Smoak Detective Agency

An: I do not own Arrow. This story will have about five chapters and I'm aiming to keep the chapters short so that I can finish it quickly.

Summary: Felicity Smoak, Private Detective Extraordinaire, had thought she had seen all the possible types of wives coming in to investigate their husbands until Moira Queen walked into her office.

Chapter 1 – Moira Queen

It had been a rough day for Private Detective Felicity Smoak. She had already informed two clients that their husbands were cheating on them and she was expecting to break the same news to a third client later that day. She hated sitting behind the desk while her clients looked at the evidence of the affair. There were always tears, plenty and plenty of tears, and anger. After that phase passed and her clients calmed down came the awkward period of time where she needed to remind them that they had to pay her for her services. A few clients in past had stiffed her, just picked up the pictures, walked out and never came back.

Felicity rented a small office in the bad part of Starling City called The Glades. Rent in The Glades was cheap but even with the cheap rates, she could only afford a one room office. People just didn't have the spare change to hire a private detective anymore. Her office basically consisted of an old table that would probably fall apart soon, an old executive chair, that a corporation in Starling City was getting rid of when they were giving their offices a face lift, and another chair she had lifted from said corporation for her clients to sit on. There was nothing on the walls but chipped paint. If anyone asked to see her certificate she would hand them it to see. She wasn't sure if the walls would be able to handle her pounding on it to put a picture hook to hold her certificate.

Felicity was a certified genius. She attended MIT and graduated with her masters but she was unhireable. She had fallen into the wrong crowd at MIT and got caught by the FBI's cybercrime unit for hacking into government departments. Technically it wasn't her they caught but another member of the team who then ratted on everyone. They arrested her on her graduation day. Her mother had cried for days. Part of the deal that allowed her to escape jail was that she could never work in the tech field again, which essentially made her master's degree useless to her. Her use of the internet was monitored by the local FBI field office in which ever state she chose to live in and she was not allowed to create any programmes. Frank, was her assigned monitor in Starling City. He came once a month to check her phone, laptop and tablet. He also made surprise visits.

Naturally, when the deal had first been made Felicity had been devastated. After being released she returned home to Las Vegas to spend time with her mother and regroup. While there one of their neighbours was going through a bitter divorce. The husband claimed he had no money and couldn't even pay child support for his three kids. The wife spent many nights crying in their kitchen and even though they were struggling themselves they tried to support her and her children as well. After one of the children got sick and the father never turned up, Felicity had had enough. She turned to her strength and went to a coffee shop where the wireless was free and hacked the husband's records. She found he was hiding 2 million dollars. Felicity gave the information to the divorce lawyer and the wife and children are now much better off. After that her mother started offering Felicity's services out to all of her friends. Felicity found she could make a living off it. Eventually, after her mother had a falling out with the casino she worked at, they moved to Starling City where she formally got certified as a Private Detective or Private Investigator whichever someone preferred. Felicity personally liked detective better.

Felicity liked to think that she helped people but it was probably more accurate to say that she helped them to divorce. Cases where she truly helped someone out of a bad situation were rare. She did enjoy finding lost pets. Reuniting people with pets was always wonderful and it gave her that warm fuzzy feeling in her chest that she had done something good that day.

She was about to call the third client when the door to her one-room agency opened. She had forgotten to lock the door again. An older woman in a pristine suit walked in and surveyed the small space. Felicity would recognize the woman anywhere. Standing before her was one of the most influential women in Starling City, Moira Queen.

"Good Afternoon, Mrs. Queen, are you lost?" Felicity asked pleasantly. There was no way this powerful woman was here to see her.

"Are you Felicity Smoak?" Mrs. Queen asked pleasantly.

"Yes," Felicity replied.

"Then I am right where I am supposed to be," she replied scanning the room again.

"Oh, well uh, have a seat," Felicity said pointing to the lone chair on the opposite side of her desk that all of her clients used.

Mrs. Queen scrutinised the chair, "I think I'll stand dear."

"I know it does not look like much but it is sturdy, a 250lb man sat on it yesterday and it didn't break. I stand on it sometimes to change the light bulb. It's quite comfy but you're not here to discuss my chair," Felicity said clamping her mouth shut. She had this tendency to talk when she was nervous.

"I'll cut to the chase Ms. Smoak, my husband's cheating on me again and I want to know who the new mistress is," she informed her.

"And you came to me?" Felicity asked confused.

"Is this not what you do?" Mrs. Queen asked confused.

"Yes it is but there are so many other reputed agencies in this city," Felicity countered.

"And my husband is paying all of them to lie to me. Hence why I came to someone he hasn't paid yet," Moira explained.

"Oh," Felicity exhaled.

Mrs. Queen pulled a sheet of paper and a wad of cash out of a leather briefcase she had come with. She placed the document on Felicity's desk.

"This is his schedule for the week and a $10,000 down payment," Mrs Queen said.

