Silent Scream Read online

  Anna arrived at the Harley Street practice in time to see him that morning. She was surprised how young Suchet was. He was charming, explaining that his private practice ran from the Harley Street address, but he was also attached to a clinic in Tooting. He told her how distressed he had been when he had read about Amanda’s murder. When he mentioned patient confidentiality Anna stressed that all she wanted was to establish certain details about Amanda’s background.

  ‘She was brutally murdered, and if there is anything that will help us track down her killer, then I am asking that you assist my enquiry.’

  ‘Well, it was some time ago …’

  ‘You said you were very distressed by her death. Did she continue to see you after she left the Drury?’

  ‘Not lately. Amanda was a hard patient to forget. I followed her career so she was often in my thoughts. I admired the fact that she had made such a success of herself.’

  ‘Her mother booked her into the clinic, didn’t she?’

  ‘Yes, I believe so, but I only had one short interview with her parents.’

  ‘Was she addicted to cocaine?’ Anna asked.

  ‘She used cocaine, but I wouldn’t say she was an addict. Her problems were more psychological.’ He hesitated, adding: ‘I feel very uncomfortable discussing her case.’

  ‘Surely not, if it can help us find her killer? Right now we have no suspects and very little evidence to help us move the enquiry forward. Do you recall who visited her?’ Anna persisted.

  ‘Yes, only because they were quite well-known, now even more so. They were the actors Scott Myers and Rupert Mitchell, and her agent, but I don’t recall her name. Amanda was only in residence for four weeks, then she left, and with it being a private clinic, we couldn’t stop her. She agreed to continue seeing me as a private patient.’

  ‘Here?’

  ‘No, I didn’t have this practice then, so she said she would book appointments with me at the Drury whenever she felt she needed help – if that is the best word to describe it. She made three appointments but never kept them. I left a couple of months later. I did contact her, via my secretary, to give a forwarding address and let her know that if she wished to see me I was always available, but I never saw her again.’

  Anna opened her notebook. ‘When you describe her symptoms as not being drug-related but psychological, what exactly do you mean?’

  Suchet sipped from a glass of water.

  ‘Amanda had been through a bad termination and it resulted in her being unable to conceive a child. She had been hospitalised with internal bleeding and subsequently her doctors performed a hysterectomy. Tragic for a girl so young. I think her parents had played a major part in persuading her to come into the Drury. She was using cocaine and binge drinking, but as I said before, she was not an addict and had tended to use cocaine on a social level rather than being dependant on it. But what she had begun doing was self-mutilation. Her arms and her thighs were covered in small abrasions. Self-mutilation is a cry for help, and only by inflicting pain upon themselves do victims feel they are in many ways “alive”. The secrecy of self-injury and the pain of it relieve the fact that they feel unworthy and have little self-confidence and even less—’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Anna said, interrupting him, ‘but if Amanda felt unworthy, with no confidence and low self-esteem, how could just four weeks be enough for her to recover from these debilitating symptoms and become a high-profile actress so swiftly after her stay in the Drury?’

  ‘She had been reasonably successful before she was admitted, but I never said that she was fully recovered, probably the contrary. But she was admitted as a private patient, she was never sectioned and therefore could leave whenever she wished to.’

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

  He shook his head.

  ‘Was it either of the actors you said visited her?’

  ‘I doubt it.’

  ‘Did she ever mention anyone when you were with her? You must have talked about it?’

  ‘We did. Amanda was raped, Detective Travis.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘That was what she eventually told me, but by whom I have no idea.’

  ‘Did she report it?’

  ‘If she did, she never mentioned it to me.’

  ‘But surely she must have! She gave you no hint of who it could have been?’

  ‘Detective Travis, if Amanda did report it, then it must be on police files. It took a number of sessions before she admitted to me that she’d had a termination, then another session before she broke down and told me she was unable to have any children. It wasn’t until shortly before she left the clinic that she admitted to having been raped. As I said to you, I was more concerned with her mental state than any addiction problems. Amanda was a very damaged soul and I felt that she did require further treatment, which is why I tried to persuade her to come to see me after she left the Drury.’

