Mr. Canis leaned against the kitchen doorway and tried to catch his breath. This was the first day he had been out of his room in three weeks and it hadn't been an easy one. If the old man was struggling with keeping his emotions in check, the last four hours had been an incredible test.
'Mr. Canis,' Granny said, rubbing the old man's back with her palm. 'Go and rest.'
'There may be more danger,' Canis insisted.
'Old friend, I already have three children arguing all the time,' Granny Relda scolded, 'I do not need another.'
The old man nodded and shuffled out of the kitchen.
'Who's the Widow?' Sabrina asked.
'Hans Christian Andersen wrote about her in 'The Nightingale.' She's an old friend,' Granny said. 'She might be able to shed some light on the crow feathers we found. She's sort of an expert on birds.'
'So you don't think the frog-girl killed Mr. Grumpner?' Sabrina said.
'No, liebling, frogs don't make webs,' the old woman said.
'Neither do birds.'
'True. But the birds may have seen something.'
When dinner was ready, Granny and the girls met in the dining room. Daphne's skin was red from scrubbing and her hair was wrapped up in a big white towel. The family took their seats and Granny served herself and the girls some hot soup and buttered rolls. The soup tasted like warm butterscotch pudding but Sabrina was so hungry she didn't have the strength to make her usual complaint about her grandmother's weird food.
Between slurps of soup, the old woman jotted some notes in her notebook.
'Well, then, it looks like we've got two monsters on our hands, now,' Granny Relda said. 'One frog-girl…'
'An a ian ida,' Daphne mumbled between bites of bread.
'What?'
Daphne swallowed. 'And a giant spider,' she repeated and then immediately stuffed another oversized bite into her mouth.
'I agree,' Granny Relda said. 'Charming was way off on his 'army of spiders' theory. I think it was one big one.'
'Don't forget the broken window,' Sabrina said. 'That's how it got inside.'
'Maybe,' Granny replied.
'You don't think so?' the girl asked.
'The glass was all over the floor, so something came through that window, and by how spread out the shards of glass were, I'd say it came in fast.'
'Urds, ' Daphne mumbled, with a mouthful of soup.
'Right, the birds,' Sabrina said. 'The black feathers were underneath the window. But that's where I get confused. Why would birds have come into the room?'
'Birds eat spiders,' Granny Relda explained as she stood up and crossed the room to a pile of books stacked next to the radiator. She tugged at a couple in the middle of the stack and sent the rest tumbling to the ground. She left the fallen pile where it was and returned to the table. Granny wasn't much of a housekeeper.
'This book is just about everything ever written on giant monster spiders,' Granny Relda said, setting it in front of the girls. 'It's a bit dry, and the author has an unhealthy fear of certain animals, but it might be helpful.'
Sabrina eyed the book, entitled Magical Mutations of Insects, Reptiles, and Kitties. She opened the cover and saw a crude drawing of a giant kitten chewing on several screaming farmers. She flipped to another page and a thin pamphlet fell out. She picked it up and examined it. The cover read Rumpelstiltskin's Secret Nature.
'What's this?' she said, leafing through it. The pages were filled with tiny, neat writing.
'I've been looking for that for ages,' Granny said. 'That's a book your great aunt Matilda Grimm wrote.'
Daphne took the pamphlet. 'Rumpel… rumpel… what's this say?'
'It's called Rumpelstiltskin's Secret Nature,' her grandmother said, taking the booklet from the little girl. 'Matilda wrote a lot about Rumpelstiltskin. You could say she was one of the few fairy-tale specialists in this family. She had dozens of theories on why Rumpelstiltskin kept trying to trick people out of their firstborn children. You should read it when you get a chance.'
'I'll check this out later,' Sabrina said, setting the mutations book aside.
'Anyone for more camel hump soup?' Granny Relda asked as she got up from the table.
