“Yes, honey. It’s true. And I can explain.”
“Don’t honey me, buster. And you’d better have a damn good explanation. Like she fell out of the sky from an airplane and accidentally landed in your truck. That kind of explanation.” Jenny was definitely getting hot.
Hugh put his hand over the microphone.
“OK, Charlie. If I put this on speaker, can you talk to Jenny, and not like an investigative reporter? Explain in your own words what has happened? Help me out here.”
Charlie nodded.
Hugh told Jenny he was going to put her on speaker. He heard nothing from her. But he handed his phone to Charlie, and gestured for her to speak.
“Hi Jenny, it’s me, Charlie.”
Nothing from Jenny.
“Jenny, are you still there?”
“Go on,” Jenny replied, her voice as cold as ice.
“Jenny, it’s a long story, but the short version is some very bad people were forcing me to get onto Hugh’s truck so I could find out things about him they could use in a lawsuit about the accident you guys were in.”
Silence from Jenny’s end of the phone conversation.
“How they arranged it doesn’t matter right now. But the point is Hugh has rescued me from those bad people.”
“That’s how Hugh is,” Jenny said.
“Yes, exactly, and that’s why doing anything against Hugh or you is the furthest thing from my mind. Hugh put one of those guys who were holding me into the hospital. He was so brave.”
“That’s definitely my Hugh,” Jenny said, with an emphasis on the word “my.”
Hugh signaled to get Charlie’s attention. When she looked his way, he made the palm-down gesture, meaning “cool it.”
“OK. I’ve got to go now. Back to Hugh.”
Hugh took the phone back, and put it into Bluetooth mode.
“It’s me. The speaker is off,” he said.
“Hugh, I mean, really? What the fricken hell is going on?”
“There’s too much to tell right now. But one thing you should know is if it weren’t for Charlie I wouldn’t know anything about the danger we are in.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s about the lawsuit. It’s for a huge amount of money. I’m guessing fifty million. They don’t have a case, and they know it. So, they will stop at nothing to change the odds in their favor, up to and including kidnapping someone, like you, to force me to testify the accident was my fault.”
“Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack. Right now, and for the next few days they are going to think their ploy to get Charlie to snitch on me is still working. But once they find out she’s on our side now …”
Hugh looked over at Charlie for confirmation. She nodded yes.
“ … they are going to put what I’m guessing will be their plan B into effect.”
“That’s a lot to take in,” Jenny said.
“I know. We’ll talk more later.”
“Where are you now, and where are you headed?”
“We’re going north on 95 outside of Las Vegas, eventually delivering in Portland.”
“I’ve got to go,” Jenny said. “Be careful, and stay out of trouble.”
Hugh caught her drift. She wasn’t talking about hijackers, or other bad guys. “Don’t worry, honey. I love you. Bye.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Shortly after hanging up with Jenny, and well into the long stretch of sparsely settled desert landscape traversed by Highway 95, Hugh heard Charlie ask, “So, what does one do for a restroom around here?”
“Does one need to use a restroom?” Hugh answered with a question.
“Yes. Pretty badly.”
“Well, one climbs back to the sleeper and uses a jug.”
“No. Seriously. I mean I have to use a restroom.”
“Look around. There are no restrooms. Only a wide shoulder on the road. If you don’t want to use a jug, I’ll pull over and you can squat underneath the trailer like Jenny has had to do.”
“When’s our next stop?”
“Next truck stop would be Fallon.”
“How long.”
“About four and a half hours, give or take.”
Hugh could see Charlie fidgeting in her seat, and he guessed it was not only from the pressure on her bladder. He was watching the visible effect of when everything Charlie believed about her own high station in life was being stripped away, and she was reduced to peeing in a jug by the side of the road like a common trucker.
As much fun as it would be to keep teasing Charlie, if truth be told, Hugh realized he needed to stop and get rid of some coffee himself. He throttled down, and rolled to a stop onto the wide shoulder.
“This is how it works. You can use Jenny’s jug in the sleeper. I’ll pull the curtain, and I’ll use my jug in the cab. Sound like a plan?”
Hugh saw Charlie shake her head, and mouth a silent, “No.”
“You really don’t have a choice. So man up and get to it. Jenny cleaned and sterilized her jug for storage while we were staying at the resort, so it’s like brand new.”
Hugh reached into the cabinet and brought out his and Jenny’s jugs and Jenny’s urinal gadget. Charlie hadn’t moved out of the passenger seat.
He handed her Jenny’s jug and urinal. “What’s this funnel thing for?” she asked.
“I think it should be fairly obvious once you start trying to pee into the jug. Some things shouldn’t need explaining. Now get up and move to the back!”
Charlie still refused to move.
“OK. Fine. We’re not going to stay parked here all day. I’m going, even if you won’t,” Hugh said, as he reached for the zipper tab to open the fly of his trousers.
“No. Wait!” Charlie vaulted out of her seat and into the sleeper.
Hugh pulled the curtain, did his business, then waited for Charlie to announce she had finished.
“Hugh?”
“What.”
“Could you stand outside, please? You’re making me nervous. I can’t go.”