  ‘You said earlier that your secretary contacted her. Are you now saying that you personally talked to her?’

  ‘No, I did not. It was my secretary. When I said persuade, it would have been unethical for me to approach her personally, but Julie, my secretary, did, I think, call twice. Then, as I said earlier, Amanda made appointments but never turned up.’

  ‘When she called to make an appointment, did you speak to her?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Even though you have said she was a damaged soul and didn’t turn up for appointments, you never made any approach to see her.’

  ‘No, I did not.’

  Anna jotted down a few notes and then looked up.

  ‘Did you find her attractive?’ she asked.

  He shook his head. ‘You know, I think I can see where you are going or trying to go with your questions. I did not have any kind of relationship with her, bar a professional one. Yes, she was an exceptionally attractive young girl and she was also a very needy one. I felt concerned for her mental stability, although she made great steps forward at the Drury in such a short time, and was willing to listen and take advice. To my mind though, she was on very shaky ground and I felt that it would be only a matter of time before she broke down or began self-harming again, if she didn’t have professional help. I wanted to give it, but as I have already said, Amanda chose not to keep her appointments.’

  ‘It must have been strange for you, to see how successful she was becoming.’

  ‘It wasn’t strange at all. I have said how attractive she was; in fact, Amanda was exceptionally beautiful, like a rare creature. I think her acting talents were also very well-honed and she was capable of hiding her feelings and giving a very good performance of normality, but her protective shell was very thin and could, I estimated, crack open at any time …’

  ‘Knowing this, why didn’t you persist in trying to see her?’

  He shook his head. ‘Impossible. It was her own choice to come and see me or not, and she chose not to. Perhaps her successful career helped her self-esteem.’

  ‘The two visitors, other than her parents, to the clinic, were Scott Myers and Rupert Mitchell?’

  ‘I believe so. Now, I’m sorry to have to stop you there but I have a patient. If there is anything else?’

  Anna stood up and put her notebook away.

  ‘You’ve been very helpful, thank you.’

  As Suchet ushered her to the door, he asked her if she had met with Amanda’s parents.

  ‘Yes, I did, and I found them pretty unhelpful.’

  ‘Ah, well, there you have it. The father in particular is a very cold, unemotional man and seemed more concerned with his own wellbeing rather than his daughter’s. His wife appears to be a little afraid of him and both were exceedingly concerned by the adverse publicity their daughter was creating.’

  ‘They live abroad?’

  ‘Yes, which is the reason they gave for never coming to see her.’

  As Anna passed through the reception, a young girl was sitting there with a woma
n she guessed was her mother. The girl was skeletal thin, with lank, blonde hair and when she glanced at Anna, her eyes were like a frightened fawn’s, with deep dark circles beneath. Julie told the couple that Dr Suchet could now see them and she took them into the corridor, leading the way up to his surgery.

  ‘Did you ever meet Amanda Delany?’ Anna asked Julie when she returned moments later.

  ‘No, but I knew who she was and I’m aware of what has happened. It’s just awful. Dr Suchet was quite concerned about her and asked me on two occasions to make appointments for her to come in and see him.’

  ‘But she never did?’

  ‘Not to my knowledge. I forwarded a bill to her for cancellation fees, but whether or not she saw Dr Suchet at his main clinic I wouldn’t really know. I handle the patients here for private consultation and he’s only here three days a week.’

  ‘Thank you, I appreciate you talking to me.’ Anna hesitated and then asked, ‘Did she pay the cancellation fee?’

  ‘No, she didn’t.’

  Anna returned to her car to find the meter was just about to run out and a traffic warden was hovering. As she started the engine, she thought about the interview with Suchet. Something niggled at her, not that she could define what it was exactly. Julie, his secretary, had repeated that she had contacted Amanda twice, exactly as Suchet had said, but Anna was unsure if she believed either of them.

