Cool CID ten rattled in confrontation (8)
I believe the answer is:
incident
'confrontation' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'cool cid ten rattled' is the wordplay.
'cool' becomes 'in' ('in' can mean fashionable or cool).
'rattled' indicates anagramming the letters.
'ten' with letters rearranged gives 'ent'.
'in'+'cid'+'ent'='INCIDENT'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for incident that I've seen before include "Event found ten in CID mix-up" , "Confrontation" , "Happening (often of a criminal nature)" , "Minor event or occurrence" , "Cited inn as source of happening" .)