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

by Michael Buckley

  "Gentlemen, we have work to do here!" Hamstead shouted while eyeing a pan of baked beans the others had overlooked. Unable to resist, he quickly shape-shifted to his pig form and slopped around in the mess.

  Puck hovered several feet in the air near the girls, clearly displeased with Sabrina's success.

  Daphne looked up at him and smiled. "We couldn't do this without you," she said, earning a grumpy shrug. "As soon as Jack tells us how to stop that giant, we're going to need you to lead us again."

  The boy puffed up with pride, and a huge smile sprang to his face. He winked at Daphne, and then zipped across the front yard until he was hovering directly over the squad cars. The gorging piggies didn't even notice him.

  Sabrina, Daphne, and Elvis stepped out of the house, closing the door behind them. With nimble fingers, Sabrina went to work locking all the bolts on the door, while Daphne kept an eye on Hamstead and his men.

  "They're disgusting," Daphne said, mimicking the pigs' grunting and oinking.

  "OK, that's the last one," Sabrina said, inserting the final key. She turned it and heard the lock roll into place.

  "Ready?" she asked, pulling up the zipper on her sister's jacket.

  "Ready!"

  Sabrina turned to the pigs. "Carpet, here!" she shouted.

  Abruptly, the carpet pulled itself out from under the three pigs, sending them topsy-turvy and flopping across the yard. The food flew into the air and rained down on them with a great splat as the carpet itself glided across the yard and stopped at Sabrina's feet.

  "Get them!" Hamstead shouted as he struggled onto his hoofs and then back into his human form. The deputies followed suit and in no time they were all running toward the girls.

  "Excuse me, piggies," Puck called from above. He blew a low note on his flute and within seconds a wave of pixies flew out of the woods. He played another note and the little lights encircled the two parked squad cars.

  "You know what to do," Puck called to the pixies and they went into action, effortlessly lifting each car. They carried them high over the house and into several large trees, where they squeezed them between the thick branches. The police officers snorted their protests, but the boy just laughed.

  The plan was working, and it was time for the girls to go. They stepped onto the carpet.

  "Hold on tight. We haven't actually ridden on this thing," Sabrina said. She and Daphne knelt down and each grabbed a side of the carpet. Elvis hopped on, too, and Daphne wrapped her free arm around his neck.

  "Don't worry Elvis. I've got you," the little girl said.

  The police had stopped watching the pixies steal their cars and were now closing in on the sisters. They were almost on top of them when Sabrina shouted, "UP!" and the carpet rocketed into the sky. The girls held on for their dear lives as the house, the yard, and even their street became smaller and smaller. Sabrina's stomach lurched as they found themselves shooting through a cloud.

  "Carpet, down!" she said as the oxygen began to seep from her lungs. Just as quickly as the carpet rose, it fell. Daphne's pigtails lifted from the side of her head and floated next to her ears as the girls screeched back toward Earth, falling like a rock.

  "CARPET, STOP!" Sabrina cried, inches before the carpet smashed onto the ground. She gasped with relief. Unfortunately, they had stopped right behind the three police officers, who were still searching the sky for the girls.

  "Wait, we've forgotten something!" Daphne cried. "Carpet, take us to the front door."

  "No!" Sabrina shouted, but it was too late. The magic carpet zipped off again, this time plowing into the group of portly police and knocking them down like bowling pins.

  "What are you doing?" she demanded as the carpet screeched to a halt at the door of Granny's house.

  "There's one more lock," Daphne said. She knocked on the door three times. "We'll be back!"

  But the detour had given Hamstead and his men the time they needed to recover and they now had the carpet surrounded. Hamstead grabbed one of the tassels and smiled.

  "OK, fun time is over, ladies," he said.

  "Let go of the carpet," Sabrina demanded. Elvis echoed her protest with a low growl.

  "Not a chance, girls! Now, let's head down to the station and . . ."

  "I said, let go of the carpet."

  "What are you going to do to make me?" Hamstead scoffed.

  Sabrina and Daphne exchanged glances. Daphne tightened her grip on the carpet and gave an extra squeeze to Elvis at the same time.