  Returning to the station, Anna marked up her interview on the board and underlined the names of Scott Myers and Rupert Mitchell as visiting Amanda at the clinic. On the desk in her office was a stack of newspaper clippings for her to wade through. She couldn’t believe just how many there were, so she took off her jacket, fetched a mug of coffee and settled down to reading.

  ‘Raped! Christ, have you run it through to see if it was reported?’

  Anna was updating Simon on her meeting with Suchet. ‘It wasn’t,’ she replied, ‘and she never disclosed to Suchet who the father of her aborted child was.’

  ‘Whatever, it doesn’t really move us forward with any new evidence as to who killed her.’

  ‘Unless it was Myers or Mitchell. Also, where is Amanda’s diary? I’m certain she would have had one, so’s her agent. We get anyone to tell us if anything else is missing from her house?’

  ‘Nope, unless we contact the guy who refurbished it, see if he can recall anything. We’re also still waiting on the lab to give us all the data off her laptop.’

  ‘Maybe read up on these before we get to see anyone else.’ Anna passed him some newspaper clippings.

  Simon flipped through them, shaking his head.

  ‘She was so beautiful and, my, did she get out and about. There’s one photo after another of her leaving nightclubs and being poured into taxis.’

  ‘Yes, I’ve seen them.’ Anna watched him nonchalantly licking his finger and flipping over one cutting after another. ‘Did you get anything of interest from the rest of the film crew?’ she asked.

  ‘No, and they’re “wrapping” as they say in the industry, or is it “a wrap”? I dunno, there were lots of trailers moving out. Strange existence when you think about it, all working in a tight-knit community and living in each other’s pockets for months on end, and then they all pack up and wait for the next job. Or not in some cases.’

  Anna leafed through the rest of the cuttings.

  ‘Let’s hope we get something from this afternoon. Has the post-mortem report come in yet?’

  ‘Nope, and forensic are dragging their heels. Maybe we should go over there …’

  ‘I thought you were going this morning?’

  Simon walked to her office door. ‘I wanted to finish up at the film set before they all disappeared.’

  ‘I’ll get a sandwich and then we can go to forensic together.’

  ‘OK by me. Say in an hour?’

  Anna agreed and he shut her door. She still felt annoyed by him.

  After selecting the cuttings she wanted to work on, she went up to the canteen and ordered a toasted cheese sandwich and fruit to take back to her office. She had no sooner sat down when Mathews rang to have a word with her. She decided not to take her sandwich in with her even though she was feeling really hungry.

  Mathews was sitting behind his desk cleaning his nails. He looked up when she entered.

  ‘This is bloody going nowhere. I’m getting a lot of flak from the powers that be that want a result to feed to the press, but as far as I can see, we’ve got fuck all.’

  ‘It’s looking that way,’ Anna agreed.

  ‘We’ve got to come up with something soon. We still don’t have a motive, a suspect or the weapon.’

  ‘I’m going over to Lambeth to the pathologist and then onto forensics – maybe they’ll have something for us.’

  Mathews sighed and put away his nail scissors in a small leather case.

  ‘Has Simon got anything for us?’ he asked.

  ‘He’s only just back from the film unit. I’ll give the designer who worked on Amanda’s house a call and see if he can give us anything, or maybe know if anything is missing from the property.’

  ‘Right, well, we certainly need something. And fast.’

  Anna picked up her office phone to check if Joan had arranged the meetings with the three actors. She was not amused when Joan offered to tag along.

  ‘Just sort out the meetings, please. Have we anything in from the victim’s laptop?’

  ‘Yes, they’re sending over details as we speak. Apparently they found a lot of poetry.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘That’s what they said. Seems the victim wrote poetry, files of it. Anyway, as soon as it’s here I’ll get it copied for you.’

