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| • Swap Meet • |
Episode Number: 97#
Original Airdate: October 28, 2004
Written By: David Rambo and Naren Shankar & Carol Mendelsohn
Directed By: Danny Cannon
Synopsis: "The CSI team investigates a murder victim found floating in a gated community fountain after attending a neighborhood swingers party. The evidence reveals that the victim had sex with multiple partners, which helps the CSIs track down the crime scene to a neighbor's backyard. Meanwhile, Warrick and Nick investigate the bloody murder of a video arcade landlord. Also, Catherine justifies why she is a good candidate to be the supervisor on the day shift."
Guest Stars:
David Berman as David Phillips
Aisha Tyler as Mia Dickerson
Wallace Langham as David Hodges
Jose Zuniga as Det. Cavaliere
Victoria Reiniger as Judy Tremont
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Marty Gleason
Pam Green as Vanessa Keaton
Robert Curtis Brown as Dan Keaton
Danielle Savre as Amy Keaton
Ed Quinn as Tom Cunningham
Dina Meyer as Meg Cunningham
Dedee Pfeiffer as Erin Brady
Doug Savant as Paul Brady
Penelope Alexis as Mallory Stone
Ted Mattison as Alex Stone
Amy Benedict as Mrs. Bassengi
James DiStefano as Mr. Bassengi
Henri Lubatti as Charles Pinscher
Erin Spencer as Melissa Poolie
James Patrick Stuart as Adam Matthew-Lawyer
Tammi Land as Sexual Female Neighbor
Doug Woodbury as Sexual Male Neighbor #1
Alex Quijano as Sexual Male Neighbor #2
Notes:
- This episode was initially called "A Swing and a Miss".
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| • Review • |
In an affluent suburb, Mallory and Alex Stone walk quickly across the street to a house where a party is in full swing. Erin Brady answers the door in lingerie. Throughout the house are embracing bodies, writhing and half-naked. Mallory enters the kitchen and starts to undress.
A distant scream turns every head.
Outside, Vanessa Keaton, fully clothed, floats face-up in a burbling fountain. David Phillips hovers over the body as Captain Jim Brass shouts for the water to be turned off. Grissom arrives and quotes Lord Byron: "In the desert a fountain is springing." This one sprung a dead body. Brass tells him a neighbor found her. Grissom eyes the well-dressed crowd of looky-loos who surround the crime scene, redressed in their party clothes. Dan Keaton and his daughter, Amy, 15, stand in mute shock.
The CSIs determine that the foam in Vanessa's nose and mouth indicate drowning and that she's been dead less than two hours.
The next day, Brass interviews a very hung over Dan Keaton, who tells him that he left the Brady party early, at around 11 pm. Vanessa stayed behind. Amy Keaton didn't see her parents when she came in, mentioning that Vanessa is actually her stepmother.
Greg Sanders and Sara retrieve a pair of stiletto heels from the fountain. They speculate that Vanessa slipped out of her shoes, put her feet into the fountain, lost her balance and fell, striking her head against the edge of the fountain. Greg takes out at quorpak jar to collect a sample of water.
Blood is splattered all over the walls of a video arcade. A table saw is covered in blood, and the vintage video arcade games around the room are covered with plastic and spatters of blood. Warrick and Nick have finished their investigation and are exhausted. They speculate that the landlord, Mr. Basengi, was working late, fixing up the store for a new tenant, when the killer walks in and slams him down on the table. The eviction notice on the wall indicates motive. Tenants Melissa Poolie and Charlie Pinscher are being investigated by Detective Cavaliere.
Marty Gleason, the "bio-recovery services" guy, enters the scene. He sees the enormous amounts of blood and can smell the ninhydrin used by the CSIs. Marty is in a rush, as the wife of the deceased wants the mess cleaned up as soon as possible for the new tenant.
Dr. Robbins stitches up Vanessa Keaton and tells Grissom that cause of death was pulmonary edema due to drowning. Samples of the water were sent to Trace. The abrasion found on the head was enough to cause loss of consciousness, and alcohol could have been a contributing factor. They also find four uniform puncture wounds on her upper back: Non-lethal, and she wasn't wearing her dress when she was stabbed. Robbins also collects lubricant from the labia, in order to look for any DNA.
