The Unusual Suspects (The Sisters Grimm, Book 2)

by Michael Buckley

  "So what do we do?"

  "We do what we're supposed to do," Sabrina said. "We're Grimms and something is wrong in this town. It's our job to find out what it is."

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

  Once she was confident her grandmother and Mr. Canis were asleep, Sabrina shook her sister awake and the two of them crawled out of bed. They crept out of their room and down the hall to Puck's bedroom.

  "Don't step on the plate," Sabrina reminded her sister as she opened the door. Inside the boy's magical forest room, the sun had set, replaced by a sea of stars, each blinking brightly just for Puck. The boxing kangaroo was asleep in his ring and the roller coaster had been turned off. All was still, except for the cascading waterfall splashing into the lagoon.

  The girls crept along the path around the lagoon and then into some heavy brush. Eventually, they came to a trampoline on which Puck was sound asleep. The Trickster King was wearing a pair of baby blue footie pajamas that had little smiling stars and moons on them. Held close to his face was a soft pink stuffed unicorn with a rainbow sewn on its side. If only Sabrina had brought a camera, she could have also recorded his thumb in his mouth.

  "Time to wake up the sleepy monkey," Sabrina cooed in baby talk, doing her best not to roar with laughter.

  Daphne giggled but held her hand over her mouth.

  "Wakie-wakie, eggs and bac-ie," Sabrina continued.

  Puck stirred in his sleep but didn't wake. A big stream of drool escaped his mouth and ran down the front of his pajamas.

  "Does someone have the sleepy-sleepies?" Daphne said mimicking her sister's baby talk.

  "Time to come back from dreamland, precious," the older girl said, shaking the boy roughly. Puck sprang from his sleep, with wings extended from his back. He waved his big pink unicorn like a deadly sword and slashed at the children.

  "Nice jammies," Daphne snickered.

  "I especially like Mr. Unicorn," Sabrina laughed.

  "His name is Kraven the Deceiver," Puck corrected, before realizing what he was holding and who was with him. He tossed the stuffed animal aside and fluttered down to the ground.

  "We've got a plan for tomorrow and you're going to help us," Sabrina said.

  "Forget it," the boy answered. "Tomorrow I'm telling the old lady to find another bodyguard for her stinky offspring. It's beneath me!"

  "But this plan requires a lot of a mischief," Sabrina said.

  Puck's eyes lit up. "I'm listening," he said.

  "We're going to get into the boiler room tomorrow to search the tunnels."

  "The old lady will be furious."

  "I know, but I'm willing to take the heat if it saves someone's life."

  "Fine, what's the plan?"

  Sabrina reached into her pocket and took out her set of keys.

  "Where'd you get those?" Daphne asked.

  "I've been swiping them off Granny's key ring one by one and making copies at the hardware store."

  Puck's eyes lit up and he looked at Sabrina as if he had never seen her before in his life. "You stole those keys and made copies?"

  She dropped her eyes. "Yeah," she said, thinking she felt disapproval.

  "That's wonderful," the boy said, eyeing the girl like a child watching a fireworks display. He was in complete awe of her. He grabbed both the girls by the wrist and dragged them through his "room." "Let's put them to use, then!"

  Once they were in Mirror's room, the three children stepped through the reflection and came out into the Hall of Wonders. Mirror was standing in front of his own full-length mirror, sucking in his plump belly and making muscle poses like a body builder.

  "Doesn't anyone in this house sleep anymore?" he asked.

  "We need some help," Sabrina said.

  The little man rolled his eyes and let out his belly. "Very well, what's the scoop?"

  "We need something that will help us get into the boiler room at school," Daphne said. "The door is locked, so we need something that will turn us invisible or let us walk through walls."

  "Children, this isn't Wal-Mart," Mirror replied. "I don't have everything, but there is something that might help. Follow me."

  As they followed Mirror down the long hallway, Sabrina read the golden plaques on each of the doors, a favorite habit developed on previous visits: LEPRECHAUN GOLD; FLOOR PLANS FOR GINGERBREAD HOUSES; TALKING FISH; GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE; TIK-TOK MEN; CALIBAN—the doors went on and on. What was Mirror going to offer them?

  Soon, he stopped at a door with a plaque that read THE PANTRY. He held out his hand and Sabrina gave him her key ring. He searched through her collection and found the one that unlocked the door. Everyone stepped inside where, much to the girls' chagrin, there stood an old, run-down refrigerator.

  "I've never heard of the magic refrigerator," Daphne said. "Is that a Grimm story or someone else?"

  "There's no such thing as a magic refrigerator," Mirror said as he opened the door. "It's what's inside that's important."