Hugh was quickly losing patience. But he really did need to get off the shoulder and back onto the highway. “OK. OK. I’m leaving.”
After what felt like an interminable amount of time, Hugh heard Charlie’s rap on the side window, and saw her gesture for him to come back.
Under his breath, Hugh said, “Oh, Lord. I miss you, Jenny.”
Back inside the cab, Hugh asked, “Did you cap your jug real good?”
Charlie nodded. And that was the absolute last word on the subject for the rest of the day.
“Next order of business is I am going to call my trucking friend, James. I want to update him on all that’s happened, and get his advice.”
He pushed the top button on his Bluetooth, and spoke into the microphone, “Call James.”
A few rings later: “Hey, kid. What’s up? I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
Hugh had called James a couple of times from the resort, to chat and stay in touch. But James wouldn’t know about Jenny not being with him, and especially about his new rider, and how she happened to be on his truck.
“Quite a lot is going on. I’ll tell you about it, and then I’ll need some advice,” Hugh said.
“Fire away.”
Hugh told him about shipping Jenny back to the ranch because of insurance concerns. Then he told James as briefly as he could about the circumstances surrounding his rescue of Charlie from her fake kidnappers, what their plan had been, and the current status of his agreement with Charlie.
Hugh again glanced over at Charlie to get her confirmation she was on Hugh’s side.
“You mean Charlie the hated reporter? That Charlie?” James asked.
“Yeah, that Charlie.”
“What does Jenny say about that?” James had guessed Hugh would be open to Jenny about his new passenger.
“She’s Jenny. She was angry. But I think she understands.”
“Good. But it begs
the question. How did the thugs find out where you would be at that exact time?”
“That’s the problem. The way Charlie tells it someone at our terminal relayed my load information to the thugs who staged this whole fake-kidnap scheme.”
“Ah. I see.”
“Yeah, how do we find out who it was, and what do we do about it? It is likely they aren’t done with me yet, and we need to root out the mole before he or she causes more trouble for me.”
“Let me think about that,” James said. “Where are you?”
“We’re headed north out of Las Vegas. We’ll be hitting Fallon, Fernley, and Reno later this afternoon, and then parking at the Susanville Walmart. It’s on to Portland the next day.”
“Hey, we’re in luck. I’ve got a pickup this afternoon in Reno. I’m planning to park at the travel center in Sparks. Can you change your plans and park there so we can meet up?”
“I’d like to, but I need to get a few more miles today. We can pull in and stop and visit for a bit. But I want to bust on through to Susanville by tonight.”
“That’ll be fine. It will be good to see you, kid.”
“Same to you, old man.”
“It’s occurred to me,” Hugh said, “that we need to keep you in contact with William so he thinks you are still working for their client. The longer we can delay the inevitable the better.”
Charlie nodded.
“We need to come up with a plausible side hustle of our own. Any ideas?”
Charlie sat there thinking for a minute.
“All I know is I am supposed to dig dirt on you, and report back to them. Probably for testimony against you in the lawsuit, if what you say is true.”
“Go on.”
“About all I can do is stay in contact with them. Let them know you’ve accepted me on the truck, and I don’t have anything to report yet.”
Hugh thought of something.
“Are you familiar with smartphones?”
“Reasonably. As much as anybody.”
“Take the phone William gave you out of the glove compartment.”
Charlie did. “OK.”
“Check to see if a tracking app is running.”
Charlie tapped and thumbed the phone’s screen. “There is. How did you know?”
“Been there, done that,” Hugh said. “Maybe we can use it to our advantage.”
They were about a mile out of Tonopah, and Hugh pulled off the highway into a small truck stop run by a gas company franchise. “Let’s call them now.”
“You son of a bitch!” Charlie yelled when she saw the truck stop.
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. I forgot about this one,” Hugh said. “We’ll stop, and get out, and you can say you’re in the restroom and can talk for a minute.”
Hugh and a not-at-all-happy Charlie exited the truck and walked toward the building, close enough to register on the app as being in the facility.
Charlie tapped the icon William had placed on the home screen as his contact.
“Hello?” someone answered.
“William? It’s me, Charlie.”
“How’s it going?”
“I’m at a truck stop on Highway 95. I’ve only got a minute. I just wanted you to know everything is good. Nothing to report yet.”
“OK. Thanks. Don’t forget to charge your phone. Do you have someplace to plug in without the trucker seeing it?”
“Yeah, I’ve got my own USB jack in my upper bunk.”
After she hung up, Charlie gave Hugh a look that would cut steel, then walked into the building to use the restroom.
Several hours later Hugh had gotten off of 95, making the connection with Highway 50 at Fallon, then onto Interstate 80 at Fernley. They were on the downward leg for the truck stop at Sparks to hook up with James.
Hugh couldn’t help but remember the great time he had enjoyed with Jenny in the Fernley area. They had stopped at the Fernley Walmart, which had a large, graveled truck parking area. Jenny had bought ingredients for a meal – something that could be heated up in the microwave.
They had enjoyed the meal at a small truck stop east of Fernley near a distribution center complex where Hugh had a delivery.
Fond memories.
