"It's going to be a full double shift."
"With all that overtime," O'Riley said, "I'll know who to come to for a loan. Mobley's gonna love you."
O'Riley meant Sheriff Mobley, whose hobby was cracking down on overtime; the police and of course the CSIs were under the sheriff's jurisdiction in Vegas.
Before long, Nick had escorted the makeshift computer squad to Janice Denard's office. When they gathered clumsily at the door, Nunez looked up and grinned. "Hey-the compu-posse!"
They trooped in and Nick went to Catherine's side. Her eyes were wide; she hadn't expected so large a crew.
"You all know each other?" Nunez asked as he rose from Janice's desk and came around.
"I know Giles and Carroll," Nick said.
"You'll know everybody before we're through. Better than you want."
The computer expert made intros all around, starting with Webster, a tall, thin state trooper who seemed unable to stand still. The other two, Nunez explained, were freelancer buddies of his: Wolf, a short muscular guy whose name suited him; and Moes, a slightly over-weight bemused middle-aged man who among the group looked closest to a stereotypical computer geek.
Nick and Catherine watched and listened as Nunez explained the situation to his volunteer team; neither CSI had any additions or corrections, and were impressed with Nunez's summary, since the man had followed them onto the scene.
He closed by saying, "It's Monday-best-case scenario, I want this company back open for business by Wednesday."
"What's the worst-case scenario?" Wolf asked.
"Thursday…. We can't punish this business for the perversity of one employee. That means we've got plenty of work to do and not much time to do it in, so let's get started."
Catherine stepped forward and offered a business-like smile. "I'd like to thank you for helping out. And while you get on it, Nick and I'll start fingerprinting the employees."
Somewhat forgotten in her chair off against the wall, Janice Denard piped up, in voice tinged with both outrage and resignation, "You can do that?"
Nick turned to her and said, pleasantly, "At this stage, it will be voluntary; but it's a good way to get yourself exonerated right away."
"I'm afraid I don't follow you."
Nick shrugged. "Sooner or later we'll find out which keyboard sent that print order to your boss's machine. When we do isolate the work station, we'll dust the keyboard for fingerprints. We will match those prints to someone, most likely someone who works in this facility…and then we'll be a lot closer to finding out who's guilty and who's innocent."
Denard said, "Well, you might let me pave the way by volunteering to go first."
Catherine said, "That's a nice gesture. We appreciate it. Anything you can do to keep the feathers un-ruffled around here would be helpful."
Denard managed a brave nod. "I'll try."
As Nick and Catherine set up fingerprinting shop, Tomas Nunez supervised the dismantling of Newcombe-Gold. This would be the most time-consuming part of the effort and, even with the extra help, would take hours. Nunez had already directed Leary to get a head start photographing each computer, all the peripherals and the wiring in the back, but even so, the uniformed officer still had plenty of pictures left to shoot when the team arrived.
Carroll and state patrolman Webster pitched in to help Leary. The plan was that when the photos were finally done, Nunez would personally disconnect each item, tag it, and hand it to one of his team, who would carry it out to the truck where Giles would catalogue and load each piece by hand. Catherine was just finishing fingerprinting Janice Denard, handing her a paper towel to wipe her hands, when O'Riley strolled into the room.
"I have three guys helping me now," O'Riley said. "We're maybe halfway through doing these preliminary interviews."
Catherine asked, "Have your questions alerted them to what's going on?"
"No. Of course they already know it had something to do with computers, and probably figured out we're not tryin' to figure out who's playin' computer solitaire on office time. And anyway, this thing isn't likely to stay hidden."
Denard said, "Well, I won't spread it around!"
Catherine smiled at the woman. "I'm sure you won't. But Sergeant O'Riley is right-it's unlikely to remain our little secret." She turned back to the detective. "Can you start sending them our way, for fingerprinting?"
"I'm glad to hear you say that," O'Riley said. The big man plopped into a chair, sighing, clearly exhausted. "Sooner we get these pissed-off people outa here, the happier I'll be. But telling 'em they got to stand around a while longer, while you get 'em fingerprinted, isn't going to make them love us more. How about one of you guys delivers that cheery news?"
Letting out a mirthless laugh, Catherine said, "I'm it." Then, clapping the detective on the shoulder, she added, "You can be my backup. Case somebody tries to kill me."
O'Riley gave her a look.
"It's not just a job, Sarge-it's an adventure."
Shaking his head, the detective hauled himself to his feet and followed her out.
While Catherine went to the lobby, Nick asked Janice Denard for a master employee list.
Nick explained, "We need to track who we have and haven't spoken to."
Denard rose to her feet; her eyebrows rose, too. "Take me a little while without the computer."
"I hear that," he said, giving her the sympathy she clearly craved.
In the lobby, Catherine was confronting the grumbling crowd, while off to various sides of the lobby, three detectives were pausing in the midst of interviews. After introducing herself, she said, "As you've gathered, we're looking for a suspect in a serious crime."
"What crime?" a voice yelled, echoing.
With a tight smile and a shake of the head, Catherine said, "I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to talk about it at this point; but here's the deal-in order to eliminate each of you as suspects as quickly as possible, we would like you to voluntarily submit to being fingerprinted."
"How about-no," a red-faced man said near the front of the crowd.
From behind him, another man suggested, "How about hell no!"
Catherine shrugged and remained low-key, even light. "There's another option. We can get court orders for each and every one of you, and that could take quite some time considering the number of people who work here. Then we'll just wait until the court orders arrive. Another possibility is releasing you now, and then you can come into the crime lab for fingerprinting. Maybe you think that would make an interesting day trip."
"You don't have to be sarcastic," a woman snapped. "We're just trying to do our jobs."
"I know the feeling," Catherine said.
This seemed to make the point as well as anything.
"I'm going to ask a show of hands," Catherine went on. "Who is willing to be fingerprinted, without a court order?"
Gradually, all of the employees raised their hands, as if in half-hearted surrender.
They were in that posture when Nick came in carrying their print kits and the employee list he had gotten from Denard.
Nick said to Catherine, quietly, "Let's not drag them into the crime scene."
Catherine, nodding that this was a good idea, pointed toward the receptionist's desk and he nodded. Going down the list, they printed twenty-two employees, while O'Riley and the three other detectives completed their preliminary interviews. All the while, the employees and CSIs watched Nunez's guys hauling the very guts of their business outside to the waiting truck.
When Nick and Catherine finally finished up, they cornered Janice Denard one last time, in her office. Neither Catherine nor Nick confronted her about her lack of "paving the way" with the employees, re the fingerprinting. But the personal assistant clearly read displeasure on their faces, just the same.