"Okay, recap."

"Mmm."

"You bring in an information broker into an interrogation on suspicion on her involvement in organized crime."

"Correct."

"You don't get anything from her, so Mark starts to help you. Mark asks the right questions and you get the right answers."

"Correct."

"You her out because you don't want her sneaking around the place and after you give her back her particulars, she invites you to dinner."

"Correct."

"And you actually go to dinner with one of your suspects, discuss her involvement in organized crime and are unable to take her admissions as statements of guilt because of the casual nature of the interaction."

"And because nothing she said made her guilty. But correct."

"I can't believe you. You're the worst cop ever."

"Oh, you have no idea."

Jaebum threw open the doors to Youngjae's office. "I have an idea."

"Don't strain yourself." Mark snarked. He was sitting off to the side of Youngjae's desk playing pyramid solitare with a desk of cards. It was strange enough to stop Jaebum in his tracks.

"Aren't you supposed to be out working? And if you're here, where is Kunpimook?"

"Bambam's out getting coffee with Yugyeom. They've been gone for almost an hour so I think they ducked into an alley for a quick makeout session."

Jaebum didn't ever want to think of Yugyeom doing something dirty like that ever again. "Regardless, I have an idea and I need your approval, Youngjae."

The man in question didn't even look up from his paperwork. "Spit it out, then."

"I want to hire Carly Lee."

"No."

"Youngjae, c'mon-"

"Absolutely not. That allows her too much insight into our practises and if she decides to tell the people she's supposed to be spying on that we're after them, we have nothing to fall back on."

"They already know we're gunning for them."

Youngjae looked up and the breath stalled in Jaebum's chest. Youngjae was a couple of years his junior and about as intimidating as a soaked kitten hiding in a droopy cardboard box, but that glare made him seriously consider fearing for his life. "No. She's unreliable. If she wants to sneak around on her own time and she tells you what's what, that's her business, but she's not doing it on our dime."

Jaebum couldn't help but deflate a little bit. Mark picked up his cell phone as it pinged with a new message.

Youngjae relaxed some, rubbing over his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jae, but she's too much of a liability right now. If she proves herself otherwise in the coming weeks, I'll consider it again, but not before that and if you or Mark pester me about this, it definitely won't happen. Send Yugyeom or Bambam in here and I'll make you traffic cops again, got it?"

Well. There goes that plan.

Mark put his phone down and went back to solitare. Jaebum's phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his back pocket.

Private Number, Unknown Caller.

"Hello?"

"Dretective Im?"

He scowled. "Who's this?" Youngjae looked up once more from his paperwork, but Mark was entirely unphased, starting to flick the cards at Jaebum, aiming for his face. 

"Sorry, sorry. I forgot that's it's private number. It's Carly Lee."

"Carly. How did you get this number?" A playing card clipped his nose and he stepped back some. Mark sat forward in challenge.

"Another detective - Detective Bhuwakul? - came out after me before I left the station the other day and gave me another detective's cell number. Mark, uh . . . Tuan! Mark Tuan! I was texting him and he sent me your number."

At his glare, Youngjae rolled his eyes. "Mark, get your gangly out of here before Jaebum uses you to repaint my walls. and you know I'm not a fan of red or dead coworker."

Mark stuck out his tongue and pranced away.

"He can die outside my office." Youngjae muttered. 

"He gave you my number, did he? What do you want, Carly?"

"I was thinking and I think there might be other information that would help you. Maybe lead you to higher level arrests."

"And why would you want to help me? What are you getting out of this?"

He could practically hear her pout. "Not everyone's an , JB. I, for one, just want to help you. Money is money and I can very easily find other contacts. I'm not concerned about nonsense like that. If you don't want my help, that's fine too. I'll just text it to Mark and he can tell you. Either way. I just figured it would be nice to cut out the middle man."

Jaebum sighed. "Fine. I'll hear you out."

"Neat. Want to meet up somewhere again or should I come to the station?"

He looked at Youngjae out of the corner of his eye. "You free for lunch this time?"

"Still angry that I gave her your number?" Mark's question was met with a heavy-handed slap. "Ouch! Okay then. Still touchy."

"You're an idiot. Why would you give my personal number to her? Are you on crack?"

"I don't know how you do it, but you make everything sound like a bad idea." Mark griped.

"Because that was!"

"Well, take Bambam then. He was the one who gave her my number."

"Don't drag me into this! I'm about as reponsible for this mess as Yugyeom." Bambam argued, scooting away just in case Jaebum got any ideas. 

"Regardless, did she have good information?"

Jaebum sneered. "Yes . . . you ing prick."

Mark cheered. "The Meddler wins once again!"

"I'm embarrassed to be around you." Bambam muttered, burying himself under his messy desk, full of incomplete reports.

Carly, as it turned out, was someone who didn't dabble in the henchmen of these major crime organizations. Jaebum had already kind of guessed this with the way the grunts they caught talked about her.

"The y one in the white pantsuits?" The henchman was practically salivating. "Yeah. We let 'er in and she goes to talk with the bosses. Comes back a little later and back out again. Looks damn fine in a skirt, that one."

Carly knew all about the leadership network in one particularly influential mafia family and almost the full hierarchy of a biker gang that had been running rampant lately. She even came with little graphs laying everything out, sometimes with pictures, sometimes without.

"I'm sure most of this is stuff you already have." She said as she passed him the complete folder. "But I figure better to give it all anyway."

"No, no . . . this is actually really good." He e of the charts. ", you are really thorough. You've even got how they're connected, their wives, husbands, children, cousins, the lot."

She broke out into a brilliant smile. "Oh, thank God. I didn't want to waste your time with this."

"No, this is . . . well, amazing is an understatement. This is more information than I could ever have dreamed up." He looked up at her. "Thank you, Carly."

Her smile got wider. "You're more than welcome, JB. Just say the word and I'll do as much as I can for you."

"I still don't get it." He put the folder to the side. "You have to be getting something out of this."

She rolled her eyes, but her grin never faded. "I really am doing this because I just want to help you, but if it will ease that cop conscience of yours, you can think of it as providing myself with proof I'm innocent. How does that sound?"

He sat back, eyes narrowing even as he fought to keep back his answering grin. "Like an alibi."

"Whoops, looks like I've been caught." She winked, holding her hands wrists-together out to him. "Am I going to get arrested?"

He laughed and pushed her hands away. "Ah-ah-ah. You're not buying your way of of this with your body."

"Parish the thought! I am a lady of decency." She gasped, mock-offended, before leaning back over the table and grinning leacherously. "Unless you'd rather something else on the drive to the station."

He flicked her nose and she recoiled like a puppy. He sat back smugly, watching her pout and unphased by her quick change from temptress to miffed kitten. 

"Was that-"

"That was totally called for. You can't have with me. I'm the detective in charge of your case. If it got out that we did, I would be taken off and you would look super guilty, not to mention the charges I would have to deal with for possible corruption of the justice process."

She paused, like she hadn't considered that, then nodded resolutely. "That's fair. It's okay if I still flirt, though, right? I like flirting with you."

"I don't see you stopping even if I said it wasn't okay."

"Flirting is harmless! It won't even be dirty, I promise." She sat back, self-satisfied with her resolution. He didn't really know what to make of her.