Silent Scream (39 page)

Langton sat down again and rested his chin on his hand, listening.

‘Right now, I do not have a shred of evidence,’ Anna admitted. ‘All I do know is that there was a book offer for over a million pounds, there was a diary Amanda kept up to date and there was her cuddly toy. These items were removed by someone who knew a lot about Amanda, but who also cared about her, was perhaps in love with her, and she had either humiliated or abused them and this was a revenge murder.’

Langton gave her a sidelong glance, as she showed them the picture of Lester James.

‘Both this man’s brothers worked as unit drivers on
Gaslight,
but sometimes, though I have no concrete evidence that this occurred, when they were busy they would bring another driver on board to cover for them. This is when both Harry and Tony used their own brother Lester, who had driven Amanda, not only on her first movie, but on two subsequent films. This man knew her, this man would have access to her private life.’

‘Anyone interviewed him?’ Langton asked.

‘It’s the first I’ve bloody heard about him,’ Mike said angrily.

‘We have to move very carefully,’ Langton observed. ‘If Lester James is the killer, he must believe he has got away with it. He could be a very dangerous man and as yet, we do not have a single piece of evidence against him.’ He looked at Anna. ‘Correct?’

‘Yes, sir. We need to try and discover if he was in the mews house; he’ll have his fingerprints on record. We have to prove that he was in the house and he killed her.’

Mike was very quiet, hating that Anna had divulged all this in front of his boss. Langton gave nothing away, merely suggesting that Anna return to her office and type up her report. As she reached the door, he asked if there was anything else she might have left out. There was a note of sarcasm in his voice.

‘There is one thing,’ she said. ‘The pink diary was last seen at her flat by the publisher of Golden Arrow, whose name is Josh Lyons. Days ago, I suggested that we get a warrant issued to search the flat, just in case Amanda left it hidden there.’

Anna walked out, closing the door quietly behind her. As she made her way along the corridor, she couldn’t help smiling. She could so easily have said something like, ‘Screw you, Mike, you refused to get me that search warrant,’ but she knew Langton would be onto it fast.

Typing up her report was tedious and time-consuming work. When she got as far as the conversation between Felicity and Jeannie, something jolted inside Anna’s brain. In the incident room she searched the board for details of Dan Hutchins’s death, written up because of his connection to Amanda, and looked at the photographs of the boy’s body. Felicity had said they had found him lying on the floor, a syringe beside him. The photos of the dead boy were as she described, his face partly turned away as he had vomited over himself, his sleeve rolled up and the rubber tie used to pump up his veins still attached to his arm. Anna tried to remember exactly what the girls had said. Dan had been very distressed at Amanda’s death, but they didn’t know where he had got the money to buy the amount of heroin he needed to satisfy his addiction.

Anna read through the post-mortem report; the boy had taken a massive overdose, choking on his own vomit, lying on the floor of his bedroom.

Anna tapped on Mike’s office door and he shouted for her to come in. Both he and Langton looked as if they had been in the middle of a heated exchange.

‘Sorry to interrupt, there’s something else. I can’t be certain, but something doesn’t add up . . .’

She laid down the photographs of Dan Hutchins’s body. The autopsy report gave cause of death as an accidental heroin overdose with no other suspicious circumstances, yet the deceased also had a very high alcohol content. Dan was a drug addict and had been on a methadone programme for more than six months. Before that, he had been on heroin, thus highly experienced in the use of hypodermic needles. This was confirmed by the report; a number of injection sites had been found on the body.

‘What is your point, Anna?’ Langton asked.

‘If you look at the way the rubber tubing is knotted around his right upper arm, it indicates that he used his left hand to wrap it round and tighten it. Often addicts put one end in their mouths to adjust the band tighter, but the longer end is facing towards the camera, not as it should be towards the dead boy. It could be that someone helped him to inject or forced the needle into his arm.’

Langton and Mike Lewis remained silent as they passed the photographs back and forth, then put them onto the desk.

As Anna continued, Langton stared at her, a strange expression on his face.

‘Both girls said that Dan had no money. They also said he was very distressed by Amanda’s death. Where did he get the cash to pay for the heroin? Also, where did he get the heroin
from
? All they knew was that he left a party early and by the time they returned home two hours later, he was dead.’

Again there was silence. Anna shifted her weight from one foot to the other. ‘Why did he inject himself on the floor – why not in his bed?’ she persisted. ‘I mean, if you were a junkie and had scored heroin, why lie on the floor?’

Both his trainers had been removed and he had only one sock on.

‘As an experienced addict, he may have been preparing to inject himself between his toes, but wouldn’t he still have been on his bed?’

Mike and Langton checked the photographs again and then looked at her, as if willing her to draw some conclusion.

‘Dan Hutchins adored Amanda Delany – they had been students together. She trusted him. All I’m suggesting is that he possibly knew something, something that warranted his death. We are missing a set of keys. You, sir, brought up the possibility of her owning a larger set than the single key found at her mews. Maybe whoever had them, used them to enter Dan’s flat and inject the boy with enough heroin to kill him.’

‘Christ, Anna, this is all supposition.’

‘I know, sir, but if Dan was killed to shut him up, what
did
he know? This also makes me deeply concerned about the two girls still living there.’

‘You think they know something?’

‘Possibly.’

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know,’ Anna said.

‘Terrific,’ Mike muttered.

Anna excused herself and returned to her office to continue finishing her report. She had no idea if they believed her theory about Dan Hutchins’s death. She didn’t hear Langton give Mike the order to pick up Lester James for questioning and to get a search warrant for the girls’ flat.

