Crimson Highway by David Wickenhauser (i can read with my eyes shut txt) 📕

by the look of growing horror on Jenny’s face, Hugh knew he was pouring it on a little too thick. He wasn’t actually sure that she could be charged as an accessory in her accomplice’s death. But, right now, he just didn’t care. He was fed up with this whole thing.

“Right now, all we need to do is keep you from being arrested,” Hugh said.

When it appeared that Jenny would not be able to help him any, Hugh formulated his own story.

“OK. You’ve been riding with me the whole time. After all, your things are still in my truck. When they kidnapped me, you hid in the upper bunk. You’re good at that, remember? Then you didn’t come out again until I had taken the truck back, and had shaken off the hijacker. And, we don’t know who the hijackers were. The cops will be able to get their IDs from the guys when they pick them up. The less we’re involved in this the better. OK?”

Jenny nodded.

“Repeat what I just said,” Hugh demanded. “We’ve got to tell the same story here.”

With a shaking voice, Jenny repeated the sequence as Hugh had told it to her. She didn’t get it exactly the same, just the gist of it. But, that was good, as witnesses seldom ever had the same exact story to tell. In fact, when the details matched exactly it’s a tip-off to police that they were telling a rehearsed story.

They saw the highway patrol officer pull up just as she was finishing.

“OK. We’re on,” he said, and motioned for Jenny to get down from the truck, and meet him at the patrol car.

The officer introduced himself as Officer Sturtevant. In appearance, he could have been a twin to the Idaho State Patrol officer who had pulled Hugh over just a few days ago. He was polite, and efficient, and took thorough notes as Hugh told him what had transpired—or, at least, the version that Hugh had wanted him to know.

Then Officer Sturtevant turned to Jenny, who cringed at his gaze.

Come on, Jenny. Try not to look so guilty, Hugh thought.

“And who might you be?” the officer asked her.

Jenny showed him her ID, and then related the story that she and Hugh had rehearsed. Hugh hoped that the officer wouldn’t ask her any questions.

“So, can you give a description of any of the hijackers?” the officer asked Jenny.

Hugh cringed inwardly. He wasn’t at all sure that Jenny could freelance questions like that.

“No, officer. I was hiding in the upper bunk the whole time,” she answered.

Hugh relaxed a bit.

Officer Sturtevant then went around to the back of the trailer to examine the locks on the trailer doors. He noted for the record that the locks had held, and that the load was secure.

They walked back to the front of the truck. “OK, you two. You’re free to go. I know you’ve got this load to deliver—they’re expecting you, so go straight there. I’ve got your cell phone number in case I need to ask any more questions,” the officer said.

Then he caught sight of the bloody window where Hugh had told him one of the attackers had met his gruesome death. “That’s the one?” he asked.

Hugh nodded. “Yeah, I’m real sorry it had to end that way for that guy, but I already told you they were planning to kill me. At that point, it was him or me.”

The officer then drove away, leaving Hugh and Jenny alone again.

They climbed up into the truck, and Hugh cranked the engine. “I’ve got to get this load delivered and, hopefully, a new assignment to Boise,” he told her.

“Hugh, I … ” Jenny started to say.

“Jenny, I don’t want to hear it right now,” Hugh snapped at her with more than a little bit of temper. “I’ve had more than enough of your back-stabbing, your breaking promises, and your duplicitous behavior.”

Jenny shrank into her seat under this onslaught.

“Do you realize you damn near got me killed?” he shouted with more than a little heat in his voice.

“I saved your life … again,” she meekly replied.

Hugh remembered the hand that had slipped in under the cover that had cut his bindings. He should have figured that it had been Jenny who had done that.

“Yes, that you did,” he replied. “But, I still don’t want to talk to you right now. I need to think about what to do about you.”

They covered the rest of the distance to Reno in silence. It was a silence that definitely would not have been classified as comfortable.

Hugh made his delivery to much fanfare from the folks in the receiving department. Word of his kidnapping and hijacking had preceded Hugh, of course, and they were happy that he was OK, and that the load was safe and secure.

After dropping his load, Hugh parked in the customer’s parking lot to wait for his next assignment.

It wasn’t long in coming: Bobtail over to the freight company’s Reno yard, and hook up to a trailer being relayed to their Boise yard. The load was ready now, and the delivery was for any time tomorrow.

Easy, Hugh thought. He'd just pick this load up, and head on out on 80. Maybe stop for the night in Fernley before making the drive to Boise tomorrow. He started the truck, and bobtailed over to the yard.

The trailer was waiting for him, as he was told it would be. He hooked up, entered his macros, and then pulled out of the yard.

Neither he nor Jenny had said a word this whole time. And, that was fine with Hugh. He just did not feel like talking to her, or about their situation, right now.

Hugh pulled into a chain travel plaza just off the highway in Fernley. He wanted to avoid