sweat glands were giving a power performance," she admitted. "So I wouldn't cross him off the list."
H2
"What if the in-laws corroborate his Friday night phone call story?"
"Then I think I'd start sifting through BT's records."
Emily chuckled. "You're a real pit bull, Sergeant Havers. If you ever decide to leave the Yard for the seaside, I'll have you on my team in a flash."
Barbara felt a rush of pleasure at the DCI's praise. But she was never one to take a compliment and run with it, so she shifted her weight and fished her car keys out of her bag. "Right.
Well. I want to check out Sahlah's story about the bracelet. If she tossed it from the pier on Saturday afternoon, then somebody probably saw her. It's not like she isn't noticeable, what with the gear she wears. So shall I track down this bloke Trevor Ruddock as well? If he's working on the pier, I can kill two birds."
Emily nodded. "Sort him out. In the meantime, I'll see about this Rakin Khan that Muhannad's so hot to have me talk to. Although I've little doubt he'll confirm the alibi.
He'll be wanting his brother Muslim to - how did our Muhannad phrase it exactly? - be able to hold his head up high. Now, there's a delicious image for you to dwell on." She gave a short laugh and headed towards her car.
With a wave, she was on the road, pointed towards Colchester and another alibi.
Being on the Balford pleasure pier for the first time since her sixteenth summer wasn't the trip down memory lane that Barbara had expected it might be. The pier was greatly changed, with a rainbow sign over its entrance that spelled SHAW
ATTRACTIONS in colourful neon. Still, the bright fresh paint, new planking, crisp-looking deck chairs, refurbished rides and games of chance, and a modern arcade offering everything from old-fashioned penny slides to video games didn't alter the smells that could never wipe from her memory her annual visits to Balford. The scent of fish and chips, hamburgers, popcorn, and candy floss mingled sharply with the brine of the sea.
And the sounds were the same as well: children laughing and shouting, arcade games ringing cacophonously, the calliope playing as the roundabout horses rose and fell on their shiny brass poles.
Ahead of her, the pier shot straight out into the sea, widening at its end in spatulate fashion. Barbara walked to this point, where the old Jack 'Awkins Cafeteria was being renovated and from which location Sahlah Malik had allegedly thrown the bracelet she'd bought for her fiance.
From the shell of the old cafeteria rose the sound of voices shouting above the pounding of tools against metal and the loud hiss of a blow torch welding reinforcements onto the original infrastructure. Heat seemed to throb from the building, and when Barbara peered inside, she felt it pulsating against her face.
The workers were scantily dressed. Jeans cut off at the thigh, heavy-soled boots, and grimy T-shirts - or none at all - appeared to be the uniform of choice. These were big-muscled men, intent on their jobs. But when one caught sight of Barbara, he set down his tools and shouted,
"No visitors! Can't you read? Clear out of here before you get hurt."
Barbara pulled out her warrant card, more for effect than anything else, since he couldn't have seen what it was at the distance. She shouted back, "Police."
"Gerry!" The man directed his attention to the welder whose protective headgear and concentration on the flame he was shooting towards the metal seemed to make him oblivious of everything else.
"Gerry! Hey! DeVitt!"
Barbara stepped over three steel girders that were lying on the floor, awaiting placement.
She dodged several huge coils of electrical wire and a stack of unopened wooden crates.
Someone yelled, "Keep back! You want to get hurt?"
This apparently got Gerry's attention. He looked up, saw Barbara, and doused the flame on his blow torch. He removed his headgear to reveal a bandana-covered head. He whipped this off and dried first his face with it, then his shining and hairless skull. Like the others, he wore cutoff jeans and an armless T-shirt, and he had the sort of body that would quickly go to seed if exposed to the wrong kind of food or a period of inactivity.
Neither appeared to be the case. He was extremely fit-looking and brown from the sun.
Before he, too, had a chance to warn her off, Barbara lifted her warrant card again, saying,