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| • Grissom Versus the Volcano • |
Episode Number: 78#
Original Airdate: December 8, 2003
Written By: Anthony E. Zuiker, Carol Mendelsohn
Directed By: Richard J. Lewis
Synopsis: "Grissom visits a small Nevada town to investigate the death of a man whose severed head was found by a dog in some nearby woods; and Catherine receives an unexpected and unwelcome gift from her dad, which prompts her to visit him."
Guest Stars:
Louis Lombardi (Room Service Waiter),
Marc Valera (Valet #2),
Tricia O'Kelley (Debbie Dunbar),
Tom Gallop (Randy Painter),
Billy Keane (Roger Dunbar),
Randy J. Goodwin (Myles Rueben),
Daphnée Duplaix Samuel (Amelia Rueben),
Vincent Corazza (Rental Car Manager),
Emory Livers (Valet #1),
Don Stark (Sam Hopkins),
Susan Diol (Beth Dunbar),
Benjamin Bryan (Timmy Dunbar),
Benny Nieves (Adam Watson)
Notes:
- The first appearence of Detective Tony Vartann.
| | • Review • |
At a hotel on the Strip, a valet goes to get a suitcase of of a trunk, and the car blows up. The Sheriff is one of the guests standing outside the hotel. Grissom arrives with Catherine; the Sheriff tells them that it's a car bomb, and both the driver and a valet are dead, with a dozen injured. Gunshots start as they talk to him, and they all run for cover, but no gun men are seen.
At the scene, they find ammunition in the trunk of the car, heated by the fire which set it off. Grissom determines that the blast pressure travelled through the trunk and hit the driver, separating him from his feet. Catherine marks evidence at the front of the hotel, Nick arrives and starts bagging evidence to separate out the bomb components. The press arrives; the Sheriff wants to know if it's a hit, and wants to use Grissom's line "I'm not thinking, I'm just looking."
Amelia Rueben is in her hotel room in the hot tub, wife of Myles Rueben, a singer, who is still on stage downstairs in the hotel. Sara and Warrick pull a wine glass from the tub, the body is face down; Warrick finds an almost empty wine bottle. He guesses that she had some wine, was in the hot tub and got a little too relaxed. Dr. Robbins estimates she's been dead for less than an hour, based on the redness of her eyes, since the hot water makes body temperature irrelevant. Warrick comments that Reuben's biggest hit is "Amelia." Sam Hopkins, Myles' manager, tells them that he'll handle telling Myles the news when he takes a break, adding that he's been Myles' manager for a long time, so he should be the one to break the news. Myles comes off stage; Hopkins tells him that there's been an accident, it's Amelia. Sara tells Myles that his wife is dead. Myles looks confused, then tells Hopkins that there'll be no encore tonight.
Greg arrives at the car lot in the lab and offers to help; Grissom wants him under the car to find the initiation switch for the bomb, while Grissom examine the inside of the car. Greg finds a wire leading away from the gas tank into the center of the dash. Grissom realizes that the digital clock was the switch, and says that next, Nick has to reconstruct the bomb.
In the lab, Nick is doing that, examining pieces and deciding if they're part of the bomb or not. He finds it was a pipe bomb, but doesn't know the type of explosive used. The Sheriff asks what it means; Grissom plays dumb, but the Sheriff needs to know who and why. He wants to know if there's anything unusual about the bomb, and Grissom says no, nothing.
Dr. Robbins tells Sara and Warrick that Amelia didn't drown, it was cardiac arrest, but she was only 25; her heart was in perfect condition. He can't explain it.
A lab tech tells Catherine that the blue stuff was sent to trace, and the bullets were in copper jackets designed to enter but not exit; like a US Marshall would use, and adds that they're sold commercially but there's not much of a market.
One of the finger prints from the hot tub comes back as a match to Sam Hopkins; Greg tells Sara and Warrick that hydrofluoric acid was in Amelia's system, meaning that she was poisoned.
