'Well, the captain came here a couple of years ago, as I said, and he introduced her as a Miss Wang. Could he use a room now and then in the afternoon, to have a talk with her? he asked. Now the captain is a well-known man, sir, and since he offered to pay well for the tea and cakes, I...'
'Did Mr Yau know of the arrangement?' the judge asked.
The woman went red in the face. She stammered:
'Since the captain always came in the afternoon, sir ... and only for a cup of tea, I ... I didn't think it necessary, really, to consult Mr Yau and...'
'And you pocketed the captain's money.' Judge Dee completed her sentence in a cold voice. 'You know, of course, full well that the captain slept with the woman. This means that you'll be flogged, for having kept a bawdy house without a proper licence.'
The woman knocked her forehead on the floor several times, then she cried out:
'I swear that the captain never as much as touched her hand, sir! And there isn't even a couch or bench in that room, anyway! Ask the maids, please, sir! They went in and out there all the time, bringing tea and sweets, and so on. They'll tell you how they just sat there talking. Sometimes they played a game of chess — that was all!’ She burst into tears.
'Stop your sniffling and rise! Warden, verify her statement with the maids!’ Then he asked the woman again, 'Did the captain always warn you beforehand when he came here with Mrs Pao?'
'No sir, he didn't.' She wiped her face with the tip of her sleeve. 'Why should he? He knew that Mr Yau never came in the afternoon. The captain and she always came separately, sometimes the captain was first, other times she was. Today she arrived first. The maid let her into the room they always used, thinking that the captain would turn up too, before long. But he didn't come this time.'
'Of course he came!' the Prefect shouted angrily. 'But you did not see him, you fool! He came through the window, and...'
Judge Dee raised his hand. He addressed the woman:
'So you did not see the captain. Did other visitors come, directly before or after Mrs Pao's arrival?'
'No sir. That is to say, yes... there was of course that poor girl; she came just before Madame Pao. Since she was blind, I...'
'A blind girl, you say?' the judge asked sharply.
'Yes sir. She wore a plain brown dress, rather old, but she spoke civilly enough. Said she came to apologize for not having kept her appointment with Mr Yau the other night. I asked her whether she was the girl that used to sell crickets to Mr Yau and she said yes.'
The housekeeper stopped abruptly and cast a frightened look over her shoulder at the moon-door.
'Come on, tell me all you know about the girl!' the judge ordered.
'Well, then I remembered that Mr Yau had indeed been waiting for her, sir. He had told me that she used to come to his residence whenever she had a good cricket to sell, but that from now on she would be coming here. Mr Yau also ordered me to prepare a room, upstairs. Although she's blind, she is quite good-looking, sir, and very well-educated. And since Mr Yau likes variety...' She shrugged. 'Anyway, she did not turn up that night, and Mr Yau spent the night with one of the other girls here.'
'I see. Did that blind girl go away at once when you told her that Mr Yau was not at home?'
'No sir. We stood talking there for a while, at the door. She told me that besides seeing Mr Yau, she had wanted to look in this neighbourhood for a girl friend of hers who had entered a kind of private establishment recently. Somewhere near here, behind the Flowery Pagoda, she thought it was. I told her that she must be mistaken, because I knew of no such house in this neighbourhood. "Try the brothel behind us here, dearie," I said. For when girls enter the profession, they often tell their friends that they are joining a private establishment; that sounds better, you see. Well, I took her straight to our back door, and explained to her how she could get to the brothel.'
Suddenly the bead curtain was pulled aside and the warden came in, followed by Captain Nee between two constables. Prefect Pao wanted to rise but the judge laid his hand on his arm.
'Where was the captain arrested, warden?' he asked.
'He came here in a litter, sir, with two friends! Walked inside as cool as a cucumber! And there's a warrant out for his arrest!’
'Why did you come here, Mr Nee?' the judge asked evenly.
'I had an appointment with an acquaintance, sir. I should have been here earlier, but on the way I dropped in on a friend of mine, and found there a sea captain I used to know. We had a few rounds, talked about old times, and it grew late before I knew it. Therefore I took a litter, and my two friends accompanied me here, hoping that the trip would cool their heads. Then I saw constables at the door. Has there been an accident, sir?'
Before answering Nee, the judge told the warden, 'Verify that statement with the two other gentlemen!’ Then he asked Nee, 'Who was the acquaintance you were going to meet here?'
'Well, sir, I'd rather not say. It's one of Yau's girls, really, you see. I used to know her rather well before Yau had...'
'Those lies are quite unnecessary, captain,' the judge cut his explanations short. 'She was murdered. In the tea-room where you always used to meet.'
Nee grew pale. He wanted to ask something, then glanced at the Prefect and checked himself. There was a long, awkward silence. The Prefect had been fixing Nee with a furious glare. Now he wanted to speak up, but then the warden came in and said to Judge Dee:
'Those two gentlemen confirmed the captain's statement, sir. And the maids told me that what this woman here said about those meetings was perfectly correct.'
'All right, warden. Take the captain to Colonel Chiao; he can explain it all to him. You may return to your guard-duty outside, constables!’
As they went outside, Prefect Pao hit his fist on the table and burst out in incoherent protests. But Judge Dee cut him short:
'Your wife was murdered by mistake, Mr Pao.'
'By mistake?' Pao asked, perplexed.
'Yes. Just before her arrival, the blind girl came. She had been followed here by one or more persons who wanted to kill her. As soon as they had seen her enter this house, they started to reconnoitre a way to get inside unseen. In the meantime the blind girl had been shown out by the back door, and your wife had been admitted by the maid. Your wife was dressed in approximately the same manner as the blind girl. When the assassins looked through the window of the tea-room from outside, and saw your wife sitting there with her back towards them, they mistook her for the blind girl, stepped inside and strangled her from behind.'
The Prefect had been listening with a bewildered look. Now he nodded slowly.
'My wife had met that cricket seller!’ he suddenly spoke up. 'That blind girl must have been in league with the murderers! She came here to divert the attention of the housekeeper so as to give those unspeakable scoundrels a free hand!’
'That's an alternative theory I shall keep in mind,' the judge said. 'You'd better go home, Mr Pao. You will have understood by now that your wife never deceived you. Her continued association with Captain Nee, the friend of her youth, was unwise. But it did not tarnish your house. Good-bye!’
'She is dead. Gone,' the Prefect said stonily. 'And she was still so young, she...' His voice choked. He quickly rose and went outside.
Looking after his bent figure, Judge Dee decided that he would see to it that Pao never came to know about his wife's brief Arab interlude. He vaguely wondered how a well-born Chinese lady could ever fall in love with an Arab, then took hold of himself and turned to the woman who was still standing there. He addressed her harshly:
'Speak up! What other outside women used to come here? Including Arab ones!'