The Fairy-Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, Book 1) (8 page)

"Why are we rushing?" Sabrina asked.

"Because Charming is here to erase the farmer's memory!" the old woman said as the elevator doors slid open and they stepped inside. They got out on the second floor, found room 222, and rushed inside.

On the bed was Thomas Applebee, a graying old man with his left arm in a sling and his right leg encased in plaster and held above the bed by a pulley system. Sabrina winced at how painful it looked and thought the poor man was lucky to be asleep. Standing over him were Mayor Charming, Mr. Seven (still wearing his insulting hat), and a rather chubby woman wearing a diamond tiara and a silver-and-gold dress. The woman was slowly emptying a bag of pink dust onto the sleeping patient. When she saw Mrs. Grimm, she dumped the contents all over the man and shoved the bag into her purse.

"Glinda, you've erased his memory," Mrs. Grimm cried. "I thought you were supposed to be a good witch."

The witch's face flushed red. She lowered her head and quickly made her way to the door.

"We all have to pay our bills, Relda," Glinda said as she walked out.

"Save your indignation," Charming added as he and Mr. Seven followed. "This is part of my job."

Mrs. Grimm looked discouraged. "He'll never be able to tell us anything," she said loudly, as if for the benefit of the three people who had just left. "And without an eyewitness account, we're never going to get to the bottom of this."

After several seconds, she poked her head out of the room.

“They’re gone.

"What are we doing here?" Sabrina asked. She didn't feel comfortable waiting around in the hospital room of a man she didn't even know. Especially after people had been dumping what looked like the contents of a vacuum cleaner bag all over him.

"We're waiting."

"For who?" Daphne asked, but no sooner had she said it than a thin, frail woman with gray-streaked black hair entered the room. When she saw Mrs. Grimm and the girls, she got a worried look on her face.

"Mrs. Applebee, I'm Relda Grimm and these are my granddaughters, Sabrina and Daphne. We heard about the accident. Are you OK?" Mrs. Grimm said.

"Oh, I'm fine. Thank you for asking. Do you know my husband?"

"Oh, no, we're just concerned citizens and neighbors. I happen to do a little detective work from time to time and I was thinking I might be able to help. How is your husband?"

Mrs. Applebee gazed down at the broken man and smiled sadly. "To be honest, I'm a little worried about him. He was raving earlier. The doctors gave him a sedative to calm him down . . . Wait a minute, he's waking up," she said as he began to stir. He opened his eyes and looked at the three strangers in his room.

"Thomas, how are you feeling?" Mrs. Applebee asked as she sat next to his bed and rubbed his hand.

"Debra, who are these people?" the farmer asked his wife.

"They're with the police," Mrs. Applebee replied.

Mrs. Grimm stepped forward. "Not the police, dear. I'm a detective ... of sorts. Mr. Applebee, my name is Relda Grimm, and these are my granddaughters. I'm very glad to see you weren't too badly injured, considering . . ."

"You three are detectives?" Mr. Applebee looked from Mrs. Grimm to the children, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Yes," Mrs. Grimm said, causing Daphne to practically swell with pride.

"Well, I think a crime has been committed, Mrs. Grimm," Mr. Applebee said.

"You do?"

"They should arrest whoever dressed your granddaughters this morning."

"Thomas, stop it! I think they look adorable," Mrs. Applebee cried. "I'm sorry, he's been a grouch since we got here. He doesn't like hospitals."

Sabrina looked down at her goofy outfit and seethed with anger.
Who would buy a girl who was almost twelve a shirt with a monkey on it?

"Well, what can I do for you, Mrs. Grimm?" Mr. Applebee grunted.

"Do you remember anything about the accident?" the old woman said.

"What accident?" the farmer asked.

Mrs. Grimm frowned.

"What accident!" Mrs. Applebee exclaimed. "Thomas, the house has been destroyed and I found you lying in the yard."

"I don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing wrong with the house," Mr. Applebee argued.

"Oh, dear, the painkillers are really doing a number on you," Mrs. Applebee said, shifting anxiously in her seat. The farmer returned his wife's stare with an innocent look.

"Mrs. Grimm, I don't think my husband is up to discussing the case right now," his wife said.

"I understand. Perhaps you might have a moment to spare us, then?"

"Of course." Mrs. Applebee gestured for them to follow her into the hallway.

"So sorry to trouble you," Mrs. Grimm said to the farmer as they walked toward the door. "I do hope you feel better soon, Mr. Applebee."

Daphne stopped and turned to the injured man. "I like my outfit," she said and stuck her tongue out.

Mr. Applebee stuck his tongue out, too, and the little girl stomped out of the room.

"He's acting very odd right now," Mrs. Applebee said when they were in the hallway. "I'm considering taking him out of this hospital."

"Oh, I'm sure he's in good hands. So, you said he was raving about something," Mrs. Grimm prompted.

"Oh, it's silly. He swore he'd seen a giant."

"Oh, well, wouldn't that be a sight." Mrs. Grimm chuckled.

"But I have a different theory about what happened," Mrs. Applebee explained. "There was a British man out to the farm several times, asking us if we would rent the place to him for a couple of nights. He said he needed the field for a special event, but only for a couple of days. At first he was very friendly, but when Thomas refused he got quite nasty."

"Has he come back?" Mrs. Grimm asked.

"Well, that's just it. A week later he did come back and apologized for being so rude. He said he wanted to make it up to us so he booked us into a fancy hotel in New York City, all expenses paid, and tickets to a Broadway show. We hadn't had a vacation in years—farming is a tough business—so I accepted."

