On the way, she also marked the places in the wall that seemed to have sliding panels to doors. Later, she’d walk the streets from above and see if she could identify any old houses on the street.
When Granny got to where she thought her house should be, she found there was no panel, but looking closer she saw that one of the bricks seemed to be loose. She pulled the brick out to see the outline of a door behind the brick. Just at that moment, Granny heard hurried footsteps down the street.
Granny quickly jumped against the wall and peered down the long street. She saw a man scurrying down the street. Granny’s eyesight was not what it used to be. From this distance, the man almost looked like the good looking young man who had been watching her.
It dawned on Granny that he was the one who was carrying off the heist and possibly had kidnapped Estelle, Hermione, Ella and Maizie. Granny got her umbrella ready in case she had to defend herself. She had to find a way out or hide in case he came this way. She couldn’t go back to the hole or he might see her.
Granny saw there was one more street leading away from her street. Maybe it wasn’t her street. She didn’t have a street in back of her house, just a cemetery that had access from the other direction.
Granny never was very good at directions, so maybe she was all turned around. Whatever! She had to get out of there. Granny started down the unknown underground street only to come to a dead end and another place hollowed out as if it was a parking space. This time the parking space had a floor with what appeared to be a lift on it. Where was she? There were no old buildings on the map she had.
Granny walked over and stood on the lift and looked at the ceiling. There was no way out of here. She couldn’t see any lever to move the lift. Besides that, Granny had no idea where the lift would take her to. It might take her straight to the crooks and she had left home unarmed without her pocketbook.
As Granny started to move off of the lift she accidently tripped over a brick lying on the side of the lift. All of sudden the lift started moving. Granny fell back, knocking her hat off and leaving her staring at a ceiling that moment by moment was getting closer to her head.
Granny covered her head, issued a prayer and wondered what her children would think when they found her squished between this contraption and the floor. Or maybe they wouldn’t find her and they’d think she’d wandered away in her fogginess never to be found again.
Granny could imagine the epitaph on her tombstone; this is where Granny should be, she left us nothing but a key. Nobody was found, her mind wasn’t sound, is Granny still wandering around?
Just as Granny was ready to be squished, the floor opened up and Granny found herself in a big stone building. Granny rolled off of the lift onto a stone floor. The lift moved back down into the underground street and the floor closed up as if by magic.
Granny, still in shock that she hadn’t been squished, brushed herself off and stood up. She hadn’t quite realized yet that her way of escape, the floor, had sealed her into the cement structure. It was dark and dim. A little light filtered in through the windows at the top of the stone structure.
Where was she? She thought she could make out statues or pillars in the dimness of the light shining in through the windows. Seeing the light, Granny realized she’d been underground all night.
Granny walked around the walls of the structure. She came to a door, but it was locked from the outside. She turned and examined the large stone sitting in the middle of the structure surrounded by other smaller stones. At first, she’d thought they were statues but then she realized they were grave stones. The only one that was a statue was the large one and the statue was on top and reached almost to the ceiling.
She looked closer at the larger gravestone and was able to make out the name on the gravestone. Carved in the stone was the name Phineas Fuchsia, founding father of Fuchsia, Minnesota, and decided the statue on top must be a statue of Phineas.
Granny’s heart started beating faster than it had in a long time. She could smell and taste an end to the mystery that had been plaguing her. She had to get out of here.
Granny remembered she’d put her cell phone into her pocket on this adventure and made sure she had turned it to silent. She looked at her phone, “Drat, no signal.” Granny realized the stone walls were blocking her signal but she had to try to find someone to get her out. Who should she call? Not her children. She’d be in the wrinkle farm faster than she could wrinkle her nose. Maybe she should call Mavis. There was no use dragging her into this mess. Granny had no idea how dangerous this could be.
Granny decided to call Franklin. She didn’t know if she trusted him, but he did know about the underground streets and he might help her out, even if he was in with the thieves, to find out how much she knew. But first she had to figure out how to get a signal.
Granny walked over to the grave stone and statue of Phineas Fuchsia. She had on her sneakers. It had been years since she’d been rock climbing. Granny decided to try it. She remembered her mother’s advice. “If you fall down, you pick yourself up.” Granny hoped that if she fell down, she’d still be able to pick herself up because Phineas was way tall! But there was a window by his head.
Granny hiked up her skirt, grabbed his shoe and hoisted herself up. She put one foot on his hand, another on a button on his shirt and continued to climb until she sat on top of his head.
Granny hoped risking her life was worth it. Yup, she had a signal.
“Franklin,” Granny shouted into the phone, “I know how the forest got into my back yard. You have to help me; I’m entombed in the cemetery behind my house.”
Franklin could barely hear Granny even if she was shouting. “You say you have no room in your house?”
“No, I’m entombed in the mausoleum in the cemetery behind the fence at my house. I can’t get out.” Granny shouted.