Nick and Detective Cavaliere interrogate Charlie Pinshcher. They find out that Pinscher's girlfriend, Melissa Poolie, has supposedly skipped town, and that he invested all his money into the vintage video games. He couldn't pay rent. Pinscher wanted to work something out with the landlord, Basengi, but was told he'd see him in court.
Hodges is trying to flirt with Mia Dickerson in the DNA lab when Greg intrudes and asks him for results on the drowning victim. Hodges hands the quorpak to Greg. Looking through a microscope with a split screen, they see fountain water on one side and lung water on the other. They compare the diatoms, unicellular algae, and they don't match. This indicates that Vanessa Keaton didn't drown in the fountain as she also has polyhexamethylene biguanide, a chlorine alternative often used in spas, in her lungs as well.
Nick and Warrick look over photos of the video game arcade murder. They can't find anything through AFIS, but they speculate that there must have been some blood transfer to the killer.
Marty Gleason angrily tells Nick and Warrick that he's not a garbage man, and they have no idea what he's talking about. He tells them that he smells decomposition in the crime scene and that they must have left their lunch there.
Back at the video arcade they notice the smell of decomposition, but they can't find the source. Warrick crosses to the thermostat and cranks the heat up. He tells Marty to take them to lunch, since he claims to be so rich.
Dan Keaton shows his cracked, drained pool to Sara. She tells him that his wife didn't die in the fountain and that they are taking samples from every pool and spa in the community.
At the Brady house, Greg is filling a QORPAK with pool water. The pool is crystal clear, immaculate. Brass questions Erin Brady, and when Paul Brady arrives he is presented with a warrant to search the house. Paul tells the CSIs that they have a party about once a month.
Grissom and Greg look around inside the house, which is so clean that all traces of the previous evening's party are gone. Grissom finds a box of shish kebab skewers and notices that some are missing. He looks in the dishwasher and withdraws a dildo, quipping that "cleanliness is next to godliness."
Warrick and Nick sit on a curb eating burritos while Marty Gleason drops biohazard bags into the back of his van. Mrs. Basengi, the landlord's wife, drives up and, using a false Southern accent, Marty soothes her concerns about cleaning up the video arcade.
Back at the arcade, the CSIs trace the smell to a Ms. Pac-Man video game. They open it to find a heavily decomposed female body, wrapped in plastic.
In the DNA lab, Mia goes through the evidence bags: vibrators, plugs, beads and used condoms.
Dr. Robbins autopsies the plastic-wrapped body, cutting her out of the plastic and taking body cavity samples.
Nick and Detective Cavaliere interrogate Charlie Pinscher, showing him pictures of the woman found in the arcade: Melissa Poolie, his missing girlfriend. DNA samples found in her vaginal cavity match the dead landlord. She was "paying rent" on her back. They speculate that Charlie became angry about this and struck her with a blunt instrument, killing her.
Charlie claims he didn't kill Melissa, but under pressure from Nick, who tells him that phenolpthalein will pick up the slightest trace of blood, he finally breaks down and admits to killing Mr. Basengi, the landlord.
At the CSI offices, Catherine Willows trails Grissom, telling him that the supervisor spot on the day shift has opened up and that she wants it. She is very defensive as she goes on a tirade about how Grissom must think she's incapable and that she's missing out on her daughter's life because of her schedule. Grissom responds that Catherine needs to leave her problems at home, but that she is up for the position, as he put in a good word with the Director.
Mia Dickerson reports her DNA analysis to Grissom and Greg. Semen analysis found in the 26 condoms indicates ten males and the lubricant, which seemed to be popular at the party, contained DNA that indicated eleven females. The victim, Vanessa, is matched with semen from four different males.
Grissom and Brass interview Erin Brady, who tells them that she and her husband "swing." This "lifestyle" has strengthened their marriage. Concurrent to this, Sara interviews Paul Brady, who admits to having had sex with Vanessa. The CSIs learn that there are rules for swinging: no affairs, sex with someone other than your spouse is only allowed at parties, arrive as a couple, leave as a couple, no photos or video, no drugs, always condoms and the kids must never know.