"How nice. Did you enjoy your vacation?"

"Not at all. When I got there I found that the hotel didn't have any record of our reservation and the tickets to the show were counterfeit," Mrs. Applebee said angrily.

"You say
you
found out. Didn't your husband go with you?" Mrs. Grimm said.

"Oh, no, Thomas doesn't care for the city much," Mrs. Applebee sighed, tears forming in her eyes. "I took my sister. We had to use our own money for a hotel and the only place with a room was infested with bedbugs."

"How dreadful," Mrs. Grimm sympathized. "Mrs. Applebee, this man's name didn't happen to be Charming, did it?"

"Oh no, it was Englishman," the woman replied, sniffing.

"What did this Mr. Englishman look like?"

"I'm sorry, I never saw him. Thomas had all the dealings with him."

"One last question, Mrs. Applebee. I'm sure you want to get back to your husband. Do either of you own a video camera?" Mrs. Grimm took a clean handkerchief out of her handbag and offered it to the woman. Sabrina noticed that a soft, pink powder fell from the handkerchief as the woman wiped her eyes.

"No, we don't. Mr. Applebee is a little tight with the money, if you know what I mean." Suddenly, Sabrina noticed a change in the woman's face. It seemed to wipe itself of all emotion and her eyes drifted into a blank stare.

"I'm sorry, have we met?" Mrs. Applebee asked, her voice distant.

"No," Mrs. Grimm replied. "But I hear you had a wonderful time in New York City."

"OK," Mrs. Applebee said. Then she turned and went into her husband's room without saying good-bye.

Mrs. Grimm pulled her notebook out of her handbag and jotted down some notes. "So, the plot thickens," she said with a wide smile. "We can definitely say there was a giant, now."

"There's no such thing as giants!" Sabrina said, a bit louder than she meant to. The declaration echoed down the hospital hallway.

"Sabrina!" Daphne shouted.

"You heard the woman," Sabrina said in a much lower tone. "This Mr. Englishman wanted to rent their farm for some special event. When the farmer wouldn't agree, he lost his temper and blew the place up. Charming is probably trying to cover this up because he's in on it."

"Sabrina, I'm proud of you," Mrs. Grimm said as she led them into the elevator. "You have incredible skills of deduction. You looked at the clues and chose the most likely path to solve the crime. You're going to make a great detective. But how do you explain the footprint?"

"Listen, I don't know where you live, but my sister and I are here on Earth where things can easily be explained without having to consider giants. Maybe whatever Englishman used to blow up the house caused the ground to sink."

"Brilliant, but there's a loose end in your theory. When someone blows something up, usually pieces fly everywhere. This house looked like it had been squashed from above," Mrs. Grimm pointed out. The elevator stopped and the Grimms stepped into the busy emergency room lobby.

"The house was stomped on," Daphne said.

"That's my theory," the old woman said as they left the hospital. "And I know who is responsible."

"Who is it?" Daphne squealed.

"I think you'll enjoy it more if it's a surprise."

"Well, hello, ladies," a voice said as three men emerged from the deep shadows that lined the pathway to the parking lot. They were the same men in suits who had been staring at them when they entered the hospital. The small, dumpy one held an iron bar that he kept smacking into his gloved hand. The men on either side of him stood like huge, muscle-bound bookends to their much shorter leader.

"Good evening, gentlemen," Mrs. Grimm said calmly, despite the fact that one glance told Sabrina the men were trouble.

"We hear you've been asking some questions about a certain piece of property," the dumpy leader said. Sabrina saw that his nose had been broken in three places. She could tell he wasn't a man to mess with.

"Then you've heard correctly, young man," Mrs. Grimm said as she placed herself squarely between the girls and the thugs. Daphne grabbed her sister's hand and squeezed tightly, but Sabrina hardly noticed. She was too awestruck by the old woman's courage.

"Well, if you know what's good for you, then you'll just forget about the whole thing," the leader said with a wicked grin that revealed the absence of a front tooth.

"If I knew what was good for me, I wouldn't be in this line of work," Mrs. Grimm replied. "Now, if you'd be so kind to let us pass, I really must get my granddaughters out of the cold air."

"In a minute, Relda." The leader grinned. "We just want to make sure you understand what we're trying to say."

"I seem to be at a disadvantage, young man. You know my name, but I don't know yours. Or better yet, who the unfortunate employer is who hired the likes of you three."

The two big men grunted angrily, but the leader raised his hands to quiet them. "No need to get rude, Relda. We're just having a conversation, ya know, trying to avoid a confrontation."

"Boys," Mrs. Grimm said with the tone of someone who has lost her patience. "I want you to go back to your boss and tell him that he should know it takes more than three thugs to make me give up. Now, good night."

She tried to pass the men, but as she did, the leader grabbed her jacket and pulled her close to his fat face.

"Some people can't take a hint."

Mrs. Grimm pulled a little silver whistle from around her neck and blew into it, but no sound could be heard. When she put it back inside her dress, the bullies laughed.

"I'm warning you. If you don't let us pass you are going to regret it," she said. Sabrina's heart began to pound. How could Mrs. Grimm be so calm? These men were about to tear her apart!

"Lady, it's
you
who's going to have the regrets."

eave my grandmother alone!" Daphne commanded. Before Sabrina could stop her, the little girl rushed forward and kicked the dumpy man in the shin. He cried out in pain and rubbed his leg. Mrs. Grimm then hit him on top of his head with her heavy, book-filled handbag. He crumpled to the ground and groaned. Seeing how easily their leader had fallen to a little girl and an old lady, the two other thugs laughed.