The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 3 plus 4 plus 2 plus 4 letter word IN THE LINE OF DUTY
I
N
T
H
E
L
I
N
E
O
F
D
U
T
Y
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.