Chapter Five: Grunt Work

Grace Van Pelt was going blind.

She didn't know this for a medical certainty, but surely after over seven hours of staring at a computer screen (minus one twenty-minute break for lunch at Starbucks), her optical health had to be in jeopardy.

Grace tilted back in her chair, stretched her arms out wide like eagle wings, and heaved a huge sigh.

The rest of the office was uncharacteristically empty.

Rigsby had left over an hour ago to go check out Jeff Cardelli's alibi, Cho was interviewing a homeless man who lived in an alley next to the one where Paul Jorsten had been shot, Lisbon was in a meeting with Legal about Jane's lawsuit, and Jane himself was still off talking to Jorsten's widow.

As usual, Grace was the only member of the team assigned to tedious, computer-based research.

It was boring, and it always took forever – but at least she usually found something. Dry, bloodshot eyes, a stiff neck, and a sore back were all well worth it when she managed to uncover some tiny-yet-vital clue that would help close the case.

Today, all Grace had uncovered was a big pile of nothing. And, judging from the sound of the approaching footsteps, she was about five seconds away from having to report these non-findings to her boss.

Grace quickly leaned forward and started reading again.

"How's it going?" Lisbon asked, coming to a stop behind Grace's chair.

Grace squinted hard at the screen, hoping fiercely for something to pop out and scream "IMPORTANT!" or "CLUE!"

Nothing did.

Shoulders slumping, Grace looked up at her boss. "Um, not that good. To be honest, I haven't really been able to find anything."

Lisbon looked slightly pained. "Nothing?"

Grace shook her head. "Sorry…"

"Did you check their bank accounts?"

"I checked their everything," Grace told her dejectedly. "No suspicious deposits or withdrawals. No significant debt, no unusual credit card activity, no accounts opened or closed in the last eight months."

"Custody issues?" Lisbon asked, sounding a little desperate.

"Standard joint custody, not in dispute by either party," Grace reported. "At this point, I'm basically going through his daily work log, line-by-line, hoping something will pop out."

The boss frowned. "You're looking through his work records?"

Grace nodded.

"But we don't have a warrant for his company's files, yet. Did you—"

"—Hack into their database?" Grace finished, a little smile making her lips twitch. "No." Although, I probably could have, she added silently. "Jorsten kept his own personal copies of all the assignments he logged in at work. They were on the disks his wife gave to Rigsby."

"Ah…" Lisbon bent down to peer at Grace's computer. "So, these are the details of what he did every single day at work?"

"Mmm-hmm."

Lisbon's eyes scanned down the screen as she read, "'Service call one: Marketing Division: A printer will not print. Resolution: Printer was not plugged in. Call two: Accounting: A document will not print. Resolution: The computer was not connected to the printer…Call three: Sales Department: Computer will not turn on. Resolution: Computer was on, monitor was not turned on…' God, what boring job…"

Grace grimaced, thinking about her own assignment that day.

Lisbon didn't seem to notice.

"You'd think it would be a little more stimulating, working at a company that makes dirt bikes and ATVs…" the boss commented. "Was it at all strange, for him to keep his own copies of this stuff?"

Grace shrugged. "He was a geek. Geeks back things up."

Lisbon made a small noise of acknowledgement, and the two women lapsed into silence, reading.

After a minute, Grace spoke up thoughtfully. "Well, I guess he could've been using it to analyze his own job performance…Or maybe he was just trying to see where he stood with the company. Whether they were trusting him with more important assignments or still just sticking him with the grunt work…Not that there's anything wrong with grunt work," she added hastily.

Lisbon frowned, absorbing the information. "Did he ever get any important assignments? Something other than a computer not being turned on or plugged in?"

Grace scrolled back through everything she'd read in the last hour. "Uhhhh…Here." She stopped and pointed at the screen. "About four weeks ago, he was in charge of installing new anti-virus and other security software for the Sales Division. And, a week after that, he did a file recovery for the CEO, Buck Hoskins, when his computer crashed."

Lisbon's eyebrow quirked again. "The CEO? That's pretty major…"

"Yeah, and both of those assignments were given to Paul because the head tech guy was out sick on the days those jobs needed to be done. Paul stepped up and volunteered."

"Hm." Lisbon mulled this over. "Do you think it's possible Paul Jorsten was trying to get a promotion?"

Grace chewed her lip. "Well, he didn't officially apply for one, but that doesn't mean he wasn't thinking about it…Or somebody else might've thought he was…"

"Either way, it's an angle," Lisbon declared. "Let's go talk to some people at Durenko."

Grace looked hopefully up at her boss, hardly daring to believe. "Let's…you and me go talk to them?"

Lisbon blinked. "Is that a problem?"

Grace practically jumped out of her chair. "No! No, not at all. Let me just…" She scrambled to save her work and shut down while Lisbon waited, fingers tapping.

The monitor blinked off. "Ready," Grace beamed.

Lisbon rolled her eyes and strode off through the forest of cluttered desks.

Grace darn near bounded in pursuit, refreshed and recharged as if she'd just gotten a jolt from the Energizer Bunny.

Clearly, bringing back one of Starbucks' caffeine-loaded, non-fat triple mocha lattes for the boss had been the right move.