‘I never did anything wrong.’
‘You never did anything wrong? You walk away with five thousand pounds that you blackmailed Amanda Delany’s father to give you for the diary, you let your friend fall off a boat and drown, you don’t call anyone to help search for her. I don’t think Felicity did fall, I think you pushed her overboard and as soon as the boat docked, you were off home to pack up and leave.’
‘I didn’t do that!’
‘And we are expected to believe you? When you’ve lied about everything else? How was Miss Delany able to write in her diary up until the night she died when you claim you had it in your possession? Explain that!’
Jeannie bit her nails, head bowed. Langton was in full flow.
‘Let me tell you what I think. You maybe did find it at your flat, it may have been left there by Miss Delany, along with her BlackBerry. But I think between the time she left it, you contacted her, you took it back to her, so that she was able to continue writing … with me so far? Doesn’t quite add up, does it? The other possibility is that you were at Miss Delany’s house, and you took both these items from there.’
‘She left it at the flat and Felicity found it,’ Jeannie insisted.
‘So did Felicity take it back to Amanda?’ Langton demanded. ‘She had to be in possession of it, Jeannie, and then it somehow gets back to your flat. Tell us how it happened!’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know, but you have to know – unless these lies are to cover up the fact that you killed Amanda Delany.’
‘No, no, I didn’t.’
‘Why should we believe you? You were there! Why don’t you admit you were there on the night of her death?’
‘I wasn’t.’
‘Yes, you were – and you will be charged with her murder unless you have something to say that really makes sense of this entire fiasco.’
‘I didn’t do it.’
‘Didn’t do what?’
‘I didn’t kill Amanda, I swear to God I didn’t.’
Langton pushed his chair back as if he was about to stand. Jeannie reached across the table to stop him leaving.
‘Listen to me. I didn’t do it. I wouldn’t have hurt her, I cared for her – she was good to me.’
Langton pushed his face towards her.
‘She stole your part, didn’t she? You believe that it could have been you, the movie star – not her. You were jealous, bitterly envious of all she had, and you couldn’t stand it because you had to know that you didn’t really stand a chance against her. You didn’t have the talent or the looks!’
Jeannie’s mouth dropped open as Langton pointed at her solicitor.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Sinclair, Rodney Sinclair.’
‘Well, do your client a favour. Maybe you should have another consultation with her as she is digging herself into a deeper and deeper hole.’
Langton made as if to walk away from the table as Jeannie bent forward, resting her head in her hands, sobbing. Sinclair tried to comfort her, but she pushed his hand away.
‘I didn’t kill her, I swear I didn’t do it.’
Mike Lewis now moved in.
‘Do you know who did? It’s in your best interest to tell us the truth, Jeannie.’ He turned to Langton. ‘Give her a chance. She wants to tell us the truth – you do, don’t you, Jeannie? Get it off your chest, love.’
When Sinclair piped up, asking for time out with his client, Langton was at the ready.
‘I gave you the opportunity to talk to her and I’m sick of wasting time. I will now approach the CPS so Jeannie Bale can be charged with murder.’
‘I didn’t do it!’ Jeannie said again.
‘Then who did kill her, Jeannie? Who stabbed Amanda Delany to death?’
She closed her eyes, and her solicitor passed her a tissue. She blew her nose and wiped her face.
‘I just dunno how to tell you things that will get me into trouble.’
‘Try us, Jeannie.’ Mike Lewis poured her a glass of water while leaning back from the table.
Anna turned to Barolli.
‘Here it comes.’
He nodded, watching as Jeannie blew her nose again and began to shred the tissue in her hands.
‘Felicity did find the diary. Well, she went into Dan’s room looking for drugs and found it.’
Jeannie told them how Felicity had taken the diary into her own room and had started to read it. When Jeannie came home, she showed it to her. She told her about Amanda’s meeting with the publisher that she’d overheard, that he was talking about paying Amanda a lot of money for the diary. Dan came in and they read out the sections referring to him, and he became very distressed. They had teased him, saying it was all going to be in a book she was writing and everyone would know that he was impotent. Felicity had laughed, saying that Dan wasn’t the only one: they should read what she’d written about Lester! This was the first indication that Jeannie did know who Lester was, that he was more than just Amanda’s driver and that she had scored drugs from him.
Dan tried to get the diary away from them, but before he could wrestle it away, Lester James himself walked in. He had Amanda’s keys to the flat; she had asked him to pick up the diary and BlackBerry that she had inadvertently left behind. Lester had grabbed the diary and threatened them all, but Jeannie said he did not get the BlackBerry.
‘I told him I hadn’t got it and that she must have left it at the film unit, so he just took the diary and walked out.’
It was a while before Jeannie could admit to what had happened next. All she knew was that Lester had taken the diary later the same day that Josh Lyons had been to their flat. Two days later, she reckoned, they had received a phone call from Mr Delany asking about the diary and Jeannie had lied to him, saying that she had it and would want money for it.
‘So when did you get the diary back?’ Langton asked.