Granny heard no more as she heard the telephone disconnect. She could only hope Franklin took her seriously and could save her. Granny carefully climbed down the statue, only getting caught once on the end of Phineas’ tie. It took her a few seconds of dangling before she was able to get a foothold again on a button and climb the rest of the way down. Granny patted herself on the back when she was down on the ground. “Not bad climbing for an almost old woman,” Granny proclaimed out loud to the other tombstones.
While Granny was waiting for Franklin, she checked out the other tombstones. This must be the place where all the descendants of Phineas Fuchsia were buried.
Granny hadn’t paid too much attention to this side of the cemetery. Usually when she attended a burial it was in the new part of the cemetery by the highway. She knew of the mausoleum, but since there didn’t seem to be any more relatives from the Fuchsia family, no one visited this remote area of the cemetery.
Granny heard a creaking and a rattling of the door. Soon she heard a banging and something scratching and pulling at the lock on the mausoleum. That didn’t seem to be working. She wanted to call out but she wasn’t sure it was Franklin and she didn’t want anyone to know she was here in case it was the crooks.
A loud bang echoed throughout the Mausoleum, followed by more bangs. It sounded like a car was back firing but then Granny realized it was gun shots. Granny quickly decided to make use of Phineas’ big hulk of statue to use as a shield. She quickly looked around for something to attack her attacker.
At that moment, the door popped open and Franklin fell into the mausoleum. Granny ran to help him up. He started sputtering at her. “What have you gotten yourself into this time? You could’ve been killed or slathered or something. How did you get in here?”
“What were you trying to do, shoot me?” Granny yelled as she jumped out from behind the statue ready to sling the rocks she’d picked up from the ground.
Franklin picked up his gun off of the floor where it had fallen when the doors had popped open. Granny quickly jumped back behind the statue and started slinging rocks.
“Granny, stop!” Franklin yel
led, as his big stature tried to hide behind one of the tinier gravestones to shield himself from Granny’s onslaught of rocks. “How did you think I was going to get those locks off quickly. Call the locksmith and say what? Come quickly, Granny is entombed in the mausoleum?”
“Take the bullets out and slide them across the floor or I’ll pelt you till you’re lumpy,” Granny yelled.
Franklin took the bullets and slid them across the floor. “Granny, this is ridiculous. I knew you were trouble with a capitol T.”
“Now the gun, Franklin.”
Franklin slid the gun on the floor towards Granny.
“Ok, you can come out now, I won’t hurt you.” Granny told Franklin. “Just wanted to be sure you weren’t the crookster.”
As Franklin came out from behind the smaller gravestone, Granny took his arm and hurried him out of the cement building. She walked him over to the fence that surrounded her back yard. It had already been in place when she bought the property.
“Franklin, how did you get here?”
“I went around to the highway and followed the remote road in to this part of the cemetery.”
“Help me look for a large gate hidden in this fence line.” Granny instructed him.
“How about I just haul you into my car and take you home and lock you in your house for your own safety? Or better yet, call your children and tell them to lock you in your house and throw away the key? Or better yet, send you to the wrinkle ranch,” Franklin yelled, exasperated that again he’d gotten pulled into Granny’s hijinxes. She was the most maddening creature he’d ever met next to his mother.
“Franklin.” Granny batted her fake eyelashes at him. She’d put them on to see what it would feel like to sleuth like those sexy women in the movies, but she drew the line at wearing high heels like the detective women in the movies. “Franklin, I can’t do this without you. I’m just his tiny little old woman trying to do my part with the little time I have left on this earth.” Again, Granny batted her fake eyelashes and let a little tear run down the side of her face. It was good Franklin didn’t see the little pinch Granny gave to her nose to make her eye water. It was a trick she’d learned when she wanted to get her brothers in trouble when she was young.
“I know all the tricks, Granny, I learned from the best of them. Batting your eyes and pinching your nose isn’t going to work. However, I was a New York detective and once a detective, always a detective. For that reason and that reason only, I’m going to help you.” Franklin couldn’t believe those last words came out of his mouth; it was almost as if he couldn’t help himself, as if someone was putting the words in his mouth. Again, he found himself helping Granny when he had no intention of helping Granny.
Granny hid the smirk on her face and turned to the fence.
They both searched the fence line when Granny noticed the vines covering the fence had been tampered with. She pulled back the vines to reveal a gate big enough to drive a large truck through. Granny had never noticed it because the vines also covered her side of the fence. Granny used all her weight to push open the fence gate. When it wasn’t budging, Franklin added his brawn and the gate popped open.
“This is the way the forest got into my back yard.”
“I think you’re dreaming, Granny. How did the forest get from the Enchanted Forest to here?”
“See that side of the mausoleum? If you look closely, it’s fake cement. I think there’s a large door on this side of the building.”
Franklin walked over and examined the wall. “There does appear to be a hidden garage type of a door here,” Franklin concluded. “But that doesn’t explain the forest.”
Granny stepped through the gate. “Franklin, go get your car and meet me at my house.” With that, Granny disappeared into her yard.
Chapter Twenty
Granny let herself in her back door and headed straight for the basement, not wanting to waste time waiting for Franklin to arrive.