  He opened the fridge, bent down, and rummaged around inside. He pulled out a bag of rotten carrots. "I really have to toss these out," he mumbled. He opened a carton of milk and took a sniff, his face crinkling up in disgust as he closed the carton and put it back in the refrigerator. Finally, he took out a package of juice boxes and handed them to the kids.

  "Drink me," Daphne read.

  "This is from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland," Sabrina said, happily. "This will make us shrink?"

  "To about the size of an ant," Mirror said. "At that size you could just walk under the door and get into any room you want. But you'll need these, too." He reached in and pulled out several individually wrapped snack cakes. They looked just like the kind Sabrina used to buy at the deli near their Manhattan apartment, but the label said, EAT ME!

  "These will make you big, but don't eat too many, they're not exactly Atkins friendly," Mirror warned. "Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum sold these for a week at their convenience store before your grandmother confiscated their stock. The town was filled with giant children. It took us a week to sort it out."

  "We'll need four of each, I think," Sabrina said.

  "But there's only three of us," Daphne argued.

  "I have a feeling the great detective Wendell Hamelin is going to change his mind about being a loner," her sister replied.

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

  The next day at school, the trio walked down the crowded hallway toward the boiler room. Sabrina scrutinized every kid along the way. Any one of them could be a giant spider or a frog-girl, but besides being exhausted, they all looked just like every other kid Sabrina had ever seen. At least her suspicions about Wendell proved correct. He was waiting for them by the doorway with a handkerchief and a runny nose.

  "I've been doing some thinking and I believe that joining forces might be a great idea, but under a couple of conditions," he said, rushing to join the group.

  "What conditions?" Sabrina said.

  "I handle all the dangerous work," the chubby boy said, puffing up his chest like a tough guy.

  The children looked at one another and fought off a laugh.

  "Fine," Sabrina said. "I think we should have a look in the tunnels right away."

  "I agree, but there's a problem," Wendell said, wiping his nose again. "They changed the locks on the boiler room door."

  Sabrina reached into her backpack and tossed the boy an Eat Me cake and a Drink Me juice box.

  "What are these?" he asked.

  "The key to the new lock."

  "You want to do it now?" Daphne cried. "Ms. White will notice I'm gone and come looking for me."

  "We'll worry about that later," said her sister. "Lunchtime is too busy and the bad guys will probably be watching after school. We'll wait until the bell rings for class and once the hall is empty, we'll get started."

  Soon enough, the bell rang, and the kids filed into their classes. Sabrina, Daphne, Puck, and Wendell milled around, trying t
o appear as if they were on their way to class without actually going anywhere.

  Once they were alone in the hall, the children took out their Drink Me boxes and inserted the handy straws attached to the sides.

  "How much do we drink?" Daphne asked, sniffing at the box.

  "I don't know," Sabrina said. "I guess until it starts working."

  Puck took a long slurp and when he was finished he opened his mouth and belched. "It's fruity," he exclaimed. Suddenly, to a sound like that of a squeaky balloon losing its air, his body shrank to half its size. Even his clothes, the Eat Me cake, and the juice box got tiny.

  "Drink more," Daphne insisted. "You aren't small enough to get under the door."

  "And hurry up," Sabrina said, scanning the hallway. The last thing she wanted was a teacher or student to see this craziness.

  Puck took another sip and shrank even further. Soon, he was no taller than a quarter standing on its end. Sabrina bent down and examined the tiny boy.

  "You have no idea how tempted I am to squish you," she said.

  "And you have no idea how big your nose hairs are," he squeaked. Sabrina covered her face with her hand.

  "Our turn," Daphne said. The three other children took big sips out of their boxes and in no time they were all shrinking, too. The liquid did taste fruity, like pineapples and cherry pie at the same time. A cool tingle ran down Sabrina's throat, into her belly, and then into her legs and arms. The sensation wasn't unlike having a good stretch after a wonderful night's sleep. When she finished the box, she was the same size as Puck.

  "Let's get in there before we wind up on the bottom of someone's shoe," said the tiny Wendell. He marched over to the door and looked back. "I'll go first, in case there's something waiting for us on the other side."

  He yanked out his hanky, blew hard on it, then shoved it back into his pocket. Then he walked underneath the door without even having to bend over. Daphne took Sabrina's hand and together they followed Wendell, with Puck bringing up the rear.

  "I should be doing the dangerous stuff," he grumbled.

  Once the group was on the other side, the children had a chance to look around. A bucket full of mops sat in the corner, boxes of trash bags and rolls of toilet paper filled a nearby shelf, and an ancient coal furnace rested in the center of the room. Not far off, a brand-new electric furnace clicked and popped as it pushed warm air throughout the vents of the school. But what was bewildering was how gigantic everything was. The mops looked as tall as the Empire State Building in midtown New York City and Sabrina suspected if one of the rolls of toilet paper were to fall off the shelf and on to them, they'd be crushed to death.

