Page 72 of The King of Halloween
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“PLEASE, FOLLOW THE bellhop to your room.” Raj bent his head to the new occupants before he caught Logan and a serious man in a canvas jacket striding through the front door. “Hello, gentlemen.”
The man—whose head would have looked more human had it actually been carved out of granite—peered at him through narrowed eyes, then grunted. “Hey, man.” Logan pointed to his mouth, then back at Raj.
What did that mean?
Ignoring Logan’s flailing, Raj noted the clipboard in the man’s hand and asked, “What seems to be the problem?”
Oh, no. He still had the vampire teeth in. The guests loved it, especially when he used the projector and secret trap door to make it look like he vanished into a swarm of bats. But judging by the rising vein in the mystery man’s forehead, he wasn’t as big of a fan. Raj did his best to indiscriminately spit an entire set of fangs into his mouth, then slip them into his pocket.
He put on a smile, which only earned a deeper sneer. Logan grimaced and wiped at his front teeth furiously. Damn it, had the crimson lipstick stained his teeth? There was no way to wipe that off, so Raj put on an even bigger grin through the embarrassing mess.
“I’m afraid we haven’t been introduced. I’m Raj Choudhary, owner of…”
“You the owner?” the man said over top of him.
“Yes…?” Raj glanced at Logan, who kept passing strange signs.
The guy wrote something down on his clipboard, then tore off a piece of paper. “I’m the fire marshal. Here.”
The fire marshal? What was he…?Raj caught the word invoice, then his eyes zipped right to the two thousand dollars.For what?
“You can pay it in person at the county clerk, or mail a check there,” the man said. He didn’t so much as give a goodbye, just turned around and stalked out.
“Excuse me, what is this for?”
The marshal sighed like he was doing his best to not put them all in handcuffs. Did they have that kind of power? “It’s all there in the bill, sir. Have a good day.”
“But…”
“Raj, man.” Logan caught Raj by the arm, holding him back.
The fire marshal walked toward the front door, but he glanced up at the ghost swinging on the chandelier above his head. A low snarl was punctuated by a mumbled, “Damn Satanists.”
The door slammed shut, and Raj could breathe again.
“What in the hell is going on? We were already inspected, twice. And the haunt got it three times.”
“I know, I know. It was the drip you found,” Logan said.
“The drip? We fixed it.” Well, more that it fixed itself, but it wasn’t a problem.
“Somehow, they heard about it and thought it might affect the sprinkler system. So he came out to check it, and charged us for every second of him turning cranks and watching water pour down. Nothing we can do.”
“No.” Raj shook his head, growing more incensed by the second. They’d passed. They were good to go. Then he comes in and invents an imaginary problem in order to drain more money from them? “This is…harassment. Profiling. Just because I’m…”Brown. Gay. Take your pick.“They can’t charge us for this.”
“Can and have,” Logan groaned.
“Well, then I won’t pay it.” He started to tear up the invoice, but Logan yanked it out before he could do more than rip the letterhead.
“Look, man, I get it. It’s bullshit. You know it, he knows it. But we are on very thin ice here. He can shut us down in a minute, make us do backflips for months, and choke us off over even more trumped-up charges. We need to keep him happy.”
“So it’s a bribe.”
“I prefer to think of it as insurance that he will keep his particular religious views from impeding our business.”
No. Raj had done enough back scratching in his life. He wasn’t dealing with the petty politics anymore. This was his business, and if some small man needed to push around someone who was different just to feel big, he came for the wrong target.