"$10,000.00!" Felicity exclaimed, "That's too much."

"How much do you usually charge?" Mrs. Queen asked curiously.

"$50 down payment and then depending on how expenses rack up about $300.00 in the end," Felicity explained.

"You're selling yourself short dear," Mrs. Queen advised her.

"Or your investigators were over charging you," Felicity fired back.

Mrs. Queen stopped to survey her critically, "Think of it as a retainer and a confidentiality payment."

"I keep all my clients information private," Felicity said offended.

"Good. If you find the mistress, I have another task I want you to complete. I expect daily reports," she ordered before walking out of the office.

Robert Queen wasn't like other cheating husbands that were easy to follow around. He had a highly trained team of body guards that would spot her tail immediately. She needed to be savvier and she was. Felicity had created a backdoor entrance into the city's security camera grid system for herself. She would use that to track Mr. Queen's route through the city without anyone knowing that he was being followed. The only catch was she needed to go somewhere with free Wi-Fi since her internet connection in the office was monitored. There was an apartment upstairs that had Wi-Fi but they usually didn't turn it on until they got home, which could be anywhere between 3:00pm – midnight. Today they were home by four and she was able to pull up the camera feed that had a view of the parking garage exit for Queen Consolidated. Mrs. Queen had so gratefully provided her with a list of the cars Mr. Queen owned along with their license plate numbers.

Felicity knew Mr. Queen's last meeting of the day was scheduled to finish at 5pm. At 5:30 she saw the town car that Mrs. Queen said he used the most pull out of the garage followed by a security escort. She followed it through the streets of the city to a large upscale apartment complex on the East side of town. Robert Queen got out and his security detail followed him inside as the cars drove away.

Felicity smiled to herself. That was half of the work done. She had a location, next was getting the pictorial evidence which was usually the toughest part of her job. Her office was in the opposite side of town and she knew with the afternoon rush hour it would take her at least an hour to get across town. She hated sitting in traffic. She knew that Mr. Queen didn't have any events that he needed to attend with his wife that night so she hoped that he would be spending some time with the mistress today.

She cleaned her little office and tried to spruce up the chair that the clients sat on. It was bad for business if the clients felt uncomfortable but then again, 99% of her clients didn't have the taste that Mrs. Queen had. Once she was satisfied that traffic had died down, she got in her car and drove out to the apartment building. As she arrived she saw the same town car pulling away from the curve. He had finished his rendezvous, rather quickly but she supposed he knew that his wife was suspicious and he couldn't stay too long without a proper excuse. She drove passed the building and parked at a park down the road. There were many children playing in the park. Given that this was an upscale neighbourhood she was confident that it was the nannies that were watching over them and not the parents.

Felicity assumed Mr. Queen would most likely be heading home but she would still keep an eye on the camera feed on her tablet to verify that. There were plenty of wireless networks to pirate in the area and she actually found an unsecured one. She followed on the cameras as his car made its way out of the city to the road that would lead up to Queen Manor. That road had no cameras but she had hacked into the QC home surveillance system and pulling up those cameras confirmed that ten minutes later he arrived home.

She exited the car and walked back towards the building. She walked passed the entrance and took a quick glance through the glass doors. She spotted what looked like a security desk at the entrance. That meant that strangers were prevented from getting in without the express permission of guests. This wasn't her first rodeo and she had quite a few ploys to get past security desks.

Two hours later she returned to the building dressed in a Big Belly Burger delivery outfit. She walked through the entrance and straight to the security desk. She slouched against the four foot counter that surrounded the desk and placed her delivery bag on top of it.

"Big Belly Burger Delivery for 106," she said as she chewed on some gum. She looked down at his desk and was pleased when she found a computer like she expected.

The guard eyed her wearily, "106 didn't order any burgers."

"My order sheet says they did," Felicity countered reaching into her pocket to pull out a crumbled up sheet. She placed it on the counter and tried to flatten out the sheet to show it to the man.

"They are away in France," the guard said to her.

"Oh, maybe they have an apartment sitter," Felicity said thoughtfully.

"There's no one there," the guard said gruffly.

"How do you know? Have you been sitting here the entire time since they left?" she challenged him.

"No but security is notified of such things?" he told her snootily.

"Maybe the memo didn't get to you. One phone call up can't hurt. I have to tell the boss something," she said chewing on her gum.

He turned away to pick up the phone and that's when she plugged a USB stick into the back of his computer. In 10 seconds a programme would automatically download onto it that would allow her to access their system remotely. By the time he turned back to her the stick was back in her pocket.

"There is no answer. No one ordered any Big Belly Burger," he told her cockily.

"Damn another prank call," she said frustrated.

"I'll take it off your hands," the security guard said pulling out the correct amount of money for the burger.

"There's $3.00 delivery fee," she said blandly.

"That's half the price of the burger!" he exclaimed.

She shrugged, "I need to get paid somehow or did you think I delivered burgers for free?"

