Authors: Lynda La Plante
Silent Scream (16 page)
‘You know,’ she said, ‘we had so many offers of work for Amanda, but I don’t recall her mentioning any kind of publishing proposal. I am sure she wouldn’t have been able to write one herself, but then nowadays these young actresses get ghost writers. But really I doubt it.’
‘We have found some chapters on her laptop,’ Anna lied.
‘I don’t understand. Where did you say you got these chapters from?’
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.
A
nna 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.