Sara and Grissom sit on a bench, obviously affected by what they learned from the Bradys. Grissom tells her that Hodges got a match on the water from Vanessa Keaton's lungs. They know where she drowned.
Grissom notices a blood smear on the edge of Tom and Meg Cunningham's spa. Brass asks them if Vanessa Keaton was there the night she died, since they matched the water in her lungs to their spa. Tom replies in the negative. The couple claims that after they left the party at around 11:30 they went to the Bellagio for a romantic night out. Tom admits that he had sex with Vanessa, Erin Brady and Mallory Stone.
At the coroner's office, Dr. Robbins stands over Melissa Poole, who lies face-down on the table, the back of her shaven head exposing a concave wound in the skull. Warrick tells Robbins that Charlie confessed to killing the landlord, but swears he had nothing to do with his girlfriend's death.
Brass interrogates Meg Cunningham, who finally breaks down. Security cameras at the Bellagio confirmed she wasn't with her husband; she was with a blonde female in her late 20s. Meg maintains that she doesn't know what happened between her husband and Vanessa.
At the Cunningham house, Grissom and Sara are in full search mode. Sara finds a stash of pornographic magazines. Grissom pulls a photo out of one of the magazines that has the grainy look of a webcam image: a woman in black La Perla underwear, photographed from the neck down. They suspect it could be Vanessa Keaton.
Warrick and Nick search the video arcade looking for a weapon. Under the counter, Warrick finds a baseball bat with tiny streaks of dried blood embedded in the wood grain. Nick PHENOS for blood and the swab comes up pink, indicating its presence.
Warrick, Nick and Marty Gleason watch Mrs. Basengi being led away in cuffs at the police department. Warrick explains that she saw her husband collecting "rent" from Melissa Poolie, and after he left the store, she confronted Melissa. When Melissa turned to walk away, Mrs. Basengi smacked her across the back of the head with a baseball bat, then wrapped her in plastic and stuffed her into the Ms. Pac Man cabinet. Marty comments that she did a lousy job cleaning the bat. the community.
In the autopsy lab, Sara pulls out a drawer containing Vanessa Keaton. Grissom looks a the navel on the photo and points out that the woman in the webcam picture has an "innie" but Vanessa has an "outie": the woman in the photo is not Vanessa.
David Phillips rolls Vanessa's body over to show the CSIs that there is post-mortem bruising: a "bar" of bruising has become visible between the holes in Vanessa's back. Now there are two sets of two-hole wounds connected by bruising. She wasn't stabbed four times with a skewer. She was stabbed twice with a two-pronged instrument.
Back at the Cunningham home, Greg finds the barbecue and a shiny barbecue fork. He sprays the fork with LUMINOL and the tines glow pale blue.
At the CSI A/V Lab Sara searches through Tom Cunningham's hard drive. She finds that there's a lot of email back and forth between the Cunninghams and the Keatons, but she can't ID the mystery woman. They find an attached file of the webcam picture of the woman, sent by the name "SweetKeat" and then they find the response from "Cunning1" to meet at midnight behind the skate park.
Tom Cunningham is caught on a surveillance video with 15-year-old Amy Keaton. He pulls her into the back of his Suburban as she removes her sweater. Tom asks Brass to stop the tape. He sits with his lawyer, who advises Tom to keep quiet. Tom tells Brass that she came on to him, that she hardly looks 15.
Grissom and Sara question Amy and Dan Keaton. Sara tells Amy that she emailed the photo of herself to Tom Cunningham. She admits to an affair with Cunningham, and that inflames Dan Keaton. Amy retorts that she knows all about his "parties." Grissom slides a bagged barbecue fork towards Amy, telling her that they found her prints on the handle along with her stepmother's blood.
The crime scene is reconstructed by Grissom. Amy caught Tom Cunningham in the spa with Vanessa Keaton, and in a jealous rage, she grabs a barbecue fork and plunges it into Vanessa's back twice. Vanessa wheels around, loses her footing and falls forward, hitting her forehead against the edge of the spa, knocking her out. Vanessa remains submerged under water while Amy and Tom argued. Then they realized that she was not moving.
As Grissom and Sara exit the interrogation room into the hallway, they recite the swingers' "rules," ending with "and the kids must never know."
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