Rosa was impressed at how well Mr. Henderson had kept to the police’s instructions. He added, “I need to get that ride back up and running by nine.”
Mr. Henderson unlocked the gate, then locked it again after Rosa and Miguel crossed through. They followed the manager through the quiet and empty carnival tents—rather eerie without a mass of happy attendees—and onto the amusement ride platform. Once they passed the building that housed the tilt-a-whirl, they could see two men waiting near the roped-off area that held the control platform for the roller coaster. One wore blue work overalls, and the other was in jeans and a grease-marked white T-shirt. Rosa wondered which of them was the regular electrician at the boardwalk and which was the electrician Miguel had hired.
Her question was quickly answered when Miguel strode straight for the man in the blue overalls and thrust out a hand. “Mr. Keenan, I’m glad you could make it on such short notice.”
“No problem, Detective, but I have another appointment in a half-hour, so it’ll have to be a quick assessment for now.”
“Hopefully, that’s all it will take anyway,” Miguel said.
“Can we finally have a look at this problem you’re having?” the man in the stained white T-shirt asked. “I seen some scorch marks on the panel. Sure hope someone wasn’t messin’ around with it.”
“Mr. Keenan, would you mind having a look at the panel?” Miguel’s authoritative tone left no room for discussion. He held up the barrier rope for the electrician to duck under. Lifting a small metal toolkit from the ground, Mr. Keenan stepped through the open gate and onto the control platform.
“Power’s off at the source?” he asked
Mr. Henderson confirmed that it was.
Mr. Keenan stopped at the main lever, inspecting it from all sides. “Does this not have a rubberized sheath?”
Mr. Henderson moved closer. “It should.” He looked to his electrician, who nodded his head.
“Yeah, it should. Did on Tuesday, a red one.”
Though he said the words, it seemed to Rosa that the electrician didn’t sound entirely certain. When Skip mentioned the missing rubber sheath, Rosa hadn’t thought much of it. But if it had been so recently removed, perhaps its absence was more important than she had thought.
Mr. Keenan removed the control panel cover with a small screwdriver to reveal a mass of twisted multi-colored wires. With his finger, he followed each wire, one by one, along their paths and nodded at their output below.
Diego stirred, and Rosa tucked a hand into the satchel to scratch him under the chin. Her spoiled pet immediately purred.
Mr. Keenan opened a second panel, a smaller one underneath the first, and drew in a hissing breath. “Who in God’s name would connect a live wire to that box?” He shook his head with wide, unbelieving eyes.
“What’s that?” Miguel asked.
“This live wire here. The thing’s been routed to the metal and taped here like some fool was trying to kill somebody. Metal woulda conducted the electricity through anyone stupid enough to pull on that there power lever.”
“How could this have happened?” Mr. Henderson stared at his electrician accusingly.
“I—I dunno,” the man said. “I wouldna have . . . I never coulda . . .” He ran a hand over his balding head. Finally, as though he’d found an answer he said, “Couldn’ta been me!”
With everyone staring at him, he explained. “I haven’t been in the park for three days. I test all the equipment real careful.”
Mr. Henderson started to interrupt him, but before he could, the electrician slammed his hands on the ledge.
“But even if I missed somethin’. Even if I missed this,” he said, as though overlooking the wiring were akin to ignoring a horse swimming laps at the local pool. “Even if I was that stupid, it woulda electrocuted your operator the very next time he pulled the lever. It wouldna taken three days!”
“Guy’s right,” Mr. Keenan said. “This panel was obviously tampered with between the time when your guy stopped the last roller coaster ride an’ the time when he started the thing up again.”
10
“So, all we have to do is list every single person who was at the fair that night and bring them in for questioning,” Miguel said sarcastically as he tapped his pen on his desk. Rosa occupied one of the wooden chairs in Miguel’s office, while Diego sniffed every inch of the floor, around filing cabinets, and right up to the frosted glass walls like a tiny feline bloodhound.
“Pick off all the individual strands of hay until we find the proverbial needle,” Rosa said. It did seem like a mountain of a case now.
Chief Delvecchio opened Miguel’s wooden-veneer door without knocking. “Are you booking the Thompson kid? He’s in there whining about how he didn’t mean to do it. Seems like a pretty clear-cut case to me.”
If only it were that easy, Rosa mused. In fact, the two electricians had proved without a doubt that Jimmy’s prank had not been responsible for Victor’s death.
Miguel shook his head at his boss. “It seems we’ve come up with some new evidence. Rosa was the one to discover it. The water wasn’t the conductor that caused the electrical current that killed Victor Boyd.”
“What on earth did, then?”
“The electrical panel was sabotaged. The death was premeditated.”
“Damn!”
Miguel rose to his feet. “I’ll go release Jimmy Thompson right away.”
Rosa lifted a finger. “Might I suggest further questioning before you release him?”
In contrast to the resort-like appearance of the outside of the building, the interrogation rooms seemed to come in a one-size-fits-all model—square, with a small table against one wall, and two chairs on either side. Jimmy was seated and waiting.
Once Rosa had explained what she wanted to do, Miguel agreed to let her go in alone. Watching through the two-way glass behind her, Miguel would listen intently while cat-sitting Diego.
“Hi, Mr. Thompson,” Rosa said as she closed the door behind her.