'This is made from a camel's hump?' Sabrina cried, dropping her spoon as images of a sweaty, flea-covered camel danced around in her mind. She'd seen one at the Bronx Zoo with her father and could still smell its rank breath years later. She felt sick.
'Actually, it's two-hump camel soup but I only use the second hump,' Granny Relda explained. 'The first hump is a little tough, and besides, it's the second hump that has all the flavor.'
The girls stared at the old woman as if she were playing an elaborate joke on them, but Sabrina could see from her expression that she was serious. Of course, Daphne clapped her hands happily, and cried, 'I'll have more! And this time make sure there's some extra hump in there!'
Sabrina slowly pushed her nearly empty bowl away just as there was a knock on the front door. Granny, who was on her way to the kitchen, stopped and rushed to answer it, with the girls following right on her heels. There on the porch stood a humongous black crow. Its eyes and beak bobbed nervously, and its squawk was ear-shattering. On one of its legs was a black ribbon, and when it saw the family it dipped its head in what Sabrina guessed was a bow of respect.
'Good afternoon, Widow,' Granny Relda said to the bird.
'Good afternoon to you, Relda Grimm,' the crow croaked in a scratchy yet feminine voice. Daphne squealed in glee, but Sabrina's stomach did a flip-flop.
More talking animals, ugh.
'Do you know that little brat you sent plucked a feather out of my behind and laughed?' the crow continued.
'I am very sorry,' Granny Relda apologized. 'I haven't seen you as a crow in some time.'
'Well, the boy said it was important, so I did the bird thing. Normally, I'd take the seven down to the forty and get off at Miller Road, but you know that disaster with all the orange cones, and right now the eighteen is backed up for miles. At this time of night flying is really the quickest way,' the bird croaked.
'Your English is coming along very well,' Granny Relda commented.
'Thank you,' the crow cawed. 'Some of the others refuse to speak anything but Crowish, but I say you have to adapt. It's good to learn new things. I've even been surfing the Web.'
'What fun,' Granny said with a smile. 'I was wondering if you had heard about the human that was killed today at the elementary school?'
'Yes, I have,' the Widow replied. 'Want to know how I know?'
Granny nodded.
'A little bird told me,' the crow said. For a moment, there was silence. 'Get it? A little bird told me?”
'That's very funny,' the old woman said, as a pained smile crossed her face. Sabrina rolled her eyes, but Daphne laughed so hard she snorted.
'Oh, I like the little one.' The crow chuckled. 'You gotta have a good sense of humor to live in this town.'
'The death was very suspicious,' Granny Relda said, trying to steer the conversation back to the murder. She took one of the black feathers they had found in the classroom out of her handbag and held it out to the bird. 'This was at the crime scene.'
'I've heard rumblings in the flock,' the Widow said, eyeing the feather.
'Rumblings?' Granny Relda asked.
The bird hesitated and looked around as if someone might be listening.
'Some of the crows claim they blacked out. They say they can't account for about fifteen minutes of the day,' the crow whispered. 'The ones I talked to said they heard music and suddenly they were all standing around the school yard, unsure of how they got there. Sounds like the piper is back to his old games.'
'That would be unfortunate,' Granny said.
'But I don't think it's your biggest problem,' the crow continued. 'Someone's sent you a message and I'm warning you, Relda, you don't want to mess with the Scarlet Hand.'
'I don't know what you're talking about,' said the old woman. 'What message?'
'It's all over your house, Relda. Whatever you've gotten involved in this time has attracted the attention of some very bad people.'
Sabrina and Daphne ran down the porch steps and looked up at the house. On the windows, roof, and even on the chimney were red-paint hands, just like the one they had found on the chalkboard in Mr. Grumpner's room.
'Who did this?' Sabrina asked.
'We've only been home for an hour,' Daphne added.
The Widow hopped down the steps and flew up into the air. 'Keep your nestlings close,' the crow squawked as it disappeared over the tree line.
'Girls, get back into the house,' Granny Relda said sternly.
