Free Wonderland by Jennifer Hillier

weeks.
    “It’s hard to quit,” Vanessa said. “Congratulations. How’d you guys make out with the security footage?”
    “There’s hardly anything.” Oscar sounded disappointed. “All we have is some spotty footage of the kid climbing the Wonder Wheel—did you hear about that? Apparently it’s all over Twitter. Not that I wanted to see a dead body being dragged down the midway, but I was hoping we had that on tape, knew you’d be pleased if we did. I’d hate for you not to be pleased.”
    Vanessa gave him a look and moved away from him.
    “I made you a copy.” Rudy handed her a thumb drive. “You can see the kid climbing from about a third of the way up the wheel, all the way to the top, and then taking the selfie. You see the pic? It’s actually pretty fantastic, though you’d need a death wish to climb that high without a harness.”
    “I haven’t seen it yet, no,” Vanessa said. “And I appreciate the copy, but I will need the actual hard drive.” Normally she’d need a warrant for something like this, but she figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. If the VP of operations gave his consent, it would save a lot of paperwork.
    “Oz?” The security guard looked up with a frown. “You want me to remove it?”
    “Whatever she needs,” Oscar said, not taking his eyes off her. “We want to cooperate in any way we can.”
    Looking dubious, Rudy dug a screwdriver out from the desk drawer and went to work.
    “Any theories on how someone could enter the park without an access card?” Vanessa tried to pretend she didn’t notice the way he was staring at her.
    “Probably through the forest,” Rudy said, though she’d posed the question to Oscar. “It’s really not that hard, I been saying for years we should put up a fence back there. And Hovey’s supposed to check the grounds every hour. That’s part of the job when you work an overnight.”
    “You mean Glenn Hovey?” she asked Oscar. “The security guard who was scheduled last night?”
    Oscar nodded, then with a quick glance down at the back of Rudy’s head, he mouthed the word yes.
    “You just have one person manning the security monitors?”
    “That’s all you really need at night,” Rudy said, piping in again as he removed the back of the computer console. “Overnights are pretty boring; nobody wants them. During the day we have more security to keep things in order, but I mean, it’s an amusement park, not a casino, and nothing really happens other than maybe the older kids getting into squabbles. Some car break-ins, but that’s to be expected anywhere. And we’ve had a coupla incidents of vandalism at night, sometimes a homeless person sneaks in, but that’s really it.”
    He got the hard drive out and handed it to her.
    “Thanks,” Vanessa said. “Either of you have a Facebook or Twitter account? Because I don’t, and I’m curious about this Wonder Wheel picture. I’m wondering if Blake Dozier’s camera inadvertently caught something going on down below.”
    “I don’t have any social media other than LinkedIn,” Oscar said. “Working here, the number of Wonder Workers I’ve employed over the years, I’d probably have ten thousand Facebook friends.”
    “You can’t have ten thousand Facebook friends,” Rudy said. “The limit’s five thousand.”
    “You have an account?” Vanessa asked.
    “Yes, ma’am, I have them all. Which one you want?”
    “Whichever one has the picture.”
    Rudy typed into a different monitor and a moment later he had the Wonder Wheel kid’s Facebook profile picture up on the screen. Vanessa almost gasped when she saw it.
    The security guard hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said the photo was fantastic. Blake Dozier’s arms were stretched outward, and it appeared as if he was floating, unanchored, in midair. His handsome face was perfectly lit by the early dawn sun, and his expression was one of exhilaration. Below him was Wonderland, and beyond Wonderland was the Pacific Ocean,