Silent Scream

by Lynda La Plante

  Anna said that they had removed a laptop from Amanda’s study and had opened files that appeared to show the start of a book.

  Miss Lesser paused. ‘Perhaps I should have made a few things clear. We had not been getting along. Basically, I was becoming very tired of Amanda’s unprofessionalism and also of having to do so much for her, things that are not really an agent’s job. By this, I mean handling the refurbishing of her mews house.’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Well, we had words. My main worry was the bad publicity she was generating by all her sexual exploits; it wasn’t exactly geared to helping her career.’

  ‘I would have thought the publicity would have been very useful,’ Anna responded.

  ‘Then you would be wrong. In case you are not aware, there is not only a morality clause in every film contract but also a requirement to go through a stiff medical test. With the news coverage of her drug-taking and affairs, it wasn’t looking good for Amanda, especially with regard to work offers from the United States. Which is why, if you recall, I told you we had been having words about her permissive lifestyle and she had assured me she was behaving herself. The director on her last film really put pressure on me to assure him that Amanda wouldn’t misbehave …’

  ‘So you weren’t aware of any kind of offer for her to write a book.’

  ‘I’ve already told you, I was not privy to this information.’

  ‘Would there be anyone else I should talk to?’

  Again there was a long pause from Miss Lesser. Eventually she told Anna that it was a possibility that Amanda Delany was about to switch agents.

  ‘She was going to leave your agency?’

  ‘Let’s say she threatened to do so. We never had a legal conversation about it, but she could have been approached by another agency.’

  ‘Was she contracted to your agency?’

  ‘Well, not on paper, more of a verbal contract. We don’t contract our artists, it’s not worth it. Basically, if they are not happy with our representation, they can leave.’

  ‘Was Amanda going to leave your agency?’ Anna asked.

  ‘We had discussed it, but then I heard nothing more so I very much doubt she intended to do anything as drastic. You see we had managed her career from her first movie break.’

  Anna was late getting home yet again, having arranged to meet Andrea Lesser at her office the next morning. She was determined to finish going through the files from Amanda’s laptop. She went back to her first file and scrolled through the pages until she came to the heading Chapter One, followed by what looked like a block of writing over two pages. It seemed that there had been something written or deleted before the first paragraph:

  … so many different schools and because my father was stationed in Germany for a while I was sent to boarding school. It was in Cardiff, a small private school with two dormitories, the beds close together. I hated it from the moment I arrived. The nuns were very strict and I had never been away from my mother before. I cried myself to sleep and had to hide beneath the bedcovers so as not to be heard. There was a prefect called Natalie who was supposed to take me under her wing, being a new girl. She was very beautiful. I think she may have been smoking dope because she had a strange musty smell to her clothes and hair.

  Anna continued reading about how the school was run and Amanda’s growing relationship with Natalie. Amanda seemed to have been below average in her lessons and was constantly sent to receive extra tuition from the senior girls, especially Natalie, who helped her with her spelling and arithmetic. Then Anna came across a paragraph which seemed to have no connection to the last.

  He used to play polo and was always making me learn riding, and the smell of the stables made me sick. Everyone was always so nasty because I wouldn’t muck out and help brush the ponies.

  Anna flipped over a few more disconnected pages that contained similar jottings about events in her childhood. Then on one page one line was repeated over and over.

  I hate him. I hate him. I hate him. I hate him.

  It wasn’t until midway through the file that there was a heading at the top of the page – AUDITIONS– with details about her entrance audition for RADA. Amanda described how nervous she had been as she had only done elocution lessons at school.

  The day the envelope came through the letterbox was so important because I knew if I had been accepted into RADA he would have to believe that I was serious about wanting to be an actress. My father was for the first time in my life encouraging and took me and Mother out to lunch at the Ritz. He ordered champagne and I was allowed to celebrate as they both loved to go to the theatre.

  Anna continued to read about how Amanda had been taken shopping by her mother and bought outfits for her to wear as she began her RADA training. There were pages of remarks about being left alone in London as her parents had returned to Germany, and jumbled stories about the other students and her tutors, and how she had been cast in various plays.

  Anna doubted if any of the material would have been of interest to a publisher. It was not well-written and some of it was repetitive. She was yawning, no longer paying that much attention as she scrolled down page after page. There were a few more chapter headings, but the content was mostly about rehearsals and hoping to be cast as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. There was a lengthy section about another student called Belinda who was a nymphomaniac, according to Amanda; she had had sex with every male student in her group and two of the tutors. She went on to describe her own first sexual experience with a student and how she had made a point of choosing the most experienced boy in her group.

  Belinda said I had to lose my virginity. I didn’t tell her that it had been taken a long time ago, I just went along with playing the naive and innocent. He ejaculated all over my stomach, it was horrible and messy and he was so full of himself. I couldn’t wait for him to go but he stayed the night, all night, and tried to do it again in the morning. I wouldn’t let him and he got really nasty, calling me a prickteaser.

