The Funhouse

scam,” Liz said. “The carnival security men spotted us smoking dope. They don't want that kind of trouble on their lot, but they also don't want to call the cops. Carnies don't truck with the cops. So they arranged for the albino to give us free tickets to Zena's, so she could try to scare us off.”
        “Yeah!” Buzz said. “I'll be damned. That's it, all right.”
        “I don't know,” Richie said. “It doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, why wouldn't they just have their goons throw us out?”
        “Because there's too many of us, dummy,” Liz said. “They'd need at least three bouncers. They wouldn't want to make a big scene like that.”
        “Could she have been sincere?” Amy asked.
        “Madame Zena?” Liz said. “You mean to tell me you believe she really saw something in her crystal ball? Horseshit!”
        “They talked about it some more, and gradually they came to accept Liz's theory. It seemed to make more sense by the minute.
        But Amy wondered if it would make any sense L at all if they weren't half wasted on dope. She thought of Marco the Magnificent, Liz's face on the woman in the coffin, Buzz cutting his finger on the jar that contained the monster. It was too much to think about, too scary. Even if Liz's explanation was thin, it was at least conveniently simple, and Amy gladly accepted it.
        “I have to pee,” Liz said. “Then I want some ice cream and a ride through the funhouse. After that we can split for home.” She tickled Richie under the chin. “When we get home, I'll take you on a thrill ride better than anything they have here.” She turned to Amy. “Come to the restroom with me.”
        “I don't really have to,” Amy said.
        Liz took her hand. “Come on. Keep me company. Anyway, we have to talk, kid.”
        “Meet you at the ice-cream stand over there,” Richie said, pointing to a joint beyond the carousel.
        “Back in a jiffy,” Liz assured him. Then she pulled Amy through the crowd, toward the edge of the midway.
        
        * * *
        
        Conrad was standing in the shadows beside Zena's tent when the four teenagers came out and stopped in the pool of flashing red and yellow light that was cast by the nearby Tilt-a-Whirl. He heard the blond girl say that she wanted to use the restroom, get an ice cream, and then take a tour of the funhouse. As soon as the group split up and moved away, Conrad slipped into Zena's tent. As he went inside, he pulled down a canvas flap that covered the entire entrance, on the outside of it, there were six words-CLOSED/WILL RETURN IN TEN MINUTES.
        Zena was sitting in her chair. Even in the flickering light of the candles, Conrad could see that she was ashen.
        “Well?” he said.
        “Another dead end,” Zena said nervously.
        “This one looks more like Ellen than most of the others that I've sent to you.”
        “Just coincidence,” Zena said.
        “What's her name?”
        “Amy Harper.”
        Those four syllables electrified Conrad. He remembered the small boy to whom he had given two free passes just this afternoon. That child's name had been Joey Harper, and he had said that his sister's name was Amy. He, too, had resembled Ellen.
        What did you learn about her?” he asked Zena.
        “Not much.”
        “Tell me.”
        “She's not the one.”
        “Tell me anyway. Brothers? Sisters?”
        Zena hesitated, then said, “One brother.”
        “What's his name?”
        “What does it matter? She isn't the one you're looking for.”
        “Just curious,” Conrad said evenly, sensing that she was hiding the truth from him, but afraid to believe that he had found his prey after all this time.
        “What's her brother's name?”
        “Joey.”
        “What's her mother's name.”
        “ Nancy,” Zena said.
        Conrad knew she was lying. He stared down at her and said, “Are you sure it isn't Leona"?”
        Zena blinked. “What? Why Leona"?”
        “Because this afternoon, when I happened to have a friendly little chat with Joey Harper while he was watching us erect the funhouse, he told me that his mother's name was Leona”
        Zena gaped at him, amazed and perplexed.
        Conrad walked around the table and put a hand on her shoulder.
        She looked up at him.
        He said, “You know what I think? I think the boy lied to me. I think he sensed danger