  "Carpet, up!"

  The carpet shot into the sky, carrying the girls, Elvis, and a stubborn Hamstead with it. Hanging on with one hand, the sheriff desperately tried to climb on board as they soared high above the house.

  "Take us down, right now!" he squealed.

  Sabrina peeked over the side and smirked.

  "I'm sorry, Sheriff, but you don't have a ticket for this flight. I'm afraid you're going to have to get off at the next stop. Carpet, we have an unwanted passenger. Get rid of him!"

  The carpet bolted forward as if thrilled with the request. It zipped up and down and did wide loopty-loops that made Sabrina want to barf. She looked over at Daphne and Elvis, who both sat calmly on the carpet.

  "If you just let go, it's a real easy ride," Daphne shouted over the whipping wind, but Sabrina wasn't convinced, and held on tightly A small beetle flew into her mouth and she spit it out, gagging.

  "A bug flew in my mouth!" Sabrina croaked. Daphne patted her hand sympathetically.

  Unfortunately, Hamstead was still very much a passenger.

  "Let go!" Sabrina shouted again, but the sheriff shook his head defiantly. Displaying its own stubbornness, the carpet darted over the house and began to skim the top of the forest. Hamstead smacked into limbs and skittered across the treetops.

  "I'm not going anywhere," he shouted as the carpet found an opening in the forest and dove into it like a kamikaze pilot. Sabrina was sure the carpet was going to sacrifice them all to get rid of its unwanted rider, but just as it seemed they would all be splattered across the forest floor, the carpet leveled out and dragged Hamstead directly over some thorny bushes. Motivated by the pain, the sheriff struggled once more to climb on board. Elvis barked at him as Daphne tried to pry his fingers from the carpet's tasseled corner.

  "Carpet, do something!" she cried.

  The carpet soared between several trees and zipped along a rocky stream. It lowered itself to mere inches above the water,

  dragging Hamstead along the muddy banks, and finally shaking him loose. He tumbled into the mud and sank up to his nose.

  The carpet darted back and hovered above him. The sheriff crawled out of the muck, covered in swamp goo. A small frog leaped from his shirt pocket as he wiped filth from his eyes.

  As the girls darted away on the carpet, Sabrina could hear Boarman and Swineheart rushing to their boss's aid.

  "Boss, what are you fooling around in the mud for?" Boarman asked.

  "Shut up!"

  The girls soared out of the forest and high into the sky. There, Puck met them and flew alongside, laughing at the sheriff's misfortune.

  "You keep them busy!" Sabrina shouted and the boy's mood darkened.

  Daphne pinched her sister. "You have to talk to him like he's the leader. He needs to feel that he's important," Daphne whispered.

  Sabrina was stunned by her sister's perceptiveness. "Sorry, Puck, I know you can handle them and we'll be back soon with all the information you will need," Sabrina said awkwardly. "We know you could kill the giant yourself right now, but a little insider information never hurts."

  Again, Puck puffed up with pride. "Of course, probably a waste of time, but who knows? By the way, there's one more cop you have to deal with when you get there."

  "Who?" Daphne asked.

  "A nervous little man named Ichabod Crane."

  "Not the guy from Sleepy Hollow?" Sabrina said.

  "That's him. Since he nearly lost his head, he gave up teaching and became
a cop. I guess his idea is that he's safer if he's around the police. He shouldn't be too much of a problem," Puck said, turning in midair and soaring away.

  "How did you know that we could get him to do whatever we want if we pretended he's in charge?" Sabrina asked Daphne.

  "It's what I do with you," the little girl replied. "You two are exactly the same."

  "Carpet, take us to Jack," Sabrina said after she had stuck her tongue out at her sister.

  The carpet darted on and glided above the little town. For the first time, Sabrina could see Ferryport Landing for what it really was—quaint. To the east of the town, the moon shone on the curve of the Hudson River, and old gas lamps lined the paths of a park along the water. More lights twinkled in the center of the town, where dozens of brownstone buildings clustered around

  Main Street

  . Sabrina could see people having a late supper in the railway-car diner and a last movie playing at the drive-in theater. Far off to the west of town, she could just make out the humped shapes of the tree-blanketed mountains.

