Without A Trace 6.12 “Article 32″ Recap
Episode Name: “Article 32”
Episode Number: 6.12
Air Date: January 17, 2008
Veterans hospital worker, Laura Richards works in the basement, painting and sculpturing prosthetics for recent vet amputees. She missed work two mornings in a row, and was then reported missing.
Agents Malone and Delgado note that working in the basement is not the safest place for a woman alone. The New York Missing Person’s Squad begin their investigation. Her boss notes that she was doing exceptional work at the hospital. PFC Higgins is mentioned because he was indirectly upset with Laura on the day she disappeared.
Her boss says that Laura mentioned having trouble with an orderly, Malcolm Rainer. According to her, “He’s always around, lurking”. Agent Johnson investigates him and puts his apartment building under surveillance via NYPD.
Laura’s father tells Agent Malone and Fitzgerald that she was working at the VA because of him. He pulled a favor with a judge so she could spend her community service working there instead of sitting in jail. She had been caught shoplifting. He’s also a veteran, so he thought it would be good for her.
Agent Johnson watches video as she tries to glean something on the Franklin Romar aliases (from a previous case). Detective Mars suggest they bring the witness, Angela back in, but Johnson notes that she’s with her family and they aren’t returning her calls.
Agent Johnson notes there are three candidates coming in for the Task Force they’re creating, and tells Detective Mars he needs to look through their files. He tells her that he can’t because he’s got a lead on another case (the brothel bust in Baltimore). Johnson asks him to call her if he finds anything, and he gives her a look as if he’s wondering why.
It’s determined that Malcome has been forging benefit claims for veterans so they get bigger cuts in their settlements. He admits to Delgado and Spade that Laura figured out his scam, and asked him to forge some signatures on three car titles for her silence. The signature he forged was her father’s, Quentin Richards.
Laura’s father says he knew nothing about the stolen cars or Laura’s involvement, and has an alibi for the night she was last seen. A picture of a veteran was found on her hard drive, Marine Daniel Ellerbee. He was recovering at the Vet hospital while Laura worked there.
Agent Malone questions Daniel while his wife is sitting there, and he describes his relationship with Laura as a friendship, and they flashback to Laura talking to Daniel about what happened to him when he lost his leg. Laura seemed overly concerned about Michael when he says he’ll be working a desk job at Hanford University. Michael notes that the last time he saw her, she said she was leaving town for a while.
Agent Johnson interviews the three candidates to get help in searching for Franklin Romar. One candidate sticks out, Mr. Waters, but doesn’t make the cut.
Agents Delgado and Taylor lean on a guy named Cameron who “bought” one of the stolen cars. It’s revealed that someone named Will and Laura traded the car for solvents commonly used in creating a meth lab or bomb making. Cameron gives them the address. FBI agents storm the location, a warehouse, and find bomb making supplies and a map of a target, which is the ROTC Hall at Hanford University.
The ROTC building is evacuated and the university is shut down. It seems Will has a history of making terrorist threats and posting war rants on the Internet. Spade and Taylor determine Laura and Will met at an anti-war rally.
Agent Malone tells Laura’s dad that she was shoplifting and stealing to fund terrorist activities. Jack warns her dad that something must have happened to cause her to do this. Laura’s dad admits that she’s been dealing with his war-related “episodes” for years. He describes one as him with a revolver pointed to her head and his knife pointed to his stomach on the night she was to go to prom. He reveals that these types of scenes have gone on for years.
Tim Collier, an investigative analyst shows up at Johnson’s office to apply for the task force. He admits he looked at the confidential file. Jonhson warns him about looking at unauthorized files, but he gives her something that may lead to solving the case. Moments later, Johnson is called and asked if she’s authorized “something”, and she says no.
Agents Malone and Delgado find that a man, Lt. Cheever is dead in his home. He was the commanding officer (CO.) of Daniel Ellerbee.
Will is captured by the FBI, and happens to have some blasting caps or detonators on his person. He reveals that Laura backed out of the plan they’d had for five months to blow up the ROTC because she was afraid that people would actually get hurt. They argued at the warehouse. Moments later, she left with a soldier she called Daniel.
Daniel Ellerbee is brought in for questioning, and says he didn’t reveal that he and Laura had an affair since his wife was sitting right there during the questioning. He admits that his wife treats him like a half of a person since his accident. He says he did not hurt Laura, but broke the affair off since he is married.
Spade tells Malone that Lt. Cheever was set for an Article 32 hearing (friendly fire). Daniel’s best friend, Eric Banks died in the same instance of Cheever’s friendly fire incident.
Malone threatens Daniel to tell the truth. Daniel reveals that Banks did die from friendly fire, and he was going to live with the secret. He met Laura and told her, and she convinced him that he’d go crazy like her dad if he didn’t tell the truth. Laura and Daniel went to see his CO, LT. Cheever who did not want the truth out, so he tried to kill them both. Laura managed to get Cheever’s gun and shoot him. Daniel told Laura to get out of town, and that was the last he saw of her.
Det. Mars is back, fresh from Baltimore, and Johnson confronts him about why he used her CRID number to order a SWAT team. He said it was to use some leverage on his brothel case. Johnson says she was completely in the dark about this, and they should have talked about it. Mars admits they should have talked about letting Franklin Romar go when she had him there in the office for questioning.
He notes that he’d been chasing the creep for years. She notes there was no reason to hold him, but Mars says he would have found a reason. Johnson reminds Mars that although he doesn’t work for her, they are a part of a Task Force, and he needs to consult her on things and not just do them on his own. He tells her that she should probably hire the person she liked from the interviews.
Quentin Richards, Laura’s father, leaves home, and is later pulled over by a State Trooper. It looks like he may have been trying to dump or hide her body, as he has blankets in the trunk with her hair on them. He admits that Laura came to see him after shooting Cheever. She admitted that she was sorry because she was unable to help her dad. She asks him to take her to the police, and he refused. He admits to Malone that he smuggled Laura out of the country, because he did not want to see her life ruined because of his mistakes. Jack tells him that he will be charged with aiding and abetting, and he seems OK as long as he knows that Laura is out of their reach.
Agent Fitzgerald notes that Quentin’s car was spotted, headed towards the Canadian border. Malone tells him to hold off and send the report to the Canadian authorities in the morning. As the episode ends, Malone stays behind at the office, to enjoy the quiet.
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POSTED IN: FBI Drama Programs, Recaps, Without A Trace
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