“Very well,” Judge Hatter said as he got to his feet. “Let’s meet in the morning.” He strolled out of the courtroom, oblivious to Robin and Little John’s angry shouts.
“This is outrageous!” Little John bellowed, knocking over his chair and startling many of the onlookers. Nottingham, standing nearby, laughed heartily.
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” the sheriff said cheerfully.
Little John looked like he might lunge at Nottingham, but Robin Hood held him back. “He’s not worth the headache, my large friend.”
Nottingham laughed even harder as he joined Mayor Heart, and together they left the courtroom. The crowd of onlookers started to follow, and Bluebeard rushed forward, shoving people out of his way. He grabbed Snow White by the wrist before she could leave. Sabrina couldn’t hear what he was saying to her, but Ms. White looked nervous and pale. Daphne noticed them talking, too, as, clearly, did the jury member in the black-hooded cloak. Though Sabrina could still not make out his face, he hovered on the edges of the crowd, obviously trying to listen to the villain and the beautiful teacher.
“What should we do?” Daphne said.
“Don’t worry,” Barto said. He took out his walkie-talkie and barked a couple of orders into it. A moment later, a battalion of little green trolls raced into the room, surrounded Bluebeard, and tackled him. Bluebeard fell to the ground and swatted at them viciously, but there were too many for him to overpower. Taking advantage of the distraction, Snow snuck out of the courtroom, but not before she turned to the family and mouthed the words thank you.
When she was safely gone, Sabrina turned to Barto, whose chest was puffed up with pride. “I owe you one,” the girl exclaimed.
“Just doing my job,” Barto said. “Though, if you felt it appropriate to mention this to Puck, I’d be most grateful, I would.”
Now that Snow was gone, the juror in the black cloak had vanished as well. Sabrina turned her attention back to her grandmother, who was busy trying to reassure Robin and Little John.
“You’re doing your best.”
“Our best is not going to keep your friend alive,” Little John grunted.
“I agree,” Robin said. “We’re going to have to change our game plan.”
“How so?” Uncle Jake asked.
“If they won’t let us question their witnesses in court, I think we should ask them questions outside of court,” Robin said. “If only we knew who some of the eyewitnesses were.”
“Eyewitnesses?” Sabrina asked. “It was six hundred years ago.”
Granny’s face suddenly blanched. “There’s at least one eyewitness I know.”
“Mom,” Uncle Jake said. “You don’t mean—”
“Aww, no!” Daphne cried. “Not the nutcase.”
Granny nodded. “We need to go talk to Red Riding Hood.”
After her “pet” Jabberwocky had attacked the town, Red Riding Hood had been hospitalized in the mental-health wing of the Ferryport Landing Memorial Hospital. Even an irresponsible lunatic like the town’s mayor, the Queen of Hearts, knew that Red Riding Hood was too dangerous to be allowed to roam free. Heart had consulted some witches, who had put a magical barrier around Red’s room. It allowed the girl to receive doctors, nurses, and any visitors brave enough to come near her, but it prevented Red from leaving. Sabrina didn’t have a lot of faith in the spell. Red had managed to escape a similar one before with disastrous results.
When the group arrived, Sabrina sensed the jittery hospital staff shared her nervousness. There were only a few people working in Red’s wing but they all looked tired, with dark circles under their eyes and unkempt hair. The slightest noise sent a few nurses into hysterics. It didn’t help matters that besides Red, the hospital was completely empty. Since most of the humans from Ferryport Landing had been run out of town, there was no one who needed medical care. Everafters never got sick, and when they were injured they healed very fast without the need for bandages and prescriptions. Red’s insane screams echoing down the lonely halls made the hospital very creepy.
A nurse met them at the door. She looked exhausted. Deep lines had formed in the corners of her chubby mouth and her eyes were almost vacant, as if someone had turned the light off behind them. In addition, Sabrina had never seen a woman as fat as Nurse Sprat. She suspected the woman weighed upward of eight hundred pounds. She had also never seen a nurse eat a foot-long roast beef sandwich while she was on duty.
“The child is quite popular this week,” Nurse Sprat said between bites. “You’re her second group of visitors in the same amount of days.”
“Bluebeard,” Robin Hood said.
Nurse Sprat nodded. “Creepy guy. He and Red are like two peas in a pod. He was in her room for hours asking questions.”
“Did you hear what any of them were?” Little John asked.
“Nope. Truth is, I stay as far away from the patient as possible. She’s what we in the medical profession call a loopty-loop.”