At the club, Hopkins sets up for the evening. Warrick talks to him about his finger print on the hot tub; Hopkins says that he was in her room all the time; they're like family. Sara asks if he turned on the hot tub, and Hopkins says he kept Myles happy by keeping Amelia happy. Warrick comments that it seems a little odd; Hopkins tells him that he's not a threat to anyone. He adds that he didn't have a drink with her, as he's on-call 24-7 so he doesn't drink. Sara and Warrick tell him that Amelia was poisoned.
At the car rental place, they determine that Adam Watson rented the car, and he was a US Marshall. The car rental clerk remembers Watson, and says that he threw it in his face that he was a Marshall when it turned out that they didn't have a compact car, like he wanted. Brass tells Grissom that he was a US Marshall, so they need to call the Sheriff; they also determine that Watson left the car lot at 9:40 p.m. and that the car was only in the lot for 8 minutes before he got it, so the bomb was already in the car when it was returned. The previous driver was Roger Dunbar.
At Roger Dunbar's house, the police execute a warrant, and find the house empty. The place is a week-to-week rental; there are clothes and a paper shredder in the room, but no signs of bomb making materials. Brass checks the garage while Catherine and Grissom check the house. Grissom finds a band-aid in the garbage; Catherine finds a magazine that was under a piece of paper when a note was written; the note is for an appointment with Dr. Armenian at 4 p.m. today, so she says that she'll make an appointment to see him.
Dunbar can't believe that they're arresting him for planting a car bomb, and when they tell him that the car blew up 30 minutes after he returned it, he's incredulous. He says that he has no beef with the rental place, and he uses them because he gets double points. Catherine tells him to strip.
Nick runs tests and finds that the explosive was ammonium perchlorate and gasoline. Ammonium perchlorate is available anywhere, so anyone could have made the bomb. The Sheriff wants to know what Dunbar's connection is and Grissom says that the Marshall might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, since there is a short in the wire leading to the digital clock in the car, so they don't know when the bomb was really supposed to explode.
Greg tells Warrick that the wine glass is clean, but he found poison in the wine. They talk to the room service delivery man at the hotel who says that Amelia drank every night and that she was alone when he delivered it; He says that if Hopkins were in the room when he delivered, he'd get stiffed on the tip, but Myles would tip well; Myles was there that night, between shows. He adds that Myles was never around and Amelia was lonely, and she and Myles fought, but he wasn't about to report them as that would be biting the hand that fed him.
Catherine tests Dunbar's clothes and finds that there was rocket fuel in the bomb and the same on his t-shirt; he tells them that he and his son made a volcano for school science project. Brass comments that Dunbar is divorced, but he explains that his family lives in Mesquite and he sees them on weekends, and travels for sales during the week; they're not divorced. He tells them that he loves his wife and son, but needs his space, which is why he had the cheap place that they raided. They ask for his home address; he gives it to them, and asks that they not tell his wife about his place in the city.
They go to Dunbar's home in Mesquite, and examine it. Catherine and Grissom find the volcano science project on the table. Grissom examines the chemicals used to make it and finds ammonium perchlorate. Catherine comments that she built one just like this when she was in school for her science fair, and should have won, but was beat out by some kid with an ant farm, then realizes that Grissom was that kid. He tells her that insects always win.
Beth Dunbar tells Grissom and Catherine that Roger is inept and couldn't build a bomb; she was the one who helped their son build the volcano while Roger watched, adding that their son knows who to ask for help. She then tells them that Roger is with the State Department, and doesn't have time for friends, but once years ago when he was drunk, he confessed to her that he was with the CIA.
At the lab, Nick sees Grissom making a volcano, and tells him that he built one just like that when he was in grade school, but was beat out by a kid with an ant farm. He also tells Grissom that he compared the tool marks on the end cap of the bomb to the tools that they seized from the Dunbar's home, but none of them match; the tools used to make the volcano weren't the same ones used to make the bomb.
