CSI: CRIME scene investigation

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Swap Meet

Written by Sarah Goldfinger
Directed by Danny Cannon

A suburban swingers’ party turns deadly when a woman is found drowned in a fountain early the next morning, but early tests soon shows the CSI team that the water found in the victim’s lungs were not from the fountain, but from a pool or spa. Clearly, Vanessa Keaton was stabbed somewhere else before she drowned, and then body was redressed and dumped in the fountain.

 The only logical step is for the team to test every pool and spa in the gated community, and while Grissom, Greg and Brass search, they come across a possible murder weapon –barbecue skewers, which match the stab wounds in Vanessa’s back. Grissom finds the offending skewers in dishwasher of Erin and Paul Brady, the hosts of what they choose to call the monthly “mixer.” But the surprising contents of the dishwasher makes Grissom think otherwise. As he puts it: “Mrs. Brady, I can understand a couple having one, maybe two dildos…but nine?”

 The nine dildos, and other sex toys found in the house are collected and sent to Mia (Aisha Tyler) in the DNA lab, and the results uncover the truth about the swinging “lifestyle” – not every couple is as cool with it as they pretend to be, and that may have cost the very popular Vanessa her life.

 Meanwhile, Nick and Warrick investigate the death of a mall/video arcade owner, who has been shredded by a table saw. A couple tossed for non-payment of rent is immediate suspects in Mr. Basenji’s murder. But then the cleaner who restores messy crime scenes to pristine conditions has disturbing news for Nick and Warrick – somewhere in the arcade there’s a decomposing body, which they missed the first time around. The body turns out to be Melissa Poolie, one of the evicted tenants, so the team takes a closer look at her boyfriend Charlie Pinscher, who believed her when she said she had convinced Basenji to give them more time to pay up. But evidence shows that Melissa was having sex with the landlord, providing a more than perfect motive for a double murder if Charlie really knew what was going on behind his back.

And, Greg and Hodges spar over Mia, a DNA lab rat’s dream.