Silent Scream (13 page)

Anna decided to go straight to Heathrow, even though she would be early for her flight to Dublin. She put in a call to the station to check that Amanda’s ex-flatmates were indeed being interviewed that morning. She was told that it was on Simon Dunn’s call sheet and he was taking Barbara. She then put in a call to Andrea Lesser to ask if Amanda had been approached by publishers to write a book. The agent was not available. Anna asked her secretary to call her on her mobile as soon as she was free.

Passing one of the newspaper stands at the airport, Anna collected all the papers to see what further coverage the murder case had had, knowing they would be under pressure to put out a press release very soon. The question was: what could they release? They still had no suspect and as yet no motive for the murder, apart from the fact that Amanda was promiscuous and caused a lot of heartbreak and tension, as Anna had just witnessed. But would any of the people listed as being her lovers really have a motive to kill her, especially as the main threesome were all well-known actors with substantial careers? After the interview with Fiona and Scott Myers, Anna doubted that Myers was guilty, but she nevertheless resolved to check out his alibi.

The basement flat in Maida Vale was part of a large detached house which, judging by the rows of bells beside the front door, was divided up into flats and studio apartments. Simon and Barbara moved down the litter-strewn stairs outside to the basement and rang the doorbell there. It didn’t work so Simon knocked hard and waited. It was another five minutes before there was any sound from inside the flat. Bolts were drawn back and the door was opened by a scruffy boy in bare feet, wearing dirty jeans. Simon showed his ID and they followed the kid down a dingy hallway into a room with sofas and chairs covered in garish orange fabric. The curtains were hanging off the rails and partly drawn. The carpet was stained and the room smelled of tobacco and hash; ashtrays were piled high with cigarette stubs, and dirty coffee mugs were propped around the room. It was hard to believe that Amanda had ever lived there.

The boy introduced himself as Dan Hutchins; he was a film extra who had been to drama school with Amanda, but hadn’t completed the course. Amanda had had a room in the flat and they shared the rent with two other actresses, Felicity Turner and Jeannie Bale, who still lived there but were sleeping off a late night. Dan had not seen Amanda for at least two or three months.

‘She would only drop in here when she left one of her blokes. She kept some stuff here, but then she got a new place of her own and so we’d not seen her.’

Simon let the boy talk on, asking only a few pertinent questions. Barbara asked if he had got along with Amanda and he replied that everyone always did. She was generous and often covered the whole rent when they ran out of cash. He also admitted to being on methadone, as he was a heroin addict.

Then Felicity wandered in, wrapping a dirty towelling dressing-gown around her skinny frame. She was very shaky and sat hunched on the sofa, clutching her knees. Her badly bitten fingernails were painted black. Her hair needed washing and her face, devoid of make-up, looked blotchy. She explained that she was an actress, but like Dan, mostly worked as an extra. She hadn’t gone to drama school and had met Amanda through Dan. Felicity was nervous and constantly dragging at a lock of her hair. She too had an alibi for the time of the murder: she had stayed with her cousin in Esher because she was being booked into a rehab centre. She was addicted to crack cocaine, and desperate to clean her act up and get back to what she really wanted, to become a serious actress.

Simon listened impatiently as Barbara coaxed from the girl as much as she could. She concurred with Dan: as soon as Amanda had a new boyfriend, she’d move out. She often paid their rent for them and helped them with groceries. Amanda would give the girls her cast-off clothes and was always very generous because she knew how lucky she was and that all they needed was a break. Felicity said that Amanda was a really kind, lovely person whom they all loved, and she broke down crying as she said they would all miss her. Tapping his foot, Simon asked if they would wake the third occupant, Jeannie Bale.

Barbara looked up in surprise when Jeannie Bale entered. She was blonde, very pretty, with thick, wavy hair, and had on tight jeans and a skimpy top. She was wearing make-up and looked fresh compared to the other two. Seating herself pertly on the edge of the sofa, as if she was auditioning, she explained that she had been to drama school with Amanda.