Anna completed her reports and submitted them to the office manager; the details would be chalked up on the incident room board. Barbara indicated that she wanted to have a word.

‘This Lester James. We have an address, but he’s not—’

Anna was furious. She felt that they were moving too fast and without sufficient evidence. She walked away before Barbara could finish and went to confront Mike Lewis. In no uncertain terms she said that she felt they were jumping the gun.

‘Tell that to Langton – he’s the one who wants Lester James brought in. I agree with you, but right now James is the prime suspect.’

‘But you only have my suppositions. We don’t have enough to make an arrest!’

‘We’re just bringing him in for questioning.’

‘Why not put him under surveillance instead, while we do some more digging around?’

‘Too late, the wheels are already in motion. I repeat, this is Langton putting on the pressure, not me. Added to that, you said yourself that you were concerned for the safety of those two girls. We can’t take the risk if he is our killer, so we need to bring him in for questioning.’

‘Who’s bringing him in?’

‘Paul Barolli and two from the team.’

‘Fine. Well, at least get me in on the interview. I hope they keep a low profile because we don’t have enough to hold him.’

‘I am aware of that,’ snapped Mike.

‘Are they going in with a search warrant?’

‘Yes.’

‘Make sure they strip down his car.’

Anna walked out, seething, and returned to her office. She was still angry when Barbara came in with an update. Lester James was not at home and according to the woman who lived in the flat above his, he had not been there for a few weeks.

‘Check with his brother, Harry James. See if Lester is working on a movie.’

‘Right.’

Barbara closed the door and Anna sat, drumming her fingers on her desk. She sighed, then picked up her coat, making sure this time that the team were aware of where she was going and what she was doing.

Mrs Delany gave a resigned sigh as Anna apologised for not making an appointment; she needed only a few moments to ask her some questions. Their suitcases were packed and Mr Delany was due to return shortly. Mrs Delany was very tense.

‘I don’t know what else I can tell you. All I want to do is to go home to France and try and pick up my life. This has been a dreadful time.’

‘I’m sure it must be, to lose your daughter in such tragic circumstances. It can’t have been easy to deal with.’

‘No, it wasn’t.’

‘But you’ve had family troubles before this, haven’t you?’

Mrs Delany fingered the pearl necklace she was wearing.

‘I’m not sure I understand you. We have had nothing that I would describe as family troubles, quite the contrary.’

‘Your daughter’s pregnancy must have been very shocking.’

‘Any mother would be distressed by her only daughter’s misfortune, and believe you me, Amanda had not been an easy child.’

‘Did you ever discover why that was?’

Mrs Delany tugged at the necklace, but made no reply.

‘Did Amanda ever suggest to you that she was being abused? By that, I mean sexually abused – and quite possibly from an early age?’

Mrs Delany stood up, her face set in anger.

‘I don’t know how you dare make such a dreadful accusation. I categorically deny any such thing ever occurred in my family, and I am appalled that you, knowing I am still in mourning for my daughter, want to further my anguish! If you have got this from someone, then I want to know exactly who is spreading such a rumour.’

‘It comes from someone Amanda knew for many years.’

‘They are lying.’

‘Did she ever tell you who the father of her child was?’

‘No, she did not. All she wanted was money and in the past we had been more than generous. She didn’t get a scholarship to RADA, so my husband had to pay for the tuition fees for her course, pay for her accommodation, give her an allowance. Amanda had run up considerable debts and we had to deal with them. We didn’t believe her when she told us she was pregnant. We felt it was just another trick to get more money out of us.’

‘But it wasn’t, was it?’

‘We know that now, of course. As soon as we knew how ill she was, due to the abortion, my husband came straight to London. He paid for the hospital, paid for her to go to the Drury Clinic, and in the end he decided that enough was enough.’

‘By this time she was earning a lot of money herself as an actress,’ Anna remarked.

‘She never told us what she was earning. In fact, after the wretched business of the abortion, we barely saw her again.’

‘How did that make you feel?’

‘Feel? I don’t understand?’

‘Well, Amanda was very successful, a star.’

Mrs Delany gripped hold of her chair.

‘She was a constant source of embarrassment. The media coverage of her sexual exploits made our life a misery. You know that. Why she did what she did, I will never understand. She was given everything a young girl could want, and to flaunt herself, drunk, and wearing these dreadful clothes . . .’

Anna turned. Mr Delany had entered the suite. He closed the door behind him with the heel of his shoe.

‘Thank God you’re here,’ Mrs Delany gasped.

‘I know why
I
am here, but I’d like to know why
you
are.’ He stared coldly at Anna.

‘She is asking about Amanda – someone has told her that she was sexually abused as a child. I just can’t believe we are being subjected to this.’

‘Nor can I.’ Mr Delany removed his coat, folding it over the back of a chair. ‘I’d like the name of this person so I can sue them. As if we haven’t had enough heartbreak. This is an invasion of our privacy and I would like you to leave.’

Anna stood up. He was a daunting man; his face was impassive, but his eyes were cold and bore into her. She noticed that his fists were clenched, the knuckles white as he fought to control himself.

‘I’m sorry, but in our investigation we need to cover every possible avenue.’

‘How could it have any bearing on your investigation? The fact is that it is a total lie.’

‘It could also be a motive, sir.’

‘Motive?’ he snarled.

‘Yes. You see, we know that Amanda was about to sign a publishing deal to write her memoirs.’

‘She told us that,’ Mrs Delany said. Her husband turned on her, gesturing with his hand for her to be silent.