Once Upon a Crime Read online

  Granny raised her hand and a taxi pulled over. “We need to find a hotel with a parking lot for a car,” she said to the driver. He shook his head and told them if they had a car to leave it where it was. “Parking is insane, lady,” he explained.

  Granny shrugged and helped Sabrina, Daphne, Moth, and Puck’s cocoon into the back of the cab, then climbed into the front passenger seat. She rolled down the window and said to Mr. Canis and Hamstead. “Can you two find your own cab?”

  “Relda, I believe I’ll walk,” Canis replied. He looked shaken and out of sorts. “The winter air will help my condition. I can follow your scent.”

  “I’ll go with him,” Hamstead said. “I’d like to see as much of the city as I can before we have to head back. I’ll see you at breakfast?”

  Granny nodded. “Take care.” She rolled up her window and the cab pulled away.

  “Is that the thing that is stinking up my cab?” the driver asked, looking at the purple orb in his rearview mirror.

  “It’s a school project,” Sabrina lied. “Science fair stuff.”

  “What’s the project? How quickly can you make a full grown man lose his lunch?”

  “Hey, it’s no rose garden back here, either,” Sabrina said. “You ever clean this cab?”

  The driver grumbled and turned his attention back to the road.

  Soon, the cab pulled up outside the Fitzpatrick Manhattan Hotel and the women clamored out. The hotel was a tall, old-fashioned building with an emerald-green awning. The smell of tobacco drifted from inside. A doorman invited them into the warm lobby where several tourists sat in front of a crackling fireplace, looking out the window at the falling snow.

  “My goodness,” one of the tourists cried as she pinched her nose. “I think the sewers are backing up.”

  “Ugh, it smells like someone died,” another complained.

  Granny ignored the reaction to the cocoon and approached the front desk, requested three rooms, and asked that sets of keys be left for Mr. Hamstead and Mr. Canis. A bellhop looked at the family with an odd expression when he was told they had no luggage. He took them up to their room on the fourth floor. Inside they found two queen-sized beds, a bathroom with a marble tub, and a pamphlet on the sights and sounds of the Big Apple.

  “This is unacceptable,” Moth said before they had even turned the lights on. “I am royalty and accustomed to refinements. We need to find a more suitable room for the prince and I! One that is private!”

  Sabrina rolled her eyes and flipped on the light switch.

  “Hello, Mrs. Grimm,” a voice said from across the room. The women let out a shriek and nearly fell over themselves. There, sitting in a chair by the window was Mustardseed. Oz stood behind the fairy prince. “I hope that none of you was harmed this evening,” Mustardseed said. “I’m sure you can understand that my mother’s actions were due to stress and heartbreak.”

  “Well, she nearly flame-broiled us back there!” Sabrina cried.

  “Yeah, she’s a jerkazoid!” Daphne added.

  Oz stepped forward. “But she was the only one of us who was thinking clearly at the time. Her only choice was to run everyone off. She had to allow the killer a chance to escape.”

  “Escape?” Granny cried. “Why on earth would she want to do that?”

  “To protect the new king,” Mustardseed said. “Otherwise, the killer might have hurt the heir to the Faerie throne.”

  “What’s an heir?” Daphne asked.

  “Someone who inherits something from a relative,” Sabrina explained, then turned back to Mustardseed. “But I thought there wasn’t a Faerie anymore.”

  “Faerie exists in our hearts and hopes,” Mustardseed explained. “Some day we will find a way to rebuild it. Then we will need our king.”

  “So you’re saying your mom was trying to barbeque us so she could protect you?” Daphne said.

  “You are confused,” Mustardseed said. “I am not the heir to the crown of Faerie. That honor falls to Puck.”

  “Puck is the new king?” Granny said, astonished.

  Mustardseed nodded. “Protecting Puck was my mother’s greatest concern. I knew you could be trusted to keep my brother safe. After all, you brought him here.”

  “Well, I hope Titania doesn’t think we killed Oberon,” Granny said.

  Oz nodded. “We know that. Oberon was poisoned.”

