Silent Scream (17 page)

‘I read some of it, it’s rubbish. I couldn’t keep on reading the rest. Did you find anything in it?’ he asked Anna.

‘Not really. There was only one odd thing. When she was writing about having a scene with one of the students at drama school, she didn’t write down his name, but put in brackets something about whether she should include the names of whoever she’d been having sex with because they could be famous by now.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I wondered if she was writing an autobiography and someone didn’t like the idea. It could be a motive.’

‘Bit of a long shot.’

‘That’s as maybe, but I did have a conversation with Andrea Lesser last night and she inferred that Amanda was toying with the idea of switching agents, but nothing was confirmed.’

‘You think that could be a motive?’

‘I don’t know, but if we had a sense of exactly how much of a valued client she was, it might be. They wouldn’t want to lose her.’

‘Yeah, but surely not enough to fucking kill her. Either way that’s the client gone.’

‘Yes, I know that,’ Anna snapped. Simon was annoying her. ‘By the way . . .’

When she asked him about Jeannie Bale, he confirmed that he believed all the flatmates had alibis for the time of the murder. He doubted if any one of them would kill off the golden goose, as their victim more than likely kept them living there rent-free.

‘Jeannie Bale said she was this close,’ he held up his finger and thumb, ‘to getting a part in the movie that made Amanda a star. The lead role should have been hers, but it seems our victim pipped her to the post.’

‘Was she upset about it?’

‘Too damned right, I’d say so. It was a long time ago, mind you, and if she’d really wanted to kill her she’d have done it when it went down, not wait all these years.’

Anna rubbed her head; it was really throbbing by now.

‘Well, I didn’t get much from any of the ex-boyfriends,’ she said. ‘They all had alibis, and denied having anything to do with the baby or the abortion. On the contrary, they almost treated it as a joke.’

‘We should dig into that,’ Simon said as he moved towards the door.

‘I’m going to visit Andrea Lesser and question her further.’ Anna picked up her bag, ready to go up to the canteen.

‘There was something one of her flatmates said, but I need to check it out.’ Simon swung her office door back and forth with his foot. ‘The junkie, Dan Hutchins . . .’

Before he could say any more, Mathews appeared.

‘We got anything from the CCTV footage at the mews?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Christ, if they agree to us doing the TV show, we’ve got bugger all to put out.’

‘They can use footage of her movies to fill in the time slot,’ Simon grinned.

‘You must be joking. Getting permission to show any clips is gonna be a runaround and could cost an arm and a leg.’ Mathews glanced at Anna and then back to Simon. ‘Which one of you can I put forward to do the TV interview?’

Simon put his hands up. ‘Not me, please. Anna will be much better.’ He was out of the office fast as Mathews looked at Anna.

‘You’ll do it?’

‘Maybe we should wait.’

‘For what? We need all the help we can get, so as soon as I hear we’ve got a slot I’ll let you know.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Her stomach churned. She had only ever done one live television interview and she had been so nervous she could hardly string two words together. It wouldn’t be easy either, as they truly had so little; the network would want a lot more. Even doing a reconstruction would be of no interest, as all they knew was that Amanda Delany had been driven home from the film unit and then discovered dead in bed later that day. No one had come forward with any sighting of her leaving the mews after she was dropped off or returning to it.

By the time Anna had downed two cups of awful canteen coffee and eaten some toast and honey, Simon had left the station. She had still not mentioned to anyone that she wanted to talk to Dilys Summers who had worked at the Drury, but she did inform the office manager out of courtesy that she was going to talk to Andrea Lesser.

Joan was busy piecing together details of Amanda’s film career from newspapers and press releases, and running checks with the Internet Movie Database. Anna asked her to check too when Amanda had entered the Drury and when she left, when she purchased the mews house and the date she had moved in.

‘We also have to find out if she kept a diary, so see if you can get any information on that. We’ve not had any luck so far.’

‘Yes, Ma’am.’

Barbara was working on the details of Amanda’s finances and had already asked Andrea Lesser to supply them with details of how much she had been paid.

‘She was rather prickly and said it was none of our business.’

‘I’ll have a talk to her this morning,’ Anna replied.

‘Do we know about a funeral?’ Barbara went on. ‘Should I contact the coroner to see when the body is being released to the family?’

‘Yes, do that. Also, see if the forensic team have come up with anything more for us.’

‘Yes, Ma’am.’

The pair watched Anna return to her office and pick up her coat and briefcase.

‘She’s barking up the wrong tree there with that one.’ Barbara pointed at Jeannie Bale’s name up on the board. ‘I felt sorry for her. She almost got the movie that made Amanda’s career.’

‘It must be really tough, you know, trying to get work as an actress. There’s a lot of them out there and in some ways it all boils down to luck.’ Joan was settling back into her job.

‘How much work do you think she had done on her face?’ Barbara continued, looking at the row of glamorous photographs of Amanda Delany.

‘I’ve no idea, but she was only young, so I doubt if she’d had much. Now I’ve got to crack on, matey.’

Joan sighed as she looked at the pictures of their victim from the casebook file. The girl really did have the most perfect features, yet there was such a fragile quality to her beauty. The lab photographs of her skeleton-thin torso, taken at the murder site and after the autopsy, were in horrendous contrast. The autopsy photographs showed the multiple stab wounds to her chest and throat. The breast implants were lopsided, one of them having been slashed by the knife; her tiny frame was pitiful. Her long legs had no muscle tone, her knees were knobbly and her feet had bunions from wearing too high and too tight shoes.

Joan shut the file. It was hard to believe that the pictures were of a girl of only twenty-four years of age, and even harder to believe that she had been a movie star and the envy of thousands of teenagers.

