Worse still, there was nothing the family could do to help. When Granny offered, Robin informed her that the best thing they could do was to stay by the phone and wait for the lawyers to call with an update. So everyone tried to find ways to keep themselves busy. Uncle Jake searched the magic mirror for Goldilocks. Granny busied herself making earthworm crepes. Puck lay on the couch trying to break his personal record for most farts in an hour. Sabrina and Daphne turned their attention to the family’s enormous book collection to research everything they could find on the Big Bad Wolf.
Sabrina and Daphne’s father had kept fairy-tale stories out of their house, leaving the girls with a tremendous disadvantage now that their jobs were to investigate crimes in the Everafter community. Still, even Sabrina had heard the Wolf’s most famous story—Little Red Riding Hood. The way she recalled it, a really lousy mother sent her kid into the woods with a basket of food and everyone was supposed to be surprised when an animal attacked her. Sabrina was wondering what kind of lame parents Red Riding Hood must have had when she noticed the pale and nervous expression on Daphne’s face.
“No one told me this story,” Daphne said, pointing to the book she was reading.
“What story, liebling?” Granny Relda asked as she came in from the kitchen.
Daphne held up a dusty copy of Children’s and Household Tales, better known as Grimm’s Fairy Tales. “The story of Little Red Riding Hood,” she said. “Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm called it the story of Little Red Cap. This version is . . . gross.”
Granny shook her head knowingly. “It is troubling, but don’t forget, Mr. Canis isn’t like the Wolf in that story.”
Puck, who had been ignoring everyone up until that point, leaped up and rushed across the room. “What did he do?”
“He ate Red’s grandmother,” Daphne said.
“Ate her?” Sabrina cried.
“That’s awesome!” Puck exclaimed.
Sabrina ignored Puck. “I thought he killed her.”
“The killing part usually happens when you eat someone,” Puck said matter-of-factly.
“That was a long time ago,” Granny said. “We weren’t there. Some of the story could be exaggerated.”
Daphne scanned the old book. “It says here that Red’s parents sent her into the forest with a basket of food. She was supposed to take it to her sick grandmother but along the way she met the Wolf. He asked her where she was going and she told him.”
“Mistake number one,” Puck said.
Daphne continued. “The wolf raced ahead, ate her grandmother, then put on her clothes.”
“Creepy,” Puck commented.
“Then it says here that when Red showed up at the house he ate her, too. That’s not right. Little Red Riding Hood is alive.”
“And crazy as ever,” Sabrina said. Just thinking about the little girl gave her goose pimples. She calmed down when she remembered Red was locked up in the Ferryport Landing Memorial Hospital’s mental health ward. It had been only a few months since the delirious Red had stormed through town on the back of a Jabberwocky, causing serious mayhem.
“You can’t put a lot of weight in this story,” Granny explained. “There are a lot of contradictory facts that don’t add up, and there are many, many versions.”
“That’s true. Now I remember this story. My father told me it once,” Puck said. “Something about a woodcutter who saved Red and her granny by cutting the Wolf’s belly open and freeing them. Then I think he loaded the Wolf’s belly up with stones and tossed him in the river to drown. I’d like to meet that guy. He’s totally hard-core!”
“Who cares how many versions there are of the story? He eats people in all of them, right?” Sabrina asked as she glanced at the open pages of the heavy book. There was a horrible illustration of the Wolf attacking the little girl.
Puck nodded. “Don’t forget he tried to kill the Three Little Pigs and a whole family of talking lambs. I tell you, the guy’s got anger-management issues.”
Sabrina’s mind was drowning in all the new information. She turned to her grandmother, who seemed nervous and fidgety. “Did he really do this?”
The room was silent. Granny lowered her eyes.
Sabrina was dumbfounded. “And you let him live here with us? You left us alone with him! He slept in a room right across the hall!”
“The Wolf is the murderer, Sabrina. Mr. Canis is not responsible,” Granny said.
“Mr. Canis is the Wolf!” Sabrina cried.
“No, you are wrong, Sabrina,” Granny snapped. “Mr. Canis and the Wolf are two separate people.”
“Who share the same body,” Sabrina argued. “Mr. Canis taps into him when he needs his power. He’s been changing into the Wolf for months.”
“OK, everyone, let’s calm down,” Daphne said.
But Granny was agitated and kept arguing. “Mr. Canis has always been in charge, or at least he has been since the pigs got ahold of him. It wasn’t until recently that he lost control of the creature inside him.”
“Granny, you saw him today,” Sabrina said. “If we manage to get him out of jail, then what happens? What are we going to do if the Wolf takes over? There will be no way to stop him.”
“Sabrina! Mr. Canis is our friend!” the old woman cried.
“Our friend is a bloodthirsty monster!”
Granny’s face turned red and her lips quivered in anger. Sabrina had never seen the old woman lose her temper so quickly. Sure, Granny had been angry in the past, but this was something far beyond that.
“Sabrina Grimm, go to your room!”
Sabrina reeled back. “What? I haven’t been sent to my room since I was seven years old!”
“Then it’s long overdue!”
Sabrina looked around at her family, hoping someone could explain what had happened, but they all had the same expression on their faces. They were angry with her, too. All she did was point out the obvious. Mr. Canis was turning into a vicious killer, and no one knew how to stop it. Wasn’t it best for everyone if he was locked up safe and sound?
Outnumbered and bewildered, Sabrina marched up the steps and into her room, slamming the door shut behind her. She threw herself on her bed and fought back tears. Crying would be like admitting to everyone that she was still a child, and worse, that her opinions were no more valid than a little kid’s. They could send her to her room but that didn’t make her wrong. Someone needed to ask if they weren’t all better off with Mr. Canis in a cage.
“Are you well?” a voice asked from beneath the bed.
Sabrina leaped up and backed against the wall. “Who’s there?”
“I’m part of your security detail,” the voice said. “I’m guarding your bed.”
Sabrina groaned. “I could really use some privacy right now.”
“Sorry, boss’s orders. I can’t—”
“If you don’t get out from under my bed right now, I’m going to drag you out and punt you through the window.”
Sabrina heard scuffling, and a moment later a little creature with a bright-red nose, batlike ears, and furry feet crawled out from under the bed. He brushed himself off and examined Sabrina. “I suppose I could take a coffee break.”
Sabrina said nothing, only pointed at the door, and a second later the creature was gone.
She expected her grandmother to come to her, apologize for losing her temper, and tell her that everything was going to be OK. But after several hours, the old woman had still not appeared. Daphne and Uncle Jake were no-shows as well, and so was Puck, whom she would have bet money would come by just to gloat. Elvis poked his head in once. She called to him, but the big dog shook her off and disappeared down the hallway. Even the family pet was against her.
She was hardly surprised. She usually found herself butting heads with the others. Sabrina never seemed to do or say anything right, and she often felt as if she were a constant source of disappointment. It wasn’t fair. She had been trying very hard to embrace her responsibilities and had taken up detective training with all her energy. She had discovered she was even good at some of it. She excelled in tracking, clue finding, and self-defense. Just last week Granny had praised Sabrina for her problem-solving skills. Well, how could Sabrina be so smart last week and now be completely wrong about Canis? He himself had told Granny that Sabrina was the only one in the family who saw him for what he was. He had warned them all, and now she was being punished for listening.