  “With a concoction only a fairy could make,” Mustardseed added. “It takes something very powerful to kill an Everafter. The ingredients for this particular poison came from the original fairy homeland and the recipe is one passed down within our kind. Only fairies and a few Everafters know it.”

  “And do you have any suspects?”

  Mustardseed shook his head. “My father had many enemies.”

  “We suspect it was a fairy, or someone aided by one,” Oz said. “Unfortunately, whoever it was is now free on the streets of New York City. We know your reputation as detectives. We could use your family’s help in finding the murderer.”

  Sabrina tried to wrap her head around this task. New York City had over eight million people living in it. It encompassed five different boroughs, linked by hundreds of miles of subway lines. Sure, Sabrina had grown up here, but there were so many streets and neighborhoods, no one could know them all. This wasn’t Ferryport Landing, where they knew everyone. They didn’t know these urban Everafters or even where they lived in the city. The job seemed impossible.

  “This is not going to be easy,” Granny said, obviously sharing similar thoughts.

  “If you are half as resourceful as Veronica, I will have no worries at all,” Mustardseed said.

  “Folks, I’m afraid we’ve got one more favor to ask,” Oz said. “Puck might be the killer’s next target and after today’s fiasco, we’re pretty confident that you people can handle just about anything, including guarding him. He won’t be safe at the Golden Egg.”

  “Of course, he’s like one of my own grandchildren,” Granny said.

  Mustardseed rose from his seat. “Moth, you will stay with the Grimms. You will watch over your betrothed and assist the Grimms in any way they might need.”

  “As you wish, Your Majesty,” the little fairy said with a deep bow.

  “Oh, this is just getting better by the second,” Sabrina said sarcastically.

  Mustardseed turned to Granny Relda. “I want to be kept abreast of every development. I will be quite busy, so you can report your findings to Oz at the store in which he works.” He bowed deeply, then turned to the window, opened it, and leaped out into the night. Above the howl of the wind, Sabrina could hear the sound of mighty wings flapping. Oz turned and closed the window tight.

  “Any idea where we should start?” Daphne asked him.

  The Wizard shook his head. “We don’t exactly have an Everafter phone book.”

  “Then how did you get them all to meet at the Golden Egg tonight?” Sabrina said.

  “I use the Empire State Building as a signal,” Oz explained. “You may have seen them light it up for holidays. On Christmas they use red and Saint Patrick’s Day it’s green. When we need to see everyone we use bright purple.”

  “Perhaps we should try that,” Granny said.

  “I doubt anyone would show up after Titania’s fit. I can tell you this much: I know the dwarfs live in the subway system and I believe Sinbad lives somewhere down by the docks,” Oz said. “We Everafters keep to ourselves here in the city.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you know?” Sabrina cried.

  “I’ll ask around about the others and let you know if I find out anything else,” the little man said. He apologized, said his good-byes, and moments later he left the room.

  “We’re in the middle of a mystery!” Daphne clapped, nearly bouncing in anticipation. “Where do we start?”

  “Let’s make a list of our clues so far,” Granny Relda replied. “Sabrina, could you find us an ink pen? I bet there’s one in the desk.”

  “No,” Sabri
na whispered. “I don’t want anything to do with this. We should all just go home.”

  The room grew quiet. Daphne and Granny Relda stared at her as if she were some kind of algebra problem with no solution. Sabrina had rarely felt so alone. Couldn’t Granny see that ever since she and Daphne had gotten involved in the detective business, they had been like two human wrecking balls, causing death and destruction over and over again? They had survived the Jabberwocky by the skin of their teeth and now they were jumping back into the fire. What if someone got hurt again?

  What if their luck finally ran out? The sting of tears filled Sabrina’s eyes and she quickly turned and ran into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She sat on the side of the tub in the dark and tried to catch her breath.

  After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door and it slowly opened.

  “Liebling?” Granny Relda said as she flicked on the light and entered the room. She sat down next to Sabrina and put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. Sabrina pulled away.

  “I don’t want to do this,” she said to her grandmother.

