Sunday’s episode of CSI began with a man named Lloyd Bryant working in his medical marijuana shop, selling a brand of weed to a customer. He explains to his customer that the purchases are cash only as a woman enters the shop, where we also see her through security cameras as the lone security guard watches. Everything seems normal at first and when Lloyd finishes with the first customer, he goes to help her.
His phone begins to ring and she tells him to answer it, but he ignores it until she urges him to get it. When he sees a video of his wife and two young children tied up and begging him to do what they tell him to do, he looks at the woman in surprise. He is instructed to put money in a bag and as he is doing this, he asks the woman if his family will be safe, but she doesn’t know. He is trying not to alert the security guard, but then a glass is accidentally knocked to the ground. As the woman attempts to flee, the security guard pulls his gun. When she turns toward him, he shoots her dead.
Nick and Sarah are at the scene processing, but they have no ID on the victim. The call can’t be traced since it was placed using the kidnapped woman’s cell phone and the phone is off. They are unable to even pull her fingerprints. The video is played again and Sarah questions Lloyd, but he doesn’t know much about what is going on. He tells Sarah about kissing his wife and kids goodbye and that Dina takes them to school. Nick asks detective Crawford why the shop would have so much money and he tells Nick the banks won’t touch the money.
Back at the lab, Russell is lost in the case of the Gig Harbor Killer from the previous episode. Finlay comes in and suggests that they should take a look at the case from the beginning, back when the twins were adopted. Since there isn’t much of a record on Paul Winthrop’s adoption, she decides to go back to Seattle on vacation time to dig into foster care records.
Morgan and Greg are on a road where Dina’s car was found. They discover a blue van had been seen in the area and when they look at the back of her car, they see blue paint on the bumper. They deduce that most likely the kidnappers bumped them from behind in order to take Dina and the kids.
Sarah and Nick, meanwhile, are at the lab and running facial recognition on the woman. So far, nothing is coming up and Sarah can tell from the woman’s body language that she is scared and hesitant about what she is doing while at the shop. They find out from watching security footage outside the shop that a black mustang was seen fleeing the area just moments after the shooting. Hodges comes in and tells them he found molasses on the bottom of the victim’s shoes and tells them that molasses is used to cultivate cannabis.
Crawford is still with Lloyd, who is worried and doesn’t want to sit around waiting. The detective assures him they are doing all they can.
Morgan is in the autopsy room with Robbins, who informs her that he couldn’t get any identification on the woman. He also reveals her fingerprints were gone due to a prescription drug she had been taking. The doctor also discovered she had battled cancer. He spots something under her arm and he slices into it to remove some tissue. The tissue has ink inside of it, meaning she had a tattoo once, but they can’t see any tattoos. They figure the tattoo was removed and use a black light to see the tattoo that was removed.
Greg discusses the tattoo with Russell and tells him it was a symbol for a gang called the Bridge Rock Devils. He is going through arrest photos of members over the last ten years. One photo is familiar and they identify their victim as Allison Ball.
Officers storm Allison’s house, but they don’t find any hostages. Nick and Greg go inside to search and discover Allison was a teacher. They find her phone and on the phone is a video of a young man begging Allison for help and apologizing. The man on the video is in photos around Allison’s apartment and they realize she must have been trying to save him.
Russell sees the video of the young man, who is identified as Allison’s brother, Stuart. Greg goes to his apartment to investigate while Nick and Russell search Allison’s house. Seeing the weed Allison used, Nick wonders if it is possible Allison did get her stash from Lloyd’s store.
Hodges is testing marijuana found at Lloyd’s store. Sarah comes in and Hodges tells her about the FBI using a database for marijuana in order to identify different strains. He is seeing if there is a connection between Allison’s stash and the drugs at the shop. However, Hodges found that the stash Allison had did not come from Lloyd’s store. But since the FBI has a database they are putting together of different marijuana, then he might be able to figure out where she got the weed.
Morgan is looking through Allison’s things, including get-well cards and financial records. Greg comes in and informs her the brother is sketchy, since he had many high-end electronics, but didn’t have a source of income. Allison had no finances, but then Morgan discovers something strange.
