The Founder By Kimber Chin

I love Halloween and I love spooky stories.
Here is one I wrote especially for Author Island readers.

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What was she going to do? Dion rested her head down on the desk. Her first client, her first assignment, all eyes on her and now, this.

“Long day, young lady?”

She looked up. An elderly man stood in the doorway, backlit by the fluorescent hallway lights. He looked harmless enough, although stuck in some sort of crazy time warp with his bowler hat in hand, and his bigger than Elvis sideburns. “Yeah.”

“May I be of assistance?” Without waiting for her agreement, he sank into the guest chair.

“I suppose.” Dion doubted he could help, whoever he was, but it couldn’t hurt. “I’m Dion LaGrange. Started on Monday.”

“Harvey Karsen. Been here so long, I am part of the furniture.” No move to shake hands. “Now what seems to be the problem?” Dark eyes sparkled.

“This.” She slid the creative across the desk. Harvey Karsen? The name sounded familiar.

“Pimps,” he read, “Winner of the K.J. Excellence Award.” He twisted his moustache. “Sounds impressive.”

“Sure, if the award existed. There's no such thing.” Dion heard the bitterness in her voice. “And the client insists on making that phoney claim.”

“I see.” Another twist of the moustache. “You do not agree?”

“Contrary to popular belief, there should be some truth in advertising.” Dion sighed. “But what can I do? They pay the bills.” If she lost this account…

“They are paying us to help build their business. Lying to the customer will not do that and I suspect they know this. So we have to ask ourselves, why would they take this desperate course of action?”

“To differentiate themselves.” Either that or they were scam artists.

“Then we help them do that in another way. Let us roll up our sleeves and get to work, shall we?”

And they did. All night. Karsen may have had a funky fashion style but he also had great ideas and unlimited energy. The elderly man disappeared only at daybreak, leaving Dion to fine tune the plan.

“You work all night, Miss LaGrange?” Trudy, her assistant, wandered in, bright eyed and perky. “Here alone?”

“Not exactly alone.” Dion stretched, her muscles cramped from sitting too long. “Harvey Karsen helped me out.”

“Ahhh… yes.” A laugh from Trudy. “Our founder. He remains with us always, doesn't he? Even one hundred years later.”

One hundred years later but that would mean… No, it couldn’t be. Must be another Harvey Karsen. Although…

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