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The False Face of Death — Anita Allen
The town of Sun Cliffs held a number of mysteries, a strange cult, a missing member, and a guardian ghost, among them.
Helen Richardson, the manager of an import/export gift shop in California, had simply disappeared. It was rumored that she had run off to be married, but her friend and successor at the store, Annabel Tyler, thought it quite out of character for Helen to leave so suddenly.
Determined to trace her friend, Annabel gleans gossip that suggests Helen had become involved with a spiritualistic cult. But before she can get much further, it becomes apparent that someone is desperately trying to stop her. She is shot at when first driving into town, discovers strychnine in her coffee, and receives a box of scorpions in the mail!
And then Annabel meets the leader of the cult Helen had "joined." A man with a powerfully magnetic personality to whom Annabel finds herself attracted, in spite of her misgivings.
"Scorpions! My hands clutched the padding. I stared at hair legs, hard dark bodies, long segmented tails. Never had I seen such large scorpions with vicious claws and those horrible tails held upright ready to strike.
"They staggered about the bottom of the box. Were they attacking, devouring each other? To my shocked eyes there appeared to be hundreds of legs. Squirming, twitching, crawling legs.
"Paralyzed by horror, I watched two of the creatures as they fought their way over other struggling bodies, and climbed up the sides of the box. Not until one of the pincerlike claws reached the top did I come to my senses. My hands dropping the padding into the box. I slammed the lid down blotting from my sight the monstrous insects. Would the lid hold? Could those dreadful things push the lid off? Crawl through my apartment? I picked up magazines and stacked them on top of the box lid.
"And then I ran..."
Hero: Doug
Helen Richardson, the manager of an import/export gift shop in California, had simply disappeared. It was rumored that she had run off to be married, but her friend and successor at the store, Annabel Tyler, thought it quite out of character for Helen to leave so suddenly.
Determined to trace her friend, Annabel gleans gossip that suggests Helen had become involved with a spiritualistic cult. But before she can get much further, it becomes apparent that someone is desperately trying to stop her. She is shot at when first driving into town, discovers strychnine in her coffee, and receives a box of scorpions in the mail!
And then Annabel meets the leader of the cult Helen had "joined." A man with a powerfully magnetic personality to whom Annabel finds herself attracted, in spite of her misgivings.
"Scorpions! My hands clutched the padding. I stared at hair legs, hard dark bodies, long segmented tails. Never had I seen such large scorpions with vicious claws and those horrible tails held upright ready to strike.
"They staggered about the bottom of the box. Were they attacking, devouring each other? To my shocked eyes there appeared to be hundreds of legs. Squirming, twitching, crawling legs.
"Paralyzed by horror, I watched two of the creatures as they fought their way over other struggling bodies, and climbed up the sides of the box. Not until one of the pincerlike claws reached the top did I come to my senses. My hands dropping the padding into the box. I slammed the lid down blotting from my sight the monstrous insects. Would the lid hold? Could those dreadful things push the lid off? Crawl through my apartment? I picked up magazines and stacked them on top of the box lid.
"And then I ran..."
Hero: Doug
