Page 32 of The Woman in the Hollow
Big Ed had been an associate of my older brother Massimo and a fixture in the Family for a solid six years. Mostly, he did protection work around the docks, since the guy was a giant. But he did odd jobs for most of us when we needed an extra hand.
Most recently, he’d done an odd job for me.
And now he was dead.
Stabbed to death in a brutal attack in the woods of my garden center.
Judging by the lack of decomposition, our best guess was that he’d been murderedduringoperating hours, his finalscreams likely swallowed up by those of guests and the scream tracks on the speakers.
It was beyond fucked up.
What we couldn’t figure out, though, was why Big Ed was even at the garden center.
If he needed me, he knew my number.
After a lot of debating, we’d concluded that he’d likely come as a guest himself, just someone who wanted to enjoy the haunted woods like everyone else. Only to get, what, lured off the path and murdered?
And by whom?
I did have some cameras around the property, but most of them were trained on the parking lot, the outside of the building, and inside the shop. The only one that even slightly looked toward the woods had been knocked askew, likely when decor had been set up a few weeks back.
Unfortunately, none of the other feeds showed anyone suspicious—just the usual guests and employees.
It was frustrating to say the least.
As for Big Ed, well, while he was a beloved member ofourfamily, he had none of his own. In a sick way, that worked out for us. No cops, no funeral home, no one to ask any of us any uncomfortable questions. Or, worse yet, close down and investigate the garden center. Because while we were careful to hide the dirty money, there was always the fear that someone who was looking for it might find it.
It had been Domenico and me who’d loaded Big Ed’s body into one of the wheelbarrows from the farm, took him deeper into the woods, and spent the night digging a sufficient grave.
By the time we were done, it was dawn, we said our goodbyes and a prayer, then climbed out of the woods.
Because we wanted to scour the woods for any clues in the daylight, I’d had Dom start the chain to the employees, tellingthem we were closing down. I’d updated our socials. Then we’d gone home, showered, changed, and come back along with a couple of my brothers to look for something, anything.
Unfortunately, because there were so many people in and out of the property on a daily basis, it was hard to tell if anything that we’d found on the ground had been left by a killer.
So we were nowhere.
Except, now we needed to close ranks, watch for any other threats. And, of course, tear apart Big Ed’s entire life to see if he had any personal enemies not attached to the Family.
I was inclined to believe, though, that it felt pointed to murder one of our men on the property belonging to one of us.
It meant that we were pulling soldiers and associates off of some of their usual duties to guard Family-owned businesses. Including the garden center.
I’d told the guys to dress down so they didn’t look so conspicuous. That said, I noticed the way not only Hazel but the other employees eyed them up.
I would need to cut them back a bit after family night. Otherwise, there were going to be questions I didn’t have answers for.
That said, it was time to tamp down my concerns about lying to Hazel, and the possible threat to the organization, put on my game face, and act like nothing was wrong for the sake of the wives and kids.
While we did keep them informed when security was ramping up, it was generally understood that we didn’t bring the wives, moms, sisters, or kids in on any specifics of what was going on. We never wanted them to be able to be used against us if the law started sniffing around.
Since everyone had been looking forward to a spooky fun night, we’d opted to hold off saying anything to anyone for one more night.
Among the performers in the woods, there would be several of our most trusted men decked out in costume (and heavily armed) to keep an eye on everything.
“How’d she take it?” Domenico asked, moving beside me to watch me look at Hazel as she stared at the woods with a blank, unreadable look on her pretty face.
“Disbelieving at first. But she seemed to come around at the end.”
