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
