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Mirana yawns as she heads towards the doors to reception but they open before she reaches them to reveal Valerie Castillo.
"Hey," Mirana smiles at the woman. "You're back"
"Hey. Yes," Valerie nods. "To thank you for getting me those CAD reports"
"Yeah. Did they help with your story?" Mirana asks.
"You're kidding me. It's even bigger than I thought. You know, every one of those assault victims lives in town. Who gets a hotel room in the same city that you live in?" Valerie asks.
"People soliciting sex workers," Mirana says and Valerie nods.
"Exactly. I'm convinced it's a Murphy scam. You know, the rich guy meets an escort at the hotel -"
"Gets beaten up and robbed by her accomplice but can't report it because then he'd be copping to his own crime," Mirana finishes.
"This was the story that I was looking for and my editor said to run with it and I couldn't have cracked it without you. So I want to buy you a drink to say, you know, thank you,"
"Um-" Mirana points at her stomach and Valerie's eyes widen.
"I know you think you know how mine and Tim's relationship works but you couldn't be more wrong," Mirana says, turning to leave but Valerie grabs her arm.
"Okay, listen, listen," Valerie says. "You helped me, and I want to return the favour. So any time I get any information on crimes, I can feed it to you, and you can make the arrests"
Mirana hesitates, considering Valerie's offer. "I appreciate the offer, I really do. But officers have our protocols, our procedures. We can't just act on information without proper verification and investigation."
"I get it," Valerie nods understandingly. "But think about it. You have a source, someone who's digging for the truth. It could be beneficial, right?"
"Okay," Mirana nods.
︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵
"Salut," Valerie says, clinking her cocktail against Mirana's glass of pineapple juice.
"So, you've got a bunch of victims who aren't talking," Mirana says, taking a sip from her glass.
"Wrong. They're not talking to the police, but I got one of the guys to talk to me off the record this afternoon," Valerie says and Mirana quirks her eyebrow.
"So it's a Murphy scam?" Mirana asks and Valerie nods.
"He hooked up with a woman online. They went to a hotel, they go upstairs, they get naked, then a guy walks in with a gun. He steals the guy's watch, money, phone, and then tells him, If you talk, your family's gonna get hurt," Valerie explains.
