Assassin's Hood (Death in Shanghai Book 2) by Garrett Hutson

Author:Garrett Hutson
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Warfleigh Publishing
Published: 2019-07-14T04:00:00+00:00

Friday, September 4

The train cut across green fields of rice and soy all of the next morning. Verdant mountains to the west provided a gorgeous backdrop as Lucy and Doug had a leisurely breakfast in the dining car, and they lingered over coffee long after they finished eating.

They’d been there for an hour and a half by the time Jonesy came down for breakfast. They were sitting at a table for two, so he nodded to them as he passed, and took the open table right behind them.

“You two look chipper this morning,” he said, and shook his head. “Morning people, eh?”

Doug shrugged. “I suppose I’ve learned to be. I take it by your late arrival that you aren’t.”

“Not in the slightest,” Jonesy said, then turned around as the Chinese waiter came to take his order. “Black coffee, orange juice, two eggs over easy, buttered toast, and two strips of bacon, please.”

“It’s good to see you have an appetite,” Lucy said. “Doug didn’t order much this morning.”

“How long did you stay in the club car last night?” Doug asked, lowering his voice and hoping Jonesy got the hint and did likewise.

“Not long, just long enough for one more drink. Why do you ask?”

“Did a portly Japanese man in a silk suit come in not long after we left? About fifty, probably, top hat, red carnation, silver-tipped walking cane?”

Jonesy gave him an appraising look. “Yes, I remember that fella. Came in and sat on the other side of the car. Ordered some sake, I think. It had Japanese writing on the bottle. Why?”

Doug glanced at Lucy, then looked back at Jonesy. “That was our old friend Kawakami. He passed us on our way back to our berths.”

“You don’t say?” Jonesy looked up in thought for a moment. “What do you suppose he’s doing here, on this train?”

“That’s exactly what I was wondering.”

“Could be a coincidence,” Jonesy said. “That he’s on this specific train, I mean. Not that he’s headed down to Beihai, with what happened down there. We all know that’s why he’s going. The question is, did he pick this train because of us, because we were on it? I don’t know—it’s possible. I sure as hell wouldn’t rule it out.”

Doug cringed and looked at Lucy—old habit, he supposed—but she didn’t react to the swear word. That was one of the many things he loved about her.

“We’ve got all day on this train,” he said, not relishing a long trip with a potential hostile party on board with them. “So I guess that gives us plenty of time to figure it out.”

“Is that a silver lining?” Lucy asked.

Jonesy lit a cigar as the waiter brought him a steaming cup of black coffee. He puffed on it a few times, and set it on the edge of the silver ashtray. He looked at his wrist watch. “We’ve got about thirteen hours to go. What do you have in mind?” He picked up the coffee cup and blew across the surface before taking a small sip.

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