Lester had returned to the flat to have another look for Amanda’s BlackBerry; it must have been a day or so before she was murdered. When he turned nasty, they told him that if anyone should be worried about what Amanda was going to write in her book, he should. He was in it all the way through; he’d find plenty of details of his drug dealing and his sexual problems.
‘He hit me then – said I should wash out my mouth.’
He told them that he was going to be staying over at Amanda’s house because she was frightened by hearing a woman screaming the night before.
‘I said to him that she didn’t hear anything as she was always having nightmares when she lived with us, waking us all up screaming, and if he didn’t believe us about what she’d written, he should read the fucking thing for himself.’
Lester had taken Jeannie with him to the mews. This was the night before the murder, and he was in a strange mood.
‘I think he was in love with her, but she treated him like shit. On the drive over there, he told me that she’d had a threesome the other night with Scott Myers and Colin O’Dell. I said that she was a slag and he shouldn’t let her treat him so badly.’
Lester had parked not in the mews but in a side street. He knew a back way to the cottage that Amanda had shown him, to keep him out of sight of the press. As soon as they were in the house, he had begun searching for the diary.
‘He was in a right old state. I helped him look for it, but it took ages to find as he wouldn’t put the lights on.’
Jeannie took a gulp of water and sat, staring ahead. ‘It was inside her toy rabbit, on her bed. I found it while he was looking in the lounge. I told him that I had to go home, and he just ignored me, so I left.’
‘With the diary?’
‘Yeah, and then when Mr Delany called, I was telling him the truth. I did have it, I never lied about it. Delany was a right bastard.’
‘What did you do with the rabbit?’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Tossed it into a skip and got the bus home.’
Anna turned to Barolli, shaking her
head in disgust. All the hours they had spent searching for the toy, even asking Jeannie herself, and all the while she knew she’d thrown it away.
‘The net’s closing in on Lester James after what Jeannie’s said,’ Barolli observed as they watched the interview wind down.
‘If she was telling the truth,’ Anna commented.
‘You think she’s still lying?’
Anna couldn’t really tell. It was Jeannie’s word against that of Lester James.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lester James was finally brought up from the cells. He had worked himself up into a state, hating being confined in such a small space. Jeannie was locked up next to him; he could hear her sobbing. They had made sure he had no chance to even have eye-contact with her; all he knew was, she was under arrest.
Lester’s solicitor was waiting in the interview room as his client was led in. Lester complained about being held all night, then went quiet as Langton and Anna entered and took up their seats opposite him. Having cautioned him, Langton kicked off in a quiet but authoritative voice.
‘Mr James, we are now privy to further information that places you inside Miss Delany’s mews house on the night she was murdered. You have every opportunity to explain why you previously lied. The allegations against you are very serious and I suggest you start telling the truth.’
Langton paused as he opened up the file and poured himself a beaker of water.
‘Did you kill Amanda Delany, Mr James?’
Lester sat with his head bowed and his big hands clasped together, refusing to look up at either Langton or Anna.
‘From a statement given to us by Jeannie Bale, we know you were with Miss Bale shortly before Miss Delany returned home in the early hours of the morning. What have you got to say?’
Lester remained silent.
Anna spoke next, copying Langton’s calm delivery.
‘We know that you’ve been lying about your relationship with Miss Delany, that you were not, as you have maintained, merely her driver, but had sexual contact with her over a period of more than five years. Do you now admit that you have lied consistently and, contrary to what you have maintained, you also supplied drugs not only to Miss Delany but to her flatmates, Felicity Turner, Dan Hutchins and Jeannie Bale.’
Lester James finally spoke. ‘You got no evidence that I was dealing ’cos I know two of them are dead, so they couldn’t say nothing about any drugs, and Jeannie Bale is a pathological liar.’
‘Perhaps she is, Lester, but we are also in possession of Miss Delany’s diary, and she makes clear reference not only to your sexual relationship, but to the fact that you supplied drugs – cocaine, heroin, crack cocaine, amphetamines, Ecstasy …’
‘Lies.’
Langton glanced at Anna, encouraging her to continue.
‘I think, Lester, you were deeply involved with Amanda, and reading about how she felt about you must have torn you apart.’
‘I was just her driver, nothing more.’ His face was set with anger.
‘Miss Delany makes many references to your sexual prowess, or rather, to your lack of it. That must have been really difficult for you to come to terms with, knowing she used you, laughed at you behind your back.’
‘It wouldn’t matter to me. As I keep on telling you, I was just her driver and she could write whatever she wanted because it’s not true.’
‘Isn’t it? Isn’t that why, when Jeannie Bale told you about the diary, you took her to the mews and you went in search of it.’
‘I never did.’
‘You couldn’t find it, but Jeannie Bale did and she took it, leaving you at the mews alone, waiting for Miss Delany to come home.’
Lester clenched and unclenched his hands.
‘I admit I lied,’ he said gruffly. ‘I was there, but I had reason to be. Amanda asked me to check out the place as she was scared because the previous night she’d heard screaming. She wanted me to make sure there was nothing to worry about. I do a lot of work as a bodyguard and security, and that’s all I was there to do – to see it was all locked up and safe for when she got home.’