‘Are you working at the moment?’ Simon was more interested in Jeannie than in the other two flatmates.

‘I’m up for a big commercial,’ she said, flicking her hair back.

‘Where were you around the time of Amanda’s murder?’

Barbara was making notes and watched the girl cross and recross her long legs.

‘Well, I’ve been thinking about it because we were all so stunned by what has happened. We got really depressed and we couldn’t stop crying because Amanda was such a good friend to us. She really tried to help us all and she was always seeing if we had enough money for the rent and food and stuff like that.’

‘Did you know any of her friends?’

Jeannie did a strange twist of her body.

‘No, she never brought them back here really, unless . . . well, I’ll be honest, we sometimes scored gear for her, you know?’

‘Gear?’ Simon said briskly.

‘Yeah, cocaine sometimes. I mean, we’re not dealing or anything like that, but Dan knows a lot of people. Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, but Amanda liked the odd joint and stuff.’

‘What about the heavier gear like heroin?’

‘Oh no, she wouldn’t touch that, none of us do that. It’s just recreational gear like a bit of a spliff or coke.’

‘How about crack cocaine?’

Jeannie licked her lips. ‘I dunno, I’ve never had that. I have to keep fit for my work and I’m always going for auditions so I look after myself.’

‘Amanda didn’t?’

Jeannie looked at Barbara and did the same wriggling motion with her body.

‘You mean her anorexia? Well, we knew she had that, ’cos when she did live here, she was always chucking up or starving herself, and sometimes watching her eat a teeny slice of toast used to drive us nuts. She’d scrape the butter off and then nibble at it for ages.’

‘When was the last time you saw her?’ Barbara asked gently.

Jeannie chewed at her lips. ‘Be quite some time ago ’cos she bought a house and then was living with Rupert Mitchell on and off before she left here, or was it Scott Myers? I dunno which one, she used to have a lot of famous boyfriends.’

‘But she didn’t bring them back here?’

‘No.’ Jeannie stared at the floor and then sat up straight. ‘I think she didn’t want to, like, introduce us. Well, me more than the others.’

‘Why you?’

Jeannie shrugged and then smiled.

‘We were both up for the same part, in the film called
Rock Baby
that made her famous, and it came down to me and Amanda. I was tested first – in fact, my agent thought I’d got it, and then Amanda went up for it. I’ve never got to the bottom of how it happened because at that time she didn’t have an agent. Anyway, next I hear she is being tested for the same role and . . .’

Jeannie gave a long sigh and then leaned forward, lifting her index finger and thumb half an inch apart.

‘I was this close. It could have been me, but Amanda got the part and the rest is history. She never stopped working after that, and she got Andrea Lesser, the top agent, to look after her. I couldn’t even get through the door at that agency.’

Barbara reflected how many years must have passed since the film test, yet the girl talked of it as if it had happened only a few weeks ago. She felt for the girl, who carefully avoided showing them any jealousy. There had to have been a great deal.

‘Didn’t that make it difficult living here with her, especially since she had become so famous?’ Simon probed.

‘Not really. We made it up and she did always say how much better an actress I was than her. I just needed a break.’ She looked away and then said in a strange voice, ‘Sick, really. Now she’s dead I may get it!’

Simon had heard enough. He asked if they could see Amanda’s room and Jeannie sprang to her feet. She was using it now, but they could look around if they wanted.

It was thankfully cleaner than the sitting room, with just a single bed and an array of theatrical posters stuck all over the walls. Photographs of Jeannie were pinned up, and stacks of magazines and DVDs were crowded onto an overflowing bookcase next to a TV set and stereo.

‘She left her things here for me, like some of her clothes and her shoes. We were the same size.’ Jeannie opened a wardrobe and showed off the racks of clothes and shoes.

‘When she died, where were you?’ Simon asked as he looked over the room. She had not answered the question earlier.

