Road Test David Wickenhauser (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) 📖

Hugh had been so wrapped up in his own situation it never occurred to him Charlie had been away from work all this time.

“What is your status with your newspaper right now?” Hugh asked.

“I had asked for some personal time off, and it was no problem,” she replied.

“But if that old fossil of a managing editor ever found out what I’ve been doing, essentially selling my status as an investigative reporter to conspire with an attorney in his insurance scam, he’d fire me in a heartbeat.”

“Ah, I hadn’t thought about that,” Hugh said.

Hugh and Charlie both got a series of text messages that solidified their schedules for the next day. Hugh also heard an alert from his ELD that he had a message from dispatch. A safety feature of the ELD is that it locks messages from being read until the truck is parked, so Hugh looked for a wide shoulder to pull over onto.

James’ text message to Hugh said he’ll be at the Indian casino tomorrow evening.

Jenny’s text message to Hugh confirmed she’s on the road with Roly, and is expected to arrive at the Portland area truck stop sometime in the evening.

William’s text message to Charlie said he was disappointed Charlie hadn’t reported anything interesting about the truck driver yet. The gist of the message was along the lines of, you’re not on a joy ride, remember the consequences of failure.

Gloria’s message to Hugh on the ELD was a pre-load from Portland with a pick up mid-morning tomorrow to be delivered early in the morning two days from now at the Costco Distribution Center in Tracy, California.

Hugh acknowledged the pre-load, then got back on the highway.

Chapter Thirty-Two

California State Highway 139 became Oregon State Highway 39 as Hugh’s truck crossed the border from the one state into the other.

Shortly afterward, rolling along about a dozen and a half miles into the agricultural land dotted sparsely with farm houses, Hugh spotted a rolled-over mini van in a ditch on the right side of the highway. Emergency lights strobed the scene, and Hugh saw rescue personnel working to free trapped occupants.

“What’s that?” he asked. He pointed to a small figure sitting by herself way off the shoulder on the edge of a field.

“It’s a little girl,” Charlie replied.

Hugh hit the brakes and brought his truck to a stop behind the vehicles.

He and Charlie jumped out and went to where the little girl was sitting all alone against a fence post. She looked to be about six years old. She was crying, and she looked terrified and confused by all that had happened.

“Are you hurt?” Hugh asked her. She looked at Hugh with tear-filled eyes, and shook her head.

Hugh knelt down next to her. His cursory examination revealed no major trauma, no blood. Seeing she was close to going into shock, Hugh took her in his arms and tried to soothe her with comforting words.

“Your folks are going to be OK,” he said. “See? The nice people are working hard to take care of them.”

Hugh whispered to Charlie, “Go find out.”

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” Hugh asked, wanting to distract her from what was happening around the overturned van.

“Missy,” she said.

“That’s such a pretty name. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No. But Mommy says I’m going to be a big sister pretty soon.”

“That’s great. You’re going to love being a big sister.”

When Charlie returned, she told Hugh the parents were being lifted out of the van now, and were expected to survive.

“See, Missy? Everything will be fine,” Hugh said.

Hugh continued to hold Missy, and he and Charlie stayed with her until more emergency personnel arrived. A female officer who had seen them came over and knelt down to tell Missy her parents were being put into the ambulance.

“Would you like to ride in my cruiser to follow your mommy and daddy to the hospital?” she asked the little girl. “I’ll let you push the button that turns on the siren.”

The little girl nodded a tearful yes.

“What happened here?” Hugh asked the trooper.

“I’m just now on the scene,” she replied. “But they tell me they found the little girl safe and uninjured in her car seat. They’d had to remove her first and get her safely away while they worked to get her parents out. And they had to do it quickly because of the danger of fire.”

“Thank God for car seats,” Hugh said.

“Amen to that,” the trooper replied.

She started to take the girl from Hugh’s arms, but the little girl wouldn’t let go of her grip on Hugh. “It’s OK, honey,” Hugh said. “This nice lady is going to take you to be with your mommy and daddy.”

Before she walked away with Missy the trooper thanked Hugh for stopping to help the little girl. “So many people would just drive on by,” she said.

Hugh and Charlie were silent for a long time after getting back on the road.

About a dozen miles farther along, they came to Klamath Falls and drove on through.

“Let’s stop for lunch at the travel center north of town,” he said. “I need to take a break.”

At their booth in the restaurant, Charlie said, “That’s really made you emotional.”

“I know. I can’t explain it. I can’t just drive past someone in trouble.”

“Don’t I know that to be the truth,” Charlie said, the irony not escaping her. “You do tend to collect damsels in distress.”

Hugh smiled at that. But it was a fleeting smile because his thoughts dwelt on Missy, at what he hoped would be a happy future for her, and that she would indeed get to be a big sister. Traumatic accidents like what her mom went through were hard on a pregnancy.

After their