The Unusual Suspects (The Sisters Grimm, Book 2)

by Michael Buckley

  "Some of the crows claim they blacked out. They say they can't account for about fifteen minutes of the day," the crow whispered. "The ones I talked to said they heard music and suddenly they were all standing around the school yard, unsure of how they got there. Sounds like the piper is back to his old games."

  "That would be unfortunate," Granny said.

  "But I don't think it's your biggest problem," the crow continued. "Someone's sent you a message and I'm warning you, Relda, you don't want to mess with the Scarlet Hand."

  "I don't know what you're talking about," said the old woman. "What message?"

  "It's all over your house, Relda. Whatever you've gotten involved in this time has attracted the attention of some very bad people."

  Sabrina and Daphne ran down the porch steps and looked up at the house. On the windows, roof, and even on the chimney were red-paint hands, just like the one they had found on the chalkboard in Mr. Grumpner's room.

  "Who did this?" Sabrina asked.

  "We've only been home for an hour," Daphne added.

  The Widow hopped down the steps and flew up into the air. "Keep your nestlings close," the crow squawked as it disappeared over the tree line.

  "Girls, get back into the house," Granny Relda said sternly.

  Chapter 6

  t was obvious to Sabrina that the Scarlet Hand had spooked Granny Relda. The old woman spent the rest of the night silently digging through her old books and taking notes. When the girls announced they were going to bed, she mumbled what sounded like good night, but kept researching.

  While Daphne brushed her teeth, Sabrina ran her head under the bathtub faucet and washed her hair for the fourth time that day. She wrapped it up in a towel, and the girls headed for their bedroom. Daphne put on her favorite pair of footie pajamas and pinned her deputy's badge to them. After buffing it into a shine, she went to their father's desk, which the little girl was slowly converting into a beauty parlor, and took a hairbrush from one of its drawers.

  "Can I?" she asked. Sabrina nodded and her little sister climbed up on the bed, took the towel off of the older girl's head, and ran the brush over her long blond hair. For some reason, brushing Sabrina's hair helped calm Daphne down so that she could go to sleep. After finding a dead body, being attacked by a frog-girl, nearly dying with Granny behind the wheel of the car, and having the house vandalized right under their noses, Daphne would be brushing for a long time, Sabrina suspected.

  "You OK?" she asked.

  "I can't get Mr. Grumpner's face out of my head," Daphne replied.

  "Try not to think about it."

  "But we have to think about it. Now that we're police officers, it's up to us to find his killer."

  "I think we should let the sheriff handle this one," Sabrina said.

  "We can't. We made a vow. Besides, the town needs us to solve the mystery. We are Grimms and this is what we . . ."

  "What we need to do is find Mom and Dad," Sabrina interrupted.

  "We'll find them," her sister said.

  "I don't know how. We've been here for three weeks and have spent all our time catching Lilliputians and killing giants. Isn't it time to start putting Mom and Dad first?"

  "The mayor needs our help."

  "And while we're busy doing the mayor's job, Mom and Dad are still missing," Sabrina snapped. "How do we know that Charming isn't responsible?"

  "He wouldn't do that."

  "He's an Everafter, Daphne! Everafters can't be . . ."

  "What?" Daphne said. "Everafters can't be what?"

  "Trusted!" Sabrina exploded.

  Her sister looked at Sabrina as if she didn't recognize her. It was an expression more hurtful than any word the little girl could have said.

  "It's obvious an Everafter kidnapped our parents and it's also obvious that an Everafter is behind Grumpner's murder," Sabrina tried to explain.

  "Sabrina, they aren't all bad."

  "All the ones I've met," the older girl insisted.

  Daphne set the hairbrush on the nightstand, crawled under the covers, and turned her back on her sister.

  "I don't like you very much, right now," she whispered.

  "You'll see I'm right soon enough," Sabrina said.

  She stared up at the ceiling, waiting for Daphne to respond, but the little girl remained quiet. Sabrina told herself she didn't care. Daphne wasn't going to make her feel guilty. She'd worry about being tolerant and accepting when their mother and father came home.

  "Good night," she whispered, but her sister said nothing. Sabrina snatched a copy of The Blue Fairy Book off the night-stand and opened it to page one. Maybe there was something in the book, some kind of magic she could use to find their parents.

  ************************************

  Once the house was quiet, Sabrina grabbed her set of keys up from under the bed, snatched a book off her nightstand, and headed to Mirror's room. When she walked through the portal, she found him with a reflective silver card under his chin and a tanning lamp shining in his face. On a nearby table he had a pitcher of margaritas and a bottle of suntan lotion. When he saw Sabrina, he smiled and flicked off the lamp.

  "Just in time, kiddo," the little man said. "I'm roasting over here. How was your first day of school?"

  "Oh, the usual. The kids made fun of me, I punched a bully, and a teacher was murdered by a monster," Sabrina replied.

  "Sixth grade isn't how I remember it," Mirror said, reaching over to a table and pouring himself a fresh drink. "Sorry, I'd offer you one but you're a bit young. How about a Shirley Temple?"

