Stumbling ahead, he succeeded in grasping the edge of the sacrificial table. Then he gasped for air; a convulsive movement shook his thin frame. He fell, dragging the table cover down with him. The sacrificial vessels dropped on to the floor with a loud crash.
XXIII
The door burst open and Tao Gan came rushing in. He halted abruptly when he saw Judge Dee bent over Liang's prone figure. The judge felt Liang's heart. He was dead. As the judge began to search the corpse, Tao Gan asked in a whisper:
'How did he die, sir?'
'He believed me when I told him he had drunk the poison he had intended for me, and the shock brought about a heart attack. That is as it should be, for he knew secrets of state that should never be divulged.' He briefly told Tao Gan about the shifting of the cups. The poison I poured into that chess-bowl; it is half full of chess-pieces. Liang saw that they were wet, but could not see that the bowl contained in fact the entire content of the cracked cup. Take this bowl with you.' Pulling a long, razor-sharp blade from the leather sheath he had found in Liang's sleeve, he added, 'Take this too. Be very careful, there is some brown substance on its tip.'
Tao Gan took a piece of oiled paper from his sleeve. While he was wrapping the bowl and the dagger, he said:
'You should have actually let him drink his own infernal poison, sir! Suppose he hadn't believed you? Then he'd have killed you with that poisoned knife. One scratch would have sufficed!’
Judge Dee shrugged.
'Until he thought that I had drunk the tea, I took care to stay out of his reach.' Then he added, 'Getting on in years, one isn't so sure of oneself any more, Tao Gan. One tends more and more to shift decisions on matters of life and death to a Higher Tribunal.' He turned round and left the hall, followed by his lieutenant.
On the landing stood a slender young woman, quietly dressed in a dark-brown robe. Her opaque eyes were staring straight ahead.
'She came just now, sir,' Tao Gan explained hurriedly. 'To warn us about Liang.'
'Your brother is dead, Miss Liang,' Judge Dee told her soberly. 'He had a heart attack.'
The blind girl nodded slowly.
'He had been suffering from heart trouble, these last years,' she said. After a pause she asked suddenly, 'Did he kill the Censor?'
'No. Zumurrud did.'
'She was a dangerous woman,' she said pensively. 'I always feared that my brother's devotion to her would be his undoing. When I heard that his men had brought here the dead body of a high official who had been Zumurrud's lover, I thought my brother must have murdered him. I found the room where the corpse was, and while the two men were busy disguising themselves as constables, I quickly went through its sleeves and delivered the Golden Bell from its crushed cage. I also took what felt like an envelope, because it was the only paper the dead man carried, and therefore had to be important.'
'I presume it was your sister, Mrs Pao, who slipped that envelope into Colonel Chiao's sleeve yesterday morning, very early?'
'Yes, sir. She was an old friend of Captain Nee and had just delivered a note asking him to meet her that afternoon in Mr Yau's house. She had planned to leave my package addressed to Mr Tao in the tribunal, but when she saw Mr Tao's friend, she thought it safer to let him have it.' She paused and pushed her hair back from her smooth forehead. She went on, 'We saw each other regularly, in secret of course. For both my brother and I wanted it to be believed that I was dead. But I could not bear my own sister sorrowing over me, and after a year I went to see her and told her I was still alive. She was always worrying about me, although I kept assuring her I had all I needed. Yet she insisted on introducing me to all kinds of people who might buy crickets from me. Yesterday morning, after I had fled from here, I told her that I feared our brother was getting into trouble. It was at my request that she went through the desk in his bedroom when you were visiting him with her husband, sir. She took two maps, and later explained to me that on one Mr Chiao's inn had been marked. I had hoped to meet her again in Mr Yau's house that same afternoon, but I just missed her. Who murdered her, sir? She had no enemies, and although my brother despised her, he did not hate her, as he did me.'
'She was killed through a misunderstanding,' Judge Dee answered, then added quickly, 'I am most grateful for the help you gave us, Miss Liang!’
She raised her thin hands in a futile gesture.
'I hoped you would find the Censor's murderer, sir, before my brother became too deeply involved.'
'How did you manage to conceal yourself so effectively?' the judge asked, curious.
'By keeping to those, places I knew well,' she replied with a faint smile. 'This old house I know, of course, like the palm of my hand! All the hidden rooms, as well as many secret passages and emergency exits my brother did not know of. And I am also thoroughly familiar with the Examination Hall, which was my favourite hideout. When Mr Tao and his friend had seen me, I slipped out by the back entrance and hid in the godown where the palankeens are stored. Later I heard a woman scream. What happened there, sir?'
'My two lieutenants ran into a vagabond who was molesting a woman,' Judge Dee replied. 'Well, your brother had Zumurrud's body brought here to the house, Miss Liang. I shall have it removed to the tribunal at once. Is there anything I can do for you? Now you'll have to take charge of this house and all your brother's affairs, you know.'
'I shall call on an old uncle of my mother. He shall see to my brother's burial, and.. .' She shook her head disconsolately. After a while she went on in a barely audible voice, 'It's all my fault. I shouldn't have left him, left him alone with all the terrible thoughts that were tormenting him. And he was only a boy then! Used to play every day in a corner of the garden with his toy soldiers, imagining the great battles he would fight, later ... But then he learned he was unfit for a military career. And after I had left him, he realized that he was incapable of possessing a woman. The second blow broke him; he wanted to kill himself. But he met Zumurrud, and she ... she proved to be the first and only woman he could embrace. He lived only for her; but she didn't care for him, told him so in cruel, humiliating words.... It's all my fault — I should have refused him more gently, I should have tried to interest him in another woman, a kind woman, who would ... But I was too young, I didn't understand. I didn't understand....'
She buried her face in her hands. Judge Dee gave a sign to Tao Gan. They went downstairs.
Chiao Tai was waiting in the large hall, with four agents and a dozen constables. Judge Dee told them that robbers had concealed themselves in the house, and that Mr Liang had died from a heart attack when he had suddenly come upon one of them. They were to make a thorough search under the direction of Chiao Tai and arrest any persons found there. Thereupon he took the eldest agent apart, and told him that Mansur had gone aboard one of the Arab ships anchored in the estuary of the Pearl River. The agent was to go at once to the harbour-master, and have him send four fast military junks to overtake and arrest Mansur. As the agent hurried away, Judge Dee ordered the old steward to take him and Tao Gan to Mr Liang's bedroom.
Tao Gan discovered a secret wall safe behind the bedstead. He picked the lock, but the safe proved to contain only contracts and other important papers relating to the routine of Liang's business. The judge had not expected to find any incriminating documents, for Liang was much too clever to keep any. He trusted he would find all the written proof he wanted in the capital, when the residence of the Chief Eunuch was raided by his men. He ordered Tao Gan to take the necessary measures for removing Zumurrud's body secretly to the tribunal, then he ascended his palankeen and was carried back to the palace.