Chapter 3
When Relena walks into Dorothy's building, she steels herself and smiles. This is what she's here for, she reminds herself, as several employees do a double-take when they watch her pass by their workstations and offices. It doesn't take long before someone comes over to ask if she needs any assistance.
"Thank you," she responds. The man's young and good-looking, and Relena briefly hopes that he was hired for his skills and not his looks. Reminding herself that Dorothy wouldn't be so irresponsible, no matter what kind of front she likes to put up in front of strangers and the media, Relena concludes that although the man looks like a male model, he must work here because he's actually qualified.
And as the person who first walks up to her, he's currently Relena's prime suspect for filtering information out of these offices in order to gain a side source of income. "I'm actually here to visit my friend, Dorothy," she continues smoothly. "Could you direct me to her office?" she asks. Relena doesn't really need directions, since Heero's already shown her a detailed floor plan of the building, but it suits her needs right now to pretend otherwise.
Relena doesn't use Dorothy's full name; she doesn't need to. Everyone around her knows who she means. Relena pays special attention to who comes forward to offer help, and who goes back to their duties instead. Knowing Dorothy, she would very much value the second type of employee more than the first, and not only because those who return to their duties are being more productive.
The first group is naturally going to be made up of the less competent, and those who are angling for more information from Relena. Really, only one person actually needs to take a minute and direct her towards the elevators after telling her what floor Dorothy's office is on. Instead, she has an entourage surrounding her within moments.
"Miss Peacecraft, I saw that press conference! Are you alright?"
"That whole ordeal sounds just dreadful, Miss Peacecraft."
"Was your decision to quit your office because of what happened that day?"
Relena marks the woman who asks that last question as another possible mole, and tries to be polite as she answers all of their questions. "Please, call me Relena," she says. It'll make them more comfortable in her presence, to refer to her as more of a peer and less of an icon, and also, Relena gets irritated when everyone always refers to her as Miss Peacecraft.
The media calls her that, and her previous coworkers always referred to her by that title, so she's not surprised that everyone else does so as well, unless they actually know her. Her legal name is Peacecraft-Darlian, because she decided years ago to honor both her birth parents and the ones who raised her.
That no one ever refers to her by her full name anymore is just a minor source of annoyance that Relena's long-since grown used to, but if she can get a few people here calling her by her first name instead, then she will.
Some of them look taken aback, but a few others crowd closer and smile wider. Relena studies those employees carefully as they all move down the hallway together, and crosses a few of them off of her mental list. They simply look far too star-struck at Relena's presence to be anything but genuinely interested in her. Unless they're faking the enthusiasm, but she can tell by now when someone's actually pleased to see her or just being polite. A few people walking with them while also carefully keeping their distance from her are faking politeness, and Relena's watching those ones closely.
"Oh," Relena exclaims when they finally arrive at the elevators, as if she's just considered something, "I'm so sorry, but could we take the stairs instead? I'd feel more comfortable."
Again, most of the employees following her practically trip all over themselves eagerly agreeing to her request. No one even questions her statement. It's flattering, yet ridiculous at the same time.
"Relena," one of them says, another woman. She's been especially persistent about staying right by Relena's side, but Relena's almost positive that's due more to the other woman trying to assert her seniority and importance than for any truly malicious motive. "Is it true that you and Miss Catalonia have been close friends for years?"
Ah. Someone who thinks she can get ahead by cozying up to Relena, who can of course put in a good word for her with Dorothy. Relena nods. "Yes, that's true," she says. "I'm not sure if we were that close at first, but we've known each other for years at this point, and we've become dear friends." They definitely weren't good friends when they first met each other, but Relena's not going to get into war loyalties right now.
"That's wonderful, isn't it?" The woman, who introduces herself as Charlie Melton, is practically gushing. Not that Relena needed Miss Melton to introduce herself, since Relena memorized Dorothy's list of employees over the weekend. The woman's enthusiasm is reminiscent of when Relena was constantly surrounded by society girls during school. She can't say that she's missed the simpering. "Imagine, the two of you managing to stay friends for so long!"
Relena acquiesces. It is surprising, and wonderful. She follows the growing group of employees through several stairways and hallways, until they finally reach the top floor. Once there, Relena makes her excuses, and everyone else reluctantly breaks away in order to return to their actual jobs.
Well, at least now she has a very narrow list for Heero. Mission accomplished, she thinks with some amusement. Relena makes sure to text the names to Heero before she opens the door and greets Dorothy.
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Heero's phone beeps, and she looks at the list of names Relena's just sent. Heero can't help but smirk at the confirmation that their ruse has worked so well. There's only four names, which she raises an eyebrow at, but Heero trusts Relena's judgment and gets to work hacking into Dorothy's security system for their personal info. It takes her only a few minutes to get through the firewall, and she briefly wonders if Dorothy lowered the security on purpose, but dismisses the thought as irrelevant.
Besides, it's probably just that most company systems use a similar layout, and it's become laughably easy for Heero to circumnavigate them. Still, she obligingly notes what should be changed, and then types up that section of her report while she waits for a few programs she's running to compile the four suspicious employees' financial records.
What she finds isn't exactly surprising. Heero discovers that two of the employees are directly being paid by outside companies on a somewhat regular basis. She copies this information into her report without pausing, since it's simple enough to understand by itself. Further proof that Dorothy could have asked any competent private investigator to look into this matter.
Of the other two, Heero dismisses one of them as being innocent. Well, he's definitely having an affair, but that has nothing to do with Dorothy's company, so it's not her concern. That she sends an anonymous email to his wife detailing his exploits is neither here nor there, but Heero knows that Relena will approve. Even Dorothy will, most likely.
The last name on her list, though, Heero almost sets aside. The woman has no obvious deposits going into her savings account, and her phone records seem clean. All told, she sounds like a model employee, but Heero digs deeper. It takes her a few hours of using different spellings of the same name, and then using the woman's mother's maiden name, but eventually Heero discovers the off-shore account.
Smart, but not smart enough. Heero smirks. She has some more searches to run, and wants to dig into Dorothy's company's security system some more, but Relena's help in sorting out which employees are suspicious means that Heero's basically done now. Technically, they could bring their findings to Dorothy tomorrow, but both Heero and Relena have already discussed that. They've decided to give it the full week, just in case something unexpected comes up.
That, and Heero doesn't want Dorothy to know for sure that Relena's surprise visit was so instrumental in accomplishing their job. Sure, Dorothy will know that Relena was at her building for an ulterior reason besides only visiting, but will Dorothy figure out what their real plan was? It's not like Dorothy's an enemy that they have to keep secrets from, so Heero's not too worried about it if Dorothy does know. Technically, she's their client, so they should be forthright with her anyway. But that doesn't mean Dorothy needs to know their exact methods if she can't figure them out for herself.
Besides, it's Relena's idea that most people should see her as nothing more than the public face, and Heero as the real brains behind their business. The truth is almost the complete opposite, of course, except that both of them are equally essential. The deception will hopefully put people off their guard around Relena, though, which will continue to make her job a lot easier. Besides, they've got far more planned for in the long run than owning a simple security business, and the less people who figure that out beforehand, the better.
When Heero sits back, satisfied for now, she can admit that Relena was definitely right. This was the perfect first assignment for them.