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Dumb Witness
Agatha Christie
An elderly spinster has been poisoned in her country home…Everyone blamed Emily’s accident on a rubber ball left on the stairs by her frisky terrier. But the more she thought about her fall, the more convinced she became that one of her relatives was trying to kill her.On April 17th she wrote her suspicions in a letter to Hercule Poirot. Mysteriously he didn’t receive the letter until June 28th… by which time Emily was already dead…
Dumb Witness
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by
Collins 1937
Agatha Christie® Poirot® Dumb Witness™
Copyright © 1937 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.
www.agathachristie.com (http://www.agathachristie.com)
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Title lettering by Ghost Design
Cover photograph © Polly Eltes/PlainPicture
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008129569
Ebook Edition © September 2015 ISBN: 9780007422302
Version: 2017-04-12
TO DEAR PETER, MOST FAITHFUL OF FRIENDS AND DEAREST OF COMPANIONS, A DOG IN A THOUSAND
Contents
Cover (#u48cae574-733f-5d36-afd5-e89716f21b20)
Title Page (#ub643c27d-2d62-5379-ab5f-a43af9ae4eb5)
Copyright (#u67072305-c7e7-5700-be98-d1c32efd05a8)
Dedication (#u2d6b7df2-a5d3-5e62-91ca-097eb1d05188)
CHAPTER 1: The Mistress of Littlegreen House (#u907dc8f2-1af0-51c2-b22a-b5b95bd58c55)
CHAPTER 2: The Relations (#u13ebc66d-c50a-5f9c-897a-f397ecf8df66)
CHAPTER 3: The Accident (#u17ab0957-cd18-5e3c-a4a4-dcb76148073e)
CHAPTER 4: Miss Arundell Writes a Letter (#ueef0c904-002c-5f0d-947a-142aae3d4aaa)
CHAPTER 5: Hercule Poirot Receives a Letter (#u7c6ef843-fb6c-5c4c-bfd6-8f9e4849fd04)
CHAPTER 6: We Go to Littlegreen House (#ufb09fde4-e39f-5d0f-8d50-5d3bc6b7d0f4)
CHAPTER 7: Lunch at the George (#u3830580e-dd04-5623-aa31-97e95bb01355)
CHAPTER 8: Interior of Littlegreen House (#u725c1db2-cf5d-5937-8594-a25f48d0bda9)
CHAPTER 9: Reconstruction of the Dog’s Ball Incident (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 10: Visit to Miss Peabody (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 11: Visit to the Misses Tripp (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 12: Poirot Discusses the Case (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 13: Theresa Arundell (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 14: Charles Arundell (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 15: Miss Lawson (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 16: Mrs Tanios (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 17: Dr Tanios (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 18: ‘A Wolf in the Manger’ (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 19: Visit to Mr Purvis (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 20: Second Visit to Littlegreen House (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 21: The Chemist; The Nurse; The Doctor (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 22: The Woman on the Stairs (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 23: Dr Tanios Calls on Us (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 24: Theresa’s Denial (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 25: I Lie Back and Reflect (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 26: Mrs Tanios Refuses to Speak (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 27: Visit of Dr Donaldson (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 28: Another Victim (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 29: Inquest at Littlegreen House (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 30: The Last Word (#litres_trial_promo)
ALSO BY AGATHA CHRISTIE (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 1 (#u028dbddd-6701-5b69-9294-aea44927afef)
The Mistress of Littlegreen House (#u028dbddd-6701-5b69-9294-aea44927afef)
Miss Arundell died on May 1st. Though her illness was short her death did not occasion much surprise in the little country town of Market Basing where she had lived since she was a girl of sixteen. For Emily Arundell was well over seventy, the last of a family of five, and she had been known to be in delicate health for many years and had indeed nearly died of a similar attack to the one that killed her some eighteen months before.
