Page 1016 of One More Kiss

Chapter4

My experiencewith the trucking supervisor, Tasha Bailey, was almost the complete opposite of the one with the loading supervisor.

“Incantation Investigations. Do you really do magic?” the tall, dark-skinned woman about my age asked excitedly when I handed her my business card and explained why we were there.

“A little.” It was nice to meet someone who didn’t recognize my name immediately.

“Could you show me something? Like a magic trick of some kind?”

“Sure, before we leave. First, though, can you tell me anything about the driver whose shipment for the Abercrombie company disappeared last week?”

“Not really—only that he disappeared right along with it.”

I blinked and glanced at Connor. “Wait. The driver is gone, too?”

Connor shook his head—apparently he hadn’t known about the driver’s disappearance, either

Why hadn’t Abercrombie told me that tidbit? I was beginning to think I didn’t have all the information I needed for this job.

“Yep. And he’s going to be in a lot of trouble when they find him, what with stealing the company’s truck and all. Not to mention a fortune in tea leaves.”

“Can you tell me everything you remember about that day?”

“Oh, sure. I was working. The driver, David Johnson, called in to let us know he had picked up the shipment and was headed toward Dallas. All our trucks have tracking devices installed. But we didn’t tell him what he was transporting—tea is way too expensive to risk letting the drivers in on it. Really, Abercrombie probably should have used an armored truck for such a valuable cargo.” Her voice trailed off as she considered the possibilities.

“So, he left the shipyard, and then?” I prodded her when she didn’t speak again for several seconds.

“He was on Interstate 45 last we saw, on his way to Dallas. He pulled off in Corsicana to grab lunch. And then his tracker didn’t move again.”

“Corsicana,” Connor said consideringly. “He made it almost all the way to Dallas before you lost him?”

“Mm-hmm.” Tasha batted her lashes at Connor, who rewarded her with a dimpled grin.

“He disappeared from your tracking system?” I clarified.

“Oh, no. The tracker stayed there. We tried to contact him, both on our radio and by phone, but he never answered. We called the local police to go check, but he wasn’t there—and neither was his truck, according to that. It was the next day before we could get somebody up there to find out what happened. Our guy managed to find the tracker itself—it had been ripped out of the truck and tossed on the ground behind a dumpster at the gas station where he stopped.”

“Can you think of any reason he might have ditched the tracker himself?”

“Sure. Like I said, tea leaves are worth a fortune. If he could find some way to sell them, he’d be a rich man.”

So. David Johnson had become our number one suspect. I thanked Tasha and was almost ready to leave when she reminded me of my promise to do some magic for her.

“You have a pen handy?” I asked. She plucked a ballpoint with the company’s name on it from a mug on the counter and passed to me. I pulled up a tiny sliver of magic, rolled it through my fingers as I imbued it with the qualities I wanted it to have, and then I tapped the end of the pen with my index finger.

“Write with it,” I said with a smile. Tasha pulled out a message pad and signed her name. As she did so, the end of the pen lit up like a sparkler, and the ink came out in a glittery, rainbow flow. She squealed in delight. “That’s cool!”

“Could you write down the address of the gas station where David Johnson disappeared?” I asked.

“Of course!” Tasha scrolled it out onto another slip of paper and ripped it off the pad to hand it to me in all its glittery glory.

I smiled and waved as we left.

“Nifty trick back there,” Connor said as we climbed back into my SUV.

“Yeah. It’s one of the first things I learned. I use it to entertain the kids at family holidays.”

Connor chuckled, and we headed back up I-45 to Corsicana.

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