Dumb Witness hp-16

by Agatha Christie

  The atmosphere of a bygone day, a day of leisure, of refinement, of "ladies and gentlemen," closed round me. This was indeed a "withdrawing-room." Here ladies sat and did their fancy-work, and if a cigarette was ever smoked by a favoured member of the male sex, what a shaking out of curtains and general airing of the room there would be afterwards!

  My attention was drawn by Bob. He was sitting in an attitude of rapt attention close beside an elegant little table with two drawers in it.

  As he saw that I was noticing him, he gave a short, plaintive yelp, looking from me to the table.

  "What does he want?" I asked.

  Our interest in Bob was clearly pleasing to the maid who obviously was very fond of him.

  "It's his ball, sir. It was always kept in that drawer. That's why he sits there and asks."

  Her voice changed. She addressed Bob in a high falsetto.

  "It isn't there any longer, beautiful. Bob's ball is in the kitchen. In the kitchen, Bob."

  Bob shifted his gaze impatiently to Poirot.

  "This woman's a fool," he seemed to be saying. "You look a brainy sort of chap. Balls are kept in certain places – this drawer is one of those places. There always has been a ball here. Therefore there should be a ball there now. That's obvious dog-logic, isn't it?"

  "It's not there now, boy," I said. He looked at me doubtfully. Then as we went out of the room he followed slowly in an unconvinced manner.

  We were shown various cupboards, a downstairs cloakroom, and a small pantry place, "where the mistress used to do the flowers, sir."

  "You were with your mistress a long time?" asked Poirot.

  "Twenty-two years, sir."

  "You are alone here caretaking?"

  "Me and cook, sir."

  "She was also a long time with Miss Arundell?"

  "Four years, sir. The old cook died."

  "Supposing I were to buy the house, would you be prepared to stay on?"

  She blushed a little.

  "It's very kind of you, sir, I'm sure, but I'm going to retire from service. The mistress left me a nice little sum, you see, and I'm going to my brother. I'm only remaining here as a convenience to Miss Lawson until the place is sold – to look after everything."

  Poirot nodded.

  In the momentary silence a new sound was heard.

  "Bump, bump, bump."

  A monotonous sound increasing in volume and seeming to descend from above.

  "It's Bob, sir." She was smiling. "He's got hold of his ball and he's bumping it down the stairs. It's a little game of his."

  As we reached the bottom of the stairs a black rubber ball arrived with a thud on the last step. I caught it and looked up. Bob was lying on the top step, his paws splayed out, his tail gently wagging. I threw it up to him. He caught it neatly, chewed it for a minute or two with evident relish, then laid it between his paws and gently edged it forward with his nose till he finally bunted it over and it bumped once more down the stairs, Bob wagging his tail furiously as he watched its progress.

  "He'll stay like that for hours, sir. Regular game of his. He'd go on all day at it. That'll do now. Bob. The gentlemen have got something else to do than play with you."

  A dog is a great promoter of friendly intercourse. Our interest and liking for Bob had quite broken down the natural stiffness of the good servant. As we went up to the bedroom floors, our guide was talking quite garrulously as she gave us accounts of Bob's wonderful sagacity. The ball had been left at the foot of the stairs. As we passed him, Bob gave us a look of deep disgust and stalked down in a dignified fashion to retrieve it. As we turned to the right I saw him slowly coming up again with it in his mouth, his gait that of an extremely old man forced by unthinking persons to exert himself unduly.

  As we went round the bedrooms, Poirot began gradually to draw our conductress out.

  "There were four Miss Arundells lived here, did they not?" he asked.

  "Originally, yes, sir, but that was before my time. There was only Miss Agnes and Miss Emily when I came and Miss Agnes died soon afterwards. She was the youngest of the family. It seemed odd she should go before her sister."

  "I suppose she was not so strong as her sister?"

  "No, sir, it's odd that. My Miss Arundell, Miss Emily, she was always the delicate one. She'd had a lot to do with doctors all her life. Miss Agnes was always strong and robust and yet she went first, and Miss Emily who'd been delicate from a child outlived all the family. Very odd the way things happen."

