Funhouse by Diane Hoh Page A

maybe.”
    The railing was high, to protect small children from accidental falls. And Gina wasn’t clumsy. “She couldn’t have fallen over that railing,” Tess argued. “It’s too high.”
    “I think you’d better talk to the police, miss,” he said coolly. “Something fishy here. I had my assistant give them a call. They should be here by now. You were the only person in here when your friend fell. They’ll want to talk to you.”
    The police? A chilly fog descended upon Tess. “But I want to go to the Medical Center,” she argued as they all left the Funhouse, taking the wooden stairs.
    “That will have to wait,” the manager said sternly, taking her elbow as they reached the foot of the stairs. Dusk had fallen and the air had turned chilly. Tess shivered. But she wasn’t really cold. She was frightened. “We need to clear this up right now. I don’t want any questions,” Mancini went on, “about The Boardwalk’s safety.”
    “Too late,” Sam said drily. “Two accidents in one week makes for a lot of questions.”
    Ignoring his remark, Mancini gripped the sleeve of Tess’s yellow sweatshirt and led her to his office. Her friends followed, grumbling their support for her to themselves. Candace looked even more pale and frightened than usual, and Guy Joe’s lips were drawn together tightly in anger. Tess could feel people along The Boardwalk staring at them, and knew that by nightfall the story of Tess Landers being dragged into Mancini’s office would be all over town. Her face felt feverish, and she kept her eyes on the ground.
    The police questioning wasn’t as bad as she’d feared. There were only two uniformed men and they were more polite than Mancini had been. They asked her to take them back to the Funhouse and point out the spot where Gina had fallen. When they could find no evidence of any circle having been tampered with, they walked away from her, talking in low voices. But Tess heard every word.
    “Isn’t this the girl who brought that note in?” the taller one asked his partner. “You know, the one in purple crayon that Boz showed us?”
    Boz. The desk sergeant, Tess guessed, and her cheeks burned with humiliation as the second policeman answered, “Yeah. One of those rich kids, lives up on the hill. Broken home and all that. Probably gets everything at home except attention, know what I mean?” He shook his head sadly.
    She couldn’t just let them dismiss her as some kind of attention-getting kook. “Excuse me,” she said politely.
    They turned around.
    “If the saucer really wasn’t missing,” she asked them, “how could Gina have fallen? There isn’t any place here for her to fall through to the beach. Not with all the saucers in place.”
    “Good question,” the tall policeman said heartily. “And you have our word, miss, that the matter will be investigated thoroughly. We may have to call on you again.”
    They wouldn’t call on her again, and she knew it. But she also knew there wasn’t any way to convince them that she was telling the truth. She had no proof.
    “Look, kid,” the taller policeman said, “you can go collect your friends now. We’ll look into this, I promise. You’re probably anxious to find out how your friend is.”
    He was being nice. Trying to smile, she admitted that she was anxious to get to the Medical Center. Now if only Gina was fine.
    Gina wasn’t fine. And they weren’t allowed to see her, Tess was informed by the emergency room nurse. “You can wait in there,” she said crisply, pointing toward a room at the end of the hall. Tess, seeing Mr. Giambone pacing the hall outside of the waiting room, ran to see if Gina’s parents knew anything about her condition.
    They didn’t. No one had told them anything.
    The sight of Gina’s normally cheerful mother weeping, her hands over her face, shocked Tess. She wanted to say something to comfort the woman who had always been so good to her, but nothing seemed right. Quietly, Tess