Sundown on Top of the World: A Hunter Rayne Highway Mystery by R.E. Donald

Author:R.E. Donald [Donald, R.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Proud Horse Publishing
Published: 2015-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

Edna’s Kitchen was a small, bare restaurant that catered to workers in the industrial complex where Watson Transportation’s warehouse was situated. The tables were cheap and plain, the chairs small and uncomfortable, especially for big women like El and MJ, but the service was fast and the food edible.

“That’s new,” said MJ, pointing at a framed print on the wall.

El looked around and saw a total of six prints, three on each of the side walls. They were all scenes of dogs playing poker.

Susan, the proprietor of Edna’s, appeared at the table, arriving swiftly and not quite silently in her white Reeboks. She and her husband, Walter, were Chinese-Canadians. They owned and worked at Edna’s, she waiting tables and manning the cash register, he doing double duty as short order cook and dishwasher. Walter was seldom seen outside the kitchen, and only communicated to the clientele with smiles and nods from behind the kitchen’s pass-through. El suspected he didn’t speak English, because Susan always shouted her orders in Chinese, or what sounded like Chinese.

“Coffee?” Susan, always in a hurry, filled both cups at the speed of light. “What you want to eat?”

“Nice addition to the décor,” said El, nodding at the print.

“Junk shop. Five dollar. Nice, eh?”

MJ congratulated Susan on the find. El ordered a fried egg sandwich and MJ ordered scrambled eggs and sausages with toast.

“That all you’re having?” she asked El.

“I stopped at MacDonald’s on my way in.”

“So what are you doing in so early?”

“Trying to find a woman named April Corbett.”

“You got a shipment with no address and phone number?”

“I’m helping Hunter…”

“Not again.” MJ rolled her eyes. “You planning to open the Watson Detective Agency?”

El didn’t know why she bothered talking to MJ about this kind of thing. She could count on MJ for some smart remark, making fun of her attempts at helping Hunter with an investigation.

“Forget it. What about you?”

“Rush shipment for some outfit in Boston Bar. River rafters near Hell’s Gate rapids. I guess they’ve got a big group booked for tomorrow and one of their rafts got trashed.”

“You ever done that?” asked El. “River rafting?”

“Are you kidding?” MJ made a face as if El had suggested she body surf through Hell’s Gate. “I’d probably sink the raft. Besides, I’m not crazy about the idea of white water. I’m even scared to get close enough to the edge of the Fraser Canyon to throw rocks in the river.”

Susan arrived with their orders, deposited them on the table and was gone again in less than three seconds.

“Why would you even want to throw rocks in the river?” El asked, shaking ketchup into her fried egg sandwich.

“I wouldn’t. But it might be cool to throw a bottle in the river, you know, with a message inside. Your name and the date and something like, call me if you get this note. Who knows, it could end up in San Francisco.” She waved a sausage in the air. “Or even Japan.”

A message in a bottle? El’s chewing slowed as an idea began to take shape.

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