"So," I said, "time to go to work."
"Time to meet your colleague." Lord Todd countered.
"Colleague?"
Lord Todd pressed the button on his key-ring fob. The body-guard re-appeared as if he had just been waiting outside the door...which he probably had.
"Bring in Ms Dixon." Lord Todd instructed.
The body-guard returned almost as quickly as before, but this time with Ms Dixon - she must have been waiting (patiently?) just outside too.
"May I present Ms Dixon," announced Lord Todd. “She is a Triple-A consultant - MY Triple-A full time dedicated consultant. She will work with you and assist in any way she can."
Looking at Ms Dixon I doubted that. Her body language spoke clearly enough: folded arms, shoulders back, standing at a slight angle to me, head slightly tilted back...she looked like she was making ready to charge me and disdain me at the same time. Most communication between humans is non-verbal and ignoring it was just like closing your eyes when reading the background material of a case: dumb. It's also why it is always best to meet clients and others involved in a case face to face: phones lose all the visual messages, and emails lose all the visual AND aural messages.
"Ms Dixon," I said and extended my hand. She (of course) ignored it.
"As Lord Todd has stated I am his dedicated Triple-A Security Services Solution dedicated consultant. I am sure you will appreciate my intimate knowledge of the circumstances here. I have offered to lead the investigation but Lord Todd has deemed an outsider is more likely to be objective. I disagree but will of course follow Lord Todd's instructions."
At least she was honest about her intentions. So many times I have been given the run around by people who say one thing and do another - almost as if it gives them pleasure to see things go wrong. As an aside, it some ways it is comforting to know that conspiracy theories are all junk simply because people cannot work together as an unquestioning team - it ain't human.
To continue the aside...There was a TV series about aliens that invaded Earth - trouble was they looked perfectly like humans except...you could tell an alien by their missing little finger on their left hand. I figure any group of people working together with common objectives, no disagreements, no "politics" - now they really would be aliens missing little fingers or not...
Back to Miss D. The question was now how to establish the best working relationship as clearly it would be key to a successful outcome. As I am useless at "handling" people and "politics" I tend to go for the honest option - might as well say what I mean and at least then if it all goes pear-shaped it went that way for good reasons rather than made-up ones.
"Great. I know how to run these investigations but like you say I have diddley-squat knowledge of the actual circumstances here so I will be heavily reliant on your expertise Ms Dixon."
She didn't have to say anything - her non-verbal body language (aural: sigh, visual: eyes to the ceiling, frown, tightened lips) said it all: honesty may be the best policy...but it doesn't mean it always gets results.
