Hi everyone thanks for the reviews. I really appreciate them. I'm really sorry it took so long to post, but RL was getting in the way. Anyway I hope you like the next chapter. Enjoy!
Nick followed Mr. Jones and Sara into the showroom and the three of them made their way through a door marked 'private.' Once through the door they followed Jones up a flight of stairs. Nick found this difficult as his pain was returning.
He slowed down as Sara and Jones started to pull away. They were at the top of the stairs when they looked down to see Nick slowly making his way up the stairs trying to mask the pain he was in.
He finally reached the top. He could see the concern in Sara's eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but Nick put his hand up to silence her. She scowled at him as he walked by and up to Mr. Jones.
"If you could lead the way Mr. Jones."
"This way."
The three of them walked down a long hallway, it had blue plush carpeting lining the floors. The hallways were painted with a beautiful faux finish that looked of leather. There were pictures of cars in expensive silver frames hanging in the hallway.
Nick casually looked around the hallway as they made their way through. It was decorated rather nice for a car dealer. If he didn't know better, he would have thought he was at one of the casinos presidential suites. But he supposed the clientele that came into the dealer would be high end and wouldn't have expected anything less.
They finally arrived at a door with a nameplate on the wall beside it that said:
Albert Jones – Owner
"In here." Jones said.
The CSIs followed the owner through the door into a large office. It was larger that it appeared from the outside. The carpeting that was in the hallway continued into the office and the walls were decorated the same.
As they walked in a large cherry wood desk and a matching cherry wood chair greeted them. The chair had a beautiful blue patterned material on it.
Mr. Jones threw his keys on his desk and made his way over to a cherry wood recessed shelving unit that housed the security equipment for the building. Underneath each monitor there was a VCR.
Nick and Sara walked up to the equipment and both stooped down to look at the monitor that showed the broken display window.
Mr. Jones brushed up against Nick as he pressed the rewind button on the VCR connected to that camera. Nick inched a little closer to Sara and away from Mr. Jones. It was obvious that he purposely invading Nick's personal space.
"Let's see what we can find." Mr. Jones said smiling at Nick.
"We appreciate your cooperation." Nick replied back uneasy.
The three of them watched as the tape rewound. They finally came to the part where the car smashed through the window; they went a few minutes before that.
"Stop the tape right there." Sara said. "You see there. Do you recognize that person Mr. Jones?"
Mr. Jones looked at the screen in shock. "Yes I know that person and I'm going to kill him."
"Excuse me." Nick said surprised
"Oh not that kind of kill Mr. Stokes. That young man that took the car is my son."
"Your son?" Both Sara and Nick said together.
"Yes my son…surprised? Well not as surprised as my wife was after 27 years of marriage."
"Mr. Jones we meant no offence." Sara backpedaled trying to fix the situation.
"Don't worry Miss Sidle I'm not offended. It takes a lot more than that... Trust me."
Mr. Jones turned once again to address Nick and only Nick. It was apparent that Mr. Jones did not want to deal with any women even if they weren't his wife.
"Mr. Stokes I will handle this matter. Let's just say that my son has still not accepted who I am and he's rebelling. I'm not going to press charges. He probably went out on a joy ride. I will have him pay for the window, he does get a weekly allowance and it will more than cover the window expenses. I do apologize for this inconvenience."
"Mr. Jones it's really not that simple." Sara said.
Mr. Jones turned and glared at her. "Look Miss Sidle I was not talking to you. I would also like you to know that I do know the sheriff. So if you don't drop this matter I will let him know that you did in fact offend me."
"Are you threatening me Mr. Jones?"
"No Miss Sidle I'm just making a friendly suggestion." He replied.
Sara glowered at Mr. Jones while she grabbed Nick's arm, "If you'll excuse us for a minute while we talk about this." She said to Mr. Jones.
Nick let Sara lead him into the hall; he placed his right hand on his side, the pain was getting worse. She turned to face him. "What is your take on this Nick?"
"Sara you're the lead on this…it's your call."
"Nick I'm asking your opinion here."
"Well it's obvious that his family is going through an emotional battle right now. Imagine if you found out that your father was a homosexual. The kid was just doing what a normal spoiled rich kid would do. It's obvious that Mr. Jones cares about what happens to his son. It's his business … his car … if he doesn't want to press charges then that's fine with me. We can leave our cards with him if he changes his mind."
Sara listened intently to Nick's words as she noticed the beads of perspiration on his forehead.
"OK. we'll leave it at that then. I won't pursue it." She turned to go back in the office then stopped and looked at Nick again. "Are you sure you're OK?"
Nick forced a smile at her, "Sara I'm fine. I just think I over did it during my workout today. It's nothing a little relaxation won't fix. You know the kind of relaxation you get on vacation."
"Is that why you don't want to pursue this case, because your are going on vacation?" Sara asked playfully.
