Okay, I'm just gonna throw out a bunch of hooks, and see what sticks, then!

Lauren's the type to go find problems, and she finds them a lot via forums and other publicly-available sources of information, so it's not unfeasible that she stumbles into something at roughly the same time the FBI agent does. (I've already got my 'spook' puns locked and loaded, by the by.)

She could have also gained a bit of celebrity status in her own right in the /x/-like corners of the internet, which could make her a prime target for recruitment due to being, well, a well-known and somewhat credible ghost-hunter.

Alternately/additionally, an unsecured gate to the Hedge could sound an awful lot like an unsecured gate to the Underworld, particularly if you're a Sin-Eater looking into a string of related disappearances in the area, so it's also not unfeasible that she and Mordecai could run into each other in such a context. As a result, Mordecai and Lauren could know each other pre-Tallow, or possibly even be recruited at the same time, in which case it'd be neat to run a brief prelude kind of thing somewhere to sort of feel out their relationship.

Thoughts?