Tao Gan gave the judge a worried look. He thought he really seemed very tired, his face was pale and the lines beside his mouth had become more marked. It had indeed been a long day. Would the judge consider it presumptuous if he proposed to take charge of the routine check of the shops in the market-place? Or let him question Leng again? He decided first to ascertain what Judge Dee's own plans were.
'What do you think should be our next step now, sir? I thought ...'
'Our next step?' the judge asked raising his tufted eyebrows. 'There is no next step. Didn't you see that all our problems are solved? Now we know how and why Twan was murdered, who took his dead body to the hut, everything! Including, of course, who was acting as local agent for the smuggling ring.' As Tao Gan stared at him, dumbfounded, the judge went on impatiently: 'Heavens, you have heard all the evidence, haven't you? If I am now winding up with you the side-issues it's only because I have nothing better to do while I am waiting for the central figure of this tragedy to make his appearance.'
Tao Gan opened his mouth to speak but Judge Dee went on quickly:
'Yes, it is indeed a tragedy. Often, Tao Gan, the final solution of a complicated case gives me a feeling of satisfaction, the satisfaction of having righted a wrong, and solved a riddle. This, however, is a case that depresses me. Strange, I had a vague foreboding of it when I had this ring here in my hand early this morning, just after I had got it from the gibbon. This ring emanated an atmosphere of human suffering ... Suffering is a terrible thing, Tao Gan. Sometimes it dignifies, mostly it degrades. Presently we shall see how it affected the main actor in this drama, and ...' He broke off his sentence and glanced at the door. Footsteps had sounded in the corridor outside. The headman ushered in Mr Wang.
The pharmacist, small and dapper in his glossy robe of black silk, made a low bow.
'What can this person do for Your Honour?' he asked politely.
Judge Dee pointed at the emerald ring before him and said evenly:
'You may tell me why you didn't take this ring too when you removed the dead man's possessions.'
Wang gave a violent start when he saw the ring. But he quickly mastered himself and said indignantly:
'I don't understand this at all, Your Honour! The headman brought me your visiting-card with the request to come here to give some information, and ...'
'Yes,' the judge interrupted him. 'Information about the murder of your colleague Twan Mou-tsai!' The pharmacist wanted to speak but Judge Dee raised his hand. 'No, listen to me! I know exactly what happened. You badly needed the five gold bars Mr Twan had entrusted to you, for your plan to smuggle two boxes of valuable contraband from Chiang-pei into Han-yuan had miscarried. The Baker's men whom you had hired bungled it, and the military police seized the costly merchandise you probably hadn't even paid for. Twan's desire to join Miss Seng's gang by taking the formal oath and cutting off the tip of his left little finger gave you an excellent opportunity for murdering that unfortunate man.'
The headman moved up close to Wang, but Judge Dee shook his head at him. He continued:
'Twan lacked the courage to cut off the fingertip himself, and you had promised to perform the operation for him last night, in your own house up on the ridge. You had agreed that it would be done with the large chopper used for cutting medicinal roots into thin slices. One end of the heavy, razor-edged knife is attached with a hinge to the cutting board, the handle is on the other end. By means of this precision-instrument, which every pharmacist and drug-dealer has at hand, the operation could be performed without the risk of cutting off too much or too little, and so quickly and smoothly that the pain would be reduced to a minimum. Twan went to all this trouble because he wanted to prove to the vagabond girl he loved that he intended to stay with her forever.'
The judge paused. Wang stared at him with wide, unbelieving eyes.
'Before Twan had even placed his hand in the right position on the cutting board, the large chopper came down and cut off four of his fingers. Then the unfortunate old man was finished off by bashing in his skull with the iron pestle of a drug mortar. Afterwards his dead body was carried from your house downhill to the deserted hut. There it would have been discovered, probably after many weeks, in an advanced state of decay. Moreover, you had taken the precaution of searching the body and removing everything that could have given a clue to the dead man's identity. I would have had the corpse burned as that of an unidentified tramp. But a gibbon of the forest put me on the right track.'
'A ... a gibbon?' Wang stammered.
'Yes, the gibbon who found Twan's emerald ring, which I have here before me. But that is no concern of yours.'
Judge Dee fell silent. It was completely quiet in the small office.
Wang's face had turned ashen and his lips were twitching. He swallowed a few times before he spoke, in a voice so hoarse that it was hardly audible:
'Yes, I confess that I murdered Twan Mou-tsai. Everything happened exactly as you said. With the exception of your remark about the two boxes of contraband. Those were not my property, I was acting only as an agent, I was to have redistributed their contents.' He sighed and continued in a detached voice: 'I have had a number of financial reverses, these last two years, and my creditors were pressing me. The man whom I was most indebted to was a banker, in the capital.' He mentioned a name which Judge Dee recognized; the man was a well-known financier, a cousin of the Director of the Treasury. 'He wrote me a letter saying that, if I would come to see him, he was willing to talk matters over. I travelled to the capital and he received me most kindly. He said that, if I agreed to collaborate with him on a certain financial scheme of his, he would not only cancel my bonds, but also give me a generous share in the proceeds. Of course I agreed. Then, to my horrified amazement, he went on to explain coolly that he had organized a nationwide smuggling ring!'
Wang passed his hand over his eyes. Shaking his head, he resumed:
'When he mentioned the enormous profits, I weakened. Finally I gave in. I ... I can't afford to become a poor man. And when I thought of all that money I would receive ... I should have known better! Instead of cancelling my bonds, the cruel devil held on to them, and his idea of rewarding me for my services was to lend me money at an atrocious interest. Soon I was completely in his clutches. When Twan entrusted the five gold bars to me, I thought at once that this was my chance to pay my principal, and become a free man again. I knew that Twan had told nobody that he would come to my house last night, for he didn't want others to know that he lacked the courage to perform the operation himself. He had insisted that I wouldn't even tell my family of his impending visit. I myself let him in, by the back door.'
The pharmacist took a silk handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped his moist face. Then he said firmly:
'If Your Honour will kindly let me have a sheet of paper, I shall now write out my formal confession that I wilfully murdered Twan Mou-tsai.'
'I haven't asked you for a formal confession yet, Mr Wang,' Judge Dee said calmly. There are a few points that have to be clarified. In the first place: why did Mr Twan want to have such large sums of money always at his disposal?'
'Because he kept hoping that some day that vagabond girl would consent to marry him. He told me that he wanted to be able to pay off her brother at once, and buy a nice country seat somewhere, to start a new life.'
'I see. Second: why didn't you tell Twan frankly that you needed his gold because you were in serious financial trouble? Isn't it the old-established custom that members of the same guild always assist each other? And Mr Twan was a very wealthy man who could well afford to lend you five gold bars.'