  “Sabrina, these people asked for our help. It won’t hurt us to look around and ask some—”

  “No … I’m not talking about this mystery. I don’t want to be a Grimm.”

  Granny sat quietly for a long time and Sabrina prepared herself for a lecture about responsibility and doing the right thing. “You don’t have to, Sabrina,” Granny finally said. Sabrina was stunned.

  “You were deposited into this life against your will. I thought that after some time you would get used to being a Grimm and see what a rewarding life it can be. But I realize now that I’m forcing you to do it and that isn’t fair. You do have a choice and I should have explained it. Many in our family have walked away from their heritage. If you’ve ever read any of Douglas Grimm’s journals, he often wrote about how miserable he was; even your Opa Basil had his doubts. Obviously, your own father made a choice to pursue a different life. You can do the same if that is what you want.”

  “Sure, and you’ll be disappointed with me. You’ll give me that look you give me when you’re angry,” Sabrina said.

  “I’ll miss sharing the time with you,” Granny said. “And I truly believe you are becoming an excellent detective, but you can retire if you want. Perhaps it is best if you stay at home from now on and keep an eye on your parents.”

  Sabrina wondered if her grandmother was pulling a trick on her, but the old lady just smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

  “I can still help find a way to wake up Mom and Dad?” Sabrina said.

  “Of course,” the old woman said.

  Sabrina felt like the sun had come out and was shining just for her. The gnawing pain in her belly subsided for the first time in months.

  “I can’t wait to tell Daphne we don’t have to do this anymore,” Sabrina added.

  Granny frowned. “Sabrina, you get to make your choice and you have to let her make one for herself.”

  “She’s only seven years old,” Sabrina argued.

  “And you’re only eleven, but I’m trusting your decision,” the old woman said.

  “But—”

  “Now, unfortunately, we’re in the middle of a case to which I have committed us all. So, let’s make a compromise. When we get home you’ll be done with being a fairy-tale detective, but right now, we have a mystery to solve. Can your sister and I count on you for one more case?”

  Sabrina nodded. Still, she was happy; in fact, she was grinning from ear to ear. She hadn’t expected her grandmother to understand her choice, let alone support it. She could walk away from the Grimm family legacy. No more Everafters, monsters, and lunatics. Now all she had to do was convince Daphne to make the same decision.

  Granny Relda kissed Sabrina on the top of her head. “Let’s go join the others.”

  The two women got up and left the bathroom. They found Mr. Hamstead had arrived. He explained that Mr. Canis wasn’t feeling well and had gone to bed.

  “Ernest,” Granny Relda said. “I’m afraid we’re going to be staying through tomorrow at least. Mustardseed has asked us to find his father’s killer.”

  “Of course we’ll help,” Mr. Hamstead said.

  Daphne clapped her hands. “What’s the plan?”

  “The plan, Daphne, is to get some rest. Tomorrow we’re going to track down a killer.”

  “Where are we going to start?” Sabrina asked as she looked out the window at the massive city.

  “At your old apartment,” Granny replied.

  The plan for the morning was to split up. Hamstead would search the lower part of the city and the Grimm family would handle the upper part. Mr. Canis was staying at the hotel for the day. When they had knocked on his door, he’d opened it just a crack and told Granny Relda that he needed time to meditate. She agreed that he should rest. Sabrina wondered if she’d noticed the new wolfish whiskers on the old man’s chin.

  When the group finished breakfast and met in the lobby, they were surprised to find they had a visitor. Bess was sitting in a chair by the fireplace. She had on a long winter coat and a silver backpack. She also had the coats Sabrina and Daphne had abandoned at the Golden Egg.

  “Care for a little help?” Bess asked as she smiled at Hamstead.

  “Of course,” Hamstead stammered. “But won’t this cause some waves with your boyfriend?”

  Bess winked. “Ernest, I don’t have a boyfriend anymore.”

  “We’re happy to have the help,” Granny said, shaking Bess’s hand. “Why don’t you team up with Ernest?”

  “An excellent plan,” the blonde woman said.