Again, the irony was not lost on Hugh that he was retracing the places he had been with Jenny, but with someone he would never have chosen to ride in her place.
In Sparks, Hugh pulled into the truck stop, and began a circuit through the parking area. He had no trouble spotting James’ truck. He was a contract driver like Hugh, but his truck had a custom paint job, a blue like the famously beautiful blue color trademarked by WestAm Trucking.
Hugh found a spot nearby, and backed in. As he was shutting down, and logging off, he could see James walking toward his truck.
“Jump down,” he told Charlie. “You’re going to meet James. Prepare yourself.”
Charlie gave Hugh a quizzical look, but did as she was told.
Hugh caught her look. “James really likes the ladies. Especially beautiful, tall, brunette ones. And lucky for James, women like him too.”
When he saw Charlie come out from around the front of Hugh’s truck, James said, “Wow! Aren’t you just one tall drink of cool water on a hot day.”
To Hugh, he said, “Hugh, you didn’t tell me she was a beauty.”
“Yeah. Well, the subject never came up,” Hugh replied.
Looking a little embarrassed by James’ flirtation, Charlie offered her hand for James to shake. He took her hand, then pulled her toward him and gave her a hug. “Any friend of Hugh’s is a friend of mine,” he said.
James, an ex-Navy SEAL, was fit for his mid-fifties. Tall, good looking, with a youthful face, he commanded attention. And, like Hugh, he was dangerous in a fight – as Hugh knew from personal experience while siding James in a brutal confrontation with hijackers a long time ago.
They went into the truck stop restaurant and took a corner booth. Charlie sat in the middle and Hugh and James flanked her on both sides.
When the waitress had left after taking their orders, James opened the conversation.
“I made some phone calls after we talked. It might be nothing, but one of the dispatchers at the Phoenix terminal has a boyfriend who knows a guy, who works for a big-shot attorney in town.”
“You have names?”
“I can maybe get them. The dispatcher who has the boyfriend isn’t your dispatcher, by the way.”
“That’s good to know. So, where does that leave us?” Hugh asked.
“I think it’s safe to say from what you told me about Charlie here,” James said, nodding toward Charlie, “an attorney has cooked up this fake-kidnap scheme to get Charlie on your truck to discredit you so he could cash out with a large verdict in his lawsuit.”
“That about sums it up, and how I see it,” Hugh said, picking up on the thread. “The key is finding out the name of the attorney who had filed the settlement claim against our carrier. I’m betting his name will also be on the lawsuit complaint when it is filed. And I’m also betting when we drill down it will lead right to the WestAm dispatch center mole.”
“Right,” Charlie said. “And don’t forget the Rico Investigations link. Obviously, Frank Rico knows who the client is, probably the attorney, and they both know who the WestAm dispatch center connection is.”
“I’m getting the picture,” Hugh said. “We pull a few threads, and their whole evil plot can begin to unravel. We need to go to authorities with this, but we need proof.”
“And you do realize,” Charlie said, “from what I saw on the news, people died. Two adults for sure horribly burned to death, and maybe two kids. More is involved here than just thwarting an insurance or lawsuit scam. These guys are murderers.”
She looked at Hugh. His face had turned deathly pale.
She put her hand on Hugh’s arm. “Oh my God, Hugh. I’m so sorry. I forgot.”
The waitress came and delivered their orders.
They ate in silence, with mostl
y small talk between James and Charlie, who were getting along quite well.
Over coffee, they tackled the subject again.
“So, how do we get the proof – with names?” Hugh asked.
Hugh and James both looked at Charlie.
“It’s got to be you, sweetheart,” James said. “You’re the only one who knows most of the parties involved in this subterfuge, and are in contact with them. You’ve got to trick them into giving up some names. Like Hugh said, we can get the name of the attorney, but I highly doubt he’ll reveal his accomplices – the ones who staged the deadly crash in the first place.”
“And without those additional names, we have no credible evidence to present to the law to accuse the attorney with,” Hugh said.
Hugh looked at Charlie. “OK. We’ll have to work up a plan.”
He left James and Charlie at the table while he went to the front of the restaurant to pay for their meals.
When he got back to the table, James suggested Hugh go ahead and park here for the night.
“I could, I suppose. It is getting late,” Hugh said. “I’ll have to push it hard to make it to Portland tomorrow before my eleven is up. But it’s doable, weather and traffic permitting. My delivery isn’t until the next morning.”
“Good. It’s settled then,” James said.
“One more favor, buddy,” he added. “Would you mind turning loose of your charming companion for a little while?”
That one caught Hugh completely by surprise.
“Of course. It’s up to her.”
Charlie nodded.
“It’s just that this old guy doesn’t get much chance to talk to a pretty girl.”
“Say no more,” he said to James.
To Charlie, he said, “Have fun. I’ll see you later back at the truck.”
“Thanks, kid,” James said.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hugh awoke with the first light.
The sleeper had an empty quietness of a kind one senses from being the sole occupant of a room. Hugh sensed no stirring in the upper bunk, and he heard no rhythmic breathing coming from that direction.
He swung his legs out of his bed, and planted his feet on the floor. Standing up, he verified what he had guessed. Charlie had not returned to the truck last night.
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