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Chapters (47)
  1. Cover
  2. DEDICATION
  3. MAP
  4. EPIGRAPH
  5. New York City
  6. New York City
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  42. Sunrise in Gotham Senior Living Center
  43. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  44. BACK ADS
  45. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  46. BOOKS BY LAURA RUBY
  47. ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

For a moment, they were all silent. Nine stopped winding and licking and nipping, instead groomed the end of her long tail. Jaime said, “But Nine is just one number.” He tried 9-9-9, but that didn’t work, either.

“Nine isn’t her full name,” Tess said.

Jaime said, “What do you mean?”

Theo tucked Jaime’s pencil into his own overlarge, bushy hair. “When Aunt Esther gave her to us, she said, ‘I have brought you an animal. The animal’s name is Nine Eighty-Seven. I have also brought you some Fig Newtons, but not for the animal.’”

Jaime stared at Theo, at his pencil in Theo’s hair, then down at Nine. Nine peered at him, still and watchful, the answer to her own riddle.

“If this works, I think maybe we need to have a conversation with your aunt Esther,” said Jaime, before turning the first dial to nine, the second to eight, the third to seven. He tugged.

The lock popped open with a click.

And something small and whitish, the size of a pain capsule, dropped to the floor. Nine batted at it.

“Must have been hidden inside the lock.” Theo stooped down, scooped it up.

Tess peered over Theo’s shoulder. “What is it?”

“I think it’s a scroll,” Theo said, unwinding it. In Theo’s hand was a thin strip of yellowed paper on which was written:

TICKET #3152—TLJ. THE 17TH OF JUNE.

“Ticket #3152? TLJ? A ticket to what?” Tess said.

“Maybe we’ll find out when we open the door,” said Jaime. He plucked his pencil from Theo’s hair, wiped it on his pants, and put that and his sketchbook in his back pocket. Then he unhooked the lock and tucked it into the other pocket. With both hands, he took hold of the only available handle on the door, the small metal loop through which the hasp had been threaded.

“Ready?” Jaime said.

No, Tess thought. “Yes,” Tess said.

Jaime pulled. The heavy door opened just a crack. Tess and Theo got their fingers around it, and together they all wrenched the door wide. A shaft of bright light hit them. Before they could stop her, Nine slipped through the opening.

And that was when someone started to scream.

CHAPTER TWO

Theo