Shelby pried open a marker for the whiteboard in the room and started jotting notes, trying to profile Yates so that she could begin to anticipate his behavior. It didn't take long till she became lost in her musings.
Flack, Danny and Aiden arrived at NARC headquarters precisely at 3:00 pm. They found Detective Ben Fellows bent over his computer, typing furiously with two fingers.
"How is she?" Flack asked him after their brief greeting.
Fellows just bent his head over his shoulder at the closed office behind him.
"How long has she been in there?" Flack asked. Her habits hadn't changed much.
"Since 8:00 this morning," Fellows answered, with barely a look up at them.
"What is she doing?" Aiden asked, unable to hide her curiosity.
"Profiling," Flack said. "She's probably the best profiler in the country, and it's only our luck the FBI haven't found her yet." He walked over to the door. "You think it's safe yet?" he asked Fellows, who just shrugged, non-committal. "She can be a beast when she's trying to break a case," he said, relishing the fact that he still knew a hell of a lot more about her than Danny did.
Danny just let the jibes slide. He was the one who'd left her apartment last night, not Flack, and that was all he needed.
Flack knocked gently on the door.
"What?" Shelby asked from inside, her manners forgotten in her profiling fervor.
"It's Flack and CSI," he said. "Is it safe to come in?"
All he got back was a low grunt.
"Keep your head down," he told Danny and Aiden with a smirk as he opened the door.
She was standing in front of a huge whiteboard, littered with notes in her crisp handwriting. Her hands were on her hips and she'd used a pencil to secure her hair into a bun at the back of her head. She didn't turn to greet them.
The trio gazed at the notes, trying to make sense of her cryptic shorthand.
"He'll be at Club 77 tonight," she said, her voice low and thoughtful. "I need to touch base with one of our stools, get the grapevine buzzing about a potential new buyer for Loyola University."
"Why Loyola?" Aiden ventured.
"Rich, stressed out, guilty Catholics," Shelby told them. "They're ripe for the picking. There's more drug running there than you'd think."
"How you wanna work it?" Fellows asked, having finally torn himself away from his desk. "Quick and dirty?"
"Nah, there's no fun in that. And we won't get what we want, either. I wanna work him tonight. Set up a buy. Then I want you three," she indicated Flack, Danny and Aiden, "to arrest him for the heroin and take him in for questioning. Then I want you to let him go."
"Let him go?" Danny asked, dubious.
She turned suddenly and looked him square in the eye. "Yes."
"Why?" he asked, slightly disconcerted.
"Because I want his street creds to go through the roof," she told him with a grin. "There's no easier way to get what you want than to inflate a man's ego as far as it'll go and let him float you all the way to the top." She winked at Aiden and squeezed her arm as she passed by.
Aiden couldn't help but chuckle. "I really like her," she told Danny.
Danny, Flack and Fellows watched the two women walk out of the room.
"That's not a good idea, letting those two be friends," Flack stated.
Fellows just grinned at him. "She's still getting to you, huh?"
Flack just glared at Fellows while Danny followed the two women with his eyes, increasingly curious about this Shelby person.
Shelby eyed Aiden for a minute, "So you want to help me pull this sting off?"
"How?" Aiden was curious and definitely intrigued that this obvious veteran officer wanted her to help out.
"When you get Yates in custody, flirt with him. Make him think that any other circumstances, you'd be all over him in a heartbeat. Come up with any excuse you can think of that might make him seem less guilty. Make a bit of a scene just before you let him go…then he'll think he got out because he had some influence over you. Apparently the biggest thing about him on the street, besides his connection to good drugs, is his way with women. Have him thinking he's a regular Don Juan."
Aiden smiled, "Basically make the man think he has me in his back pocket."
"Exactly." Shelby beamed at her, "It'll make my second delivery more potent. Do you think you can do that?"
"Pretend I'm interested in a man to get what I want?" Aiden scoffed while rolling her eyes, "No problem."
"I like you." Shelby said with a laugh, "If you ever want something better than CSI, you give me a call, we could use you UC."
"And leave working with some of the most interesting people in New York," Aiden laughed, "Never."
"He really is interesting." Shelby muttered more to herself than Aiden.
Grinning Aiden smacked her new friend on the back, "I meant the whole department, but feel free to share if you ever feel the need."
"I've got to get ready," Shelby said with a smile, "maybe some other time."
"I'll hold you to that!" Aiden called when Shelby ducked into their locker room.
Danny saw Aiden head for the exit and debated going with her. He changed his mind and followed Shelby's route to the locker room. He didn't at all care that Flack and Fellows were watching him.
"It never fails." Ben mused.
"What?" Flack was hardly blinking as he watched a man he'd perceived to be his friend not heed his advice.
"That woman," Ben laughed, "Like the rats in this city to scraps of food, men cling to her like she is their last hope for salvation."
"Whatever." Flack left without another word, he needed to get this woman out of his head. He sprinted down the hall Aiden had gone down hoping to catch her before she left.
Ben laughed to himself, "Case and point."
A female uniformed officer was standing in front of the locker room making sure no one interfered while Shelby got ready to go undercover.
"You can't go in there," she told Danny.
He smiled at her in a way that usually got him undivided attention. It worked. "I have some vital information that Ms. Winters will need before she goes out there."
"Well I mean," she stepped aside, "if it's pertains to the case."
"Oh it pertains." He walked into the change room and just took in the woman before him who was dressed from the waist down in an obvious club outfit.
"Damnit." She was standing in front of the mirror in her bra trying to properly adjust her wire so that it would be undetectable.
Stepping over to her he turned her so she was facing him and pulled the tape from where is sat, between her lips. Gently lining the wire down the middle of her stomach he taped it and adjust it so that it evened up with the lines in her body. She mutely just let him do it, unsure of what to say and thoroughly enjoying any type of touch she could get from him.
He passed her the shirt on the counter when he was sure the wire would be concealed, "Here."
She inhaled discreetly and accepted the shirt from him. "Just cause we've slept together twice doesn't mean we're dating," she said as she buttoned up the shirt, properly covering her wire, yet leaving enough skin to be tantalizing.
Raising an eyebrow he regarded her for a moment, which made her increasingly uncomfortable. This was the point where the guy protested and explained and tried to get her to reconsider dating him…or something close to that anyway.
Nodding he said something she didn't expect, "I know."
"You know?" She eyed him, "What do you mean you know?"
He handed her the coat she was going to wear and shrugged, "You said you didn't want picket fences, no commitment, I get it. I live it." He patted her hand, "Good luck tonight." He went to leave.
"Wait!" She reached out and grabbed his arm.
He stopped and looked over his shoulder at her, "What?"
"You're not going to, you know, give me all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't risk my life, tell me to be safe and all that?"
"Nah. You strike me as pretty damn capable and you have this job for a reason." He leaned over and kissed her cheek, "Nab his ass." He smiled, "If anyone could it'd be you."
She watched the door swing shut behind him and groaned. This was NOT going the way it was supposed to, he was supposed to get all sappy and desperately want to be around her all the time. This flippant attitude was NOT the way it usually worked, what was with this guy? The more she was around him the more she wanted to be around him, he drove her crazy! She shook her head and jumped up and down a couple of times before putting on her shoes, tonight wasn't about Danny Messer, it was about Orlando Yates and she needed to focus on that.