Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
I saw my family pulling into the lot behind me. I knew they would do what needed to be done: get their weapons, fan out in groups, scour every inch of the garden center and the woods to make sure there was no active threat.
That let me focus on Hazel.
The light in the shop was low, and I didn’t want to freak her out by turning any on, so it was hard to assess the extent of the damage. I could smell the blood, though. And when I sat next to her, I noticed the way she had her hands set on her thighs, palms up. There were some gnarly scratches there, along with some on her face, and she was caked in dirt all up her front, the light brown color standing out against her black clothing.
As I sat with her, waiting for her shaking to subside and the shock to slowly slip away, I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell she was doing at the garden center at the crack of dawn in all black… without her car.
It wasn’t time to ask her questions yet, though, so I just sat with her, giving her the comfort she needed after what was clearly an ordeal.
That said, I was glad to hear Dom calling me, because it was killing me not knowing what they found… or didn’t find.
Sure that Hazel would be okay for a couple of minutes without me, I made my way back outside, finding Domenico waiting for me, his face even graver than usual.
“Did you find him?”
“No. Definitely some evidence of a struggle. Someone not only broke the door to the greenhouse, but one of the wall panels. Some blood here and there. That ain’t what I called you out here about, though.”
“What is it?”
“Someone uncovered the body.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Dug it up with their hands, it seems. Found some gloves a few feet away.”
There was dirt all over Hazel. I’d assumed it was from a struggle. But what if…
No.
“He’s still there, though, right?”
“Right.”
“I sense there’s something else.”
“Found a phone a couple of feet away from the body too.”
My stomach twisted.
I didn’t have to ask to know.
But I asked anyway.
“Was it Hazel’s?”
“Well, she might not be the only person in Navesink Bank with a phone case covered in witch hats, but…”
He flashed the phone at me as his other hand reached for his own phone, scrolling until the other phone started to ring.
Domenico - manager flashed on the screen.
I didn’t want to believe it.
But the evidence was piling up.
The outfit, the gloves, the phone, her missing car.
“Where’s her Jeep?”
“Parked in the lot of the movie theater.”
Shit.
It was her.
There was no denying it.
“Guess she didn’t buy the lie you fed her after all.”
“Guess not,” I agreed. “Did you find anything belonging to the guy following her?”
“Footprints, but other than that, no.”
“Any chance the new cameras are up and working?”
“A few of them, yeah.”
He clicked around on his phone then handed it to me.
I watched the serene, if pretty destroyed, garden center for a long moment before Hazel shot out of the woods like a cannonball, her legs carrying her quickly away from danger.
For a second, I thought maybe there hadn’t been someone else, that she let her imagination get the better of her.
But then there he was, a baseball cap pulled low, the light outside lower still, making it nearly impossible to try to figure out who it was.
“Any idea?” I asked Dom, my stomach twisted into knot after knot as I watched the bastard chase, grab, drag, and terrorize Hazel.
I had to say, I was proud of Hazel’s survival instincts; the way she fought, the quickness of her mind.
When I saw her crawling out of the greenhouse, I made a mental note to use a flashlight and tweezers to make sure there weren’t any shards of glass in her wounds.
The video caught Hazel bolting for her life toward the shop, then disappearing inside.
I expected to see the man following her.
But there was nothing, not even a shadow. He just disappeared.
“Go over this with a fine-tooth comb. See if you can get a decent angle of this fucker’s face. Is anyone trekking through the woods to see if he disappeared into one of the other lots around?”
“Yeah. But we both know he’s long gone.”
I nodded at that.
“What the fuck did he want from Hazel?”
“Don’t got answers to that. Maybe he thinks she belongs to you. Or he wanted to use her for ransom or turn her into a mole. Who knows? She might have some of the answers we need, though.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, glancing back at the garden center. “I have to get her out of here and cleaned up. But I’ll get some answers out of her.”
“Know you’re thinking with your dick about her, but keep in mind that she was here when she wasn’t supposed to be.”