Silent Scream (18 page)

‘“You must have been having a bad dream,”’ I said to her, and she looked at me with those beautiful wide eyes. “You gave me quite a scare.”’

‘“It never goes away,” she told me. “That’s why I hate to go to sleep, because that’s what I used to do when I was a child, pretend it wasn’t happening, and I’d bite down on my blanket, but I wanted to scream then. Now it sometimes wakes me, but I didn’t realise everybody could hear. I thought it was still inside me . . .”’

‘Did she ever explain to you what happened to her as a child?’ Anna queried.

‘No, it’s not really my job to ask about those kinds of things, they have psychiatrists for that. I just felt very sorry for her, but I did mention it to one or other of the nurses and they said they’d heard her a few times. It was really a horrible sound, as if someone was in terrible pain.’

Dilys had no contact with Amanda for over two weeks as she was transferred to a different section. It was only when she went back onto night duty that she saw her again.

‘She was like a different girl, very bright and her skin had cleared up. She had acne when I’d first seen her and now she looked very fresh and you could sort of understand why she was an actress. One of the other staff told me they’d weaned her off drugs and that was why she was looking so much better – and she’d also been eating.’

Anna accepted a second cup of tea. ‘Did you ever hear of any visitors?’ she asked.

‘Yes, I did. A few days later, I heard that Amanda had had a visitor that afternoon – a very famous actor.’

‘Do you recall his name?’

‘He was Irish.’

‘Was it Colin O’Dell?’

Dilys nodded hesitantly. She did remember another famous actor being mentioned – and this time she was sure of his name: Scott Myers. After he left, Amanda had been very troubled.

Dilys paused and started to stack the cups and saucers onto a tray.

‘I shouldn’t really be repeating this, you know,’ she said guiltily.

‘You’ve said nothing that could create any kind of a problem for you,’ Anna reassured her.

‘It was after that actor O’Dell came in that she went a bit crazy – very difficult to handle. She was rude to all the staff, and I have to say, I have never heard language like it before or since. She could swear like a trooper. They had to drag her back to her room as she had wanted to make phone calls; she was shouting that she wanted her mobile phone. One of the nurses asked me if I could go and talk to her, you know, seeing as how I’d got along with her.’

But Amanda had been very rude to Dilys too, and insisted that she was being held at the clinic against her will. When Dilys had offered her noodle soup, she had screamed at her to leave her alone.

‘I’d taken in a bowl of the soup and she threw it at the wall. I told her that she should be ashamed of herself. I had to get a bucket and mop to clean it up and she sat on the bed, cross-legged, looking like a little devil, and then she started laughing as if it was all one big joke.’

‘It must have been very unpleasant for you,’ Anna prompted.

‘Yes, it was. She kept on asking me if I knew who she was and I said to her that it didn’t matter who she was. I think these visitors had brought her in some champagne and God knows what else, but she behaved as if she was in a hotel and throwing a party, uncontrollable. Then I heard she had left, not that they could do anything to stop her going, she was there of her own free will and paying for it . . .’

‘By “these visitors” – do you mean Colin O’Dell and Scott Myers?’

‘I suppose so. Remember, I never actually saw who came to see her, but I know there was a third actor because one of the nurses had got his autograph. I’d never heard of him but she said he was famous.’

‘Rupert Mitchell?’

Dilys was unsure.

‘The paparazzi were outside like hornets, they’d be there for hours on end. I don’t think it was just for Amanda Delany – we had a few other celebrities there as well, but when she left us they apparently went crazy and chased her car down the road.’

‘Do you know if her parents ever visited?’

Dilys took a moment to think. Amanda’s father might have been with her when she was admitted, but she didn’t know for sure.

Anna left Dilys Summers and caught a taxi back into Soho. She went into Marks & Spencer on Oxford Street and did a big grocery shop, carrying the goods back to her car, by which time she hoped Andrea Lesser had returned to the agency. However, it was another fifteen minutes before Amy said her boss could see her.

Anna was taken aback by the size of the ultra-modern office, its windows overlooking Wardour Street. Andrea Lesser had numerous signed pictures of her clients on the walls but they were dominated by a photograph of Amanda Delany, wearing a white wig with a diamond tiara and a low-cut gown and large diamond necklace. The film title was in big bold red letters:
The Heiress.

Andrea Lesser lifted her hand towards Anna as she entered.

‘Sit down, please. Sorry if I kept you waiting, but I’m afraid I can’t give you too long as I have another meeting.’

‘I just need to get a few things straightened out,’ Anna said quickly. ‘Basically, I need a timeframe from when Miss Delany first starred in
Rock Baby,
and her subsequent films.’

‘What on earth for?’

‘I am still attempting to get a complete picture of Miss Delany’s work and of the people she had worked with. It’s what we call “full victim profile”.’

‘Really?’ Andrea Lesser opened a drawer and sifted through several files before she opened one and took out a neatly typed sheet of paper. ‘This is her CV. We would send this to whoever wanted to know her experience; you’ll see we’ve attached names of her co-stars, directors and producers. There is also a website that you can access. This is used by companies, as well as her CV, to check up on whether or not, in Amanda’s case, she was fit and well. If necessary they could contact people direct to get a more personal background.’

‘Is this usual?’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Do you do this with every actor you represent?’

‘Yes, when the casting directors like to know what work the actors have already done and if there is anything coming out that could clash with their project, it’s quite usual . . . we update it all the time. But we do not include any figures. That is always negotiable, especially the more popular an artist is.’

‘I would like to have details of Miss Delany’s salary.’

