23. Strawberries and Cream, Part I

Complete story — includes the ending

At JD Gas & Food Mart, a nervous man wearing a suicide vest is caught between store employee Gupta and two suspicious policeman. The bomb vest explodes. Jane determines the dead perpetrator, Alan Dinkler, was actually the victim, who earlier had held up Cash In Motion, a payday loan store where he worked. He stole cash and client lists but, Jane determines, the cash is a decoy and someone was after the client lists. Gupta tells Lisbon and Jane that Dinkler asked for the restroom key and they find "AD - 297A6 Windsor" written on the wall as instructions for Dinkler. CBI identify a slew of matching addresses. Jane goes to check on Lisbon who is driving to the last "Windsor" on her list, a closed-down school. He finds Lisbon unconscious and, like Dinkler, with a bomb strapped to her chest. A cell phone attached to the vest rings and a muffled voice threatens to detonate the bomb if she does not fetch the Cash In Motion client lists from the CBI evidence. When the bomber asks how far away they are from the CBI, Jane realizes he cannot see them and turns off the route. Jane narrates their pretend progress to the CBI storage locker while they hunt the bomber. They successfully burst in on Gupta and disarm the bomb. In a police van, LaRoche shoots Gupta dead saying he was trying to escape. Lisbon briefs her superiors LaRoche and Bertram: Jane knew it was Gupta as soon as he knew the bomber could speak directly to Dinkler (by phone) as he did with Lisbon so the restroom message was only a ploy to entrap the CBI. Dinkler stopped to deliver the stolen client list to Gupta but the policemen's intervention forced Gupta to detonate the bomb. One client on Cash in Motion's list is Max James who, when checked on, is found dead in his house after being tortured. Cho finds a photo of James with Hightower. Jane and Lisbon realise they are being manipulated by Red John who is hunting Hightower. Lisbon orders Cho to forget what he found and asks him to trust her. Later Jane goes to a hotel room and finds Hightower waiting for him.