  As they got closer to

  Main Street

  , the carpet began to descend, dropping nearly a dozen feet at once and causing Sabrina's belly to flip. She looked at her sister and saw that she had wrapped her arms around Elvis and was squeezing the air out of the poor dog. They plummeted through the clouds, the girls screaming as the wind screeched past them, but just as they were feet from crashing onto the pavement, Sabrina managed to shout "Carpet, STOP!" and the carpet screeched to a halt. It took them several moments to realize that they hadn't died and that they were still screaming.

  When they had calmed down, Sabrina looked around and saw that they were floating next to the window of a brick building. It had bars on it. Suddenly, a boyish-looking head with spiky blond hair appeared. It was Jack! He had beautiful blue eyes and a round face with a button nose, but he looked tired and in desperate need of a shave. He also had a painful-looking fat lip that had specks of dried blood around it.

  "What is going on out there? Can't a man get some rest when he's in prison?" he shouted in a thick English accent. When he saw the girls, he lifted himself higher in order to see what they were standing on. Then he smiled.

  "Well, young ladies. Who might you be?"

  "Are you Jack?" Sabrina asked.

  "That's the name I was given," he replied with a chuckle.

  "The Jack?" Daphne asked. "As in 'Jack and the Beanstalk'?"

  "Indeed I am, duck. But as you can see, I'm a little indisposed to be signing autographs." He laughed.

  "We need your help!" Daphne cried.

  "Well, I don't know if you happened to have noticed, but this isn't a country club I'm relaxing in. This is the county jail. Unless you need some help making license plates, I think you've got the wrong bloke."

  "We need your help with a giant," Sabrina said.

  Jack's eyes grew wide and a smile briefly lit up his features. Then he grew terribly serious and pulled his face closer to the bars.

  "A giant, you said?"

  "He's taken our grandmother," Sabrina replied.

  "And we want her back!" Daphne added.

  "Well, I don't blame you," the young man said. "But exactly how does a human go about getting themselves in trouble with a giant?"

  "We're Sabrina and Daphne Grimm. Our grandmother is . . ."

  "Relda Grimm," Jack interrupted with a smirk. "I should have guessed. Went and got herself in trouble with a big boy, eh?"

  "Yes, she and Mr. Canis both," Daphne said.

  "Canis, eh? Can't say I feel sorry about that," Jack growled. "So what do you want from me?"

  "We were told you were an expert on giants," Sabrina answered. "We need you to tell us everything you can about how to stop this one and save our family."

  "It's true, I am an expert on the big boys. Killed nearly fifty of them in my day," Jack boasted.

  "The books said it was less than twenty," Daphne said.

  "Don't believe everything you read, duck," said Jack. "I've sent more than my fair share of big boys to the grave. Why, there was a time when people used to call me Jack the Giant Killer. I was famous, oh yes. My name was once synonymous with bravery and daring. That was until the spell that trapped me in this barmy town."

  "What does barmy mean?" Daphne whispered to her sister.

  Sabrina shrugged. She was having trouble keeping up with Jack's accent.

  "Now I'm taking any work I can. Do you know what the mighty Jack does for a living?"

  Sabrina began to get nervous as the young man's face filled with rage. She knew the answer to his question but thought it best to lie. "No, I don't."

  "I sell shoes and suits at Harold's House of Big and Tall," Jack exploded. "A lowly sales boy! I sat with kings. I drank the finest wines in the world. I filled my belly with exotic meats and socialized with the world's most interesting people and now, because of that cursed spell that keeps us here, I spend my days measuring inseams and helping people pick out insoles!"

  "We're sorry," Daphne said.

  "At least that's what I used to do. Today I quit!" Jack bragged. "I have a feeling Jack the Giant Killer's luck is going to change."

  "So how did you end up in jail?" Sabrina asked.

  "That miserable cur, Charming," Jack raged. "Runs this town like it's his own personal kingdom and wants to keep the rest of us as peasants."

  "Did he give you the fat lip?" asked Sabrina.