Greg goes to find Russell to tell him that Allison had $50,000 deposited into her account, which stuns Russell since Allison couldn’t get that kind of money from teaching. Hodges comes out of one of the rooms to tell them he found something. When Russell and Greg come in, they discover that Allison’s weed came from an online store called Us-2-U, which had been raided by the Feds, who put the marijuana recovered into their database.
The owner of the site was Calvin Reynolds. He drives a black mustang and at first, he denies knowing anything. However, after Crawford interrogates him and tells him about the molasses on Allison, Calvin tells him that he and Allison were good friends and that she always called him when she needed help. The last time she called, she was scared and needed a ride to the cannabis shop. They discover that Stuart was working for a bookie.
Sarah is at the shop with Lloyd, who is waiting for the kidnappers to call. When the phone finally rings, it turns out to be someone asking when the shop will be open. One of the officers receives a call. Stuart Ball has been found.
At the scene where the blue van has been discovered, we see Stuart Ball in the driver’s seat, shot dead. The van is taken to the lab where they find out that the van had been stolen. Greg and Morgan process the van and find blood spatter that indicates the shooter was in the back of the car when Stuart was shot. Eventually, they find a bullet hole lodged into the pillar of the car.
Russell and Nick discuss the case, having found out that Stuart had died six to ten hours previously, and they are hoping Dina and the kids are alive. Sarah walks up to them and tells them she got a hit on the bullet and it came back to a bookie named Remi Volero.
In the interrogation room, Sarah vigorously interrogates Volero, who remains calm but not too forthcoming. He does admit to hiring Stuart, but denies involvement in the kidnapping, and tells Sarah he had given Stuart his gun. It isn’t long before he asks for a lawyer.
Russell and Sarah discuss the case and realize in order to figure out where Dina and the kids are, they need to find out where the car has been traveling. So Morgan processes the car, taking care to collect many samples, including an insect and bird poop.
Nick is walking down the hall on his phone, having found out that Lloyd somehow escaped the police at the store. They figure that the kidnapper must have called. Lloyd is seen in his car when another car comes behind his. He gets out to see Crawford and Nick. He is upset, thinking their presence will upset the kidnappers. Crawford tells him that now that the kidnappers have the money, Dina and the kids aren’t worth anything alive now.
Sarah, Greg, and Russell are in the lab discussing the case. Greg was able to pinpoint the cell tower that was used when the kidnapper turned Stuart’s phone on briefly in order to call Lloyd. However, the area he found is too big, so it’s still a guess on where Dina and the kids are. Russell suggests using information on the buildings Volero owns in order to link those to the area within the circle.
Morgan and Hodges are processing the evidence from the truck, including the bird poop. The poop contained traces of a berry that contained a poison that was harmful to humans but not to birds. Morgan figures out that based on the type of bird that eats the berry that the bird flew around the Mediterranean Garden, which has a Meriasol tree where the berries are located.
After sharing their findings with Sarah and Greg, Sarah has Greg cross reference the Garden with the circle he drew. They are able to narrow down a smaller area in the circle to look and the team realizes Volero does have a produce warehouse in this vicinity.
Crawford and Nick go to the produce warehouse and find it empty, save for some kidnapping items. Once they hear clanging, they go to investigate and find Dina, but not the kids. They all go to search and find the kids watching cartoons in another room.
Dina and the kids are at the hospital being checked out. Sarah comes to process everyone and asks Dina to look at a photo line up. However, she is unable to remember any faces. Outside, Lloyd comes and wants to see his family, but Nick tells him they need to process everyone first. Lloyd and Dina share a moment when they see each other.
Greg is looking through the video again, this time going through some photos more carefully. He is able to see a reflection of the person taking the video. Morgan watches as he blows up the image and makes it clearer. They are both shocked to discover who the kidnapper is.
Russell sits in interrogation with none other than the victim, Dina. It turns out she was working with Stuart and orchestrated the kidnapping. She denies it at first, until Russell tells her they have her photo and her sweater, which had blood spatter on it that matched the pattern from the van where Stuart was shot. As she is being arrested, Lloyd watches in stunned silence as he realizes his wife was in on everything.
Russell is in his office talking via phone with Finlay. She tells him that she was unable to find much, but she will keep digging. Russell tells her to be careful as she answers a text from Shaw to go out.
image via Jean Catuffe/INFphoto.com