Behind the Mask (Ava James FBI Mystery Book 9) by A.J. Rivers

Author:A.J. Rivers [Rivers, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ava James FBI Mystery Thriller
Publisher: A.J. Rivers
Published: 2023-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

Two Days before Halloween

Lucas nodded and gave her another of his wary smiles as she started across the intersection toward Lucifer’s Lounge. She couldn’t figure how people could be so certain about the existence of God and Satan. There was no God without Satan, or vice versa. The whole thing gave her a headache. Some days, she believed in everything, and other days, she believed in nothing at all.

From across the street, the two-story house seemed decrepit and about to fall in on itself. The peeling white paint had turned gray, and windows had been boarded up or blacked out on the second floor. First-floor windows sported hellish paintings of smiling demons with screaming women in their clutches, drinking liquor, smoking cigars, and even one reclining in an easy chair staring at a TV as if he were possibly watching the news.

Had Lucas seen that? Was that what had sent him into a panic? There was nothing overtly terrifying or threatening about any of the decorations or the artwork. It was run-of-the-mill and borderline generic, compared to what she’d seen in the city. Nothing stood out except the name: Lucifer’s Lounge Haunted House. Usually, haunts were rife with ghosts and ghouls and vampires and werewolves—the iconic Halloween staple monsters, but over the last decade, there had been a marked uptick in all things demonic. It was only natural for that interest to bleed over into haunted houses on the scariest night of the year. What haunt owner wouldn’t enjoy a new cash cow to ride for a few years?

Workers struggled to set up the animatronics at the front where the crowd would gather later and form a line to enter the site. An intimidating tree that would undoubtedly move and speak in a threatening, guttural tone just to set the creepy mood. Just past that stood three witches at a bubbling, lighted cauldron. One stirred the cauldron, one cackled madly as her head tilted back, and the last stood with her lower jaw unhinged, head tilted at a severe angle while her body vibrated. Her voice came out sounding like that of a broken child’s toy.

“Dammit,” a man exclaimed as he jerked the power cord from an outlet box.

“Hello,” Ava said, startling him.

“We’re not open, if you couldn’t tell,” he said, scowling and turning from her.

“Agent James, FBI. Just need to speak with your boss. Unless you’re the boss.”

He turned to face her. His face paled, and he shook his head. “Nope. I’m Dallas. I’m just the prop super and emergency worker if there’s ever an emergency during a tour.”

“Where is your boss, Dallas?”

The man pointed at the entrance. “I guess inside. Don’t keep up with them. Glad when they’re not around, just to be honest.”

“They?”

He nodded. “Nathan Helm and Melanie Gurdy.” He gestured toward the house. “I need to get this bitch fixed.” He turned back to the witch without asking the nature of Ava’s visit.

She stepped inside the door. It was bright. All the lights were on—even lights no one ever thought about being inside a haunted house.

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