"Come inside and close the door!" the judge ordered Sergeant Hoong and Tao Gan. And to the warden: "Stand guard outside and let no one disturb us! When the Yeh brothers arrive, they can wait in the hall."
When the door had closed behind the warden, Judge Dee studied the rest of the room. Against the wall opposite the oven-bed stood the usual pile of four large clothes boxes of red leather, one for each season, and in the corner nearby a small, red-lacquered table. Except for two stools the room was empty.
Involuntarily his gaze went back to the dead body. Then he said:
"I don't see any of the victim's discarded clothes. Have a look in those clothes boxes, Tao Gan!"
Tao Gan opened the one on top. He said:
"There is nothing here but neatly folded garments, Your Honor!"
"Look through all four of them!" the judge said curtly. "The Sergeant will help you."
While the two set to work, Judge Dee remained standing in the center of the room, slowly tugging his beard. Now that the door had been closed, the towel hung down over the mirror. He noticed that it was stained with blood. He remembered that many people think it bad luck to look at a corpse reflected in a mirror. Apparently the murderer was one of those. A cry from Tao Gan made him turn around.
"These jewels I found in a secret compartment in the bottom of the second box," he said, showing the judge two beautiful golden bracelets set with rubies, and six hairpins of solid gold.
"Well," Judge Dee said, "I suppose an antique dealer has opportunities to get those things cheap. Put them back, this room will be sealed, anyway. I am more interested in missing clothes than in jewels that are there. Let's have a look at the storeroom."
As he saw the room stacked with packing boxes of all sizes the judge said:
"You look through all those boxes, Tao Gan. Remember that next to garments, we have also a severed head that is missing. I'll go on with the Sergeant to the atelier."
The walls of Pan Feng's small workshop were lined with shelves bearing all sorts of bowls, vases, carved jade, statues and other small antiques. The square table in the center was loaded with bottles, books, and a large collection of brushes of all sizes.
At a sign from the judge, Sergeant Hoong pulled out the large clothes.
Judge Dee opened the drawer of the table and rummaged through its contents. "Look!" he said, pointing to the heap of loose silver lying among bundles of old bills, "Pan Feng was in a mighty hurry to leave! He didn't take his jewels, nor his money!"
They had a look in the kitchen, but found nothing of any importance there.
Tao Gan joined them. Dusting his robe, he said:
"Those cases contain large vases, bronzes and other antiques. Everything is covered with dust; evidently no one has been there for at least a week or so."
The judge looked, perplexed, at his two assistants, and slowly caressed his side whiskers.
"An amazing situation," he said at last. He turned around and left the house, followed by the two men.
Warden Kao was waiting in the hall, together with the headman of the constables and the Yeh brothers.
Judge Dee acknowledged their bows with a nod, then ordered the headman:
"Let two of your men get grapples and dredge that well. Also get a stretcher and blankets, and transport the body to the tribunal. Then seal the three back rooms, and leave two men on guard until further orders."
He motioned the two Yeh brothers to sit down in front of his table. The Sergeant and Tao Gan took the bench against the wall.
"Your sister has indeed been foully murdered," the judge said gravely to Yeh Pin. "There is no trace of her severed head."
"That fiend Pan took it away with him!" Yeh Pin cried out. "The warden here saw he was carrying a leather sack with a round object inside!"
"Tell me exactly how you met Pan and what he said," Judge Dee ordered the warden.
"I met Pan Feng walking very fast down the street in westerly direction," the warden said. "I asked him, 'What is the hurry, Mr. Pan?' He did not even halt for a civil reply but muttering something about leaving town for a few days he brushed past me. He looked flushed, despite the fact that he wore no fur coat. In his right hand he carried a leather sack with some bulging object inside."
The judge thought for a while. Then he asked Yeh Pin:
"Did your sister ever tell you that Pan maltreated her?"
"Well," Yeh Pin answered after some hesitation, "to tell Your Honor the truth, I always thought that they got along together rather well. Pan is a widower, much older than she, of course, with a grown-up son who works in the capital. He married my sister two years ago, and I always thought he was rather a nice fellow, though a little dull, and always complaining about his bad health. The clever devil must have been fooling us all the time!"
"He never fooled me!" the younger Yeh suddenly burst out.
"He is a mean, nasty person and . . . and my sister often complained that he beat her!"
Yeh Tai angrily puffed out his flabby cheeks.
"Why did you never tell me that?" Yeh Pin asked, surprised.
"I didn't want to cause you worries," Yeh Tai said sullenly. "But now I'll tell everything! We'll get that dog's head!"
"Why," Judge Dee interrupted, "did you go to see your sister this morning?"
Yeh Tai hesitated a moment, then answered:
"Well, I just thought I would see how she was getting along."
The judge rose.
"I shall hear your full report in the tribunal, where it can be placed on record," he said curtly. "I'll return there now, and you two shall proceed there, too, in order to witness the autopsy."
Warden Kao and the Yeh brothers conducted the judge to his palanquin.
When they were passing again through the main street, one of the constables rode up to the window of Judge Dee's palanquin. Pointing with his whip he said:
"That's the pharmacy of Kuo, the coroner, Your Honor. Shall I go in and tell him to come to the tribunal?"
Judge Dee saw a small, neat-looking shop front. The signboard bore three large, well-written characters reading, the cinnamon grove.
"I shall speak to him myself," the judge said. As he descended he added to his two lieutenants: "I always like to see pharmacies. You'd better wait outside, I don't think there is much room."
When Judge Dee pushed the door open he was met by an agreeable smell of dried herbs. A hunchback stood behind the counter, absorbed in cutting up a dried plant with a large knife.
He quickly came around the counter and bowed deeply.
"This person is the pharmacist Kuo," he said in a surprisingly deep, well-modulated voice.
He was only four feet high, but he had very broad, heavy shoulders and a big head with long, untidy hair. His eyes were unusually large.
"I have had no occasion yet to call on your services as a coroner," Judge Dee said, "but I have heard about your skill as a doctor, and used this opportunity for looking in. You'll have heard that a woman has been murdered in the southeast quarter. I want you in the tribunal for the autopsy."
"I'll go there immediately, Your Honor," Kuo said. Looking at the shelves stacked with jars and bundles of dried herbs he added apologetically: "Your Honor, please excuse this poor shop, everything is in such disorder!"
"On the contrary," Judge Dee said affably, "I see that everything is arranged very well." Standing in front of the large, black-lacquered medicine cupboard, he read a few of the names engraved in neat white characters on the countless small drawers. "This is a good assortment of anodynes. I see you even have the Moon Herb. That is fairly rare."
Kuo eagerly pulled out the drawer indicated and took from it a sheaf of thin dry roots. As he carefully disentangled them the judge noticed that he had long, sensitive fingers. Kuo said:
"This herb grows only on the high crag outside the north city gate. Therefore the people here call that crag Medicine Hill. We gather it in winter, from under the snow."