  "No thanks," Sabrina said.

  "I remember my school days. It wasn't easy for a shy talking mirror, but I managed. Trust me, starfish, it gets better the day after."

  "The day after what?"

  "The day after you graduate," Mirror said. "Are you feeling OK? You look flushed."

  "I think I'm getting sick," the girl said, holding her hand to her forehead to check for a fever. "I've been getting headaches all day and I've been a cranky jerk to almost everybody."

  "Sounds like puberty to me. If you think school is tough now, wait until you start getting zits."

  "So, you're sure I'm not sick?"

  "Completely, kiddo. I remember when your dad went through it. He was in a fistfight every day for two weeks. I remember one time he got your grandfather so angry the old man chased him up a tree." Mirror laughed.

  "So, this is normal," Sabrina said. "I thought I was going crazy."

  "I didn't say you weren't going crazy," the little man responded. "I just said you were growing up. The two are not mutually exclusive. So, did you just come to chat or are we going on a magic hunt again tonight?"

  Sabrina sheepishly held out a book about King Arthur's powerful wizard, Merlin.

  "Come on, kiddo," Mirror said, sounding resigned, and Sabrina followed him down the hall.

  ************************************

  Early the next morning, Sabrina awoke to a thundering racket, followed by a series of thuds and crashes that knocked a picture off her bedroom wall. Something was going on at the end of the hallway that sounded like a fistfight and Sabrina knew there could be only one source of the chaos—Puck. She eyed the clock and saw that it was only five a.m. and her blood began to boil. Five a.m. was too early for his nonsense.

  Of course, Daphne slept through the noise, snoring away as if nothing was happening. The little girl could sleep through World War Three. The only thing she wouldn't sleep through was breakfast.

  Sabrina leaped out of bed and marched down the hallway. The day before had taught her not to just barge into his room, so she banged on the door angrily instead. After several moments, she realized that the tremendous noise she heard wasn't coming from inside Puck's bedroom, but from the bathroom down the hall. Fearing her grandmother had fallen in the tub, Sabrina rushed to the bathroom door, grabbed the knob, and flung the door open just as a nearly naked eleven-year-old boy ran past her.

  "Puck!" Gran
ny Relda cried. "Come back here!"

  Mr. Canis leaped to his feet and rushed past Sabrina, chasing the boy, who had fled downstairs.

  "What's going on?" the girl asked, as she peered into the bathroom. It was a complete disaster. The bathtub was surrounded by a dozen empty bottles of shampoo and what looked like the wrappings of at least twenty bars of soap. The inside of the tub was filled with an oily black sludge that slowly spiraled down the drain. On the toilet basin was a plate where four fat worms, several dead beetles, a hand grenade, and thirty-six cents in change had been collected.

  "Puck is having his bath . . . his eighth bath," Granny Relda said, partly exhausted and partly annoyed. "You've let him out and now he's probably in the woods rolling in who knows what . . . again"

  "He's taking a bath?" Sabrina said. Puck hadn't taken a bath since he'd moved into the house and his unbearable stink had ruined many a meal for the girl. One whiff of his nauseating aroma was all anyone needed to realize that the Trickster King and soap were bitter enemies.

  "Not that I'm complaining, but why is he taking a bath?" she asked suspiciously.

  "We felt it was necessary, under the circumstances," said Granny Relda. Sabrina noticed the old woman was wearing plastic gloves to protect her hands.

  "Circumstances? What circumstances?"

  But Granny's explanation was interrupted by Mr. Canis, who stomped back up the stairs with the boy in his arms. Puck squirmed and kicked the entire way.

  "This is rubbish!" he shrieked as the old man dragged him back into the bathroom and wrapped him in a clean towel.

  "The tub is clogged again," Granny Relda said. "I suppose we could try another round on the teeth while it drains."

  Sabrina eyed the bathroom sink where four worn-down and abused toothbrushes had met their doom. Several tubes of toothpaste littered the floor. Each had been thoroughly emptied of all its cavity-fighting protection.

  "Will someone please tell me what is going on in here?" Sabrina demanded.

  Puck turned and smirked at the girl. A devilish gleam sparkled in his eyes and he temporarily ceased his indignant protests.

  "Guess what, piggy! I'm going to school with you today!" he shouted as he kicked the door closed in her face. "I'm going to be your bodyguard!"

  ************************************

  "Yes, you absolutely do need a bodyguard." Granny Relda argued with Sabrina as she tried to pat Daphne's hair down with her hand. The little girl had molded her still glue-soaked locks into a pointy Mohawk that stood about a foot and a half above her head. Finding little success, Granny gave up and turned her attention to serving each girl glow-in-the-dark waffles for breakfast. "We've got two monsters running around in the hallways."

  "But why him?" Sabrina cried. Her own hair had become super curly after her multiple shampoos, producing an almost perfect globe shape, like a big yellow tennis ball. "Why don't you come?" she said to her grandmother. "You could use a fairy godmother wand to change yourself into a kid."