Once in the basement, Granny eyed the wall that would be closest to the underground streets. She carefully examined her bookshelves. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She then gave all of her attention to the faux fireplace on the wall. The fireplace was a beautiful focal piece, but she’d always wondered why someone would put in a fake fireplace. In fact, a few years ago, Granny had contemplated replacing it with a real fireplace.
Granny closely examined the panel on the side of the faux fireplace, running her fingers on the edge of the expensive, carved thick wood paneling. She’d always thought the edges of the paneling were molded and carved for beauty, but now she saw that possibly it was made for movement.
Granny had never stuck her hand inside the fireplace, but this time she ran her fingers around the edges and deep in the recesses of the inside walls. She felt a latch hidden in the recesses on the right hand side, top corner. With one flick of the finger, the latch let loose. One side of the fake fireplace popped open from the wall. Granny stepped back and grabbed hold of the mantle and swung the fake fireplace front all the way open. She could not believe her eyes. Behind the fake fireplace front was a door. Granny cautiously opened the door. She peered into the darkness. Behind the door was a room.
Granny quickly grabbed the flashlight that she kept by the fireplace in case of a power outage.
As Granny swung the flashlight around the room, she saw that it was approximately 10 by 10 feet wide by 12 ft. tall. Granny walked into the room.
The room had a few cobwebs, which was surprising, since it appeared to not have been disturbed in many, many years. The walls were bare. These walls were concrete, unlike the walls of the underground streets. There was no furniture in the room.
At the other side of the room, Granny’s flashlight hit the shiny metal of a door. Granny knew it was the door that led to the underground streets. Granny walked over and pulled on the door. The door was not locked. It was stiff from years of being blocked up and not opened, but as Granny tugged on the handle, it gave way to the brick wall on the outside that Granny had examined earlier. Granny could see where she had pulled out the brick the night before, because the mellow light from the underground street gently shined through the hole like a bright star in the night.
Granny started to work on the bricks. Surprisingly, she could take them out by hand. They seemed to have been set in on top of one another with very little mortar around them. Granny was almost through to the other side when she heard the doorbell ring and pounding on the door upstairs.
Thinking Franklin was finally here, Granny ran up the stairs and pulled open the door, excited to tell him about her latest find.
“Franklin, you won’t believe…..” Granny stopped in mid sentence when she saw her visitors.
“Granny, we have a search warrant for your house.” The Big Guy handed her the warrant and stepped into her house followed by two policemen.
“Why now and why my house?” Granny asked in a feigned bewildered tone.
“There was another robbery last night, Granny. Persnickety’s Bookstore. Again, it appears it was an inside job. The only difference this time is that no one has disappeared. Ditty Belle closed up as usual. She left her cat Snuffles in the bookstore for the night. This morning she found Snuffles outside her door. Someone had let Snuffles out. Then she discovered that all her books had been stolen. Some of them were very rare editions worth a lot of money.”
“And how does that have anything to do with the search warrant on my house?” Granny asked with an uppity tone.
“Your car was found in the alley behind AbStract this morning. Can you explain why your car has been parked on the street near the crime scene every time there’s been a heist? And can you explain the forest in your backyard? A concerned citizen reported there was unusual greenery in your yard when she was out for her daily walk.”
“And who might that be?” Granny practically shouted at the Big Guy as she marched up to him and started tapping on his chest with her finger.
Big Guy pulled back and looked at
Granny with a piercing intensity.
“Mrs. Shrill. She said Baskerville got lost in the forest in your back yard, a forest that has never been there before. We checked and it does resemble the forest from Ella’s Enchanted Forest.”
Granny silently wondered what had happened to Franklin. “She’s out to get me. Well, her tut, tut, tuts can’t hurt me,” Granny said in a sobbing tone. “I guess I’ll go and sit in front of the fireplace in my basement, and cry and rest, while you tear up my house. You’ll know where to find me.”
Granny hung her head, put on her best martyr face, and slowly made her way down the stairs, making sure she had her umbrella with her.
Once she was certain no one had followed her, she quickly walked through the hidden door in the fireplace that she’d left open. Once inside, she pulled the door shut. Granny knew she had to save herself. Everyone was conspiring against her and it would be an orange jumpsuit or the wrinkle farm faster than she could raise her umbrella if she didn’t solve this puzzle.
Hiding in the underground streets would give her time. Granny walked over to the metal door, took out a few more bricks and crawled through the opening she’d made in the bricks. As Granny did this, she wondered if she’d ever see her house or the light of day ever again. There was no going back. She’d wait and confront the thieves. Granny felt something sticking into her side from her pocket. It was the key. She had forgotten in her fogginess that she still had the key. Looking at the key Granny knew what she had to do.
Chapter Twenty One
Granny took the key out of her pocket. She had to find the door that fit the key. It had to have something to do with why she had the earrings that were stolen from AbStract and why she had the earrings that the girls had been wearing on the nights they’d disappeared.
Julie Seedorf - Fuschia Minnesota 01 - Granny Hooks A Crook Page 11