"I found that my hairpin did as well," he said. "It only takes more time, of course. But to come back to our subject I think you were careless a third time when you placed Miss Kang in the Gallery of Horrors. She couldn't move her head or body and the black paint on her hands and feet was a clever device, but with all those people about here, there was still a great risk that she would be discovered."
"No," Sun said reprovingly, "there you are completely wrong, Dee. Ordinarily there wouldn't have been any risk, the gallery is closed this time of the year. And it was a very original idea, don't you think? I presume the girl would have become quite amenable after passing one night there. I'll repeat the experiment, some day. Though painting her was quite a job, I'll tell you! But I like to do things well. You are an enterprising fellow, Dee. That deduction from the cat's eyes was quite clever of you. I had overlooked that clue when I suggested to our poor friend True Wisdom how he could eliminate the old abbot. True Wisdom, I regret to say, was really a mean person, only out for wealth and power, but lacking the initiative and will-power for acquiring all that by himself. When he was still the prior here, he once stole a large sum of money from the monastery treasury. He would have been done for if I had not helped him. Therefore he was obliged to help me with my own little pastimes! The old abbot now, that was another man for you! Clever as they make them! Fortunately he was getting on in years, and when he found out that something was going on with those girls here, he immediately suspected True Wisdom — that poor fish who didn't even know what a woman looks like! I found it safer to instruct True Wisdom to do away with old Jade Mirror, and I persuaded the Chief Abbot in the capital to appoint True Wisdom as successor."
Sun pensively pulled at his ragged eyebrows. Giving Judge Dee a shrewd look he went on: "True Wisdom had become rattled, of late. He kept worrying about the insinuations made by that rascally poet, and he also maintained that a strange monk had wormed his way into this monastery and was spying on him. It was a fellow with a morose face. True Wisdom thought he had seen him before somewhere. Presumably the same fellow you were after, Dee! All nonsense, of course. Just before your arrival I had to take True Wisdom up to my attic and give him a good talking to. But it didn't help, apparently. He was steadily losing his head; that's why the fool tried to kill you. He badly bungled that — I am glad to say."
The judge remained silent. He thought for a while, then said: "No, True Wisdom's fears of that morose monk were well-founded. Where did you find that girl called Liu who died here while you were treating her for a lingering disease?"
"Lingering disease is a most appropriate term!" Sun said with a chuckle. "Well, Miss Liu was something quite special, Dee. A strong, well-developed girl, and lots of spirit! She was a member of a band of vagabonds, and got arrested while stealing chickens from a farm outside the capital. My good Mrs. Pao got her by bribing the prison guards."
"I see. That morose monk, as you call him, was Miss Liu's brother. I was told that his real name might be Liu. At times he went about as a vagrant Taoist monk, and in that role he had visited this monastery before. He suspected that his sister had been murdered here. He came back in the guise of the actor Mo Mo-te, in order to find the murderer and to avenge her death. The abbot was quite right in worrying about Mo; he is a splendid swordsman, and you know how particular those gangs are with regard to settling blood-feuds."
"Well," Sun said indifferently, "the abbot is dead and gone, and we'll blame everything on him, so your bellicose Mr. Mo will be satisfied. My friend True Wisdom made a sad mistake, though, when at the last moment he wanted to denounce me to you, hoping thereby to save his own skin."
Judge Dee nodded. He said: "The abbot didn't commit suicide, of course. I ought to have suspected that at once. You pushed him from the landing, didn't you?"
"That's true!" Sun said happily. "I thought I showed great presence of mind on that occasion! I was quite impressed by your reasoning, Dee! It was so logical that I nearly began to believe that he had committed suicide myself! Listen, I am sorry I can't offer you a cup of tea. That is unfortunately not included in the facilities of this cosy little room!"
"Did you have other helpers here besides the abbot and Mrs. Pao?"
"Of course not! As an experienced magistrate you'll know very well, Dee, that if you want to keep something secret, you shouldn't rope in all the world and his wife!"
"I suppose you killed Mrs. Pao here?" the judge asked looking at the blood-stained chopper on the floor.
"Yes, I could take no chances with her, after I had found the gallery open and Miss Kang gone. Killing her presented no problem of course, but I had to do some hard work to get her remains through that air-shaft over there, she was a portly woman, you know. But her pieces will rest in peace, if you'll allow me a feeble pun! At the bottom of the ravine is a cleft; nobody has yet succeeded in exploring its depths. I somewhat regret the loss of Mrs. Pao, though, for she made herself quite useful, and I had built up an excellent reputation for her in the capital. But the pious widow had to go, for she was the only one who could testify against me after you had wrecked my plans with little Miss Kang." He added with a quick smile: "Don't think I hold that against you, Dee! I enjoy a battle of wits with a clever opponent like you. You are doubtless a fine chess player. Let's have a game tomorrow. You do play chess, don't you?"
"Hardly," Judge Dee replied. "My favourite game is dominoes." "Dominoes, eh?" Sun said, disappointed. "Well, I won't quarrel with another man's tastes. As regards Mrs. Pao, I'll soon find another woman who'll continue her pious work."
"Mrs. Pao was indeed an important witness," the judge said slowly. He caressed his side-whiskers, looking pensively at his host. Then he resumed: "Tell me, why did you leave the capital and settle down in this lonely monastery?"
A reminiscent smile curved Sun's thin lips. He patted the silvery locks on his large round head and replied: "When I had the signal honour of explaining to His Majesty the Taoist creed, a few courtiers and Palace ladies became interested in the secret rites. I found the daughter of a certain chamberlain rather attractive, and she was so enthusiastic! Unfortunately the stupid wrench killed herself. It was all hushed up, of course, but I had to leave the Palace. I found this monastery a suitable place for continuing my studies. Mrs. Pao got three girls to keep me company during the past year, quite satisfactory ones. Unfortunately all of them died, as you doubtless know."
"What did really happen to the girl who fell from the tower above us here — by accident, as it was said?"
"She didn't go up to the tower at all! At least not on the day she died. She had been to my special room up there, of course. You should see it, Dee, it's all draped with yellow brocade! Miss Kang was quite impressed, I think. But to come back to the other one, Miss Gao, as she was called. She went the same way as Mrs. Pao just now, but of her own free will, mind you. I had put her in this room here, and chose to forget about her for a day or so, to teach her a lesson. She succeeded in wriggling through that narrow air-shaft there. She was quite a slender girl, you see."
"If you confess as readily in my tribunal as you do now," Judge Dee said dryly, "you'll make things very easy for me." Sun raised his tufted eyebrows.
"In the tribunal?" he asked, astonished. "What on earth are you talking about, Dee?"
"Well," the judge replied, "You committed five murders, not to speak of rape and abduction. You weren't thinking I would let you get away with that, did you?"
"My dear fellow!" Sun exclaimed. "Of course you'll let me get away with it — if you insist on using that vulgar expression. Your only witnesses against me were our good abbot and Mrs. Pao — and neither of them is with us any more. After the instructive experiences I had with the two girls in the old abbot's time, I never showed myself before the girls were completely under control. All the blame for the treatment Miss Kang underwent will go to True Wisdom and Mrs. Pao." As Judge Dee shook his head emphatically, Sun exclaimed: "Come now, Dee, I think you are a clever man, don't disappoint me! Of course you could never initiate a case against me. What would the higher authorities think if you accused me, the famous Taoist sage and former Imperial Tutor Sun Ming, of a string of fantastic crimes, and that without a shred of proof? Everybody would think you had gone raving mad, Dee. It would break your career! And I would be genuinely sorry for that, for I really like you, you know!"