He grumbled and paid her.

Felicity walked out of the building with a smile on her face. She had access to the system and gas money for the trip out. The only downside was now she needed to go back to Big Belly Burger for dinner.

The next morning she was looking over the security feed in a coffee shop when her phone rang.

"Hello Smoak Detective Agency," she answered, "If you need something found, we can do it!"

"Any progress Ms. Smoak," a polite voice asked getting straight to the point. She knew it was Mrs. Queen right away.

"Yes, I tracked your husband to an apartment on the upper east side, Ridgewood Towers," she explained.

"That's a new place but I suppose it would be uncouth to put your new mistress up in the place the old mistress occupied. Do you know who the mistress is yet?" Mrs. Queen inquired.

"No, I'm going through the security footage now. By tomorrow I'll have something more concrete for you," Felicity answered.

"I look forward to it," Mrs. Queen answered and then the line went dead.

Felicity stared at the phone perplexed. Mrs. Queen was strange. Most women don't look forward to the news Felicity delivers at all. Mrs. Queen had stated that this wasn't the first time but was she completely desensitised to her husband's adultery?

Felicity found the footage of Robert Queen's arrival at the apartment and followed him into the elevator. She pulled up the footage in the elevator and discovered he stopped at the penthouse apartment. That made a lot of sense. Powerful men often kept their mistresses in penthouses. A scan through the security camera list revealed that there were no cameras inside the penthouse. She fast forwarded through the elevator footage to the estimated time that Mr. Queen left the penthouse. The footage revealed that he entered the elevator alone. The mistress remained in the apartment. It wasn't until 6:00am the next morning did Felicity find footage of a red head female leaving the penthouse apartment. What surprised her was that the female was dressed as a cop. She zeroed in on her badge number and then hacked the SCPD personnel files.

The badge corresponded to Officer Carrie Cutter. She was twenty-five years old and assigned to work as a traffic cop. She had been on the force for the last year. It looked like three months ago she gave Robert Queen a speeding ticket that his lawyer had thrown out of court. That was probably how they met. Felicity did not know how you went from giving a man a speeding ticket to being his kept mistress in a high rise apartment.

Felicity drove out to the park down the street from the building and set up her drone. When night fell and Robert Queen arrived she flew the drone down the street. In her experience, people on the top floor hardly ever closed their blinds especially when there was no one who could look in. As expected, there were ceiling to floor windows and Felicity had a great view of Robert Queen and Carrie Cutter going at it on the couch. She recorded for a few minutes and when she was satisfied that there was enough evidence she flew the drone back to her.

The next morning Mrs. Queen arrived at her office at 2:00pm on the dot. That was the time that Felicity had set the meeting for.

"This is my full report on the service I provided and the supporting evidence. I also included a DVD with the recorded evidence," Felicity said handing Mrs. Queen a bound report with a DVD attached in the back.

Mrs. Queen flipped through the report. "This is impressive Ms. Smoak, very impressive," Mrs. Queen stated. "The last two firms I hired only gave me a slip of paper with the mistress's name on it."

She continued to flip through the report stopping on a few pages to read more information. After about twenty minutes with the report she closed it and handed it back to Felicity.

"Don't you want the report?" Felicity asked confused.

"I gleaned what I needed from it. Ms. Cutter is not worth $700 million," Mrs. Queen explained.

"$700 million?" Felicity repeated dumbly.

"That is the amount Robert stands to lose in a divorce," Mrs. Queen explained.

"I don't think anyone would be worth that," Felicity commented.

"That's not true. It almost happened once. She was a cunning woman. She knew how to play the game well. My husband actually had his bags packed. If it wasn't for a fortuitous riding accident that broke my daughter's arm, we may have divorced over a decade ago," Moira explained.

"I've never heard of a riding accident being called fortuitous before. Did your daughter fall off?" Felicity asked curiously.

"Something spooked the horse and threw her," Moira stated but something in her tone implied there was much more to the accident.

Felicity wondered if it was something or someone that spooked the horse. Mrs. Queen struck her as the type of person that wouldn't be above making small sacrifices to keep her family secure in the long run.

Mrs. Queen pulled out an envelope and handed it to Felicity, "The payment for the excellent service you have provided me."

Felicity took the envelope. It felt heavier than it should have and there was a distinct bulge in the middle. She peaked inside,"There must be more than 10k in here Mrs. Queen!" she exclaimed shocked.

"Fifty thousand dollars to be exact. Please call me Moira we will be doing a lot of work together in the future," she stated.

"50K!" Felicity repeated.

"That's the standard rate I usually pay. I have to stay one step ahead of Robert. There's no need to stiff you on the payment. I'm very satisfied with your work. This payment also includes a retainer on the new task I have for you?"

"Which is?" Felicity asked absently as she studied the envelope in her hand. She had never held so much money in her hand before.

"I need you to follow my son."

An: Thanks for reading. The next chapter will be up next week.