  "No ... I had a disagreement with some business associates," Jack said, wiping his wound with a bloody handkerchief. "No worries. You can't keep a bloke like me down, can you? No-siree-bob! You can count on that!"

  "Jack, I hate to interrupt, but we've really got to hurry. Is there anything you can tell us that will help?" Sabrina said.

  "Oh, I'm going to be a big help to you ladies," he said with a confident grin. "Just as soon as the two of you break me out of jail."

  Chapter 8

  abrina gasped.

  "You want us to help you break out of prison?"

  Jack nodded his head. "Quite right."

  "How are we supposed to do that?" Sabrina asked.

  "Easy, you go in through the front door and distract the guard. Then the little one here will hit him in the gob with a club or something and snatch his keys."

  "I'm seven years old. I can't hit someone with a club, and not in the gob—whatever that is!" Daphne cried.

  "Sure you can. Deputy Crane isn't going to put up a fight. He's daft in the head and jumpy as a flea. But if he does happen to put up a fight, all you have to do is hit him in the shins. He'll fall over like a sack of potatoes," Jack replied.

  "She's not hitting anyone with a club," Sabrina said.

  "Well, if saving your granny and her pal isn't that important to you, I can just stay in the nick."

  Sabrina looked into Jack's hopeful face. How could this odd little man actually be the key to Granny and Mr. Canis's survival? It just didn't seem possible, but on the other hand, the note Granny had left told them that the mirror would have all the answers they needed. After two days of disbelieving everything the old woman had told her, Sabrina didn't feel like being proven wrong again, especially when so much was riding on the outcome.

  "So girls, what's it going to be? If I could do it myself, I would have already, but the bobby took my lock-picking kit when he put the cuffs on me. Smart on his part, too. There isn't a door Jack can't open."

  "You say there's only one deputy?"

  "Yes," Jack insisted.

  "And he happens to be Ichabod Crane—the guy from 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'?"

  "Not so much a legend as a true story, but yes."

  "We'll get you out of here, but we're going to do it my way," Sabrina declared. "No one is going to get hurt. Deal?"

  Jack frowned but thrust his hand out the window. He shook Sabrina's and smiled. "So boss, what's the plan?"

  "First, I'm going to need your shirt."

  • • •

&nbs
p; When Sabrina opened the front door to the police station, her heart was pounding faster than it had ever pounded. They were taking a huge chance, especially with Sheriff Hamstead and his deputies searching for them. By now Crane had to know the girls were on the loose. Two kids dressed in bright-orange monkey sweatshirts, flying around on a magic carpet with a two-hundred-pound Great Dane weren't going to be too hard to spot. On the upside, what they were about to do was the sneakiest thing the girls had ever tried. It was nice to be challenged every once in awhile.

  When the door swung open, Sabrina half expected to find Hamstead, Boarman, and Swineheart waiting for them. But luckily, the station was empty except for a tall, painfully thin man with a gigantic hooked nose, thin lips, and an Adam's apple that bobbed up and down. Ichabod Crane looked just like the story had described him, and he was fast asleep, sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on his desk.

  Sabrina found the light switch and flipped it off, drowning the room in murkiness. She gestured behind her and the carpet drifted in, hovering two feet off the ground and carrying its own Headless Horseman: Daphne, sitting on Elvis's back and wearing Jack's shirt so that her head was hidden inside.

  "He's going to figure this out," Daphne whispered.

  "It's our only shot," Sabrina replied. She crouched down behind an empty desk and cupped her hands around her mouth. She used her feet to kick the door shut and it slammed so loudly the poor man fell backward over his chair. Once he was on his hands and knees, he rubbed his eyes and looked around in the dark.

  "Hey, who turned out the lights?" he called in a whiny, high-pitched voice.

  "Crane!" Sabrina moaned in the deepest voice she could produce. The carpet slowly drifted across the room, carrying its headless passenger.

  "You!" the deputy cried in horror. "You're supposed to be gone!

  "I have returned," Sabrina croaked. The dark room was creating a very believable nightmare. Crane scurried around the room, hiding behind desks and chairs the best he could.

  "Crane, you cannot hide from me. I am the Headless Horseman. I see all!"