-Chapter Four-
Sleepy, Grumpy and Doc all sat in the interrogation room together. They sat together with blankets draped over them to prevent against the shock their bodies were experiencing. Through the one-way mirror Basil, Elsa and Aladdin peered in; the steam from their hot liquids wafting across their faces.
"What kind of sicko are we really dealing with here? I mean killing someone is one thing, sending a body part to the people hunting you is a whole other level" asked Aladdin to the group their eyes already glazing over to detach from the situation. Aladdin had the box with Dopey's severed finger in the corner of the room, still unsure of what to do with it. He'd eventually have to take it to Jack, but right now there was just too much going on.
"I think we should tell everyone what's going on. Let them know there is a psychopath on the lose!" Aladdin continued with his conversation that at this point was almost with himself, but Basil cut in. "Aladdin, this guy isn't going after other people. He's after the dwarves. What would telling the public do besides create mass hysteria?" Aladdin slammed his fist on the glass "He's only killed the dwarves thus far! Who knows who else is on his list? What? Do we just wait until he kills someone for us to then sound the alarm?!" Elsa nodded her head in agreement "Not to mention the press will have our necks if they found out that we withheld information like this."
Basil mulled it over for a moment then nodded his head mechanically "Alright then if we're going to go in on this we'll need to go all the way." Elsa began to walk towards her desk "We'll call for a press conference give all the information we feel is pertinent and then hope it smokes him out. I'm sure a whole county on alert will make him paranoid. Paranoid people often make mistakes" reasoned Elsa. Basil just stroked his chin "Or get desperate and start doing even more horrible things." That statement hung in the air for a moment until Aladdin went to his desk and started dialing on the phone "Well if you guys aren't willing to get your hands dirty, then allow me!" Aladdin was obviously pissed, and disturbed by what had just transpired. He was going to catch this guy, Elsa could see it in his eyes; he was determined.
As Aladdin gathered the press for the eventual conference Elsa made her way into the room where the dwarves sat, huddled near each other like children. They lifted up their heads to acknowledge her as she stepped in, but did not make a sound. Elsa let the silence run it's course and then spoke "I am sorry for your loss. I know Dopey meant a lot to all of you. I know how it feels." Grumpy gave Elsa a low growl "You have no idea what we are feeling right now?!" That got Elsa to move forward a bit "When I was just a little girl my parents died on a cruise ship off the Alaskan coast. Cruise line said it was an accident, but there were passengers on the cruise that wrote us and swore up and down that it was a cover up. That someone on the ship, an employee had killed our parents. Tossed them overboard. Who knows. Who cares? They're dead, and if someone killed them I'd never be able to find the killer anyway so to hell with it! But you…we can catch the son of a bitch that did this. But I can't unless you all agree to cooperate with us. You don't have to like me, you don't even really need to respect me, but I need you to obey me. Otherwise I'm afraid you all will end up dead before this is over. Think you can handle that? Or would you prefer to take your chances?"
Doc and Sleepy immediately nodded their heads in compliance, Grumpy snorted but Elsa took his silence as commitment. "I need to know what's going on. Any secrets you all might have, anything that might be used against you, blackmail, leverage…I need to know. I can't protect you if I don't know what I'm protecting."
"Why does there need to be a motivation? Whatever happened to crazy people just being crazy?!" asked Grumpy, Elsa had to admit that he had a point, but she was just so tired of him dragging his feet that she dismissed it. "This is too calculated to be random, is there ANYTHING you need to tell me? Now is the time, short of murder anything you tell me right now I can protect you on. But the moment I walk out the door that deal is up." Elsa was bending the rules with this one, but she knew she could get Belle to back her up.
There was a moment of hesitation, Sleepy then slowly drew out his answer "We have some hidden treasure….it's very valuable." Elsa didn't even let the statement digest in her mind "Valuable? How valuable?" Sleepy was having difficulty responding when Doc piped up "Well over twenty million dollars worth of jewels, gems and precious stones. We haven't had it all appraised it could be worth far more."
Elsa jaw dropped to the ground, she wasn't sure what to say to all this. At that moment Aladdin entered into the room, already talking "Press conference in an hour. Basil is taking the lead on this one. We'll need to…" Aladdin sensed the change in the room and paused to take it in. "Elsa? What's going on?"
"Al, they have hidden treasure. Like actual hidden treasure like out of Treasure Island or Huck Finn!" gasped Elsa unable to catch her breath as she leaned up against the wall for support.
"It's Tom Sawyer, not Huck Finn" said Aladdin flatly.
"What?"
"Tom Sawyer is the one with buried treasure. Huck Finn is the one where Huck goes up the river with the black guy and they use the N-word a lot."
"Are you serious right now?"
"Oh it wasn't used in a racist way. Mark Twain wanted a realistic depiction of the dialect spoken. Still, it's a banned book because of it."
"No! I meant are you seriously arguing with me about literature when you just found out there is literally buried treasure in Walt County?"
"It makes sense. Reality TV doesn't pay that much."
"Shit Al,…I can't even talk to you right now."
