[MalReynolds]

He doesn't necessarily scare people to death. The one thing that I meant to fix (but never did, etc) was to show him do another job where he just shows up and the person is mortified, but doesn't die, and to have him show up at yet another job where someone might be pleased to see him, but that would kill the word count anyway and hamper the flow.

And I think any deeper explanation other than what is given would kill the story, thematically. The narrator doesn't even really know who he works for, so why should the reader be privy to that?

It's just a fantastical element that I believe should not be explained. I do know who/what he works for, but to elaborate more on that is just unnecessary.