‘No, that is private. I’m sure you can gain access to her bank accounts, but we would not agree to giving you access to her fees from here. The fee for her last film I can tell you though, was over three million.’

‘Good heavens!’

‘Miss Delany was really one of the biggest up-and-coming British stars, with plenty of work on offer here and in the States.’

Anna asked if Amanda’s career had been jeopardised by the bad press about her drug-taking.

‘Not really. We were able to say she had a clean slate after her stay at the Drury.’

‘But that was a while back.’

‘I’m well aware of that, but since then Amanda, to my knowledge, was free of drugs. Sometimes she drank too much champagne, but she was really trying to get herself in shape for a meeting we were setting up in LA.’

‘That would be after
Gaslight
was completed?’

‘Exactly. The tragedy is, I’ve seen some of the rushes of that film and she’s exceptionally good.’

When Anna asked Andrea Lesser to explain how she had come to represent Amanda, she got a terse reply. All she would admit to was that one of the secretaries in the office had taken a phone call from a young actress, without representation, who had been offered a film test for the new independent film
Rock Baby.

‘It’s quite rare that this happens, but I liked the look of her and the rest is history.’

‘She got the part?’

‘She got the part.’

‘Did you know that her flatmate was also up for the same role?’

‘No. Look, I’m finding this rather tedious and I don’t quite understand what on earth this has to do with the present day. It was all a very long time ago.’

‘We’re looking into every possible motive for her death.’

‘I don’t see how something that happened years ago could now surface as a motive!’

‘Did you know that Amanda had once been raped?’

Andrea Lesser pushed her chair back. ‘No.’

‘Were you aware how sick, both mentally and physically, Miss Delany was?’

‘Absolutely not. I don’t know where you got this information from, but for her to start shooting
Gaslight
we had to agree to a full medical test. If Amanda had not been given a clean slate, they wouldn’t have insured her for the role.’

‘Could you give me the name of the doctor who did that test?’

The woman stood up, saying, ‘You can obtain it from the production company; now, I really feel I have given you more than enough of my time.’

Anna wasn’t shifting an inch. She remained seated.

‘I’d just like you to read something taken from a file we removed from Miss Delany’s laptop.’

She passed a sheet of paper over to Andrea Lesser, who sat down and picked up her reading glasses. She scanned the page slowly, then eventually looked up.

‘What is it I am supposed to find? This all reads rather like a teenager’s tacky memoir.’

‘That may be so, but if you look at the paragraph that I’ve highlighted – the one asking if she should use someone’s real name . . .’

‘What about it?’

‘Did you know she was writing her memoirs, tacky as they may be? It seems to me that she is asking someone to give her the legal go-ahead to put a name into that paragraph.’

‘It wasn’t me,’ Andrea Lesser replied. ‘I had no notion she was writing anything. In fact, I couldn’t be more surprised.’ She passed the page back to Anna, then carefully removed her reading glasses, putting them back into their case.

‘You know, Detective Travis, you did bring this up on the telephone and I assured you then that I had never discussed this with Amanda, so I could not be privy to whether or not she had a publishing deal. All I can tell you is that I would be very surprised.’

‘And you’re as certain that she did not intend leaving you as her agent?’

‘Why on earth are we going over this again! I represented that poor girl since her first film. Any tension between us was only temporary – just one of those things.’

‘I suspect it would be very worrying if she had left you. Three million for her last film and probably substantially more for her next – that must be a very lucrative percentage for your agency.’

‘It is, although we have many more, far better paid stars, both here and in America.’

Andrea Lesser stood up again and this time Anna really had no option but to stand as well, collecting her briefcase and notebook. She thanked the agent for agreeing to give her the time and left.

Anna was about to drive out of the car park when Simon called her.

‘Why didn’t you tell me you were going to interview Miss Lesser?’ he said. ‘I’ve just tried to speak to her and her assistant told me you’d just been in.’

Anna explained that she would fill him in on her return to the station. She then asked him to contact the producer of
Gaslight
for the name of the doctor who had given Amanda Delany a medical test.

‘Christ, what do you want to know about that for?’

‘Four years ago she was sick as a dog, being weaned off hard drugs, anorexic and, according to the psychiatrist from the Drury, in no fit state to work. She’d had an abortion and—’

Simon interrupted her. ‘For fuck’s sake, Anna, you just said that was four years ago. I had my appendix out about then and I’m fitter than ever. This is wasting time.’

‘Fine, leave it with me then,’ she snapped.

‘No, no, I’ll bloody contact him, but you know, we have to get something to crack this case open or we are looking at it, as Mathews loves to say, flatlining.’

‘That is, Simon, exactly what I am trying to find – a motive – be it four or more years ago; something from then could have triggered off the murder.’

Anna shut off her mobile and closed her eyes. She was certain now that the scream Amanda said had woken her had been her own. Something in Amanda’s past, possibly when she was a child – had she been abused by her father? – had forced her to bite on a blanket and scream from inside, a silent scream that in her nightmares became vocal.

As Anna nosed her Mini into Poland Street, and then turned right into Great Marlborough Street, she saw Andrea Lesser hurrying past. She was almost able to keep up with the woman as the pavements and roads were so congested.

Anna watched her pushing past people as she crossed over Carnaby Street and stopped at the entrance to Liberty. There, by the flowerseller, she was joined by a man, smartly dressed, like a City banker, in a dark navy overcoat and suit. Anna saw him take Andrea Lesser by the elbow; she looked as if she was crying. Anna was able to take one clear shot of them both with her mobile phone as the couple entered the store. She then had no option but to carry on driving towards the traffic-lights and across Regent Street.