Anna parked her Mini in a large car park in Poland Street and made her way to Andrea Lesser’s agency. To her annoyance, the agent had left for an emergency appointment. She was due to return in the early afternoon.

A plump dark-haired girl appeared and introduced herself as Amy, Andrea Lesser’s secretary.

‘I’m sorry Andrea’s not here.’ Amy was apologetic. ‘She was expecting you but we had a big problem over at the BBC, as they’ve switched schedules and a client of ours is filming elsewhere. Can I make another appointment?’

‘When do you expect her back?’

‘She has a meeting here at one, but she should be free around two.’

‘I’ll come back this afternoon, but before I go, could I ask you something? Do you have any details regarding a possible publishing deal with Amanda Delany?’

Amy shrugged and shook her head. ‘No, sorry.’

Anna persisted. ‘Do you know if she was considering leaving the agency?’

‘No, and I would doubt it because Andrea took great care of her as she was such an important client. I know Amanda had been approached. They always are . . .’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘When you are as famous as Amanda Delany and with a big earning capacity, there’s always another agent sniffing around.’

‘Do you have any names of agents who might have tried to poach Amanda?’

The young girl hesitated.

‘Let me get you a copy of
Spotlight.
That’s where all the agents are listed.’ She disappeared through a frosted-glass partition behind the reception desk and came back with the book of contacts. ‘Here, you can take this away as it’s last year’s.’

‘Thank you very much. Please inform Miss Lesser that I will be back here at two. If it’s inconvenient, she has my mobile number.’

Anna was loath to move her car as she’d paid for three expensive hours of parking, so she put in a call to Dilys Summers to see if it was convenient for her to meet earlier than arranged. Miss Summers agreed so Anna took a taxi to Paddington.

Dilys Summers lived in a highrise council estate not far from the Ladbroke Grove flyover. It was neat and clean, just as Anna remembered it. The woman had a pot of tea and biscuits ready and waiting.

‘This is not to do with your relationship with Lord Halesbury,’ Anna said immediately, to put her at ease. ‘Do you mind me calling you Dilys?’

‘Not at all. It’s good to see you again. Please sit down and help yourself to tea.’

‘Thank you.’

‘You want to ask me about working at the Drury?’

‘Specifically about Amanda Delany. You were working there when she was admitted?’

‘Yes, I was. I left shortly afterwards to work for His Lordship, as I didn’t really enjoy my time there.’ Dilys paused. ‘I don’t need to go into what happened afterwards, as you know more than anyone about that.’

She looked across at Anna and said rather shakily, ‘I miss him dreadfully, but I’ve found part-time work at a local clinic for the elderly, so at least I’m working and keeping my mind off what might have been.’

Anna sipped her tea and ate two custard creams before taking out her notebook.

‘What can you tell me about Amanda Delany?’ she asked.

‘Well, I can tell you as much as I knew or was privy to whilst I was working there. It’s a very well-run clinic with high-profile clients and we do have to sign a confidentiality contract.’

‘I’m sure you do, but Miss Delany is dead.’

‘All those headlines in the papers, it’s shocking. She was such a beautiful girl, troubled but still so gorgeous and very sweet.’

Anna nodded, toying with the idea of taking another biscuit, then decided against it.

‘Take me through when you first met her.’

‘Amanda wasn’t assigned to me; she was obviously in a private room. We all knew who it was in there as there had been a lot of paparazzi outside. I think someone eventually called the police to move them on.’

‘I was on night duty, so she had maybe been resident for just twenty-four hours, I know it wasn’t long. Anyway, the buzzer was in the staff bay, which just had a small desk and chair; the private rooms were along a corridor. It was late, about one-fifteen in the morning . . .’ The other nurse on duty was tending to another patient, so Dilys had gone to see Amanda. She was looking like a child, sitting up in bed in a frilly nightdress and clutching a soft toy. When Anna asked if it was a rabbit, Dilys couldn’t recall.

‘Her hair was dishevelled and her face was pale, with deep dark circles around her eyes. I knew she had refused to eat any supper and I asked her what the problem was.’

Amanda had said she was hungry and wanted chicken noodle soup. Dilys made her a cup of tea. She noticed how dreadfully thin Amanda was, how shaky her skinny arms were, sticking out from the negligée. Dilys also noticed her badly bitten fingernails as she lifted the cup to her lips with both hands.

‘You know, it was hard for me to believe that the child was a film star. She looked sickly and was so nervous, saying she couldn’t sleep.’

The following night, Dilys had brought in two packets of chicken noodle soup.

‘She was so thankful, saying that she couldn’t eat anything. From her charts I saw that she had been given special meals, but there were notes beside them saying that she had refused them.’

So for the next couple of nights Dilys had taken in soup on a tray and added thin slices of toast. She also noticed that the nurse assigned to her care had administered sleeping tablets.

‘“They don’t work”, Amanda said to me.’

When it came to Dilys’s last night on duty, she told Amanda that she had brought in packets of soup for the other staff to continue to make up for her.

‘She was so grateful and asked me to sit beside her. I sat with her for quite a while and she held onto my hand. I watched her doze off and I eased my hand away. Then, just as I was walking out, she started to scream.’

‘Was she still asleep?’

‘Yes, that was what was odd. She screamed so loudly. It was a horrible wretched scream, like one long howl, but she was definitely asleep. I remained at the door, and just as I was about to leave, it happened again. This time though, Amanda had sat up and looked terrified. I talked to her and after a while she calmed down, but I wasn’t sure if she was awake or asleep, or if she was even hearing herself. She eventually lay back and hugged her soft toy to her chest, so I left. The next morning when my shift was over, I stopped in to see her.’

When Dilys had told her that she had screamed in her sleep, Amanda said nothing.