Elsa buried her face in her hands for a moment, collecting herself from the information she just learned. Doc, Sleepy and Grumpy were all waiting pensively for an actual response from the deputies. Aladdin just scratched his head and Elsa was taking deep breaths.
"Where is the treasure located?" asked Aladdin. He instantly saw the look of hesitation and anger boiling up inside the dwarves. He should have worded the inquiry differently.
"We can't tell you that! That is generations of valuables we have gone at great lengths to keep hidden" snapped Grumpy already losing his patience with the situation. Doc nodded his head in agreement but Sleepy looked away.
"How are you sure it's safe?" asked Aladdin stepping forward. "Maybe this person who is attacking you…"
Elsa interrupted, coming out of her daze. "Al, think about it. Why would the killer even bother picking off people if he or she knew where the treasure was? Why not just take the treasure? My guess is whoever is killing you all wants information. And people aren't talking so….well…" Elsa trailed off at that, she could see the pain on the remaining dwarves faces; their brethren were gone.
"We used to keep our shares in our homes. But as the wealth grew we knew they couldn't stay in our houses. And we've never been ones to really trust the bank. So we took the treasure out a secluded location. A very particular location. If you're just a few feet off you'll never find it. We wandered around aimlessly, keeping track of our movements until we found the place we felt it could be hidden away from anyone; including ourselves. We even took a blood pact promising never to reveal the location to anyone outside of our group" explained Doc.
"Kind of intense" breathed Aladdin. Grumpy and even Doc glared at Aladdin's candor on that response. "Alright, so you bury the treasure. Did you leave any way for someone to find it?" Aladdin looked back and forth between the dwarves looking for someone to crack open the secret. Aladdin and Elsa waited in silence; the hum of the fluorescent lights became the soundtrack to the moment as the dwarves hesitated. The dwarves knew they had to reveal their secret but it was almost as if waiting would somehow make it easier. "We have a press conference in an hour so excuse me for hurrying this along but…" trailed Aladdin.
Grumpy was the one to reveal the secret, which surprised Elsa and Aladdin to no end. Each of us had a crucial piece of the map. Nobody could go there without every piece. It was our fail safe, and with the others dead there is no way of finding the location."
"But surely you must know the general vicinity" pried Elsa. Grumpy just shook his head. Doc rubbed the back of his neck, calming his nerves.
"We buried all of the treasure at night. We could tell you the general vicinity of two miles. Somewhere over near Elk's Horn but that's about as close as we could get you. It was near where the rock formation seems to make the horn, but we buried our valuables a little bit away from there. Felt it was too obvious" explained Doc.
"This is a damn nightmare" mumbled Aladdin under his breath slapping his palm onto the table. "Alright, so if this guy is going after the treasure why would he burn the house down? What he just takes the piece of the map in the night and THEN kills Bashful? Doesn't make sense. Why not just take the map and go? Bashful could have gone on weeks, months even without ever knowing it was missing. Why create the attention of murder? Or burning the man's house down? Whoever killed him had to have known that was only going to make it harder. So why do it?"
"Because the killer wanted to send a message" was all Elsa had to say for everyone to turn their attention towards her. "Think about it. Happy is forced to smile and pushed into a freezing cold lake so he can have a permanent smile, even in death. Sneezy is asphyxiated after being strangled; a man who struggles with regular breathing is killed by having his oxygen cut off. Bashful was known to have a red face, heat rushing through his body. He gets set on fire inside of his own home. Then Dopey a man who struggled with basic motor skills has one of his fingers chopped off. Who knows what else was done to him, but I'm willing to bet itwasn't pleasant. These are personal, and they are calculated. This person may not even want the treasure. Maybe he or she just wants to see all of you suffer. For something. I'm not sure what but something…"
"It has to be the treasure. Nothing else makes sense" said Sleepy as he rubbed one of his eyes, already feeling the stress of the day get to him. At that moment Basil stepped in holding onto the door handle to keep balance. "Press is here. Let's get this handled" was all the sheriff said before closing the door behind him. Elsa turned to the dwarves.
"You all are going to stay together. At a house, and we will have someone posted outside of your door at all times. We need to figure this out, and maybe when the time comes use you to bring the killer to us."
Grumpy stood up for that "Are you out of your mind?! You want to use us as bait? That's psychotic!" Elsa was unmoved by Grumpy's sudden burst of energy. Aladdin had to gently put his arm up as Grumpy almost lunged at Elsa who sat still with her arms crossed. "If you think for one minute we'd go along with that plan you're crazier than you look!"
Elsa smirked at Grumpy in a way that made even Aladdin uneasy "I suppose you'd like to go for the alternative, we leave you alone and wait for the killer to pick each of you off?" Grumpy just grunted in response and sat back down. "We're not feeding you to the wolves here. We're trying to trap the wolf…and kill it if necessary."
Sleepy spoke up "I don't want whoever is doing this dead." The ears in the room perked up. "I want to look into the eyes of the person who stole the closest thing to a family away from me. I want to know what kind of soul does this to other living things. Death would be the easy way out."
Elsa's face softened after that. And Aladdin nodded his head, the words of Sleepy reaching his heart. "We'll bring him in, I promise." The dwarves did not smile but they conveyed their gratitude with their eyes. "Which house should we stay at?" Aladdin said it like he was asking just Elsa but it was for the entire group.