Langton nodded, and leaned back in his chair.
‘So Jeannie Bale had left – taking with her the diary as we now know – leaving you alone waiting for Miss Delany – correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘Take me through what happened when Miss Delany returned.’
Lester coughed and straightened in his seat.
‘She got back about four-thirty in the morning. She was very tired and I said to her that I’d checked over the house and locked up and I’d not found anything worrying, so I left.’
‘How did you leave?’
‘Back way. Used the alley along the gardens and went to pick up my car, then I drove home.’
‘So did Amanda lock up the door into her garden?’
‘Yeah, she did. Well, if you found it locked then she must have.’
Langton sifted through the files, as Anna sat staring at Lester. His control was admirable.
‘You have stated that you were just her driver and that you never had any interest or interaction of a sexual nature with Miss Delany?’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘I believe you are lying. Not only do we have confirmation in her diary that you were very much Miss Delany’s sex toy, someone she could use whenever she felt like it, but also someone she felt was becoming overprotective and she didn’t want to continue the arrangements you had for either drugs or sex.’
‘Not true. I was just her driver and she depended on me. That’s why she asked me to check out the mews.’
Anna passed a note to Langton. He read it and gave her a small nod and she gave a smile to Lester.
‘You were just her driver,’ she said. ‘Someone Miss Delany used on private jobs as well as working for various film units.’
‘Correct.’
‘So as just her driver, it didn’t anger you when she asked you to drive Colin O’Dell and Scott Myers from her house after they had spent the night with her?’
‘I admitted I drove them last time I was interviewed. Didn’t bother me who she saw. Like I keep on telling you, it was just a job for me. I had no other feelings like you keep on suggesting.’
Anna raised her voice. ‘She would give you a blow job in your car, wouldn’t she? She certainly made a lot of notes about the size of your penis and the fact that you were unable to keep an erection for long. It must have really grated on you to have to listen to these two men who had just had a sexually active threesome with her. Then shortly after that night, you were told by Jeannie Bale that Amanda Delany had recorded all your inept sexual approaches in her diary and only did what she had to do to score drugs from you so she wouldn’t have to pay you.’
Lester looked stunned by her accusations.
‘All right, I admit she occasionally went down on me. I couldn’t refuse her, as she was very insistent and, like I said, I depended on her for my income. That was the only reason. Whether or not I was not up to scratch, according to her, is neither here nor there. I got paid, that’s what it was all about.’
‘So you admit you dealt drugs?’
‘No, I’m not admitting that at all. What I do admit is that occasionally she would want to have oral sex, that’s all. And why refuse? It made her happy, if not me. I never liked it, to be honest. I just let it happen so I would get paid.’
Both Anna and Langton rested back in their chairs, as if what he was saying made total sense to them, which gave him confidence.
‘I could tell you some stories about who she picked up at clubs, and if you think it bothered me, then you’re wrong. I didn’t have any emotional ties to her. I was only, like I keep on saying, her driver. Whatever you’re trying to make out, how I felt because of some stupid stuff in her diary, it didn’t make me get uptight.’
‘Not even if it was to be published and your name—’ Anna was interrupted.
‘She never had the deal, I know that
. After she come out from that publisher’s lunch meeting she was pissed out of her head, and the next time she met with him at her flat she was coked up. She told me she would never be able to write anything, it was all in her head; she was also back on the crack cocaine, so she’d never have held it together to write a fucking book. It’s all bullshit and if that Jeannie Bale told you anything different, she’s lying. All she ever wanted was to put Miss Delany down because she was so jealous of her success.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us this when you were last interviewed?’
Lester sighed, then made an expansive gesture with his big hands.
‘She was dead, I didn’t want to rub salt in open wounds. A lot of people will come out of the woodwork and say bad things about her, and I just didn’t want to be one of them.’
‘Because you cared for her?’
‘I was her driver. Whether I cared about her is immaterial. We had a professional relationship, nothing more.’
‘Did you kill Amanda Delany?’
‘No, I did not. When I left her house that morning, she was alive and I went home.’
‘How did you feel when you were told she had been murdered?’
‘Terrible. It was a shock. Also, it would mean a big loss of earnings for me. I had to get away – went to stay with friends in Amsterdam. I was very depressed about it, partly because I should have been more protective, maybe not left the house but stayed with her.’
‘If you had, she would still be alive?’
He nodded. Anna sifted through the files and statements, and Langton closed his folder, resting his hands on top of it. Lester took it as an encouraging sign, and leaned forward.
‘I told you the honest to God truth. If that bitch Jeannie Bale has tried to make out that I was anything other than a good friend to Amanda, then she’s crazy. You’ve not got a shred of evidence against me, I know that.’
‘So did Jeannie leave the mews house before you?’
‘Yeah. I was talking to her from the lounge and the next minute, I realised she’d run off .’
Silent Scream Page 39