| “ | The average adult female has a little more than five pints of blood, irreversible shock occurs when 40% or more of that volume is lost. I just heard that a minimum of five pints of Rose's blood was spilled in her apartment. That means that there's no hope that Rose is still alive. | „ |
| ~ Bigby Wolf to Snow White |
"Chapter Three: Blood Tells" is the third issue of Fables, with a cover date of September 2002. It was published on July 17, 2002.
Publisher's summary
The mystery of Rose Red's murder unfolds at a feverish pace. Bigby Wolf grills the Black Forest Witch, who may have returned to her old eating habits. Snow White consults her boss, Fabletown's Mayor King Cole, who reveals his secret knowledge of Rose's love life. Boy Blue and Flycatcher spill far too much blood. And jailed suspect Jack receives two surprise visitors behind bars: an angry, knife-wielding stranger and Bigby, who's forced to reveal his true colors.[1]
Plot
Bigby brings Flycatcher and Boy Blue to an apartment in Rose Red's building that is identical to hers and has them recreate the crime scene by covering it in blood.
Snow meets with King Cole to report on the progress of the investigation to him. She tells him about the interrogations of Jack and Bluebeard and also that Frau Totenkinder, Prince Charming, and herself have been interrogated. She mentions another possible suspect: The Adversary who attacked the Fables in their Homelands and might have now followed them to their new home. King Cole tells Snow that the investigation has to be completed by the time of the Remembrance Day ceremony because otherwise the Fables will lose faith in their ability to run things.
Bigby asks Snow to check out the contents of Jack's computers and tells her he's already solved most of the investigation but doesn't want to share his information with her yet.
Bigby finds out that Bluebeard has gone into Jack's cell so he can torture a confession out of Jack. Bigby turns into his wolf form and confronts Bluebeard. Bluebeard attempts to defy him first by threatening to fight Bigby and then by threatening to kill Jack. Bigby makes it clear he is not intimidated by these threats. Snow finds out about the situation and heads to the cell armed with the Vorpal Blade and reinforced by Grimble (in his troll form), Trusty John, and Bufkin. But Bluebeard has surrendered to Bigby before they arrive.
Bigby tells Snow that she must go to the Remembrance Day gala with him as part of his investigation. He then gets a call from Boy Blue telling him the results of their recreation. Bigby has to tell Snow that the amount of blood at the crime scene was more than anyone could survive losing and Rose Red must be dead.
Appearances
Characters
- The Adversary (first mentioned)
- Bigby Wolf
- Bluebeard
- Bluebeard's wife (first appearance; flashback)
- Boy Blue
- Bufkin
- Colin
- Flycatcher (first identified as Flycatcher)
- Frau Totenkinder (first appearance)
- Grimble
- Hobbes
- Jack Horner
- King Cole
- Prince Charming
- Rose Red (mentioned)
- Snow White
- Trusty John
- Winter (first mentioned, indirectly)
Fictional species
Multispecies
Species
- Flying monkey
- Goblin
- Troll (bridge troll)
- Wind (hybrid)
Items
- The egg
- Hunger and Judgement (first appearance) (one of them, as knitting needle)
- Vorpal Blade (first appearance)
Locations
- Homelands (flashback)
- Bluebeard's lands (first appearance; flashback)
- Mundane world
- New York City
- Fabletown
- Branstock Tavern (first appearance)
- The Woodlands
- The basement
- Basement detention cell
- Bigby's apartment
- Bluebeard's castle
- Business Office
- Foyer
- Frau Totenkinder's apartment (first appearance)
- Jack Horner's apartment (mentioned)
- King Cole's penthouse (first appearance)
- The Woodland's garden
- The basement
- Rose Red's Greenwich Village apartment building
- Apartment below Rose Red's (first appearance)
- Rose Red's apartment (mentioned)
- Fabletown
- New York City
Other
Continuity
- King Cole says he received a call "last night" from Bluebeard about the way Bigby and Snow White acted in his office. Bigby also tells Snow later than Cole waited "two days" before calling him to pressure him on the investigation.
- Bigby says that Prince Charming returned to New York City a few days before Rose Red's disappearance. He also says that Snow began her job as King Cole's assistant "recently."
- While Snow is telling King Cole about the interrogations, we see dialogue from the scenes. But the dialogue we see in Jack's and Bluebeard's interrogations doesn't match what was said at the actual interrogations shown in Fables #2 — "Chapter Two: The (Un)Usual Suspects." We also see dialogue from Bigby's interrogation of Prince Charming, even though Snow says she didn't overhear their conversation.
- Frau Totenkinder is identified as the Black Forest Witch in this issue. She is shown knitting. This will be a recurring motif with her appearances.
- Bigby admits he cannot handle machinery. He says he can't run computers and doesn't know how to drive.
- The poster behind Grimble in the foyer says it is five days before Remembrance Day.
- Bluebeard says that Bigby's transformation back to a wolf is occurring "after all these years."
Trivia
- When Snow White goes to King Cole's apartment, we see a collection of pipes, three fiddles, and a large bowl of cereal. This is a reference to the nursery rhyme of "Old King Cole," in which the titular character asks for his pipe, his bowl, and three musicians who play the fiddle.
- Snow refers to the Vorpal Blade "of Jabberwocky fame," a reference to the nonsense poem from the novel Through the Looking-Glass (the titular character of the poem is called Jabberwock, not "Jabberwocky").
- In Bigby's apartment, there is a framed picture of an elderly woman wearing a bonnet; a reference to the grandmother from the fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood."