Silent Scream Read online

  As if on cue, the front door opened and slammed shut. Fiona looked nervous.

  ‘Oh shit. Look, don’t tell him I’ve been sounding off about her, will you? He gets so uptight.’ She crossed to the door and shouted, ‘I’m in here with …’ She turned to Anna and pulled a face, hurrying out of the kitchen.

  Anna could hear a low murmur of voices from the hallway and then in strode Scott Myers. He was very tall with floppy dark hair parted in the middle. In real life he was not as attractive as the films and photographs Anna had seen of him. He was dressed in jeans and sneakers with a stained T-shirt and a leather jacket slung round his shoulders.

  ‘Sorry I’m late, I got held up. My daughter had to see a dentist and then I had to take her to school. I’m Scott Myers.’ He held out his hand.

  ‘I’m Detective Anna Travis.’ Anna shook his hand.

  ‘Right. Have you had coffee?’

  ‘Yes, thank you.’

  ‘You mind if I brew a mug up, I’m desperate. Having a howling child terrified of sitting in the dentist chair doesn’t make for an easy morning, but thankfully all’s well and hopefully the antibiotics will solve the problem. She prods her baby teeth, trying to loosen them for tooth-fairy cash!’

  Anna smiled. He was as talkative as his wife, with a cultured voice and easygoing manner. He chucked off his leather jacket and placed the kettle on the Aga as he prepared his coffee. He constantly ran his fingers through his hair, tossing it back from his face, explaining that it was driving him mad but he was filming a Byronic costume movie and playing the part of Shelley. Anna smiled. It was rather good casting as he had a sort of poetic look, more pre-Raphaelite, and a good tight, muscular frame, but at the same time was slender. He was comfortable in the kitchen, aware of where everything was, and as soon as he had made his coffee he closed the kitchen door and sat at the table opposite Anna.

  ‘I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?’

  ‘Anna Travis.’

  ‘Ah yes, well, I apologise again, Anna, for keeping you waiting. No doubt my wife has entertained you?’

  ‘She was very kind.’

  ‘I am sure she was, and probably called me everything under the sun. She can really let off steam. Unfortunately, to everyone else she comes across as lovely, which can be a tad irritating.’ He grinned.

  Anna watched as he opened the biscuit tin and munched one of the gingerbread men, dipping it into his coffee. He then patted his pockets and took out a pack of cigarettes.

  ‘You mind?’

  Even if Anna had, she doubted he would have taken any notice as he lit up straight away.

  ‘She won’t let me in front of the kids.’ He exhaled, left the table again to fetch an ashtray and then sat down. His mood almost visibly changed.

  ‘Well, let’s get down to the reason why you are here, Detective Travis.’

  Anna explained how she was trying to get to know Amanda in an attempt to piece together her last hours. If there was anything he could add or help them with, she would be most grateful. Myers said nothing as he flicked the ash of his cigarette into the ashtray.

  She opened her briefcase and took out the list of calls from Amanda’s mobile phone.

  ‘I see from Amanda’s phone records that she called you the night before she died.’

  Myers shrugged.

  ‘Can you tell me if there was anything in your conversation with her that might have led you to believe someone was frightening her or threatening her?’

  Still he remained silent.

  ‘What did you talk about?’

  Myers sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, tossing his head back.

  ‘It was a brief call, one of many as she kept on calling me, which was hard to deal with as I didn’t really have anything to say to her. She broke it off with me, made me look a right idiot and yet kept on ringing me here or at my flat, even at work. It was starting to get me really pissed. It was always the same. “Hi, it’s me …” She’d ask how I was, if I was missing her, say that she was missing me and could we meet up just for a friendly drink. It was ridiculous. I’d left my wife for her, wanted to set up home with her, I was besotted with her – and it wasn’t until she told me she’d met someone else, that I really took a long hard look at what I’d done and it made me angry. I thought I was in love with her, I felt she needed me. She was a sort of combination of child and bitch. Fiona was having a hard time with the press and they were hounding me, then it all blew up in my face.’