"Somewhere with the least amount of exits and windows. The less access points the better covered it can be." Suggested Elsa as she scanned the dwarves waiting for someone to volunteer.
"That'd be my place, it's the safest plus I've got more guns than these tree huggers combined" snarled Grumpy in a way that might have been endearing. Elsa and Aladdin agreed to the location and then began to wrangle everyone up as the press conference by Basil began.
The press conference was brief, Basil did not allow for many questions and they all had to be pre screened. "The Walt County Sheriff's department is looking into all leads and we can safely say that the perpetrator of these heinous acts will be caught and will face justice." The media was trying to squeeze every little bit out of the sheriff as possible. The local news was going to go into overdrive the story was the biggest news to hit the area in years.
"We've got to get them moving" whispered Aladdin to Elsa as they snuck the dwarves out while Basil distracted the media by meandering with his answers. By the time he was done the dwarves were already safely on their way to Grumpy's house.
When they arrived other sheriff deputies were already at the house ready to keep watch including Phoebus who was spear heading securing the perimeter. Elsa greeted him as warmly as the situation allowed "Phoebus this is a real shit show. Keep these guys safe, I mean it."
"You know I will."
"I know. Just figured I had to say it."
"Elsa you and Aladdin need to go home and gets some rest. We're going to be fine here. We're gonna make some chili, turn on all the lights and just wait it out. We're armed and ready if anything goes down."
"Well you call me if something does. God forbid."
"Roger that. And Elsa…stay frosty."
Elsa smirked at his warning as she went to Aladdin who was waiting by the car after having dismissed the dwarves. "I'm going to drop off Dopey's finger to Jack. Why don't you go home? I can handle this. I can tell you're tired. I'll just drop you off at your place." Elsa had to admit the day had been rough on her with the court case, the fire and now all of this. She nodded her head and climbed into the passenger seat. "You should go see Lamin" said Aladdin as the car pulled off. Elsa just rolled her eyes.
"I'm not ready to talk to him."
"When will you be ready? You two have been separated for months now."
"I don't know. Maybe never."
"He didn't cheat on you Elsa. I don't know why you can't forgive him."
"It's not about forgiveness. He said he wasn't sure if he loved me anymore! Do you know how much that hurt?! I rather he had cheated. At least that'd make more sense."
Aladdin opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. He just nodded his head; it was no use to argue with his partner right now. They had bigger things on their plate.
Back at the house Sleepy, Grumpy and Doc were all sitting around. Doc sipped on a beer while Grumpy sipped on a neat scotch. Sleepy just drank water out of the pitcher. He was always thirsty, and constantly drank. Doc had told him that his over hydration might be causing him to feel bloated and thus sleepy all the time but his friend never heeded his counsel and it made no sense to get on him for it now.
"We should call Snow White. Tell her what's going on" mumbled Grumpy. Doc shook his head.
"Grumpy, we can't. We're not supposed to talk to anyone."
"Oh would you stop! She's probably worried about us!"
"Those are the rules!"
"They're talking about the media, not our friend!"
"They made it very clear not to talk to anyone."
"Well screw 'em, I'm calling her. Whether you like it or not!"
Doc sighed, there was no use arguing. Grumpy was going to do what he wanted to do. Doc peered over at Sleepy who had finished the pitcher and already fallen fast asleep. Grumpy called Snow White and for about twenty minutes the two discussed what was going on. He assured her they were safe.
"We're fine Snow White we're calling from…" Snow White cut him off. "No! Don't tell me Grumpy! Who knows if someone is listening in?! I won't risk that. We've already said too much, get off the line. I'll see you soon. Be safe!" And with that the call was ended. Grumpy sulked back into his seat, he had always had a thing for Snow White. He wished that she was there with them in this moment.
Hours passed and eventually as Phoebus came into the room to check on them they all started to move towards the living room; where they would all sleep. Doc began to put away the glasses when while picking up the water pitcher he noticed a strange residue at first mistaking it for a water stain a closer look revealed a grain like substance. "What the hell?"
Phoebus was trying to move Sleepy so they could move into the living room but he wasn't budging. The blood left Doc's face. "Check for a pulse!" he screamed so loud that Phoebus jumped a little. Phoebus quickly checked for a pulse and felt nothing. Sleepy's skin was ice cold and he was already starting to stiffen up. Phoebus's jaw dropped and Doc dropped the pitcher that shattered onto the wood floor.
"What the hell is going on?!" asked Phoebus as he neared Doc stepping onto the shattered glass in the process. Doc breaking into tears plopped down onto the ground.
"Sleepy…he was poisoned! The son of a bitch poisoned him! Oh God no! No! No!" screamed Doc as he began to cry and slam his fists onto the ground much like a child would having a temper tantrum.
Phoebus hesitated for a moment but then got onto his radio "DAVID-5 to all units we have a code 3, I repeat we have a code 3! Get a bus down here ASAP! I repeat Code 3!..."
Author's Note: Only a few more chapters left! Please leave feedback!
