the force in the past, but she didnât recognize these two.
âWe saw there was some kind of commotionup here,â said the first officer, a middle-aged man with thick glasses.
âYeah, this girl fell through the stands,â said a nearby student.
âFell through the stands?â the officer said, squinting at Nancy.
âYes, Officer,â Nancy reported. âLuckily, my boyfriend here grabbed my foot in time.â
âWell, everythingâs okay now,â the man said. âWhy donât you kids go back to your seats and wait for the concert to start.â
âOfficer?â Nancy stopped him. âThe reason I fell was because of my seat.â She knelt down beside the flip-up plastic seat and showed them that it had wrenched loose from its steel base.
âI knew those fancy new seats werenât safe,â muttered the second officer, a thin, black-haired man with a reddish face. âThe way they flip right up when you stand up . . .â
âIt had nothing to do with the flipping mechanism,â Nancy stated. âSee this thick spring here? Thatâs what flips the seat up when you get up. Itâs a good ideaâit keeps the seats folded up when theyâre not being used.
âBut as you can see,â Nancy went on, âthe spring is intact. Itâs still attached to the base post. Normally, this metal plate attached to the spring should be bolted onto the seat.â Nancy pointed to Nedâs seat to show how the seat should have worked. The officers nodded.
âBut those bolts werenât attachedâand theywerenât broken, either,â Nancy finished. âIt looks as if somebody may have unscrewed them.â
The first officer frowned. Edging Nancy aside, he bent down and peered at the broken seat.
âMaybe they werenât screwed in tight in the first place,â the second officer suggested. âThe workers only finished the seat renovations a week ago.â
Brook shivered. âTo think that I was sitting in that seat the whole first act,â she said.
âThatâs right!â Nancy exclaimed. âSo it couldnât have been a plan to hurt me. Unless the person forgot where I was sitting. You didnât notice anything wrong with it?â Nancy asked, turning to Brook. Brook shook her head.
âThe way that bolt was unscrewed, thereâs no way you could have sat there without dislodging it,â Nancy noted. âIâll bet the damage was done during intermissionâafter you and Paul got up.â
âDid any of you notice anyone tampering with the seat?â the officer asked the students who had been sitting nearby. They shook their heads. âThere were lots of people walking around, talking to one another,â one guy mentioned.
âThis could just have been a prank,â the older officer said. âWe get a lot of them this early in the year, before you kids have knuckled down to your work.â
âItâs a pretty dangerous prank,â Ned said.
âWell, weâll make our report, and weâll keep an eye out for any other mischief,â the officer said. âMeanwhile, why donât you move to other seats and enjoy the music?â
âThey sure werenât very helpful,â Ned muttered as he and Nancy followed Paul and Brook up the aisle to the last few empty seats.
Nancy shrugged. âWhat could they do? They canât inspect every seat in the stadium to see if the bolts are loose. And Iâm sure they wanted to play down the danger so that other people wouldnât panic.â She gingerly tested her new seat with her hand before sitting down.
âYou could have been badly hurt, Nancy,â Brook said, worried.
âWell, I wasnât,â Nancy said. âThanks to Nedâs quick thinking.â
âNot to mention my superhuman strength,â Ned added, joking. Nancy grinned, then slid her hand warmly into