  ‘So the last time you spoke to her was … ?’

  ‘The night before it happened,’ he said quietly.

  ‘Can you tell me where you were at the time Amanda was murdered?’

  ‘I can tell you exactly. I was doing some voiceovers for my last movie in a studio in the West End the evening before. I didn’t finish until quite late, then a few of us went to have a drink and I went home after that.’

  ‘And the last time you spoke to her, she just said she wanted to meet up with you?’

  ‘More or less, but she also said that she’d had a big row with her current director and hated him, and then she went on to tell me how many movie parts she’d been offered. I didn’t say much bar the fact that as I was filming I doubted if I could see her and I suggested she call her new boyfriend.’

  ‘Who was?’

  ‘I dunno. I think she left me for Rupert Mitchell. Before that, she was with Colin O’Dell and so she could have easily been screwing someone else. I think she was high – well, she usually was when she called, but as I just said, I didn’t really give her much time and I hung up.’

  Anna opened her notebook.

  ‘I wouldn’t wish on any living soul what has happened, it’s sick and it’s terrible, but I can’t even feel all that much as she put me through hell, and to be honest I started to thank God it was over between us.’

  ‘Did she ever mention that she was writing a book?’

  ‘A book?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He laughed. Anything was possible, but he doubted it. She wasn’t the brightest of creatures and he suggested she might have been dyslexic, as he had had to help her read some of the scripts she had been offered.

  ‘You went to visit her when she was in the Drury?’

  Myers nodded and then smiled. ‘Good heavens, you have done your homework. That was a long time ago, but yes, I did. She had been really ill, that’s what she told me, and she was painfully thin and snorting cocaine like a hoover, so it was no surprise to me when she called from the clinic to say she was there on a detox programme.’

  ‘Did you know she had been pregnant?’

  He straightened and then stubbed his cigarette out.

  ‘Wasn’t mine. We always used protection and she never told me about any pregnancy.’

  ‘She had had an abortion.’

  Again, he shrugged.

  ‘I didn’t know anything about that. In fact, when I did see her at the Drury, she was in great spirits and said she was feeling really terrific.’

  ‘Did you know that Colin O’Dell was also visiting her?’

  ‘I suppose she was just tossing up which one of us she’d start up with. She did like anyone with a bit of fame and Colin had just done this big movie in Hollywood. At the time I didn’t pay that much attention. It wasn’t until she had left the Drury that we started being serious, or maybe I should say I started to be serious. To leave my kids and Fiona was a very emotional time for me.’

  When Anna showed him the photograph of the gold crucifix, he was certain he had never seen Amanda wearing it.

  ‘Did you ever go to her mews house?’

  He ran his fingers through his hair again. ‘Once, just after she’d moved in – but it was only for about fifteen minutes. I had an early call the following morning and by this time I didn’t want to get into any further involvement with her.’

  ‘Did you know she used crack cocaine?’

  Myers nodded and lit another cigarette.

  ‘Do you
recall seeing a stuffed child’s toy at her home, a rabbit?’ Anna kept the questions coming.

  He smiled. ‘You mean her Bugs Bunny?’

  ‘I haven’t seen it, but all we know is there was usually a rabbit she slept with.’

  ‘She certainly fucked like one,’ he laughed.

  ‘It’s missing,’ Anna said quietly and he straightened out.

  ‘Sorry, that was unnecessary. She used it as a place to stash her drugs – it had a zipper up its back. I think she’d had it since she was a kid; it was worn and had lost most of its fuzz and it only had one glass eye left. She did keep it on her bed and she did sleep with it.’

  ‘Do you know of anyone who would have had a reason to kill her?’

  Myers let the smoke drift from his mouth and shook his head.

