Page 46 of The Woman in the Hollow
“Yeah… you’re going to want to get down here.”
“What happened?”
“Well, no one’s dead. So there’s that. But it’s a good thing the place is closed for the night.”
“Alright. I’ll be over in a few. Are the others there?”
“Hazel is. She’s who called me.”
“Is she okay?” I asked, watching my mom mouth Hazel’s name and press a hand to her heart.
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Good. I’m on my way.”
“She’s okay?” my mom asked.
“She is. But something is up. I have to get going.”
“Of course. I’ll see myself out.”
She didn’t make an immediate move to do so, but I was too worried about what might be going on to really care. Besides, this was Giulia Grassi we were talking about here. If she wanted to be in my house, she would be.
I flew down the highway, wondering if there was another body at the garden center, if there would be another corpse to deal with, and another death to grieve.
I could see the problem, though, before I could even turn into the parking lot.
The corn maze was ripped down. Hay bales were unwrapped and strewn everywhere.
It was hard to tell at such a distance, but it looked like the pumpkins in the patch were all smashed.
“The fuck?” I said to Dom as I climbed out of my car.
“It’s worse than it looks,” Dom, never one to sugarcoat anything, said.
“How?”
“The decorations in the woods,” he said, nodding toward where Hazel was coming out of the woods with two lines between her brows, her lower lip pouting.
“Before she gets back, what are you thinking? Kids? Some early mischief night shit?”
“It’s possible. But if it was kids, they made sure to fuck with the cameras before they did the damage.”
“Did the footage catch them before they painted the cameras?”
“No, they didn’t spray them. They shot them out.”
“Well, that’s not good,” I said, raking my hand through my hair. “We have to get someone on new cameras. A fuck-ton of new cameras. And tell the other capos to amp up the security on any establishments.”
“I called Luca after you and told him. He’s working on getting in touch with everyone.”
“Dante,” Hazel said, getting closer. “I’m so sorry.”
“What are you sorry for? You had nothing to do with this.”
“I know. It’s just… God, they messed up everything.”
“We can fix it.”
