Chapter 6:

Mildred was in the middle of an argument with Pedro, about the whole place being a complete disorder. It seemed that, for the man, the more rooms in the process of disaster, the better.

At that very moment, Mr. Steele appeared in his office, wearing one of his Italian suits, walking through the room like avoiding mines in a battlefield. "Good morning Mildred! Nice to see you right in place to start our work day! Hola Pedro, a pleasure to see you too. I think we might have some words. Come with me mate." They went to the stuff room, and Mr. Steele closed the door with care.

"You know Pedro; we run a detective agency here, right in this place. We use to have rooms to receive our clients, and rooms to have our work done. But since you started to spend your days working here, it feels like our office disappeared under your rags and paint cans, and we are having trouble even to find a place on the floor to put our feet on. Don't you think you are able to do a better job?"

"Andale amigo!" started to answer Pedro, but Mr. Steele interrupted him immediately.

"In English, please Pedro."

"Okay. Come on, my friend! We are almost finished! Don't be impatient! I promise we will be out of your sight right at the end of next week," answered the man.

"I need you out of my sight on Friday," said Mr. Steele.

"That would not be a problem!" answered Pedro.

"Give me your hand, and we'll have a deal, amigo," said Mr. Steele.

"Of course that would increase our fee on a percentage…"

"A percentage, I see…How much are we talking about, Pedro?" asked the detective.

"Let me see…" and pulling out a calculator from his pocket, the painter started to type while making a gesture as if calculating an investment on the stock market.

"I think a thirty percent would be fine," finally said the contractor.

"Thirty percent?" asked Mr. Steele horrified. "Ok, mate. We have a deal, but I want you out of the office, every room finished and cleaned by Friday afternoon; and Pedro, keep this conversation and our arrangement just between the two of us. I need your mouth shut. The agency will pay the original contract, and I will pay you for your special effort from my own personal account. Nobody else needs to know anything about our deal." They shook hands, and in a minute, Pedro was flying between offices, trying to put the things together to arrive in time to Mr. Steele's pretended schedule.

Mildred, who was working at her desk in the reception area, was speechless. "How did you manage to make him work, chief? I've been fighting with the man the whole week, and I couldn't get even a diligent response from him."

"Ah, Mildred…a man has to know how to manage his own business. Is anything else important that would require my attention here?"

"No chief, I think you can go now. Did you find the contract? I think I left it here on my desk yesterday, but I can't find it right now. Thank God this mess will be finished soon."

"We have the contract, Mildred, thank you."

"When did you come to pick it up? I waited for you yesterday until it was pretty late."

"Hmm, we came here on our way home Mildred. It was very late. I can't remember the hour exactly."

"That explains the security report I got this morning…" answered the secretary triumphantly. She had been guiding him through her labyrinth since her first question, and he'd fell like a dumb.

"What are you talking about, Mildred?" sensing danger ahead of him, he started to play his act then.

"I'm talking about you and Miss Holt here at the office, with every light off, found by a guard in a very suspicious situation…"

"I think this guard was interested in having something with you, Mildred. He came into the office calling your name, and he seemed pretty disappointed that it was me instead of you the one here in the dark."

"Oh, maybe it was Clark! He is always looking at me with those eyes…" She blushed."I think he is in the night turn for the week. We use to talk when the night catches both of us still here…"

"I'm sure those were his intentions, Mildred," he told her showing a bit of doubt over his face." I really have to go. I have to pick up Miss Holt at her place to start our day at Stanhope's. See you later, Mildred."

"See you later, Boss."

On the way to the loft, he was trying to figure out the best way to tell the news to Laura. She had been right last night, and Mildred and half of Century City would be aware of their recent stakeout. If she didn't take the decision quickly about making public their relationship, it would turn out really uncomfortable to confront Mildred's detecting gaze every day.

"Mr. Steele! I thought you said we would meet here at 9:00. It's almost 9:45, we are late…" said Laura worriedly.

"I had a task to resolve at the office before coming here, Laura."

"What kind of task? We are not seeing any client this week, and we have the contract already…Please don't tell me you met Mildred there…"

"I'm sad to inform you, that yes I did. I did meet Mildred at the office. After the way our business is running without having a decent place to work, and after last night's events, I considered prudent to make a stop there to have a picture of the current situation. By the way, I had a talk with Pedro, and he is finishing his job on Friday," he told her.

"How did you manage to do that? Mildred has been following the man for the entire week without a positive result. Please don't tell me the agency will have to pay him more money to finish the job…"

"You know me very well Laura. I always find the best way to get the things that I need from people. The Agency will not pay him more money. I took advantage of one of my many talents, and we had an agreement."

"As I know you very well, I am aware of your many talents to convince people to do things. I'm still worried about the ones I don't approve," she retorted.

"You have your hidden talents too, Laura. Don't blame me for having mines…" he wiggled his eyebrows looking at her.

"Don't think that your talent with words will save you from telling me how you managed things with Mildred at the office."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Laura."

"Of course you know what I am talking about. Does Mildred know or she doesn't?"

"She knows," he answered, but was interrupted by her.

"I knew! I knew she was going to find it!" she hid her face behind her hands.

"But let me finish what I was saying. That was the less bad of the news. I think that by this time, half of Century City knows about our last night little escapade. It seems that the night guard is like a masculine clone of Mildred."

"Oh my God, I can't believe it! What are we going to do?"

"I think the wise thing to do is to have a talk with our secretary. Maybe if we manage things well, we can count on her as our ally, instead of counting her as our enemy, as we talked last night."

"What are you talking about? If we do tell her the truth, we can't hope for her to keep the secret! You know her!" she was desperate.

"We can approach to the matter like a case. We can tell Mildred and ask her to protect our privacy. We can suggest her it will be dangerous if the subject gets public because of our line of work."

"Maybe you are right, and as you said, I am giving more relevance to things than they deserve. We could try with your plan, and see if it works." With that, the subject was closed. They should focus on the case, another complicated task in front of them still to solve.