  In brackets there was a question: should she insert his real name, as he was now very well-known. Perhaps this was proof that Amanda had been approached to write her memoirs, otherwise why put in the query? As Anna continued wading through more childish descriptions of her sexual conquests, there were dots and dashes instead of names. Then there was a section about moving in with one of the students, and a longer, angry section about having a meeting with her father.

  He went crazy about my spending too much money and said that he would cut off my allowance. He was furious that I’d left the two guard dogs he’d put to watch me and made me promise to use my credit card for rent and food only. Of course I did a lot of crying and he said that he and Mother would come to the finals at the Vanbrugh Theatre. I didn’t tell him that I’d not been given a decent part … I didn’t tell him that I was not going back for the next term anyway. I’d had enough and if he’d known, he’d have dragged me home to Germany. As soon as he’d left, me and Belinda went to Harrods and did a bit of shoplifting, then we used my chequebook to buy loads of gear. Next thing, Mother turns up in a terrible state as he’d found out I’d quit, the bastard had checked up on me at the Academy and he was going apeshit. She said he was withdrawing my allowance and wanted my credit card back and I told her that they were both well out of touch if they thought I’d been able to live on the pittance he’d organised. Of course she didn’t believe me, didn’t believe that I had to take money off guys for sex in order to pay my way.

  Anna sighed, unsure if what she was reading was true or not, though it had certainly got more interesting. Amanda went on to describe how hard it was finding work as an actress. With little experience and no agent, she had been doing the rounds of open auditions and failing to get any work, bar a couple of days as an extra. However, the girl she shared a flat with, an actress called Jeannie Bale, was getting a lot of work and also had a good agent. Jeannie was thrilled about the possibility of starring in a movie about a young waitress who fell in
love with a rock star. Amanda described how she had gone into her flatmate’s room and found the script, read it and seen the address of where they were still holding auditions. By this time Jeannie had been asked to do a film test for the role. Amanda had cheeked her way into the auditions and the director had been blown away by her and suggested she be tested for the same role as Jeannie. She never told Jeannie; instead she had called a top theatrical agent, Andrea Lesser, asking if they could meet as she had been asked to do a film test for Rock Baby.

  Anna sat up, intrigued by Amanda’s deviousness.

  I’d got the part, and I couldn’t really take it in. I was to star in a movie and Miss Lesser agreed to represent me. I was over the moon and as it turned out, it was the break every actress dreams of and it proved to be the kick-start of my career. It was a huge success for a small independent film and …

  Anna was eager to turn the page and discover how her flatmate had taken the news of her so-called friend robbing her of the role she had coveted. Disappointingly, the next page virtually repeated everything she had just read and then came another poem.

  They are doing in my head

  I can’t sleep in my bed

  I just want to make it end

  want to stop the persecution

  the ever-present hounding why

  won’t they LEAVE ME ALONE!

  They are doing in my brain

  I think I am going insane

  and feel them watching me

  chasing me and … there is

  no one helping me but drugs.

  Anna closed the file. Surely no publisher would want such drivel! She must ask Simon if he’d got any feedback from Jeannie Bale; could she be a possible suspect? It was imperative the team got a thorough line of dates regarding Amanda’s time at the Drury, her abortion, her various love affairs and also her career, because she now knew that her first big break had been on the movie Rock Baby. They still had no motive, no strong suspect, and the case would soon start growing very cold.

  Chapter Seven

  Anna had forgotten to switch on her alarm and she woke up late, with a headache and no time for breakfast. She couldn’t find any aspirin so took two of the Sudafed tablets she kept in her bathroom cabinet for when she had a cold. Driving to the station, she felt light-headed and realised that she had eaten nothing substantial for days.

  The team were already gathered and Mathews had been taking a briefing. He acknowledged Anna as she hurried to join everyone, still wearing her coat.

  ‘We’ll be doing a press conference this morning. Telling the media what progress we’ve made is going to be difficult because right now we have nothing to give them. I’ve asked the press office to get us some time on one of the crime shows, as I think we should ask the public about her missing cuddly toy …’

  Simon stood up and gestured to the board. He felt that maybe they should hold that back. It was, after all, the most significant thing missing. Mathews was dismissive: they needed all the help they could get. Then his mobile rang and he suggested they carry on the briefing without him.

  ‘Probably a golfing date,’ Simon muttered. ‘Anyone have anything to add to the void?’ He looked around and Anna moved forward.

  ‘I think we need a list of the exact dates Amanda had the affairs with the actors. We’ve got a pretty good idea from the newspapers, but we must get organised. This also applies to her career, her finances and …’

  She elaborated on how important it was that they had a clear picture of their victim’s life. She asked Joan to double-check that the files she had contained all the material that had been taken off the laptop. Nothing she had read, she explained, really provided anything useful: there were mostly poems and what looked like sections about her childhood and student days at RADA. Anna still made no mention of her thoughts on a publishing deal; by now she had doubts.

  A while later, Simon joined her in her office and flipped open the file on her desk.

  ‘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 s
tation. 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.