Second Chances: Know When To Hold Them, Know When To Fold Them
A Simon & Simon/Six Million Dollar Man/CSI Crossover Story
(This is a fictional story and all characters from Simon & Simon, Six Million Dollar Man and CSI are owned by Universal Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer and are only being borrowed for a short time. I promise to put them back when done!)
Prologue
His head hurt.
So did his stomach, felt like someone punched him.
Wait a minute, someone did.
Rick Simon groaned, then froze at the familiar voice.
"Welcome back to life, Mr. Simon. I was afraid Rusty was too rough with you. That wouldn't do at all, I wouldn't want to upset your wife."
Squinting, he saw a blur with white hair, then involuntarily gasped as the face came into view.
"So that's how the crooks knew who to target." He thought.
"Mr. Sims, what's going on here?" he played dumb, realizing he was dead if they even suspected he knew about their previous victims.
"Come now, Mr. Simon, a private investigator who is friends with Las Vegas's finest, surely you must have guessed why you were here." the dapper-looking man replied, then turned to a surly looking man in a staff uniform.
"You found the money in his wallet, didn't you?"
"No, sir, just a cashier's check." Sims frowned.
"Well, that is an unexpected development." The older man stood silent for a moment.
"I guess we'll just have to take him for a ride and split, no way we can cash that." Another man spoke up, and Rick knew he was in trouble when he saw it was the security chief for the hotel. "Laurie, sweetheart…" he started to "call".
"On the contrary, I think this will still work out. Mr. Simon is going to cash that for us himself." the casino host said.
"Sure I will, and then you'll let me go." Rick answered sarcastically, then gasped as the security man backhanded him.
"Stop that!" Sims stepped forward, then pulled a gun from his breast pocket.
"Rusty, you go payoff Mindy, tell her to disappear. Meet me at the airport in three hours, that'll give us plenty of time." As Rick watched his assailant disappear through the outer door, he cursed inwardly at letting himself be taken like this, and that Mindy……
"Rick, where are you?" Laurie's voice sounded in his thoughts, and he felt even worse, remembering how he let that woman hang all over him.
"Darlin', are you all right? Call Jim, I'm in trouble …"