The Chinese Maze Murders by Robert van Gulik Read Free Book Online Page A

private office.
    Judge Dee had Sergeant Hoong called in. As his four lieutenants seated themselves in front of his desk the judge gave a brief account of his encounter with Candidate Ding. Then he ordered Tao Gan to report.
    Tao Gan’s face was even longer than usual as he began:
    “Matters don’t look too good for us, Your Honour. That man Chien has established himself in a powerful position. He has drained the district of its wealth but he has been careful to leave alone members of influential families who came here from the capital, in order to prevent them from sending unfavourable reports about him to the central authorities. This applies to General Ding whose son Your Honour just met, and to Yoo Kee, the son of Governor Yoo Shou-chien.
    “Chien Mow has been clever enough not to turn on the screws too tightly. He takes a generous percentage of all business conducted in this district, but leaves the merchants a reasonable margin of profit. After a fashion he also maintains the public peace; if a man is caught stealing or brawling he is beaten half to death on the spot by Chien’s henchmen. It is true that these men eat and drink in restaurantsand inns without paying a copper. On the other hand Chien spends freely and many of the large shops have a good customer in him and his men. It are the small shopkeepers and tradesmen that suffer most from his tyranny. On the whole, however, the people of Lan-fang are resigned to their fate and reason that it could easily be worse.”
    “Are Chien’s men loyal to him?” the judge interrupted.
    “Why should they not be?” Tao Gan asked. “Those ruffians, about one hundred in all, spend their time drinking and gambling. Chien recruited them from the scum of the city and picked up quite a number of deserters from the regular army. Chien’s mansion, by the way, looks like a fortress. It stands near the western city gate. The high outer wall has iron spikes all along its top and the main entrance is guarded day and night by four men who are armed to the teeth.”
    Judge Dee remained silent for some time, slowly caressing his side whiskers. Then he asked:
    “Now what did you learn about Yoo Kee?”
    “Yoo Kee,” Tao Gan replied, “lives near the Watergate. He seems to be a man of retiring habits who lives very quietly. But people tell many stories about his father, the late Governor Yoo Shou-chien. He was an eccentric old man who spent most of his time on his large country estate at the foot of the mountain slope, outside the eastern city gate. That country mansion is an old, dark house surrounded by a dense forest. People say that it was built more than two centuries ago. At the back the governor constructed a maze that covers nearly one acre. The path is bordered by thick undergrowth and large boulders which form an impenetrable wall. They say that this maze abounds in poisonous reptiles; others aver that the Governor laid many a weird man-trap along the path. Anyway this maze is so perfect that no one except the old Governor himself hasever ventured to enter it. He, however, used to go there nearly every day and stayed inside for hours on end.”
    Judge Dee had followed Tao Gan’s words with great interest.
    “What a curious tale!” he exclaimed. “Does Yoo Kee often visit that country mansion?”
    Tao Gan shook his head.
    “No,” he replied, “Yoo Kee left there as soon as the old Governor had been buried. He has never gone back there since. The mansion is empty but for an aged gate keeper and his wife. People say that the place is haunted and that the ghost of the old Governor walks about there at night. All give the estate a wide berth, even in broad daylight.
    “The Governor’s town mansion was located just inside the eastern city gate. But Yoo Kee sold it soon after his father’s death and bought his present house, right at the other end of the city. It stands on an empty plot of ground in the southwest corner, near the river. I had no time to go there