Judge Dee smoothed down his long beard. The man was an uncouth brute, but his words bore the hallmark of truth. Seng Kiu interpreted his silence as a sign of doubt, and resumed in a whining voice:
'Me and my mate, we have never done anything like murder, noble lord! Maybe we took along a stray chicken or a pig here and there, or borrowed a handful of coppers from a traveller — such things will happen when you have to make your living by the road. But we never killed a man, I tell you. And why should I kill Uncle Twan, of all people? I told you he gave me money, didn't I?'
'Is your sister a prostitute?'
'A what?' Seng Kiu asked suspiciously.
A streetwalker.'
'Oh, that!' Seng scratched his head, then replied cautiously: 'Well, to tell you the truth, sir, she is and she isn't, so to speak. If we need money badly, she may take on a fellow, on occasion. But most of the time she only takes youngsters she fancies, and they get it gratis for nothing. Dead capital, that's what she is, sir! Wish she were a regular, then she'd bring in some money at least! If you'd kindly tell me, sir, how to go about getting proper papers for her, those things that say she has the right to walk the streets, and ...'
'Only answer my questions!' Judge Dee interrupted him testily. 'Speak up, when did you begin working for Leng the pawnbroker?'
A pawnbroker? Not me, sir! I don't deal with those bloodsuckers! My boss is Lew the Baker, of Chiang-pei. Lives over the winehouse, near the west gate. He was our boss, that is. We bought ourselves out. Me, Sis and Chang.'
Judge Dee nodded. He knew that, according to the unwritten rules of the underworld, a sworn member of a gang can sever relations with his boss if he pays a certain sum of money, from which his original entrance fee, and his share in the earnings of the gang are deducted. This settling of accounts often gave rise to bitter quarrels.
'Was everything settled to the satisfaction of both parties?' he asked.
'Well, there was a bit of trouble, sir. The Baker tried to rob us, the mean son of a dog! But Uncle Twan, he was a real wizard with figures. He takes a piece of paper, does a bit of reckoning, and proves the Baker is dead wrong. The Baker didn't like that, but there were a couple of other fellows who had been following the argument, and they all said Uncle Twan was right. So the Baker had to let us go.'
'I see. Why did you want to leave the Baker's gang?'
'Because the Baker was getting too uppety, and because he was taking on jobs we didn't fancy. Jobs above our station, so to speak. The other day he wanted me and Chang to lend a hand putting two boxes across the boundary. I said no, never. First, if we get caught, we are in for big trouble. Second, the men who did those kind of big jobs for the Baker usually died in accidents afterwards. Accidents will happen, of course. But they happened too often, for my taste.'
The judge gave Tao Gan a significant look.
'When you and Chang refused, who took on the job?'
Ting, Meng and Lau,' Seng replied promptly.
'Where are they now?'
Seng passed his thumb across his throat.
'Just accidents, mind you!' he said with a grin. But there was a glint of fear in his small eyes.
'To whom were those two boxes to be delivered?' the judge asked again.
The gangster shrugged his broad shoulders.
'Heaven knows! I overheard the Baker telling Ying something about a richard who has a big store in the marketplace here. I didn't ask, it wasn't my business, the less I knew about it the better. And Uncle Twan said I was dead right.'
'Where were you last night?'
'Me? I went with Sis and Chang to the Red Carp, for a bite and a little dice game. Uncle Twan said he'd eat somewhere outside, he didn't fancy dice games. When we came home at midnight, the old man hadn't come back. The poor old geezer got his head bashed in! He shouldn't have gone out alone, in a town he didn't know!'
Judge Dee took the emerald ring from his sleeve.
'Do you know this trinket?' he asked.
'Of course! That was Uncle Twan's ring. Had it from his father. "Ask him to give it to you!" I told Sis. But she said no. It's hard luck, sir, to be cursed with a sister like her!'
'Take this man back to his cell!' Judge Dee ordered the headman. 'Then tell the matron to bring Miss Seng to my office.'
While crossing the courtyard, the judge said excitedly to Tao Gan:
'You made a very nice haul! This is the first clue we've got to the smuggling case! I shall send a special messenger to my colleague in Chiang-pei at once, asking him to arrest the Baker. He will tell who his principal is, and to whom the boxes were to be delivered here. I wouldn't be astonished if that man turned out to be our friend Leng the pawnbroker! He is a wealthy man with a large store in the market-place, and he visits Chiang-pei regularly.'
'Do you think that Seng Kiu is really innocent of Twan's murder, sir? That story told by Leng's son seemed to fit him and his sister all right.'
'We shall know more about that when we have discovered the truth about that enigmatic Twan Mou-tsai, Tao Gan. I had the impression that Seng Kiu told us all he knew just now. But there must be many things that Seng does not know! We shall see what his sister has to say.'
They had entered the chancery. The senior scribe rose hurriedly and came to meet them. Handing the judge a document, he said:
'I happened to overhear Mr Tao asking our headman about a gangster called Lew the Baker, Your Honour. This routine report about the proceedings in the tribunal of Chiang-pei just came in. It contains a passage concerning that gangster.'
Judge Dee quickly glanced the paper through. With an angry exclamation he gave it to Tao Gan.
'Of all the bad luck!' he exclaimed. 'Here, read this, Tao Gan! Yesterday morning the Baker was killed in a drunken brawl!'
He walked on to his private office, angrily swinging his sleeves.
When he had sat down behind his desk he gave Tao Gan a sombre look and said dejectedly:
'I thought we were about to solve the smuggling case! And now we are back where we started. The three men who could have told us for whom the contraband was destined were murdered by the Baker. Small wonder that Ma Joong and Chiao Tai can't find them! Their bones must be rotting in a dry well, or buried under a tree in the forest! And the Baker, the only man who could have told us who the ringleaders of the smuggling are, he had to get killed!' He angrily tugged at his beard.
Tao Gan slowly wound the three long hairs that grew on his cheek round his thin forefinger. After a while he said:
'Perhaps a thorough interrogation of the Baker's associates in Chiang-pei might ...'
'No,' Judge Dee said curtly. 'The Baker killed off the men who did the dirty work for him. That he took that extreme measure proves that he was under orders from his principal to keep everything connected with the smuggling strictly secret.' He took his fan from his sleeve and began to fan himself. After a while he resumed: 'Twan's murder must be closely connected with the smuggling case. I have the distinct feeling that if we succeed in solving that crime, we shall have the key to the riddle of the smuggling ring. Come in!'
There had been a knock on the door. Now a tall, rawboned woman, clad in a simple brown robe and with a black piece of cloth wound round her head, entered the office, pushing a slender young girl in front of her.
'This is Miss Seng, Your Honour,' the matron reported in a hoarse voice.
Judge Dee gave the girl a sharp look. She stared back at him defiantly with her large, expressive eyes. Her oval, suntanned face was of a striking beauty. She didn't wear any make-up and she did not need it either. Her small petulant mouth was as red as a cherry, the long eyebrows above her finely chiselled nose had a natural graceful curve and the hair that hung in two tresses down to her shoulders was long and glossy. The shabby blue jacket and the patched blue trousers seemed an incongruous attire for such a beauty. She remained standing in front of the desk, her hands stuck in the straw rope round her middle that served as a belt.