She wondered what was going on at Hell Gate. She got as far as the terminus for the Miniature Railway and halted.

The dark ride had been roped off, a group of city policemen milling around its entrance. She continued on cautiously, but as she drew near the unattended ticket booth, a cop yelled at her.

“Ride’s closed, kid.” He made a shooing motion.

Pin waited till he turned away and kept walking, maintaining a safe distance from the cops. Men in shirtsleeves and rolled-up trousers waded through the canal, dragging nets on long poles through the water. Every few minutes, they’d shake out whatever they’d dredged up onto the boardwalk. Pin covered her nose as the wind carried the stink of accumulated muck.

After a quarter hour, a tall, broad-shouldered man in a uniform strode toward the front of the pavilion. The cops stopped whatever they were doing to assemble around him. He wore a dark-blue fedora like Captain Hickey’s and had a jowly face, a mouth like a loose seam that flapped as he spoke. She strained to hear him through the din of rides and screams, Red Friend’s endless chant.

“Happened right where you’re standing, friend—that very spot!”

The man in the fedora raised his hands, as though to silence the calliope and coasters.

“Gentlemen, thank you all for being here this morning. Mr. Baumgarten does not want a panic, and neither do we,” he announced calmly, as though used to this kind of gathering. “I assured him we’d patrol the grounds, but do our best not to interfere with the normal doings of the park…”

He must be Captain Cabell, Pin realized, the man Hickey had called a son of a bitch.

“As you all know,” he went on, “the commissioner is on vacation in Wisconsin, but he’s been notified of what’s happened. And we now have a suspect in custody. The child’s parents have come forward and identified her. I’ll be speaking to the newspapers sometime this afternoon at the Robey Street station. Till then, don’t talk to any reporters. Or anyone else.”

He took a step back and clapped his hands. “So! Back to work, gentlemen. I’ll call in reinforcements as needed. I hope they won’t be.”

He strode off toward the park entrance. The men returned to dredging the canal, and the cops dispersed. All were armed with billy clubs, and she saw two who carried guns in holsters around their waists.

Pin abruptly remembered she wasn’t supposed to be here. As she turned to go, she saw Larry a few yards off, also watching the proceedings. She hesitated, then walked over to him.

“What the hell you doing here?” he snarled.

“Just watching. Like you.”

“I’m here ’cause I’m not there.” He pointed at the empty ticket booth.

“Think they’ll open it later?”

“You an imbecile?”