Dumb Witness
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…
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Dumb Witness
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by
Collins 1937
Agatha Christie® Poirot® Dumb Witnessâ¢
Copyright © 1937 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.
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 authorâs 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
CHAPTER 1: The Mistress of Littlegreen House
CHAPTER 4: Miss Arundell Writes a Letter
CHAPTER 5: Hercule Poirot Receives a Letter
CHAPTER 6: We Go to Littlegreen House
CHAPTER 7: Lunch at the George
CHAPTER 8: Interior of Littlegreen House
CHAPTER 9: Reconstruction of the Dogâs Ball Incident
CHAPTER 10: Visit to Miss Peabody
CHAPTER 11: Visit to the Misses Tripp
CHAPTER 12: Poirot Discusses the Case
CHAPTER 18: âA Wolf in the Mangerâ
CHAPTER 19: Visit to Mr Purvis
CHAPTER 20: Second Visit to Littlegreen House
CHAPTER 21: The Chemist; The Nurse; The Doctor
CHAPTER 22: The Woman on the Stairs
CHAPTER 23: Dr Tanios Calls on Us
CHAPTER 24: Theresaâs Denial
CHAPTER 25: I Lie Back and Reflect
CHAPTER 26: Mrs Tanios Refuses to Speak
CHAPTER 27: Visit of Dr Donaldson
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 Arundellâs 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 âblood was thicker than waterâ, to Mrs Lamphrey at the post office, who repeated ad nauseam that âthereâs something behind it, depend upon it! You mark my words.â
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 Arundellâs 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 Arundellâs 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 Arundellâs 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.