"Not at all…remember Grissom told me to turn everything over to you when I left. So it doesn't really matter one way or another. I just figure that the kid is going through enough already and we should just let them handle this privately."
Sara finally seemed convinced. "OK. then. I appreciate your input. I guess we'll just let Mr. Jones handle it then."
The two CSIs walked back into the room to find Mr. Jones sitting at his desk on the phone.
"I don't care Scott…you get your ass along with that car you took back here at once...At this point you are lucky I'm not having you arrested. Now I want to see you back here in ten minutes." With that said he hung up the phone and looked at the two CSIs that just entered the room.
"Well?" he asked.
"We decided since your family is going through enough right now, to not press charges and that's the only reason Mr. Jones." Sara responded.
"Well that's very good of you Miss Sidle. Now if you'll excuse me I have pressing matters to attend to."
Both Nick and Sara saw that as a dismissal and turned to leave. Sara pulled a card out of her kit and placed it silently on the desk. This alerted Mr. Jones.
"Oh Mr. Stokes one moment please." he called from his desk.
Nick turned back around to see him coming around his desk towards him. He was carrying something is his hand.
"Here's my card Mr. Stokes. If you are ever in need of a vehicle or just want to go for a ride…give me a call." He said with a wink.
Nick gulped and took the card from the older man and turned back around bumping into Sara. He could see the smirk on her face as he pushed her towards the door. He obviously couldn't get out of the room fast enough.
They made there wayback outside as they saw the stolen 2006 Cabriolet pull into the parking lot. A kid that looked at least seventeen parked the car next to his father's. As he got out he hesitated when he found the two CSIs watching him. He jumped when he heard his father call for him from the door of the dealership. He stole one more glance at the CSIs as he slowly made his way over to his father.
Sara just shook her head at the whole situation, another dysfunctional family. Even though Mr. Jones was rude to her, she hoped that his family could work through their problems. Nick was right, it was better if they handled it privately.
"Let's head back to the lab." Sara said going towards the passenger side of the SUV.
"Sara would you mind driving?" Nick asked as he wiped some perspiration from his forehead and leaned on the truck for support holding his side.
Sara could see that more perspiration had built on Nick's head and it was obvious that he was hiding something.
"Are you sure Nick? You never let anyone drive your truck…well unless you're drunk….what's going on with you?"
"Nothing…I'm fine Sara."
"Damn it Nick no your not. Look at you. You are obviously in a lot of pain. You are keeled over holding onto the truck for support. You are perspiring like crazy and you have the nerve to tell me that nothing's wrong!"
"Fine…it's my side. It started acting up this evening at the lab."
"What does the pain feel like?"
"It's a sharp pain."
"It's a sharp pain? Does it feel like a muscle pull or something more?"
"I don't think it's a muscle pull. At first I thought so because the pain was dull, but as the night went on the pain got worse or rather it's getting worse."
"Well I think we should get you to the hospital."
"No Sara…not yet. We only have a few hours of shift left. I can handle this. I will go to the hospital after shift is over."
"Nick you just asked me to drive. How on earth are you going to get yourself to the hospital?"
"The hospital is only a couple of blocks away from the lab. I should be able to handle a drive that far. Look Sara I start my vacation in a few hours. I would hate to have to take sick time before vacation, besides I don't want Grissom thinking that I'm pulling a 'Warrick' or something."
Sara looked at Nick and thought about what he said. "Look you could have appendicitis or something. Do you really want to take the chance of having your appendix rupture just because your worried about what Grissom might think?"
"Sara I just don't want anybody to start worrying about me again. I don't need that and I don't need everyone fussing over me. I will handle this when I'm off shift." Nick paused for a minute then continued. "I'll tell you what…when shift is over I will go straight to the emergency room and once I find out what's wrong I will call and let you…O.K?"
Nick looked at Sara with pleading eyes, she hated when he did that. Then she started laughing to herself. Nick took the bait.
"What so funny?"
"Well I was thinking you could always take Mr. Jones up on that ride."
"Sara Sidle you are lucky that I'm in pain right now or I'd have you tied up and thrown in the back of the truck." Nick said with a smile.
She let out a deep sigh getting serious again, "It's going against my better judgment Nick, but I won't say anything to anyone. You have to promise me though that if the pain gets any worse you will leave for the hospital immediately."
"Sure Sara…That I can do."
"OK. Let's head back to the lab." Nick tossed her the keys as she climbed in.
"You do realize that whoever is driving picks the radio station." Sara said.
"It's still my truck, but since you are doing me a favor I'll allow you to listen to that station of your…"
Sara didn't even wait for him to finish his sentence before she changed the radio station and headed back into the lab.
There you have it Chapter 3. Trust me the action, suspense, drama will be coming shortly. In the interim please review. Thanks! see ya next chapter.