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

“Wow. Where did that come from?”

“Doesn’t something like this make you think? Our lives always hang by a thread, and it can all get snuffed out in a heartbeat.”

“Well, honestly, no. I don’t believe there is a God. Capital G.”

“I think you know there is a God, but you deny his existence.”

“No. I’m pretty sure I know what I know.”

“I’ve been in combat, Charlie. And I can tell you for a fact that bullets kicking up dirt around a soldier’s feet tend to clear his mind of what he knows.” Hugh made air quotes around knows.

“There are no atheists in foxholes bit,” Charlie said.

“There are no atheists. Period. Only deniers.”

Charlie said, “Let’s change the subject, please.”

They finished their meal in silence.

It was around six in the evening when Hugh pulled into the large truck stop in north Portland, which is located south of the huge Columbia River that defines the border between Oregon and Washington State.

He backed into a spot, shut down, did his post-trip inspection, and logged off of the ELD for the day.

“Are you OK if we wait to go eat until Jenny and Roly show up?” Hugh asked.

“Sure, no problem. I’ll go in for a quick pit stop,” she replied.

“I’ll go with you to make sure you don’t get lost.”

“I’m pretty sure I can find the Women’s.”

On their walk in, Charlie remarked to Hugh she now sees what he meant.

“This place is huge!” she said.

“Yeah, it’s kind of a Portland icon.”

Hugh led her to her restroom, and then he used the Men’s.

While waiting for Charlie to come out, he got a text from Jenny saying they were about a half an hour away. He texted back he couldn’t wait to see her.

When Charlie came out, Hugh gave her a brief tour of some of the facility. It was too large to cover it all in the short time they had before they needed to be back at the truck.

“This place has cleaned up considerably,” he told Charlie. “It used to have a reputation as a major lot lizard hangout. I’ve been here, and have seen them working their trade.”

“There it is again – lot lizards,” Charlie said, obviously offended by Hugh’s characterization.

Hugh had a feeling swapping Charlie for Jenny couldn’t be happening a moment too soon. The more time he spent with Charlie, the less he was liking her, and he’d never had a lot of liking for her in the first place.

“Anyway, we need to get back to the truck. Jenny and Roly will be here any minute,” Hugh said.

Hugh and Charlie had just gotten settled in the cab when Hugh spotted Roly’s F-150 cruising through the parking lot. When the pickup truck got closer, Hugh flashed his four-ways to draw their attention.

Roly pulled in next to Hugh’s truck and Jenny jumped out to meet Hugh as he was climbing down from his cab. She launched herself into his arms, encircled his waist with her legs and kissed him all over his face.

“I missed you so much!” she said.

“Honey, you have no idea,” Hugh replied. “I can’t tell you how happy I am you are here.” He looked to make sure Charlie wasn’t within hearing distance. “And how glad I am to get that person off of my truck.”

“Then I don’t need to be jealous?” Jenny asked.

“Believe me. Not even for a microsecond.”

Roly and Charlie had kept a respectful distance giving some privacy to Hugh and Jenny.

Hugh turned to Charlie and introduced her to Roly. “You already know Jenny,” he said.

“Happy to see you,” Charlie said. Jenny nodded.

“Well, if everybody is agreeable, dinner at the restaurant is on me. And then I figure I can get Roly and Charlie rooms at the hotel here. It’s a nice hotel, and I can get a trucker’s discount.”

Hugh told Roly to drive around and park in the passenger car lot while he and the girls walked to the restaurant.

Conversation during dinner was mostly small talk. Hugh and Charlie were subdued, which Jenny picked up on, so she was somewhat subdued as well.

Roly, as good-natured as always, carried most of the conversation; telling stories about the ranch, about getting his degree in law, and about his being accepted into medical school.

“That’s quite an accomplishment at your age,” Charlie said. “How old are you?”

Roly said, “I’m twenty-four. But, I was homeschooled. You should meet our sister Mary. She’s eighteen, and is in her last year of college, getting her degree in architectural design.”

“Homeschooled? I wrote an investigative series on the failure of homeschooling. Teachers had many stories of homeschooled kids coming back into the system who couldn’t read, and who were poorly socialized.”

“I bet you didn’t dig deep enough to discover those were poorly homeschooled kids who probably would have been failures in the public school system as well,” Roly replied.

“Well, no,” Charlie said.

“And, I bet you didn’t report on the greater ratio of failures produced by the public school system compared to homeschooling, did you?”

“No.”

“How about academic achievement? Homeschooled kids’ test results on average blow public school kids’ test results out of the water,” Roly said.

“Roly ...,” Hugh started to say.

“One more thing. Do I look unsocialized to you?” Roly asked Charlie.

Hugh chuckled. “Actually, Roly, you are being rude to our guest. Dial it down a notch. OK?”

“I’m sorry,” Roly said sincerely to Charlie. “It’s a sore subject with me.”

After dinner was taken care of, Hugh said he and Jenny would go to the hotel to book two rooms. He gave Roly his truck key, and Roly and Charlie walked to Hugh’s truck to collect the things she would need for her overnight stay at the hotel.

The rooms