The Monkey and the Tiger

'I must examine Miss Kee-yu's dead body,' the judge said gruffly. 'I suspect foul play. You wouldn't know about that, would you? Why did you come here?'

'I ... I couldn't sleep. I had gone to the yard because I thought ...'

'That the horses were neighing. You told me that already when I met you out there. Answer my question!'

'I came to burn incense here, sir. For the rest of Miss Kee-yu's soul.'

'Commendable loyalty to your master's daughter. If that were true, why did you hide when I came in? And where?'

The steward pulled the wall hanging aside. With a trembling hand he pointed at the niche in the wall, close by the farthest corner.

'There ... there was a door there, formerly,' he stammered. 'It was walled up.' Turning to the coffin, he went on slowly: 'Yes, you are right. I did not need to hide. There is no need to hide anything any more. I was deeply in love with her, sir.'

'And she with you?'

'I never let her know my feeling of course, sir!' the steward exclaimed, aghast. 'It is true that my family was well known, half a century ago. But it declined, and I haven't got a penny of my own. How could I ever dare to tell the landowner that I ... Besides, she was engaged to be married, to the son of ...'

'All right. Now, tell me, do you think there was something wrong about her sudden death?'

'No sir. Why should there be anything wrong? We all knew that she had a weak heart, and the excitement of ...'

'Quite. Did you see her dead body?'

'I couldn't have born that sight, sir! Never! I wanted to remember her as she was, always so ... so ... Mr Min asked me to help him and the old servant to place her in this ... this coffin, but I couldn't, I was so upset. First the bandits, and then this, this sudden ...'

'Well, you'll help me now to remove the lid, anyway!'

The judge loosened the end of the strip, then tore it down with a few jerks.

'You lift the other end!' he ordered. 'Then we'll let it down on the floor.'

Together they raised the lid.

All of a sudden the steward let his end go. The lid dropped back, half across the coffin. The judge just managed to prevent it from falling onto the floor.

'It isn't Kee-yu!' the steward shrieked. 'It's Aster!'

'Shut up!' the judge barked. He stared at the still face of the girl in the coffin. It was not without a certain vulgar beauty, even in death. Rather heavy eyebrows curved above the bluish lids of the closed eyes, the round cheeks had dimples, the full mouth was well-shaped. It did not in the least resemble Kee-yu's portrait.

'Let's put the lid down on the floor without too much noise,' he told the shivering steward quietly.

After he had let the heavy lid down onto the floor, the judge took the lantern and set it on a corner of the coffin. He pensively regarded the long white robe. It was of good silk, with a woven plum-blossom pattern. The sash had been tied directly below the generous bosom, in the customary elaborate, triple bow. The arms lay stiffly by the body's sides.

'The robe belongs to Miss Kee-yu all right,' the judge remarked.

'It does indeed, sir. But it's Aster, I tell you! What happened to Miss Kee-yu?'

'We'll get to that presently. First I must examine this corpse. You wait outside, in the hall. Don't light the candle, I don't want anyone to know about this yet.'

The frightened steward began to protest with chattering teeth, but the judge pushed him unceremoniously outside, and closed the door.

He set to work on the bow of the sash. It took him some time before he had loosened the complicated knots. Then he put his left arm under the waist and raised the body a little so that he could remove the sash that had been wound several times round her torso. The body was quite heavy. This tallied with the old servant's complaint about the weight of the body he and Mr Min carried downstairs. He hung the sash over the edge of the box and pulled the robe open in front. She had no underwear, so that the shapely naked body was now entirely exposed. He took the lantern and examined it inch by inch, looking for signs of violence. But the smooth, white skin was whole, there were only a few superficial scratches on the large breasts, and here and there on the rounded belly. After he had established that she had been in about the fourth month of pregnancy, he pulled the stiff arms out of the wide sleeves. He cast a brief glance at the short, broken nails and the calluses on the hand palms, then turned the body on its side. He suppressed a cry. Just below the left shoulderblade there was a small black plaster, about the size of a copper coin. He carefully peeled it off. The discoloured flesh underneath showed a small wound. The judge studied it for a long time, feeling the flesh around it and finally probing the depth with a toothpick. She had been murdered. And with a long, thin knife, the point of which must have penetrated into the heart.

After he had laid the body on its back again he pulled the robe up over it. He tried to re-tie the triple sash-bow, but could not manage it. So he just tied the ends together in a simple knot. He looked down on the white shape for a while, his arms folded in his long sleeves, his bushy eyebrows knitted in a deep frown. It was all very puzzling indeed.

He opened the door and called the steward. Liao was trembling violently and his face had a deadly pallor. Together they replaced the lid on the coffin.

'Where is your room?' the judge asked while putting his fur coat on again.

'At the back of the compound, sir. Next to that of Mr Yen Yuan.'

'Good. Go straight to bed. I'll make a search for Miss Kee-yu.'

Forestalling any questions the judge turned round and left the chapel. At the entrance of the hall he dismissed the steward with a few kind words, then mounted the broad staircase.

Light came from the landing above. Mr Min was standing in front of the sick man's room, a tall candlestick in his hand. His broad, heavy-jowled face was as haughty as ever, and he was still clad in his long grey robe. He bestowed a baleful look on the judge and asked gruffly:

'Had your spell up in the watchtower?'

'I did. Nothing new. How is your brother, Mr Min?'

'Hm. I was just going to have a look. But since there's no light, I'd better go back to my own room. Wouldn't do to wake up his wife, she'll be dozing in the armchair by the bed. Woman is dog-tired. You had better have a good sleep too. No earthly use in gadding about. Good night.'

The judge looked after the portly gentleman as he shuffled to the door at the end of the landing. Then he climbed the stairs to the third floor.

Back in Kee-yu's room, he put the lantern on the table and remained standing there for a while, staring at the moonlit panes of the sliding doors. If Kee-yu was alive, he could well have seen a fleeting glimpse of her shadow, cast on the outside of the door screen, and have mistaken it for a ghostly shape inside the room. If that were true, she must have been watching him from the balcony.

He pulled the sliding doors open and stepped outside. His previous examination of the situation out there had proved that it would be impossible to climb up on the balcony from below, or to let oneself down there from the roof. And since he had gone out on to the balcony very soon after seeing the apparition, there had been no time for using ladders. He turned round and looked up at the row of carved panels running above the lintel of the sliding doors. He quickly went inside again, and found that the ceiling of the room was only an inch or two above the lintel. That meant that between ceiling and roof there was a loft, only three feet high under the eaves, but increasing in height as the roof sloped upward to the top. Walking out on the balcony again, he gave the flower rack at the left end a thoughtful look. Suppose that there was an entrance to the loft up there? One could easily reach the panels by using the rack as a step-ladder.