  "Look at that table," Daphne cried, pointing at a nearby desk. "It's huge."

  Sabrina nodded in agreement.

  "Look at that chair," Daphne said. "It's huge!"

  Sabrina agreed.

  "Look at that button!" Daphne said, running over to a monstrous white button that had fallen off of someone's shirt. She tried to lift it, but it was too heavy for her in her shrunken state. "It's huge!"

  "We need to find you another word," Sabrina muttered.

  "Hey! I'm seven! I don't know a lot of words," the little girl said.

  "All right, piggy," Puck said to Wendell. "Where's the entrance to the tunnel?"

  "We need to eat the cakes and get big," the boy detective said. "The lever that opens the entrance is in the old furnace."

  The children reached in their pockets for their Eat Me cakes when suddenly, the boiler room door opened.

  "Someone's coming!" Sabrina shouted. The door closed and a man walked over to the coal furnace. He opened a small trapdoor on its side and reached in. Sabrina guessed he had pushed the lever because a hum filled the room, and the coal furnace began to slide across the floor. That's when Sabrina noticed it was Principal Hamelin.

  The principal waited patiently, and when the coal furnace had slid away, he descended a flight of stairs hidden underneath the machine.

  The children rushed to the center of the room.

  "That was your dad," Sabrina said to Wendell.

  "What is he doing?" he said.

  "We have to follow him," Daphne insisted.

  "We can't! If we eat the cakes and get big, he's sure to spot us, but at this size we'll never make it down those steps," her sister argued.

  "No worries, girls. I have a brilliant plan," Puck said, proudly. He spun around on his heels and transformed into an elephant, albeit a tiny elephant. He let out a mighty roar and charged off into the far corner of the room.

  "Puck, we don't have time for your stupidity," Sabrina shouted after him, but the boy-elephant did not respond. Soon, she could hear the scraping of metal on the floor. When elephant Puck returned he was pushing a dustpan with his massive head, all the way to the edge of the steps. When the pan was on the edge of the top step, the elephant morphed back into the boy.

  "Get in," he said, beaming with pride.

  Sabrina looked at the dustpan hanging precariously over the edge. "No way," she said. "We'll kill ourselves in that thing."

  Daphne was already climbing inside and had found a spot in the corner to sit down. "We survived Granny's driving," she said. "We'll survive this, too."

  "You'll be fine," Puck assured Sabrina. "You'll probably need someone to feed you for the rest of your life, but you'll make it. Stop being a baby and get in."

  Sabrina looked at Wendell. He shrugged and the two of them climbed into the dustpan.

  "You all need to stay in the back of this thing," Puck explained. "Oh, and one more thing . . ."

  "What?" Sabrina cried. She didn't like the tone of his voice.

  "Buckle up, kiddies," Puck shouted as he walked to the front of the pan and leaped into the air. His body came down hard on the end of the pan and the back tilted high in the air, sending the whole thing rocketing down the steps before Sabrina could even scream. Each step it cleared just made the dustpan increase its speed, until finally they crashed at the bottom of the stairs.

  After Sabrina checked everyone for broken bones, she punched Puck in the arm.

  "Hey, I got us here, didn't I?" he complained as he rubbed his sore shoulder.

  The children climbed out of the dustpan, calmed themselves, and headed down a long, cavernous hall carved out of stone. Along the rocky path were pickaxes and dusty shovels, old buckets and miles and miles of rope.

  What are they up to down here? Sabrina wondered, as everyone marched through the tunnel. The journey wouldn't have taken long if they were their usual size, but the length of a normal step now required a dozen.

  "This is as far as I went before," Wendell said when they reached a place where the tunnels branched off into two directions. "Which way should we go?"

  Sabrina heard voices arguing in the tunnel to the left.

  "There's someone else down here besides your father," she said. "Let's go find out who."

  The children followed the tunnel to the left, turned a corner, and crept as close as they could to the two men arguing in the datk. Sabrina couldn't make out the other person's face, but Hamelin was one of them for sure. The principal was wringing his hands.

  "I'm telling you again. This has gone too far. No one was supposed to die," Hamelin said.

  "Piper, you worry too much," a creaky voice said. To Sabrina, it sounded like the voice of a man who had been alive a thousand years without drinking a single sip of water. "Tonight we're going to reach our goal. We would already be there if it weren't for last night."

  "My son was missing!" Hamelin cried. "What was I supposed to do?"

  "Of all people, I understand," the voice crackled. "After all, I'm a father, too. The difference is that my children understand how important this is, while your child just gets in the way and puts this all at risk."

  "Don't threaten me," the principal growled. "My boy isn't going to ruin our plans."