But though Miss Arundell’s death surprised no one, something else did. The provisions of her will gave rise to varying emotions, astonishment, pleasurable excitement, deep condemnation, fury, despair, anger and general gossip. For weeks and even months Market Basing was to talk of nothing else! Everyone had their own contribution to make to the subject from Mr Jones the grocer, who held that ‘blood was thicker than water’, to Mrs Lamphrey at the post office, who repeated ad nauseam that ‘there’s something behind it, depend upon it! You mark my words.’
What added zest to the speculations on the subject was the fact that the will had been made as lately as April 21st. Add to this the further fact that Emily Arundell’s near relations had been staying with her just before that date over Easter Bank Holiday and it will be realized that the most scandalous theories could be propounded, pleasurably relieving the monotony of everyday life in Market Basing.
There was one person who was shrewdly suspected of knowing more about the matter than she was willing to admit. That was Miss Wilhelmina Lawson, Miss Arundell’s companion. Miss Lawson, however, professed herself just as much in the dark as everyone else. She, too, she declared, had been dumbfounded when the will was read out.
A lot of people, of course, did not believe this. Nevertheless, whether Miss Lawson was or was not as ignorant as she declared herself to be, only one person really knew the true facts. That person was the dead woman herself. Emily Arundell had kept her own counsel as she was in the habit of doing. Even to her lawyer she had said nothing of the motives underlying her action. She was content with making her wishes clear.
In that reticence could be found the keynote of Emily Arundell’s character. She was, in every respect, a typical product of her generation. She had both its virtues and its vices. She was autocratic and often overbearing, but she was also intensely warm-hearted. Her tongue was sharp but her actions were kind. She was outwardly sentimental but inwardly shrewd. She had a succession of companions whom she bullied unmercifully, but treated with great generosity. She had a great sense of family obligation.
On the Friday before Easter Emily Arundell was standing in the hall of Littlegreen House giving various directions to Miss Lawson.
Emily Arundell had been a handsome girl and she was now a well-preserved handsome old lady with a straight back and a brisk manner. A faint yellowness in her skin was a warning that she could not eat rich food with impunity.
Miss Arundell was saying:
‘Now then, Minnie, where have you put them all?’
‘Well, I thought—I hope I’ve done right—Dr and Mrs Tanios in the Oak room and Theresa in the Blue room and Mr Charles in the Old Nursery—’
Miss Arundell interrupted:
‘Theresa can have the Old Nursery and Charles will have the Blue room.’
‘Oh, yes—I’m sorry—I thought the Old Nursery being rather more inconvenient—’
‘It will do very nicely for Theresa.’
In Miss Arundell’s day, women took second place. Men were the important members of society.
‘I’m so sorry the dear little children aren’t coming,’ murmured Miss Lawson, sentimentally.
She loved children and was quite incapable of managing them.
‘Four visitors will be quite enough,’ said Miss Arundell. ‘In any case Bella spoils her children abominably. They never dream of doing what they are told.’
Minnie Lawson murmured:
‘Mrs Tanios is a very devoted mother.’
Miss Arundell said with grave approval:
‘Bella is a good woman.’
Miss Lawson sighed and said:
‘It must be very hard for her sometimes—living in an outlandish place like Smyrna.’
Emily Arundell replied:
‘She has made her bed and she must lie on it.’
And having uttered this final Victorian pronouncement she went on:
‘I am going to the village now to speak about the orders for the weekend.’
‘Oh, Miss Arundell, do let me. I mean—’
‘Nonsense. I prefer to go myself. Rogers needs a sharp word. The trouble with you is, Minnie, that you’re not emphatic enough. Bob! Bob! Where is the dog?’
A wire-haired terrier came tearing down the stairs. He circled round and round his mistress uttering short staccato barks of delight and expectation.
Together mistress and dog passed out of the front door and down the short path to the gate.
Miss Lawson stood in the doorway smiling rather foolishly after them, her mouth a little open. Behind her a voice said tartly:
‘Them pillowcases you gave me, miss, isn’t a pair.’
‘What? How stupid of me…’
Minnie Lawson plunged once more into household routine.
