The Complete Ruby Redfort Collection. Lauren Child

was true: they were heading straight for the open back of a large green truck. It looked like it was deliberately waiting to swallow them up.

      Ruby grabbed the wheel and screamed, ‘Step on it!’

      Her mother floored the gas pedal and they shot through a gap in the traffic – her eyes closed, expecting the worst, as the car careered across the freeway, tyres screeching, vehicles honking, and…

      …somehow they made it safely off at the next exit.

      ‘I would suggest that crazy redhead remove her enormous shades and take a proper look where she is going!’ said Sabina, gulping in air.

      Ruby glanced in the mirror, but the black car was nowhere to be seen. Yet she had a strong feeling the woman’s poor driving had nothing to do with her eyesight.

      ‘So now they’re dropping you?’ Clancy was having a hard time taking this news on board. He had come over as soon as he got Ruby’s message. ‘First of all they barely thank you and now they drop you?’

      ‘They haven’t dropped me, they just needed me to figure something out and now that I have that’s that.’ Ruby was trying to put a brave face on it but Clancy wasn’t giving up.

      ‘Oh fine, so you work out the whole thing and they just give you your marching orders like they never needed you in the first place.’

      ‘No Clance, you got it all backwards…’ argued Ruby, but Clancy was just warming up.

      ‘I can’t believe they would just use you like this, pick your brains and kick you out.’

      ‘Clance it’s not really like that.’

      ‘You must feel terrible Rube, all wrung out like an old dish rag.’

      ‘Clance…’

      ‘Dumped in the trash with all the rotting garbage.’

      ‘Thanks Clance,’ said Ruby, ‘I feel a whole lot better talking to you.’

      ‘Sorry Rube, I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, it’s just I hate to see this happen to you.’

      ‘I know,’ said Ruby, ‘I guess I thought they might keep me on, get me to do other things… it woulda been fun.’ She sighed. ‘Look, let’s forget about it – let’s just hang out OK?

      ‘OK, but how about we get some pizza?’

      ‘I thought you had a tooth infection?’

      ‘Nah, I was faking it, I haven’t done my French assignment, so I kinda skipped school. My dad’s gonna kill me if I flunk again.’

      ‘Clance! Why didn’t you say? Look, I can help you with that this week sometime.’

      ‘Really?’

      ‘Sure I can – do it in my sleep.’

      ‘Thanks Rube, let’s go find Ray’s Pizza Van – I’ll even pay.’

      ‘Friend, you got yourself a deal,’ said Ruby.

       Chapter 30.

      Room Service

      CLANCY CREW AND RUBY REDFORT were hanging out in Twinford Square eating two slices of pepperoni anchovy cauliflower pizza they had just purchased from Ray’s Roving Pizza Van.

      ‘Good combination Clance, weird but yet, somehow, good,’ mumbled Ruby through a mouthful of pizza.

      ‘Yeah, well, you know, I thought the crunch of the cauliflower would perfectly compliment the saltiness of the anchovy, and the sausage would give it a sort of sausagey flavour.’

      ‘And you’re not wrong my friend,’ said Ruby. These highbrow pizza discussions could go on for some time, but today something else had caught Clancy’s attention. As he ate he was watching a red-haired woman taking photographs of the Square – it was a nice spring evening and the Square was looking particularly pretty but this woman was taking a lot of photographs and they weren’t just of the trees and the flowers. She had a camera with a long lens and she was slowly moving around photographing every single building in the Square – almost like she was documenting them.

      ‘Hey Rube, that lady with the red hair – the one taking pictures – I swear I’ve seen her somewhere before.’

      ‘Yeah, you could have seen her anywhere, lot a people in Twinford, Clance.’

      ‘Yeah but Rube this is different, I’ve seen her before but not in Twinford.’

      ‘So? You saw her somewhere else.’ Ruby was concentrating on getting a piece of stringy melted cheese into her mouth.

      Clancy didn’t take his eyes off the woman. ‘She’s taking an awful lot of pictures.’

      ‘No law against it,’ said Ruby.

      ‘I’ve seen her with a camera before – I know I have. There’s something about her that’s giving me a funny feeling.’

      Ruby gave him one of her sideways stares. ‘You sure Clance?’

      ‘Yeah, I got one of my hunches Rube, trust me on this.’

      ‘I trust you Clance – never doubt the Clancy Crew funny feeling is what I always say.’

      Clancy nodded. ‘You think we should follow her?’

      ‘Why not?’ said Ruby, flicking crumbs from her jeans.

      They waited until the woman had got halfway across the tree filled square before they began to tail her. It wasn’t difficult because it was a sunny day and there were lots of people out strolling with their dogs and this provided good cover.

      They followed the woman until she disappeared into the revolving doors of the Grand Twin Hotel, and sneaked in behind a young couple and their four arguing children. Ruby noticed the concierge give the redhead a key to room 524 and watched as she made her way to the elevators. As she disappeared from view Ruby spied an unattended room service trolley in the corridor – it looked like it was on its way to someone’s suite, though the waiter was nowhere to be seen. Without saying a word Ruby walked over to it and pushed it towards an open elevator. Clancy followed nervously.

      ‘Stop twitching, Clance, you’ll get us caught – confidence is everything.’ She pressed the button for the fifth floor.

      ‘Now what?’ said Clancy.

      ‘Now, take off your sweater.’

      ‘Why?’ asked Clancy.

      ‘Because you got a white shirt on that’s why and if you wrap this tablecloth around your waist you’ll look like a waiter – see?’

      ‘I’m thirteen years old Ruby, and skinny as a string bean, nobody’s gonna mistake me for a hotel waiter.’

      ‘Will you just believe me!’ hissed Ruby.

      ‘OK, I’ll believe you Rube, but I don’t think anyone else will.’

      They wheeled the trolley along the fifth floor corridor until they got to room 524. At which point Ruby crawled under the trolley and hid herself beneath the tablecloth.

      ‘Now what?’ whispered Clancy.

      ‘Knock,’ hissed Ruby.

      ‘I was afraid you were gonna say that,’ said Clancy, before knocking so quietly that it was a wonder anyone heard.

      The door was opened by the redhead, holding a telephone and deep in conversation with the person on the other end.

      ‘Sorry Bobby – someone’s at the door,’ she said into the receiver. ‘Yes?’ She was looking hard at Clancy.

      ‘Room service,’ said Clancy doubtfully.

      ‘I didn’t order room