The Case of the Jade Rabbit

"From freshly broken twigs, crushed leaves, disturbed pebbles, and imprints hardly discernible by the untrained eye, such graduates in the University of Nature will divine, not only the fact that a party has passed that way, but its strength, its composition, the course it took, and the number of hours or days which have elapsed since it passed. But they are able to do this because, like Zadig, they perceive endless minute differences where untrained eyes discern nothing; and because the unconscious logic of common sense compels them to account for these effects by the causes which they know to be competent to produce them." T.H. Huxley 1880

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While the Laandsat meeting droned on, I slipped upstairs and let myself into the Magistrate's office. I wanted to look at the crime scene without having to deal with spectators.

The room was dimly lit. Light filtered in through a stained glass window overlooking the Laandsrat chambers. The lamp of the desk offered a faint glow.

I could hear the voices of those below. Clever acoustics. The Magistrate would be able to sit in her office and hear every word spoken in the chambers. So too, the suspect would have heard anyone approaching.

I scanned the room.

Bookshelves lined the wall facing the window. A passage in the back corner and stairs that led to a pair of holding cells. The room held a desk and some chairs. Some items on the desk. The desk faced a large wall map.

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I began with the map.




It had been defaced with a message. The text read: "jADE DIED FOR YOUR SINS!"

The letters were well formed, with serifs, the semi-structured details on the ends of some of the strokes. The statement was written in two lines, with the first two words above the final three.

The first letter was lower case. The sentence ended in an exclamation mark. The result was the text began and ended with a dot.

I took note of the style, the location of the dots and the strokes. A cursory examination revealed no pattern to the position of the letters - intentional or otherwise - in relationship to the stars on the chart. I would need astrophysics to have a closer look.



It certainly appeared to be written in blood, as Lily had informed us, and with enough fluid to drip before drying. With a sterile instrument,  I took samples from three different letters.

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The floor in front of the map had been taped off by the local authorities.  I knelt down careful not to disturb the area. There was sand on the surface of the tiles, and in the cracks between them.



I am betting the Magistrate likes a clean office, floors well scrubbed.

I took several samples of the sand.

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I turned my attention to the desk.



The Magistrate's computer sat to the side of the desk away from the window. A lamp at the corner. On the opposite side, there squatted a small rabbit carved from jade.

Its ears were pulled back.

It faced the Magistrate's chair.

Taking this as my cue, I slowly walked around the desk to see the room as the Magistrate would if seated.



"jADE DIED FOR YOUR SINS!" The blood red letters screamed across the room.

Your sins.

Not ours.

The message accused the reader. Facing the Magistrate's desk, it accused her.

I picked up the statue and considered the weight. I needed to run some tests. Material composition. Fine measurement.

Was the artist left handed? What instruments did he or she use to carve the stone? Were these instruments easy to come by?

Why were the ears back? What did that mean to a rabbit?

I slipped the item into an evidence bag, then secured it in the pouch on my right leg.

I was finished here.