  As the group stepped out of the hotel, they found that two feet of snow had fallen in the night, turning the city into a winter wonderland. Hamstead and Bess went in one direction while Granny, the girls, and Moth searched for a cab. After ten minutes without success, they caught a bus that took them uptown to the girls’ old neighborhood on the Upper East Side. Unfortunately, where Moth went, Puck’s smelly cocoon went, too. No one wanted to sit next to the slimy thing, which had begun to leak a funky gas not unlike rotten eggs, so the family spent the trip avoiding the angry looks of other passengers.

  “Well, it seems as if your mother had a secret life,” Granny Relda said as the bus headed up Madison Avenue. “Several of us have gotten into the family business through marriage. I’m a very good example, myself. So, if Veronica was working with Everafters like every other Grimm since Jacob and Wilhelm, she probably also wrote down what she was experiencing.”

  “You mean a journal? Do you think she kept one?” Daphne said. It was the family tradition to write one’s adventures down so that future descendants might learn from them. Sabrina had a journal, too, though she rarely kept track of what she had encountered. Writing it down made it real. Daphne on the other hand was working on her second volume.

  “I bet she did,” Granny said. “And I suspect Veronica kept her activities secret from your father. When he left Ferryport Landing, he was dead set on building an Everafter-free life. If she had a journal she probably hid it. So it might still be in your old apartment.”

  “Is this place nearby?” Moth groaned. “The constant jostling of this vehicle is upsetting my delicate constitution.”

  “What did she say?” Daphne asked her sister.

  “She’s complaining,” Sabrina explained. “Again.”

  After several stops, they finally reached the corner of Eighty-eighth Street and Madison Avenue and started walking east, toward York. This was a quiet little nook of the city filled with families, dogs, and older people. As Sabrina looked around, a wave of memories flooded over her. There was the little deli that sold the roast beef and gravy sandwiches her father snuck out to buy late at night. Down the street was Carl Schurz Park, where her family had spent many afternoons looking out on the East River or playing with the puppies in the little dog run. Across the street was the luxury apartment high-rise their mother often dreamed they’d live
in one day. Sabrina spotted Ottomanelli’s Italian Eatery with its amazing meatball pizza, the dry cleaner where the Cuban lady always gave her lollipops, and the magazine store owned by the guy who let his three cats sleep on stacks of the New York Times. Sabrina could even smell the world’s best brownies from Glaser’s Bakery a block away. Little had changed, except that the old skateboard store was now a manicure shop.

  They walked up Eighty-eighth Street, past a group of five-story brownstones, and quickly reached their old apartment building at number 448. It had recently been painted a gray-blue in place of the dirty yellow she remembered.

  “We can’t get in,” Sabrina said, as they climbed the freshly salted steps. “The police took our keys when they sent us to the orphanage.”

  “Sabrina, those old keys wouldn’t work anyway,” her grandmother said. “There’s a new family living here and I’m sure they’ve changed the locks.”

  Sabrina stifled a cry. She had never imagined that strangers might actually be living in their home.

  “So someone else lives here?” Daphne whispered. Sabrina could hear her own dismay echoed in her sister’s voice.

  Granny nodded as she pushed on the buzzer that rang their old apartment.

  “Hello, who is it?” a voice crackled from a speaker.

  “Um, yes, so sorry to bother you, ma’am, but my name is Relda Grimm. I’m here with my granddaughters, who used to live in your apartment.”

  Suddenly, a buzzer sounded and the door unlocked. The group stepped inside the building and walked down the hall to the girls’ old apartment. Halfway there, they were greeted by an excited woman with huge red glasses.

  “I’m so thrilled to meet you,” she said.

  “I hope we aren’t imposing,” Granny Relda said. “We were in the neighborhood.”

  “Nonsense, I’ve always wanted to meet the previous owners,” the woman said, holding out her hand. “My name is Gloria Frank.”

  “I’m Relda Grimm. These are my granddaughters, Sabrina and Daphne … and Moth.”

  “Hello, peasant,” Moth said, awkwardly hoisting Puck’s cocoon onto her shoulder.