The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh Page B

his nightstick. “You can guess how he got his name.”
    Jack stared at the shiny, black nightstick as Clubber joined the other guard, who led Cerberus, sniffing and growling, toward the middle of the bar. Another ghost in a flapper outfit stood with her arms in the air, quivering as Cerberus sniffed her ankles. “I’m really dead!” she repeated over and over again.
    “There’s got to be a reason why Clubber’s here,” said Ruby as she stared at Jack. Slowly her glance fell on his soda. “Why aren’t you drinking that?”
    Jack tried to give a casual-looking shrug. “I’m not thirsty.”
    Ruby picked up the glass and held it to his lips. “Well, why don’t you just take a little sip for us. . . .”
    Euri knocked the glass out of Ruby’s hands.
    “Jumping Jehovahs, Harry,” said Ruby. “I knew it! He’s alive!”
    Jack looked helplessly at Euri.
    “It’s not what you think,” Euri said to Ruby.
    But Ruby just grinned at her. “The jig is up, sister.”
    The other flapper ghost moaned in terror. “It’s not her,” said Clubber as Cerberus followed the trail deeper into the bar.
    Ruby chuckled. “Boy, have you got yourself in a jam. You almost had me fooled, though. You look pretty dead for someone who’s still kicking.”
    “They’re heading this way!” Jack whispered. “I’m going to die.”
    Ruby shrugged and took a sip of her drink. “What’s wrong with that?”
    Euri grabbed a steak knife and lunged across the table, brandishing it at Ruby. “A lot’s wrong with that! You’ve got to help him.”
    For the first time that evening, the mirth behind Ruby’s eyes faded. “Easy, sister,” she mumbled. “I was just razzing you.”
    Euri pointed the knife in the direction of Cerberus, Clubber, and the other guard, who were all moving toward them through the crowd. “Don’t worry, Jack,” she said. “They’ll have to get through me first.”
    Jack looked at the steak knife shaking in her hands and grabbed his own knife. “They’ll have to get through both of us.”
    “Touching,” said Ruby. “But this is a juice joint. There’s always more than one way out.”
    “Where?” asked Jack and Euri simultaneously.
    “Well, there’s the bookcase,” she said. “It’s really a secret door that leads to an alley. But it’s right by the entrance. There’s no way you can make it that far without being noticed. And anyway, Clubber said they’ve got the walls surrounded.”
    “Maybe we can fly up through the ceiling?” Jack suggested.
    “They’ll notice anyone who flies up,” said Ruby. “But they may not notice someone who disappears down.” She pointed to a door in the floor near the bar. “There’s a small cellar beneath the bar where they used to hide spirits during Prohibition. Clubber died before Prohibition so I doubt he knows about it. If you descend through the trapdoor, you should be smack dab in the center of it, and you can float into the basements of neighboring houses.”
    “Thank you!” said Jack, scrambling to his feet.
    “Wait, Jack,” whispered Euri, pulling him back down. “The guards are practically there already.”
    Cerberus sniffed the ground near the bar and howled. “He’s got the scent back!” said the thick-necked guard.
    “It’s about time,” Clubber snarled.
    “We’ll create a diversion,” said Harry. “Ruby’s always good at that.”
    “Jeez, Harry, I was just getting comfortable,” said Ruby, but she stood up and put her hand on Euri’s shoulder. Jack heard her whisper, “Tell the kid about your circle, sister. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. He’ll understand.”
    Jack noticed Euri wince as Ruby squeezed her hand.
    Then Ruby and Harry flew toward the bar, and Ruby ground the heel of her shoe into one of Cerberus’s bear-size paws. All three of his heads squealed as he leaped backward, momentarily stunned. Clubber and the guard seized Ruby while Cerberus gnashed and bared three heads’ worth of teeth at her, preparing to