Jeannie said she was working, doing a promo film for a German company. It was Barbara who spotted some of the so-called glamour photographs; it was probably more a small cheap porno film than any kind of promotional work. Jeannie moved quickly to cover them up, but by now they had both seen enough and just wanted to leave the squalid basement flat. Dan and Felicity were standing in the dingy hall. Barbara asked if they had ever seen Amanda wearing a gold crucifix and showed them the photograph. Neither could recall seeing it. When Simon asked about the stuffed rabbit, it was Dan who remembered that Amanda always had it on her pillow.

‘It was sort of a kid’s thing. I think her dad had given it to her and she took it everywhere, and when she left to stay with anyone else, she always had it with her.’

Felicity asked about the funeral arrangements. Barbara said that they had not had confirmation of when her body would be released for burial, but was sure that when her parents arranged the funeral, they would let them all know.

‘I doubt it,’ said Jeannie. ‘Amanda’s parents are stuck-up pigs and won’t let us anywhere near.’

‘Did you meet them?’ Simon asked.

‘No, they never came to the flat, but we knew how much Amanda detested them.’

‘It’s odd then that she would be so fond of her childhood toy,’ Barbara said, but got no response from any of them.

Dan hovered behind them as they opened the front door.

‘Who do you think killed her?’ he asked.

‘I wish we knew.’

‘I wouldn’t put it past one of those paparazzi bastards. They made her life hell, wouldn’t leave her alone.’

‘Maybe that was because she was forever tipping them off, telling them where she was going and who she was shagging,’ Jeannie said dismissively.

‘They were scaring the life out of her. She told me she was gonna take them to court and accuse them of harassment. She said she’d talked to a lawyer about it and she was gonna get compensation.’

‘She wouldn’t do that and you know it. She needed them to boost her career and she was such a liar. As if!’ Jeannie shook her head and gave Simon a smile.

‘If there is anything else, anything you recall that might be of interest, will you call me on this number?’ Simon passed out his card.

‘Did she leave a will?’ Felicity asked.

Dan glanced at her, and she flushed.

‘I just thought it might have something for us in it,’ she mumbled.

‘I’m sure if there is, you will be contacted. You’ll also be contacted by an officer as we will need to process your fingerprints for elimination purposes.’

‘Did you have a key to her mews place?’ Simon asked them, glad for the fresh air by the open door.

Dan shook his head. ‘No, like we didn’t see her that much as soon as she bought it, and she wouldn’t have wanted us there. She was beginning to really hit the big time.’

Felicity started to cry and Dan put his arm around her skinny shoulders. Jeannie seemed to be trying to keep her distance from the other two; she gave a sweet smile when Simon thanked them all for being so helpful.

As they returned to their car, Barbara reflected how sad the three kids were, in their basement full of broken dreams. It was odd to think that Amanda, earning huge sums of money, had kept on living there in such squalor.

‘It wasn’t that bad. Christ, you should have seen my place when I was a student.’ Simon bleeped open his Saab.

But as they drove off, Barbara could still hear Jeannie’s voice, see her leaning forward and gesturing with her finger and thumb to demonstrate how close she had come to stardom. Barbara doubted it would ever happen for her now, even with her so-called rival Amanda Delany no longer alive.

Colin O’Dell’s film unit was on the outskirts of Dublin, working out of a massive disused brick factory. He had the largest Winnebago trailer, with his name on a cardboard notice pinned to the side. Anna knocked and Colin swung open the door, cigarette dangling from his lips. He was very handsome, with blond hair styled in a crew cut. He was also much shorter than Anna had thought he would be. Gesturing for her to sit on one of the comfortable, thickly cushioned sofas built around the luxurious main sitting room, he then offered her a drink.

‘I’d like some water,’ she replied.

‘Right. Still or sparkling?’ he asked in a soft Irish accent. Although she asked for still, he unscrewed a cap of sparkling, handing it to her. He then almost jumped onto the sofa opposite and put his feet up on the coffee-table between them.