Free Silent Scream by Lynda La Plante Page B

under her bed.’ Pete showed them a tinfoil wrap and said it was crack cocaine. They had also found a glass pipe in a box, with two small rocks of crack cocaine.
    ‘Did anyone bring in a diary?’ Anna asked. ‘It’s just we think she kept one, but so far we haven’t found it.’
    Pete shook his head. They had done a thorough search of the mews house, and the numerous fingerprints found there were being checked through the database. Most were Amanda’s, but as yet there was no match for any of the others. He showed them a mug of what looked like residue of black coffee, but it was Marmite. They had siphoned it off from the mug at the scene and submitted it separately so that they could examine the mug for saliva and prints.
    ‘Her fridge had a half-empty jar of it, a bunch of grapes and some bottles of water, nothing else. The mug has her fingerprints on it, no one else’s and the kitchen was clean, didn’t look used. Even her microwave still had the plastic wrap around the plate inside.’
    Anna nodded and crossed to two large albums. These were leather-bound, but only one had photographs inside. She opened it to see some very lovely face shots of Amanda, but no other family or social snapshots.
    ‘Why have you got these?’ she asked.
    Pete shrugged and suggested they had been brought in to check out fingerprints.
    ‘They should be taken to the station,’ she said brusquely.
    ‘Apparently she had only recently moved into the house, which is why it’s so devoid of fingerprints and so tidy. Lot of carpet fluff everywhere, but that’s because the carpets were new. I would say her killer would have a lot of carpet fibres over him, but he wasn’t wearing anything that shed. There must have been a real tussle on the bed where she was stabbed. Oh . . .’ Pete paused and looked along the table, then walked to the far side. In a small plastic bag was a tiny gold cross and a few links of a broken chain.
    ‘We found this caught between the top and bottom sheet. It’s a crucifix but the chain has been snapped. I don’t know if it belonged to Amanda, but it would be good to find out, because if it wasn’t hers it could be the killer’s and she snapped it off when she was attacked. We’ve checked for skin cells but no luck.’
    Anna inspected the small cross; it didn’t look the type worn by a man. It was plain and quite heavy, with an eighteen carat gold mark printed on the back. The chain links were also gold.
    ‘Can I take this?’ She would look through all Amanda’s photographs to see if she was wearing it.
    Pete nodded, asking her to sign it out. Simon was staring at the bloodstained sheets.
    ‘There was no sign of a break-in, was there?’ He looked at Pete.
    ‘No. There was no damage to the front or back door. Last but not least, we have the victim’s handbag.’
    The bag was good designer leather with a matching purse inside containing eight pounds in coins. A wallet had two hundred and fifty pounds in it, all in fifties. There was a compact, comb and lipstick and a credit-card holder with numerous credit cards and membership cards for nightclubs and a health club. Anna said that checks had been made on Amanda’s accounts to see if any withdrawals had been made, but there had been none to date since her murder.
    ‘So robbery wasn’t the motive, but then we can’t even be sure about that, as we don’t know what might be missing,’ Simon murmured and looked at Anna. ‘Let’s take these and double-check the clubs, et cetera.’
    Anna nodded then glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘We should get going.’
    Simon headed out first and Pete moved closer to Anna.
    ‘How’s things with you?’ he asked.
    ‘Fine, working away, you know.’
    ‘Maybe catch up with dinner one night?’
    ‘Yes, maybe.’
    ‘Still the same old Anna. I didn’t get a chance to speak to you after the trial and I hear that Langton is still seething about losing Fitzpatrick, but you can’t win ’em all.’
    ‘No, you