The girl came in sobbing wildly. Ma Joong patted her reassuringly on her back but without much effect. She wailed:
"The evil monster from the lake has taken her, Your Honor! Please, Your Honor, let us go back to land, before it draws this boat under! That horrible apparition; I saw it with my own eyes!"
"Where did you see that apparition?" Judge Dee asked, astonished.
"It beckoned her from outside the window, Your Honor! Just when mother had told me to lay out the blue dress. And Miss Almond Blossom saw it too! It beckoned her, Your Honor! How could she disobey that ghostly summons?"
A subdued murmur rose from the audience. Judge Dee rapped the table, then asked:
"What did it look like?"
"It was a huge, black monster, Your Honor. I saw it clearly through the gauze curtain. In one hand it waved threateningly a long knife, with the other hand… it beckoned!"
"Could you see what dress and cap it wore?" the judge asked.
"I said it was a monster, didn't I?" the girl said indignantly. "It had no definite shape; it was just a horrible, loathsome black shadow."
Judge Dee gave a sign to Ma Joong. He led the maidservant away.
Thereafter he heard Anemone and the four other courtesans. Except for Anemone, whom the judge had sent away himself to look for the dancer, none of them had left the dining room. They had been talking together and with Soo; they had not seen Wang, Liu or Peng leave, and they were very vague as to when Soo had come back exactly.
Judge Dee rose and announced that he would hear the waiters and the crew on the upper deck.
As he was ascending the steep ladder followed by Sergeant Hoong, Ma Joong went with the master of the boat to get the crew members.
The judge sat down on a barrel seat next to the railing. He pushed his cap back from his forehead and said: "It is as stuffy here as inside!"
Hoong quickly offered him his fan. He said dejectedly:
"That hearing didn't get us any forrader, Your Honor!"
"Oh, I don't know," Judge Dee said, vigorously fanning himself. "I think it did clarify the situation, to a certain extent. Heavens, Wang didn't lie when he said that the rowers are a bad lot! They don't look very prepossessing!"
The group of oarsmen who now appeared on deck were muttering angrily amongst themselves, but some cursing from Ma Joong and the master soon made them adopt the proper respectful attitude. The waiters and cooks were made to stand opposite them. Judge Dee thought it unnecessary to hear the helmsman and the servants of the guests, for Hoong had assured him that they had been listening so intently to Ma Joong's spicy stories that none of them had thought of stirring from his place.
The judge started with the waiters, but they hadn't much to tell. When the dancing had begun they had gone to the kitchen to have a quick snack. Only one of them had gone up to have a look in the dining room to see whether anything was needed. He had seen Guildmaster Peng leaning over the railing, vomiting violently. But Liu had not been with him then.
A thorough cross-examination of the cooks and the oarsmen brought to light that none of them had left the hold. When the helmsman had shouted through the trap door that they could take a rest, the oarsmen had started gambling and no one had thought of leaving the game.
When Judge Dee rose, the master, who had been studying the sky with a worried face, said:
"I fear that we are in for a storm, Your Honor! We'd better take her back quickly. She is not easy to handle in rough weather!"
The judge nodded, and descended the ladder. He went straight to the main cabin, where Chiao Tai stood guard by the dead body of the courtesan.
Fourth Chapter
Just when Judge Dee sat down on the tabouret in front of the dressing table a peal of thunder rent the air. A torrential rain clattered down on the roof. The boat started to rock.
Chiao Tai hurried outside to fasten the shutters. The judge stared silently ahead of him, slowly caressing his side whiskers. The sergeant and Ma Joong stood looking at the still form on the couch.
When Chiao Tai had come back and bolted the door, Judge Dee looked up at his three lieutenants.
"Well," he said with a bleak smile, "only a few hours ago I complained that nothing happened here!" He shook his head, then went on gravely: "Now we are confronted with a murder, complete with all angles of doubt and suspicion, including even the supernatural element." Seeing Ma Joong giving Chiao Tai an anxious look, he continued quickly: "If during the hearings I didn't discourage the idea that a ghostly being was concerned in this crime, it was only to lull the criminal's suspicions. Don't forget that he doesn't know how and where we discovered the body. He must be greatly puzzled by the fact that it didn't sink down to the bottom of the lake. For I can assure you, my friends, that the murderer is a man of flesh and blood! And I know also why he had to murder the dancer!"
Then the judge told them about Almond Blossom's startling announcement. "As a matter of course," he concluded, "Han Yung-han is our most likely suspect, for he was the only one who, feigning to be asleep, could have overheard what she said to me. Although in that case he must be a consummate actor."
"Han also had the opportunity," Sergeant Hoong observed. "Nobody could confirm the story about his hanging around on the foredeck. Perhaps he walked aft on the portside, and beckoned the dancer from outside the window to follow him."
"But what can be the meaning of that knife the maid was talking about?" Ma Joong asked.
Judge Dee shrugged his shoulders.
"Imagination played an important role there," he said. "Don't forget that the maid started telling her weird story only after she had heard that the dancer had been murdered. She saw in fact only the shadow of a man dressed in a wide, long-sleeved robe such as all of us are wearing. He beckoned, and in his other hand he held a folded-up fan. That must have been the knife she was talking about."
The boat was rocking violently now. A large wave hit its side with a resounding crash.
"Unfortunately," the judge resumed, "Han is far from being our only suspect. It is true that he is the only one who could have overheard her words, but any one of the other guests could have noticed that she whispered something to me and concluded from her secretive manner-I told you that she wasn't even looking at me-that she was giving me important information. And therefore he decided to take no chances."
"That means," Chiao Tai said, "that next to Han we have four other suspects, namely the guildmasters Wang, Peng and Soo, and Liu Fei-po. Only the Kang brothers go free, because Your Honor said that they didn't leave the room. All of the four others left the room for a shorter or longer period."
"Indeed," Judge Dee said. "Peng is probably innocent, for the simple reason that he lacks the strength for knocking down the -dancer and carrying her to the gangway. It was only therefore that I questioned the crew: I thought that Peng might have an accomplice among them. But none of them has left the hold."
"Han, Liu and the guildmasters Wang and Soo seem perfectly capable of killing her," Chiao Tai remarked. "Especially Soo; he is a hefty fellow."