spots. On the right there was a dressing table, on the left a pile of clothes boxes. By the side of the couch stood a small tea table, with two tabourets. The air in the room was very close.
Judge Dee walked over to the window to open it. But it was locked by a wooden crossbar, covered with dust. He pushed it back with some difficulty. Through the iron bars he saw a corner of a vegetable garden surrounded by a high brick wall. There was a small door, apparently used by the cook when he came to gather vegetables.
The judge shook his head perplexedly. He said:
'The door was locked on the inside, Hoong, the window has solid iron bars and anyway hasn't been opened for several days at least. How in the name of Heaven did Candidate Djang leave this room that fateful night?'
The sergeant gave his master a puzzled look.
'That is very queer!' he said. And then, after some hesitation: 'Perhaps this room has a secret door, Your Honor!'
Judge Dee rose quickly. They pushed the couch away from the wall and studied the wall and the floor inch by inch. Then they examined also the other walls and the entire floor, but without result.
Judge Dee resumed his seat. Dusting his knees he said:
'Go back to the sitting room, Hoong, and order the professor to write out for me a list of all the friends and acquaintances of himself and his son. I shall stay here for a while and have a look around.'
After the sergeant had left, Judge Dee folded his arms. So now there was a new riddle to be solved. In the case of the dead dancer there were at least some definite leads. The motive was clear: the murderer wanted to prevent her from warning the judge about a secret plot. There were four suspects. A systematic investigation of their -relations with the courtesan would show who the culprit was, and then the plot he was planning would soon be known. The investigation was well under way, and now this queer affair had cropped up, a case where there were two main persons, and both of them dead! And here there seemed to be no lead at all! The professor was a curious man, but he did not seem the type of a philanderer. On the other hand, appearances are often deceptive, and Wan I-fan would hardly have dared to lie in court about the affair of his daughter. But neither would the professor have dared to lie when he said that his son didn't frequent the Willow Quarter. Dr. Djang was clever enough to know that such things could easily be checked. Perhaps the doctor himself had had an affair with the dancer, and used his son's pen name in his love letters! He wasn't so young any more, but he had a strong personality, and anyway it was always difficult to know a woman's preference. In any case they would compare the doctor's writing with that of the love letters; the list Hoong would have him draw up would provide them with a specimen. But the professor couldn't have murdered the dancer, because he hadn't been on board! Perhaps after all the dancer's love affair had nothing to do with her murder.
Judge Dee shifted on his chair. Suddenly he had the uneasy feeling that he was being watched. He turned to the open window.
A pale haggard face was looking at him with wide eyes.
The judge jumped up and ran to the window, but he stumbled over the second tabouret. He scrambled up but reached the window only in time to see the door in the garden wall close.
He rushed to the first courtyard and ordered Ma Joong and Chiao Tai to search at once the street outside for a man of medium height, his head shaved like that of a monk. Then he told the headman to assemble all the inmates of the household in the reception hall, and thereafter search the house to see that nobody was hiding there. He slowly walked over to the hall himself, his eyebrows knitted in a deep frown.
Sergeant Hoong and Dr. Djang came running out to see what all the commotion was about. Judge Dee ignored their questions. He curtly asked Dr. Djang:
'Why didn't you tell me there is a secret door in the bridal room?
The professor stared at the judge in blank astonishment.
'A secret door?' he asked. 'What would I, a retired scholar living in a reign of peace, need such a contraption for? I myself supervised the building of this house; I can assure Your Honor that there is no such thing in the entire building!'
'In that case,' Judge Dee remarked dryly, 'you had better find the explanation of how your son could have left his room. Its only window is barred, and the door was locked on the inside.'
The doctor clapped his hand against his forehead. He said, annoyed:
'To think that I didn't even realize that!'
'I'll give you an opportunity to ponder over that puzzle!' the judge said curtly. 'Until further notice you shall not leave this house. I shall now go to the Buddhist Temple and have an autopsy conducted on Moon Fairy's body. I deem this step necessary in the interests of justice, so you can spare yourself the trouble of protesting!'
Dr. Djang looked furious. But he restrained himself. He turned round and left the hall without another word.
The headman herded about a dozen men and women into the hall. 'That's all there was, Your Honor!' he announced.
Judge Dee quickly looked them over. No one showed any resemblance to the apparition he had seen outside the window. He questioned the maid Peony about her trying to rouse the newlywed couple, but her answers tallied exactly with the statement made by the professor.
When the judge had dismissed them, Ma Joong and Chiao Tai came in. The former wiped the sweat from his brow and said:
'We have searched the entire neighborhood, Your Honor, but without result. We found no one about but a lemonade vendor who sat snoring by the side of his cart. Because of the midday heat the streets were deserted. Next to the garden door we found two bundles of firewood, evidently left there by a pedlar, but the man himself was nowhere to be seen.'
Judge Dee told them briefly about the weird man who had been watching him from outside the window. Then he ordered the headman to go to the houses of Liu Fei-po and Guildmaster Wang, and to summon them to the Buddhist Temple for the autopsy. Ma Joong was to go there too, to see that the constables had put everything in order. To Chiao Tai he said: 'You'll stay here with two constables and see to it that Dr. Djang doesn't leave the house! And keep your eyes skinned for that queer fellow who watched me!'
The judge went to his palanquin, angrily swinging his sleeves. He ascended together with Sergeant Hoong, and they were carried to the temple.
As he climbed the broad steps of the gatehouse Judge Dee noticed that they were overgrown with weeds and that the red lacquer was peeling off the high pillars of the monumental gate. He remembered having heard that a few years before the monks had left and that the temple was now in charge of an old caretaker.
He walked with Hoong through a dilapidated corridor to the side hall of the temple. There he found Ma Joong waiting for him, together with the coroner and the constables. Ma Joong introduced three other men as the undertaker and his two assistants. On the right stood a high altar, completely bare. In front of it was the coffin, resting on two trestles. On the other side of the hall the constables had placed a large table for the temporary tribunal, flanked by a smaller table for the scribe. Before he went to sit behind the table, Judge Dee called the
