Obviously take Inspired Blade, no real reason not to take Fencing Grace at level one just to be done with it.
Replace Derring-Do and Dodging Panache with Vengeful Heart, to get Resolve.
Take the Effortless Aid Investigator Talent, and a trait to boost your Aid Another... like Helpful, or better yet, Adopted for the Halfling version of Helpful. Anyways, being is helpful is always good, and Investigators can do it effortlessly.
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I suggest a Inspired Blade Swashbuckler 1/Empiricist Investigator X with the Student of Philosophy trait (int to Diplomacy). As VoodistMonk says, take Fencing Grace at lvl 1. Tiefling and Ratfolk work well, as does Human (possibly Dual-Talent).
EDIT: Stats are roughly Dex>Int>Con>Wis>Str>Cha (if you're starting at higher level, you could completely dump Str and rely on Ant Haul to fix your carrying capacity.).
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Being a Tiefling gives the possibility of taking the Grasping Tail feat. Now you can disarm your opponent, and immediately pick up their weapon with your tail as a swift action!
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an alternative is to go 3 levels of unrogue for dex to damage without limitations. (and you can two-hand your chosen weapon for 1.5 dex damage)
You don't lose much in the grand scheme, especially as investigator. You just postpone a few things.
unrogue 3
investigator 17
human/half-elf/elf all can get access to elven curved blade proficiency
ability scores would look like-
25pt buy
Str: 08
Dex: 18
Con: 14
Int: 15
Wis: 12
Cha: 07
before any racial modifiers. Or, if you want to have some fun, bump Str to a 13 to grab power attack, hurtful, cornugon smash etc.
First 3 levels would be unrogue, which nets you weapon finesse(free), a potential combat feat (rogue talent) or cantrip, dex to damage with X weapon, 2d6 SA, and plenty of skills.
at level 7, without any limited duration buffs you would have an attack order of something like-
+14 to hit (+5 bab, +5 dex, +1 magic weapon, +2 studied target, +1 weapon focus)
1d10+10+2d6 SA damage (7 from dex of 20, 2 from studied target, 1 from magic weapon)
with buffs like reduce person or alter self, the to hit and damage both goes up by 2 (1 from dex and small to hit, 2 from dex boost for damage)
accomplished sneak attacker would allow another 1d6 damage if you wanted.
If you want to use a rapier, the above allows you to use a shield in your off hand (or another rapier for TWF, which works well with studied target) without penalty.
I recommend LAMPLIGHTER over Empiricist.
I also recommend Half Elf for the Favoured Class Bonus (+1/4 to Inspiration rolls). Since you're starting at ~lvl 10 you should be able to start with an Inspired weapon and the Combat Inspirstion talent (also tale Quick study or whatever it's called and Amazing Inspiration). Being able to add 1d8+2 to an attack roll (~+6.5) and then double that to damage (~+13) is pretty good.
If you're going all the way to 20 it might be worth going straigh Investigator. The dip helps early levels and it's never a bad dip, but getting that capstone could be fun.
If you want to get into diplomancy as suggested in the background then the Tekritanin arbiter is the archetype that does that. It's not otherwise a good archetype. Empiricist is the next closest match on flavour, and it is a good archetype. Lamplighter's decent as an archetype but not actually a good match for that background.
Talents you likely want include alchemist discovery (mutagen), combat inspiration (if 9th+ level), quick study and possibly sickening offensive. Empathy works for a social master. Inspirational expertise may be better than effortless aid.
As an empiricist, starting with Int 16 (you might go higher), 10 ranks + 3 class + 3 Int = +16 on diplomacy or sense motive. Make sure you have a trait to change diplomacy from Cha to Int. Bluff and intimidate would be +13 assuming you don't dump Cha below 10.
Add inspiration (including a +2 from a half elf FCB) and you add a further 1d6+2. 1d8+2 if you go for amazing inspiration but that seems a poor use of a talent to me.
If you have heroism active (likely from a potion and the alchemical allocation extract) add a further +2. You can use the true skill extract to add a further +4 if you have a little warning - these stack.
So fully buffed but without permanent items something like 1d6+24.
Tangentially - now I want to build Zorro (probably because I loved the Disney series as a kid) - probably use Vigilante as the chassis.