Matilda Wheeler

In the unpublished short story The Incident of the Dog's Ball, Matilda Wheeler was a wealthy old lady who lived at the Laburnums in the village of Little Hemel in Kent.

Shortly before she died, Matilda had had an accident where she had fallen down the stairs, suppossedly after stepping on a rubber ball which was a toy for her dog Bob. Suspecting that one of her relatives had tried to kill her, she made a new will which disinherited her only heirs, her nephew James Graham and her niece Mollie Davidson and left everything to her companion Miss Lawson. She died shortly thereafter. Matilda also wrote a letter to Hercule Poirot but for some reason this was not posted. Long after she died, a housemaid discovered the letter and posted it, arriving some three months after her death. This formed the preamble to Poirot's arrival on the scene and the prelude to the events in the story.

Agatha Christie's Notebook 66 contained brief sketches of the characters Christie was planning for the story. Here, she noted that originally, Matilda Wheeler was to be named "Mrs Grant" and that she would be "a typical old lady"..

Some background information about Miss Wheeler was given to Poirot by the waiter at the George Inn. According to him, Miss Wheeler was one of three unmarried sisters. The other two, Miss Caroline and Miss Amelia, had both died some twelve years ago. Matilda was from a well-off family but she never stinged on repairs. Her house was in good condition and the garden was a picture. According the housemaid Ellen, there were two other siblings who were married, but their names are not given. From the surnames of the nephew and niece, it can be inferred these siblings were likely to be female. Dr Lawrence, the local doctor supplemented the picture by assuring Poirot that Matilda was of sound mind and perfectly capable of making the new will. Some case about Miss Lawson gaining an ascendency over her through dabbling in spiritualism might be made out but he doubted if the case would succeed. This spiritualist theme is not taken very far in this short story.

When Agatha Christie later expanded into the short story into the full length novel Dumb Witness, the old lady's name was changed to Emily Arundell. More emphasis was given to the fact that the Arundells were a well-known and important family. The family tree also comprised five siblings, one was male and the father was a famous general. In the event, Emily wanting to preserve the good name of the family guided what she did and became a factor in Poirot's deductions as to why she did what she did, how she had been killed and who the killer was. This family name factor is not present in the short story with Miss Matilda Wheeler.