  "Astonishing how often that is the case." Poirot plunged into (I feel sure) a wholly mendacious story of an invalid uncle which I will not trouble to repeat here. It suffices to say that it had its effect. Discussions of death and such matters do more to unlock the human tongue than any other subject. Poirot was in a position to ask questions that would have been regarded with suspicious hostility twenty minutes earlier.

  "Was Miss Arundell's illness a long and painful one?"

  "No, I wouldn't say that, sir. She'd been ailing, if you know what I mean, for a long time – ever since two winters before. Very bad she was then – this here jaundice. Yellow in the face they go and the whites of their eyes -"

  "Ah, yes, indeed -" (Anecdote of Poirot's cousin who appeared to have been the Yellow Peril in person.)

  "That's right – just as you say, sir. Terribly ill she was, poor dear. Couldn't keep anything down. If you ask me, Dr Grainger hardly thought she'd pull through. But he'd a wonderful way with her – bullying, you know. 'Made up your mind to lie back and order your tombstone?' he'd say. And she'd say, 'I've a bit of fight in me still, Doctor,' and he'd say, 'That's right – that's what I like to hear.' A hospital nurse we had, and she made up her mind that it was all over – even said to the doctor once that she supposed she'd better not worry the old lady too much by forcing her to take food – but the doctor rounded on her. 'Nonsense,' he said. 'Worry her? You've got to bully her into taking nourishment.' Valentine's beef juice at such and such a time. Brand's essence – teaspoonfuls of brandy. And at the end he said something that I've never forgotten. 'You're young, my girl,' he said to her. 'You don't realize what fine fighting material there is in age. It's young people who turn up their toes and die because they're not interested enough to live. You show me any one who's lived to over seventy and you show me a fighter – some one who's got the will to live.' And it's true, sir – we're always saying how wonderful old people are – their vitality and the way they've kept their faculties – but as the doctor put it that's just why they've lived so long and got to be so old."

  "But it is profound what you say there – very profound! And Miss Arundell was like that? Very alive? Very interested in life?"

  "Oh, yes, indeed, sir. Her health was poor, but her brain was as keen as anything. And as I was saying, she got over that illness of hers – surprised the nurse, it did. A stuck-up young thing she was, all starched collars and cuffs and the waiting on she had to have and tea at all hours."

  "A fine recovery."

  "Yes, indeed, sir. Of course, the mistress had to be very careful as to diet at first, everything boiled and steamed, no grease in the cooking, and she wasn't allowed to eat eggs either. Very monotonous it was for her."

  "Still the main thing is she got well."

  "Yes, sir. Of course, she had her little turns. What I'd call bilious attacks. She wasn't always very careful about her food after a time – but still they weren't very serious until the last attack."

  "Was it like her illness of two years before?"

  "Yes, just the same sort of thing, sir. That nasty jaundice – an awful yellow colour again – and the terrible sickness and all the rest of it. Brought it on herself, I'm afraid she did, poor dear. Ate a lot of things she shouldn't have done. That very evening she was took bad she'd had curry for supper and as you know, sir, curry's rich and a bit oily."

  "Her illness came on suddenly, did it?"

  "Well, it seemed so, sir, but Dr Grainger, he said it had been working up for som
e time. A chill – the weather had been very changeable – and too rich feeding."

  "Surely her companion – Miss Lawson was her companion, was she not – could have dissuaded her from rich dishes?"

  "Oh, I don't think Miss Lawson would have much say. Miss Arundell wasn't one to take orders from any one."

  "Had Miss Lawson been with her during her previous illness?"

  "No, she came after that. She'd been with her about a year."

  "I suppose she'd had companions before that?"

  "Oh, quite a number, sir."

  "Her companions didn't stay as long as her servants," said Poirot, smiling.

  The woman flushed.

  "Well, you see, sir, it was different. Miss Arundell didn't get out much and what with one thing and another -" She paused.