  "I'd look like a kid, but I'd still be an old lady," said Granny. "This way if something happens, then at least there's someone around who can fight."

  "Actually," Daphne said, shoveling half a glowing waffle into her mouth, "I think it's a great idea. He's our age and none of the kids will know who he is."

  Sabrina shot her sister a betrayed look, but the little girl didn't see it. She was obviously still angry and refusing to make eye contact with her.

  "Oh, no! They won't notice him at all until he turns into a monkey and throws his own poop down the hallway," Sabrina said. "And it's not like the kids aren't going to notice the fifteen layers of crud he has under his pits. He smells like Coney Island after a clam-eating contest."

  "Excuse me?" Puck inquired. The boy had slipped into the room without anyone seeing him. Sabrina turned to give him her usual nasty look, but when she saw how he had transformed, she dropped her fork. Puck was clean, shiny, and blond. He'd been scrubbed from head to toe. His leaf-infested, raggedy hair was neat and combed and his teeth sparkled like diamonds. Even his ever-present ratty green hoodie and jeans had been retired and replaced with black cargo pants, a striped baby blue rugby shirt, and brand-new sneakers.

  "Puck! You're . . . you're ..." Sabrina stammered.

  "You're a hottie!" Daphne shouted.

  Sabrina hated herself, but she had to agree. Puck, the shape-shifter, the royal pain-in-the-rear, had transformed into a cute boy. Sabrina couldn't help but stare, even when he caught her.

  "Yes, it's true," he said as he took a seat. "Please, don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

  Granny placed a plate of waffles in front of him and he shoved them into his mouth with his bare hands. Whatever spell he had cast on Sabrina quickly faded as she watched him pour some maple syrup down his throat and take a bite out of a stick of butter.

  "Puck," Granny Relda groaned as she wiped syrup off the boy's face. "Use a fork. You don't want to have to take another bath, do you?"

  "So you ran the garden hose over him. What about the insanity on the inside?" Sabrina asked, still doing her best not to look at him. Puck grinned at her and his big green eyes made her want to cry. She couldn't like Puck! He was disgusting! He wasn't even a real boy!

  "Don't worry, old lady," he said with a grin. "I'll behave. Besides, who's going to notice me with these two and their hair?" Suddenly, his head morphed into a donkey's head. He brayed and laughed and spit all over Sabrina.

  "Puck, sweetie, no shape-shifting at the table," Granny Relda lectured.

  "Just getting it out of my system," the boy said, transforming

  back to normal. Sabrina wanted to die. Even when he was being disgusting, he was cute.

  Puck looked over at Sabrina, who was wiping his spittle off her face. "Hey ugly, is that your face or did your neck throw up?"

  Sabrina was horrified. Did he think she was ugly? Why would he say such a horrible thing in front of everyone? And then it dawned on her—this beautiful boy sitting across from her was still Puck the Trickster. He was the boy who had dumped her in a tub of goo and put a tarantula in her bed. Puck was still Puck, even after a makeover.

  "This is ridiculous," she said. "You're sending him because of all this Scarlet Hand message business, when we all know he's the one who did it."

  "You think I made all those handprints on the house?" Puck asked.

  "Who else?" she cried. "You're the so-called Trickster King. You were pretty mad when Granny sent you to get the Widow. You decided to get your revenge by scaring us. Why not add a little terror to your bag of pranks?"

  "I think the glue and buttermilk is seeping out of your hair and into your itty-bitty brain," the boy snapped.

  "I believe him," Daphne declared. "He always admits when he does stuff. He's proud of it."

  Sabrina turned to her and fumed. Once again, her own sister had taken Puck's side against her.

  "Well, I'm pretty proud of my right hook," Sabrina shouted, returning her attention to Puck. "Why don't you come over here and I'll show it to you."

  "Lieblings!" Granny shouted. The children spun around to face the old woman. Her face was flushed and her little button nose was flaring. "Enough with the shouting!"

  "He started it!" Sabrina shouted.

  "She started it!" shouted Puck.

  "Puck is going to school with you," Granny Relda said firmly. "End of discussion."

  Everyone sat silently for a moment, staring down at their breakfasts.

  "By the way, marshmallow," Puck said to Daphne, breaking the silence. "How many warts did you find this morning?"

  The little girl rolled up her sleeves and showed the boy her arms. "Not one!"

  Puck sighed. "That's a shame."

  "Why?"

  "Well, if you were going to have little ones they would have already shown up. You could put some cream on them and they'd go away in a day or two. But the really big ones take a couple days to show. Those are the kind that end up on the tip of your nose or growing out o
f your neck. You have to have surgery to get rid of those."

  Daphne shrieked and jumped from her seat. In no time she was running up the steps to the bathroom again.

  "You better scrub harder this time!" Puck shouted to the little girl.

  "How is Captain Maturity going to keep an eye on both of us at the same time?" Sabrina asked. "Daphne and I aren't in the same grade."

  "Puck is there to watch you, Sabrina. Daphne will be safe with Snow White," Granny replied. "Snow's a good friend and has volunteered to keep her eye on your sister."