In the lab, a technician has reconstructed the shredded paper, and found gas bills for three different address with the names Roger A. Dunbar and Roger D. Dunbar. Greg comes in and gives them the results from the band-aid that Grissom found; the blood on it is from a female who is related by blood to Roger Dunbar. Catherine notes that Beth Dunbar had told her that Roger's mother was dead, he has no sisters, and his child with Beth is a son, and there was no child at the place in the city. The lab tech points out that maybe the female relative is living at the Henderson address from the gas bill; Catherine realizes that Dunbar isn't a secret agent, he's just been living a secret life.
At the house in Henderson, Catherine and Grissom arrive and see a woman taking out the garbage; she identifies Roger Dunbar as her husband. She tells them that she is currently married to him; her name is Debbie Dunbar, and she and Roger have a daughter, Amy. Grissom asks if Amy has a science fair; she does, and Roger helped her build a volcano; Debbie tells them that she teaches yoga and doesn't know the first thing about science, but Roger knew how to make it. Grissom takes the volcano and promises to try to have it back before the science fair.
Sara and Warrick examine the house where Myles and Amelia live; they find glass cleaner that is fatal if swallowed. They talk to Myles at the station, and ask if he recognizes the glass cleaner. He tells them that the windows are his chalk board when he's writing music, and he uses the cleaner for that. They tell him that the glass cleaner was the poison that was in the wine; Myles admits that they fought, but it was passion, and that they loved each other passionately. He recalls when they met, and that she was his inspiration; they were both looking for love, and she loved his music while he loved her smile, but she was unhappy because she knew that she could never have him to herself. He then has to leave for a sound check; Sara comments that Amelia has been dead for less than 48 hours, yet he's going back to work. Of the three people who were in the room, the room service guy, Myles and the manager, they've only ruled out the room service guy.
Brass talks to Dunbar and tells him that bigamy is a crime. Dunbar explains that he married Beth because he got her pregnant while they were in college, and he spends weekends with her and their son in Mesquite; he spends the weekdays with Beth and Amy in Henderson. Brass asks about his place in town, and Dunbar tells them that the whole thing is a balancing act, and back in the early days, one of his wives saw a bill for the other address and became suspicious, so getting a place in the city was just easier and gave him some time off. Catherine asks about the band-aid; he tells her that Amy took it off and he put it in his pocket, but she was never at the house in the city. He also tells them that he borrowed some pliers from Beth to use when making Amy's volcano; he learned how to help Amy by watching Beth help Timmy; he borrowed the pliers a couple of weeks ago, and never returned them. Catherine tests them against the marking on the bomb, and finds that they match; they go to Mesquite to arrest Beth Dunbar.
Warrick examines the gloves that were with the glass cleaner, and finds three burn marks from the glass cleaner; Sara takes prints from them, and finds that they're Amelia's. They go to the morgue to examine Amelia's body and find that there are burn marks on her hand that match the ones on the rubber gloves; Warrick determines that the death was a suicide. They tell Myles, who admits that he just didn't pay enough attention to her, and that he knew she was unhappy, adding that he takes the time to make his fans happy, but ignored his wife. He tells them that the show must go on; he goes on stage and sings his hit, "Amelia."
Catherine and Grissom talk to Beth Dunbar about the pliers that Roger borrowed; Grissom asks her how long she's known about Roger's double-life? She tells them that once in a while he'd call her Debbie, and she would ignore it, adding that their life together was wonderful. They ask what changed; she tells them that she saw the plastic bag in the trunk of Roger's car with all the makings for a volcano, including the shiny stars that she'd cut out for Amy's volcano. Beth tells them that she knew that there was another woman, but had never dreamed that there was another family until she saw this. So she followed Roger to Henderson and found out everything. Catherine wants to know why Beth didn't just leave Roger; Beth says that he made a fool of her. Catherine points out that Beth killed three innocent people; Beth says that the bomb was supposed to go off at 8:30 p.m., while he was on his way to the airport. When asked why she used a bomb, she explains that it's not that much harder to make a bomb than a volcano.
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