  Poirot eyed her for a minute, then he said:

  "I understand a little the mentality of elderly ladies. They crave, do they not, for novelty. They get, perhaps, to the end of a person."

  "Well, now, that's very clever of you, sir. You've hit it exactly. When a new lady came Miss Arundell was always interested to start with – about her life and her childhood and where she'd been and what she thought about things, and then, when she knew all about her, well, she'd get – well, I suppose bored is the real word."

  "Exactly. And between you and me, these ladies who go as companions, they are not usually very interesting – very amusing, eh?"

  "No, indeed, sir. They're poor-spirited creatures, most of them. Downright foolish, now and then. Miss Arundell soon got through with them, so to speak. And then she'd make a change and have some one else."

  "She must have been unusually attached to Miss Lawson, though."

  "Oh, I don't think so, sir."

  "Miss Lawson was not in any way a remarkable woman?"

  "I shouldn't have said so, sir. Quite an ordinary person."

  "You liked her, yes?"

  The woman shrugged her shoulders slightly.

  "There wasn't anything to like or dislike. Fussy she was – a regular old maid and full of this nonsense about spirits."

  "Spirits?" Poirot looked alert.

  "Yes, sir, spirits. Sitting in the dark round a table and dead people came back and spoke to you. Downright irreligious I call it – as if we didn't know departed souls had their rightful place and aren't likely to leave it."

  "So Miss Lawson was a spiritualist! Was Miss Arundell a believer too?"

  "Miss Lawson would have liked her to be!" snapped the other. There was a spice of satisfied malice in her tone.

  "But she wasn't?" Poirot persisted.

  "The mistress had too much sense." She snorted. "Mind you, I don't say it didn't amuse her. 'I'm willing to be convinced,' she'd say. But she'd often look at Miss Lawson as much as to say, 'My poor dear, what a fool you are to be so taken in!'"

  "I comprehend. She did not believe in it, but it was a source of amusement to her."

  "That's right, sir. I sometimes wondered if she didn't – well, have a bit of quiet fun, so to speak, pushing the table and that sort of thing. And the others all as serious as death."

  "The others?"

  "Miss Lawson and the two Miss Tripps."

  "Miss Lawson was a very convinced spiritualist?"

  "Took it all for gospel, sir."

  "And Miss Arundell was very attached to Miss Lawson, of course."

  It was the second time Poirot had made this certain remark and he got the same response.

  "Well, hardly that, sir."

  "But surely," said Poirot, "if she left her everything – She did, did she not?"

  The change was immediate. The human being vanished. The correct maid-servant returned. The woman drew herself up and said in a colourless voice that held reproof for familiarity in it:

  "The way the mistress left her money is hardly my business, sir."

  I felt that Poirot had bungled the job. Having got the woman in a friendly mood, he was now proceeding to throw away his advantage.

  He was wise enough to make no immediate attempt to recover lost ground. After a commonplace remark about the size and number of the bedrooms he went towards the head of the stairs.

  Bob had disappeared, but as I came to the stair-head, I stumbled and nearly fell. Catching at the banister to steady myself I looked down and saw that I had inadvertently placed my foot on Bob's ball which he had left lying on the top of the stairs.

  The woman apologized quickly.

  "I'm sorry, sir. It's Bob's fault. He leaves his ball there. And you can't see it against the dark carpet. Death of some one some day it'll be. The poor mistress had a nasty fall through it. Might easily have been the death of her."

  Poirot stopped suddenly on the stairs.

  "She had an accident, you say?"

  "Yes, sir. Bob left his ball there, as he often did, and the mistress came out of her room and fell over it and went right down the stairs. Might have been killed."

  "Was she much hurt?"

  "Not as much as you'd think. Very lucky she was. Dr Grainger said. Cut her head a little, and strained her back and of course there were bruises and it was a nasty shock. She was in bed for about a week, but it wasn't serious."

  "Was this long ago?"

  "Just a week or two before she died."

  Poirot stopped to recover something he had dropped.

  "Pardon – my fountain pen – ah, yes, there it is." He stood up again.

