Callahan's Con — Spider Robinson

The discreet little bar that Jake Stonebender established a few blocks below Duval Street was named simply, The Place. There all the Callahan's regulars--plus a collection of truly pixilated Key West locals--settled into comfortable sub-tropical niches. No one even noticed them save the universe. For ten slow, merry years, life was good. The sun shone, the breeze blew just strongly enough to dissipate the smell of the puns, and little supergenius Erin grew to the verge of adolescence. Then disaster struck.

Through the gate one sunny day came a malevolent mastodon of a Mafioso named Tony Donuts Jr., or Little Nuts (don't ask). He'd decided to resurrect the classic protection racket in Key West--and guess which tavern he picked to hit first? Then, thanks to very poor accessorizing (she choose the wrong belt--and no, we're not going to explain that one), Jake's wife, Zoey suddenly found herself in a place with no light, no air, and no way home. The urgent question was where--precisely where--but that turned out to be a problem so complex that even the entire gang, equipped with teleportation, time travel, and telepathic syntony (you could look it up) might not be able to crack in time.
And while all this was going on, Death himself walked into The Place ...