  ‘I might have sounded really callous, but I went through hell for her. I arranged a flat for us. I had the press on my tail day and night, but I really believed she was special and in some freakish way she was. She was so beautiful and she was fun, and even with all her physical problems, like her anorexia, she was a ball of energy. The sex with her was what made me so overpowered by her, I suppose, and at the same time she was this needy child. She made you want to protect her, take care of her, but just as we were about to move in together she became this real tough bitch. It was as if she changed into a different person. I couldn’t get through to her, and even when I said what I had done to be with her, she just laughed. She said she’d never asked me to leave Fiona … she suggested I go back and sort it out. Christ, sort it out! I’ll tell you, I wanted to kill her, but instead I went to Romania to make a movie there and, thank Christ, got her out of my system.’

  He stood up to indicate the meeting was over and Anna put away her notebook. As he opened the kitchen door, Fiona flew at him in such a fury that she almost knocked him off his feet.

  ‘Got her out of your system, you fucking liar!’

  She kicked out at him and he grabbed her wrists, pushing her away, at the same time apologising to Anna. But Fiona was hard to restrain. Anna felt it best she sidestep them both and head for the front door. It would not be a good time to question Myers or his hysterical wife further. She had just reached her car when a flustered Myers hurried towards her.

  ‘I’m sorry about that, but you can see it’s obvious we won’t be getting back together. Fiona really needs some therapy to deal with her anger.’

  Anna gave a nod to him as if agreeing. Just as she was opening the car door, she turned to him.

  ‘One more thing. Did you have a key to Amanda’s new home?’

  He stepped back, shaking his head.

  ‘No, no, I did not. We’d already broken up by the time she moved there. I told you this.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  ‘I’ll tell you who you should be talking to – the druggies she used to share a flat with. I wouldn’t trust any one of them.’

  Anna knew that a couple of officers were interviewing Amanda’s ex-flatmates that morning. As she shut the car door, she mentioned that an officer would be contacting the Myerses to book an appointment for both him and Fiona to have their fingerprints taken and for him to agree to give a DNA Buccal swab.

  ‘You must be joking.’

  ‘I’m afraid not. It’s just for elimination purposes.’

  ‘Fine, whenever. I’ll tell Fiona.’

  He remained standing on the pavement, watching her drive off before he returned to the house and to his irate wife. What Anna couldn’t witness was the continuation of the row between them, only this time Scott Myers didn’t come off worse. He slapped Fiona so hard she crumpled into a heap, sobbing, then he dragged her up by her hair and punched her in the chest. All the while he was shouting at her, so angry his face was puce with rage.

  ‘You get the house, you get enough money to live in luxury and I pay for everything, but you still have to make me look like a total bastard!’

  Fiona pushed him away from her and rubbed her swollen cheek.

  ‘Yeah, and I’ll go on doing it. It’s a pity she didn’t stay long enough to see what you are really like. Now get out, get out and leave me alone.’

  Scott looked at her with disgust. ‘That’s all I want to do, Fiona, leave you well alone.’

  She glared at him. ‘And don’t think you can waltz in and see the kids when you want. They don’t want to see you and I’m not going to let them see you.’

  Scott controlled his temper, picking up his jacket.

  ‘I have visitation rights and I will see them when the court gives them to me. If you try and stop me, I’ll cut off every penny.’

  She followed him to the front door, still spoiling for a fight, but he brushed her aside.

  ‘I’ll call the press,’ she threatened. ‘I’ll tell them you beat me up.’

  He sighed, clenching his fists.

  ‘I wouldn’t do that. Remember we have a witness to your craziness, a bloody policewoman. Just go and get some help. I’ll probably have to pay for that as well, but this can’t go on, Fiona.’

  He was standing on the front doorstep, shrugging on his jacket. Fiona Myers slammed the door so hard, the two glass panels shook and for a second he thought they’d shatter.

  Returning to his car, Scott sat for a while trying to calm down. He was about to switch on the engine when he paused, removing the keys. Easing off the Yale front-door key to Amanda Delany’s mews house, he kept it in the palm of his right hand as he started the engine and drove off. Shortly after, he lowered his driving window and tossed the key out into the road.

  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 stuf
f 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.