“So, what did you guys do when you went off together? I was surprised when you made the offer for Charlie to go with you.”
“I know. Me too, actually,” Jenny replied.
“Did you guys talk?”
“Yeah. You know, she’s actually kind of a sad, lonely person. She has the big-city, sophisticated thing she does. But, I’m convinced she looks at us and feels she’s missed out.”
“Could be,” Hugh said.
“She mentioned you talking to her about God. I don’t know if it was the cocktail talking, or she feels like sort of a stranger in a strange land out here in trucker country, but I think she’s been thinking about what you said to her.”
“Well, there’s that,” Hugh said.
“Can we get ready for bed? Maybe boot up the laptop and watch a movie?” Jenny asked.
“You read my mind.”
A couple of hours later, after Hugh and Jenny had turned lights out and were drifting off to sleep, Charlie opened the passenger side door and saw her carryon bag on the passenger seat. She picked it up quietly, closed the door gently, and walked over to where James was holding open the passenger door to his truck.
Hugh and Jenny both breathed sighs of relief.
“It looks like she’s down for the night at an Indian casino south of Redding in California.”
William was on a late phone call with Frank Rico of Rico Investigations. He’d been tracking Charlie’s cell phone.
“The attorney is starting to get worried about his investment in the reporter,” Frank said. “Wait until tomorrow morning, and if you don’t hear from her first thing send her a text. Tell her she had better give us something … or else.”
“Got it,” William said.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Hugh was making coffees for Jenny and himself when he saw people stirring in the truck next to his. James’ truck.
He saw James and Charlie get out and walk over to the restrooms. After they returned, Charlie climbed back in to James’ truck to make coffees, and James came over to say hi to Hugh and Jenny.
“So, how’s life with Charlie?” Hugh asked.
“It’s OK. For now. Definitely not going to be a long-term thing. We’re a little bit like oil and water.”
“Believe me, I know what you mean,” Hugh said. Jenny nodded her agreement.
“But, that’s OK. I’ll bite the bullet for you, kid. At least until we figure out how to get you guys out of this mess.”
James had a longer drive to his delivery in Hermiston, Oregon, than Hugh did to his in Tracy. So James said he was going to get on the road fairly quickly.
Charlie came over with the coffees she had made for James and herself. They chatted a bit, then James jumped down to do his pre-trip.
“Hugh, I want to thank you for everything. For taking all of this so well. And especially for being such a gentleman. It’s obvious something is special about your family. It’s given me a lot to think about.”
Hugh graciously told her it was a pleasure having her aboard under such trying circumstances, and he hoped it all worked out well.
As Charlie climbed down to rejoin James, Hugh said to her, “Let’s keep in touch. I have a feeling things might get moving fairly quickly when they discover you’re not going to be their snitch.”
James pulled out with Charlie on board, leaving Hugh and Jenny alone together for the first time since their stay at the Phoenix resort.
“Well, here we are. Finally,” Hugh said.
“Finally,” Jenny agreed.
Hugh had been going over his schedule for the next couple of days.
“We’ve got a short drive today to our destination at the Tracy Costco DC, only about three hours. But we don’t deliver until early tomorrow morning, so we’ll have to park somewhere tonight.”
He looked up to see Jenny grinning at him.
“What?”
“I love when you say we,” she said, looking all cute.
Hugh laughed.
“OK. Back to business. There’s only one truck stop in the Tracy area, and it has a horrible reputation. Badly kept up. Filthy restrooms. Bare bones convenience store. I’ve been there. Believe me, the bad reputation is well-deserved.”
He told Jenny their best choice to overnight will be the company’s terminal in Lathrop. The Costco DC in Tracy is about a thirty-minute drive beyond there.
“That means we’ll have an early morning tomorrow, since our door time at the Costco DC is 6 a.m. There is no such thing as being early or late for the door time, so we would have to leave here about 5 a.m. to get in line on time for our check-in.”
The good news, he told Jenny, is the Lathrop terminal is fairly new, with easy, non-crowded parking. It also has clean, private showers. Even better, it’s right next door to a Ghirardelli Chocolate outlet store.
“You like chocolate, don’t you?” he asked.
“What do you think?”
“Yeah. I figured. You’ll enjoy that place.”
Hugh exited the casino parking area, and pointed the nose of his Freightliner Cascadia south on I-5. Next stop Lathrop.
This first leg of the drive didn’t have much to recommend it. Only miles of farmland interrupted every ten to twenty miles by small towns; towns which the freeway handily bypassed.
It was only the signs announcing their existence that told freeway drivers they were passing by small towns with names like Orland, Willows and Williams.
Jenny remarked about the large fields of rice cultivation they came upon north of Sacramento.
“Interesting, huh. You wouldn’t guess California is the second-largest rice-growing state in the nation. Most of it is grown in the few counties right around here,” Hugh said.
He told Jenny this area’s