  Gowned up, Anna and Simon entered the mortuary where the pathologist Dr Ada De Silva, a petite Iranian woman, was waiting. Amanda’s body was draped in green sheeting and De Silva was standing by the light boxes with a clipboard. She motioned for them to join her.

  ‘I’m sorry that this has taken longer than usual, but I’m still waiting on the blood tests. The victim received multiple stabs. Many of the wounds are superficial, apart from the one to the right breast. This one penetrated her heart and resulted in her death. The blade was double-sided and about fourteen centimetres long. As you can see, the wound to her breast has a linear bruise to either side of it. This was probably caused by the hilt guard of the weapon, which suggests a Commando-style knife.’ De Silva showed the heavy bruising on Amanda’s thighs. ‘Because of the bruising, both externally and internally, it’s possible that the victim had been raped. The forensic lab is testing for semen and condom lubricants.’

  De Silva turned to look at the shrouded body, then back to the blow-up pictures.

  ‘Your victim had breast implants, and the right one was punctured by the knife. She was very underweight. Her height was almost five feet seven and a half, but she weighed only six stone and five pounds. I would say she had suffered from anorexia for some time, since her skin tone is very poor and dry. Further internal examination showed that she had undergone a total hysterectomy. Her fallopian tubes were removed, which could have occurred after a botched abortion. Whoever had done the operation performed amateur work. The poor child must have been in agony and for a considerable time.’ The pathologist sighed, shaking her head.

  Crossing to the body, she lifted a corner of the sheeting to show puncture marks between the toes.

  ‘The blood and urine tests will give more detail but I would say she had been using heroin, not recently though, perhaps a month or so before she was killed. The injection site seems old due to yellowish bruising around it. I’ve recommended testing her hair for a clearer history of drug abuse. She had recently snorted cocaine, as there was a residue of powder still in her right nostril and crustation around both nostrils. Again, I will have confirmation from the toxicology report, but along with the hair sample it’s going to take at least ninety days for the results. Now we get to her arms.’

  De Silva lifted the shee
t and held out Amanda’s right arm. She showed numerous self-inflicted small scars running up the inside of her forearm. It was the same picture on her left arm. They had no skin or blood from beneath her fingernails, and all her false nails were intact. One had been removed to show that the nails beneath were bitten down to the quick. The false nails were short and unvarnished, but very good quality.

  De Silva estimated that Amanda had been dead for at least twelve hours because the body had been discovered in the afternoon and rigor mortis had set in.

  Lastly, she lifted the sheet away from Amanda’s face. She was, even in death, beautiful, with high cheekbones, a small pert nose and eyes set wide apart. De Silva directed them to look at a bruise above her right ear. She was preparing brain tests, as Amanda could possibly have been unconscious when the knife wounds were inflicted, which would explain why there were no defence marks.

  De Silva covered the body and gave directions to a lab assistant to wheel out the gurney to the freezer section.

  ‘That’s it,’ she said, as she took off her rubber gloves. ‘It’s a wretched case and astonishing to think that this poor child was the envy of so many teenagers. The reality is, she was a shell of a woman, yet still managed to maintain her ethereal beauty. I doubt if she would have been able to retain her looks for much longer without medical assistance, as she was dehydrated and even her teeth were becoming loose.’

  Anna and Simon thanked her and headed over to the forensic department. Neither said anything, but both had been affected by De Silva’s report. By the time they got to the forensic section, it was almost four-thirty.

  Anna entered behind Simon and paused as she caught sight of Pete Jenkins, the forensic scientist she had met when she had worked on the Fitzpatrick case, seated at a bench with a microscope. He looked up and smiled at Anna.

  ‘Hi there, how are you?’

  ‘I’m fine, thank you. This is DI Simon Dunn who’s working with me on the Delany case.’

  Pete shook Simon’s hand and then eased off his stool. ‘We don’t have much for you, I’m afraid.’

  He headed towards a long trestle table covered in brown paper. There lay a silk nightdress in pale oyster pink. Yellow marker pen circles showed the knife entry wounds; it was heavily stained.