  "He is careless, this Master Bob," he observed.

  "Ah, well, he don't know no better, sir," said the woman in an indulgent voice. "Nearly human he may be, but you can't have everything. The mistress, you see, usedn't to sleep well at nights and often she'd get up and wander downstairs and round and about the house."

  "She did that often?"

  "Most nights. But she wouldn't have Miss Lawson or any one fussing after her."

  Poirot had turned into the drawing-room again.

  "A beautiful room this," he observed. "I wonder, would there be space in this recess for my bookcase? What do you think, Hastings?"

  Quite fogged I remarked cautiously that it would be difficult to say.

  "Yes, sizes are so deceptive. Take, I pray you, my little rule and measure the width of it and I will write it down."

  Obediently I took the folding rule that Poirot handed me and took various measurements under his direction whilst he wrote on the back of an envelope.

  I was just wondering why he adopted such an untidy and uncharacteristic method of making a neat entry in his little pocketbook when he handed the envelope to me, saying:

  "That is right, is it not? Perhaps you had better verify it."

  There were no figures on the envelope. Instead was written: "When we go upstairs again, pretend to remember an appointment and ask if you can telephone. Let the woman come with you and delay her as long as you can."

  "That's all right," I said, pocketing the envelope. "I should say both bookcases would go in perfectly."

  "It is as well to be sure, though. I think, if it is not too much trouble, I would like to look at the principal bedroom again. I am not quite sure of the wall space there."

  "Certainly, sir. It's no trouble."

  We went up again. Poirot measured a portion of wall, and was just commenting aloud on the respective possible positions of bed, wardrobe and writing table when I looked at my watch, gave a somewhat exaggerated start and exclaimed:

  "By Jove, do you know it's three o'clock already? What will Anderson think? I ought to telephone to him." I turned to the woman. "I wonder if I might use your telephone if you have one."

  "Why, certainly, sir. It's in the little room off the hall. I'll show you."

  She bustled down with me, indicating the instrument, and then I got her to help me in finding a number in the telephone directory.

  In the end I made a call – to a Mr Anderson in the neighbouring town of Harchester. Fortunately he was out and I was able to leave a message saying it was unimportant and that I would ring u
p later!

  When I emerged Poirot had descended the staircase and was standing in the hall. His eyes had a slightly green tinge. I had no clue to his excitement, but I realized that he was excited. Poirot said:

  "That fall from the top of the stairs must have given your mistress a great shock. Did she seem perturbed about Bob and his ball after it?"

  "It's funny your saying that, sir. It worried her a lot. Why, just as she was dying, she was delirious and she rambled on a lot about Bob and his ball and something about a picture that was ajar."

  "A picture that was ajar," said Poirot thoughtfully.

  "Of course, it didn't make sense, sir, but she was rambling, you see."

  "One moment – I must just go into the drawing-room once more."

  He wandered round the room, examining the ornaments. In especial, one big jar with a lid on it seemed to attract him. It was not, I fancy, a particularly good bit of china. A piece of Victorian humour – it had on it a rather crude picture of a bulldog sitting outside a front door with a mournful expression on its face. Below was written: Out all night and no key.

  Poirot, whose taste I have always been convinced is hopelessly bourgeois, seemed lost in admiration.

  "Out all night and no key," he murmured. "It is amusing, that! Is that true of our Master Bob? Does he sometimes stay out all night?"

  "Very occasional, sir. Oh, very occasional. He's a very good dog, Bob is."

  "I am sure he is. But even the best of dogs -"

  "Oh, it's quite true, sir. Once or twice he's gone off and come home perhaps at four in the morning. Then he sits down on the step and barks till he's let in."

  "Who lets him in – Miss Lawson?"

  "Well, any one who hears him, sir. It was Miss Lawson, sir, last time. It was the night of the mistress's accident. And Bob came home about five. Miss Lawson hurried down to let him in before he could make a noise. She was afraid of waking up the mistress and hadn't told her Bob was missing for fear of worrying her."