The Red Pavilion

Judge Dee nodded. 'Proceed!' he ordered the coroner.

'Apart from the blue spots on her throat, and a few scratches on her arms, the body of the deceased showed no signs of violence. Since this person was informed that last night she drank excessively, he arrived at the conclusion that, after she had laid herself down to sleep, she suddenly got short of breath. She jumped down from the bedstead and, in a frantic attempt to get air, caught with both hands at her own throat. Then she collapsed on the floor, in her last agony clawing at the carpet, as proved by the bits of red fluff I found under her fingernails. On the basis of these facts, Your Honour, I arrived at the conclusion that death was caused by a sudden heart attack.'

On a sign of the judge the clerk read out the coroner's statement as he had noted it down. When the coroner had affixed his thumbmark to it, Judge Dee dismissed him and asked Feng:

'What do you know about the courtesan's antecedents?'

Feng Dai took a sheaf of papers from his sleeve and replied:

'Early this morning I had all her papers sent over here from our main office, sir.' He consulted the documents and went on: 'She was the daughter of a small official in the capital, who sold her to a wine house when he got into debt. Being a well-educated and clever girl, she thought that being a prostitute attached to a wine house didn't offer her sufficient scope for her talents, and she began to sulk. Her owner then sold her to a procurer, for two gold bars. He brought her here to the island, and when our purchasing committee had seen her dance and heard her sing she was bought for three gold bars. That was about two years ago. She at once began to cultivate prominent scholars and artists who passed through here, and quickly became one of the leading courtesans. Four months ago, when the committee for choosing this year's Queen Flower met, she was unanimously elected. I see that there were never any complaints lodged against her, and she never got involved in any trouble.'

JUDGE DEE, ASSISTED BY WARDEN FENG, HEARS KIA YU-PO

All right,' Judge Dee said. 'You shall inform the next of kin of the dead woman that they can come to fetch the corpse, for burial. I now want to hear the testimony of the curio-dealer Wen Yuan.'

Wen gave the judge a bewildered look. When he had knelt down in front of the bench, Judge Dee ordered:

'Describe your movements after you had left the dinner in the Crane Bower!'

'This person left the dinner early, Your Honour, because he had an appointment with an important client. It was to discuss the purchase of a valuable antique painting, as a matter of fact. From the restaurant I went directly to my curio-shop.'

'Who was that client, and how long did he stay with you?'

'It was the Commissioner Hwang, Your Honour, who is now staying in the second hostel in this same street. But I waited for him in vain. When I went to see him just now, on my way here, he maintained that our appointment had not been for yesterday, but for tonight. I must have misunderstood him when talking with him two days ago.'

'Quite,' Judge Dee said. He gave a sign to the clerk, who read out Wen's statement. The curio-dealer agreed that it was correct and impressed his thumbmark on it. The judge dismissed him, and called Kia Yu-po before the bench. He spoke:

'The Candidate Kia Yu-po shall now state what he did after he had left the dinner.'

'This person,' Kia began, 'has the honour to report that he left the dinner earlier because he wasn't feeling well. He intended to proceed to the restaurant's bathroom, but by mistake went to the dressing-room of the courtesans. He asked a waiter to direct him to the bathroom, then left the restaurant and went on foot to the park. He walked around there till about the hour of midnight. Then he felt much better, and returned to his hostel.'

'It shall be so recorded,' Judge Dee said. When the poet had marked the clerk's notes with his thumbprint, the judge rapped his gavel and announced:

'The case of the demise of the courtesan Autumn Moon remains pending until further notice.'

Thereupon he closed the session. Before getting up he bent over to Ma Joong and whispered:

'Go and see that Commissioner Hwang. Then run over to the Crane Bower and to Kia's hostel and verify his statement. Come back here to report.' Turning to Feng Dai, he said: 'I want to have a private conversation with Mr Tao. Can you take us to a room where we shan't be disturbed?'

'Certainly sir! I'll take Your Honour to the garden pavilion. It's located in our backyard, close by my women's quarters; nobody from outside ever goes there.' He hesitated a moment, then continued, rather diffidently: 'If I may be permitted to say so, sir, I don't quite understand why Your Honour has decided to keep both cases pending. A plain case of suicide, and a death caused by heart failure ... I would have thought that . . .'

'Oh,' Judge Dee said vaguely, 'only because I want to know something more about the background of those cases. Just to round them off, so to speak.'

IX

The pavilion stood in the back of an extensive flower garden, it was half hidden by the tall oleander shrubs planted around it. Judge Dee sat down in the armchair in front of a high screen, decorated with a painting of plum blossoms. He motioned Tao Pan-te to take the chair by the small round table, where Feng's steward had placed the tea-tray and a platter of candied fruit.

It was very quiet in this secluded corner of the compound; there was only the humming of bees flying leisurely among the white oleander blossoms.

Tao Pan-te waited respectfully till the judge would open the conversation. After he had taken a few sips from his tea, Judge Dee began affably:

'I hear, Mr Tao, that you are known as a man of letters. Does your wine business and your household leave you sufficient leisure for literary pursuits?'

'I am fortunate in having a dependable and experienced staff, Your Honour. All the routine business connected with my wine shops and restaurants I can leave to them. And, since I am unmarried, the administration of my household is quite simple.'

'Allow me to come now straight to my subject, Mr Tao. I want to tell you, in the strictest confidence of course, that I suspect that both the Academician and the Queen Flower were murdered.'

He watched Tao closely when saying this, but the impassive face of the wine merchant didn't change. He asked calmly:

'How then does Your Honour explain the fact that in neither of the two cases could anybody have entered the room?'

'I can't! But neither can I explain how the Academician, who on five nights in succession had slept with other women, suddenly became so deeply infatuated with the Queen Flower that he took his own life when she wouldn't have him! And neither can I understand why the Queen Flower, when catching at her own throat, didn't leave the marks of her long, pointed nails on her skin. There's more to these two cases than meets the eye, Mr Tao.' As Tao nodded slowly, the judge resumed: 'As yet I only have some vague theories. I think, however, that your father's suicide, which I am told took place in the same Red Pavilion, and under practically the same circumstances as that of the Academician, might provide a clue. I fully realize how painful this subject must be for you, but . . .' He let his voice trail off.

Tao Pan-te made no reply; he was deep in thought. At last he seemed to have reached a decision. He looked up and said in his quiet voice:

'My father didn't commit suicide, Your Honour. He was murdered. That knowledge has cast a dark shadow over my entire life, a shadow which will vanish only after I have succeeded in finding the foul murderer and have brought him to justice. For a son shall not live under one sky with his father's murderer.'