"Detective Espinoza. Thank you for making time for us."

Like he had a choice.

Generic FBI Guy number Eight had dragged him in for a meeting. Dan had run out of excuses, and no murder case had cropped up to rescue him at the last minute either. He spared a glance at the one-way mirror and wondered who was on the other side.

He hadn't been present for Pierce's death. The list of living witnesses to the attack or to the events leading up to that afternoon was short. As for those who also worked for the LAPD, and were contractually obligated to talk, the list was even shorter. Chloe bore the brunt of it. All he knew was that she wasn't saying much. Federal agents left shaking their heads after discussions with her.

All major cases were diverted to other precincts until a federal agency cleared them. Work became a daily living nightmare. Slogging through oceans of red tape to file a case note became routine. Even Ella had lost her fervor for being there and helpful, locking her office door regularly. She had been questioned several times, depressing her normally perky personality. That in and of itself should be considered a crime.

"Pierce, he tried to kill us."

""I don't know how, but I am. Or maybe I do know…Maybe I've been avoiding the biggest truth-" a collection of her last words to him over the phone. Pierce lay dead on a chipped marble floor within minutes. She wouldn't say what that even meant.

Dan didn't see a name hanging on the tag around the guy's neck. Balding, trending toward heavy, and white, FBI Guy could have walked out of any scene in a movie that required a 'generic desk-sitting FBI agent'

He never cared for being on this side of the interrogation table

He opted for not verbally responding until he was asked an actual question, but he nodded at his name in agreement.

FBI Guy turned on his tablet to take notes. "We're here today to discuss the death of Lieutenant Marcus Pierce and the actions surrounding how and where he died. Hopefully we can cover 'why' as well. How well did you know Lt. Pierce?"

He hated my guts. I'm glad he's dead. I almost had to deal with him as Trixie's step-father and it happened so fast that I don't even know how my daughter felt about it. "Not well. He and I weren't drinking buddies if that's what you're asking."

"You didn't know him socially? Never saw him outside of work?" The question sounded casual but Dan knew better.

Dan decided to be happily uncooperative. "Nope." And now that he's dead, I won't have to.

"Did you work with him directly?"

He sat back, annoyed. "You've got my case files and work history, so yes."

FBI sighed. "I'm not your enemy here. I don't enjoy questioning detectives who are just trying to do their jobs. The sooner we wrap this up, the sooner we leave all of you alone again and let you go back to work. Try to believe me when I tell you I don't want to be here either."

The friendly-help-me-help-you-game. Okay. Dan deliberately raked his gaze over the nameless tag. "Fine, what should I call you?"

"Agent Mac."

Agent Mac-n-cheese it is. Dan cleared his throat. "Like the computer company?"

"Short for McBeth. I prefer Mac. No interesting ancestry either."

Dan clasped his hands on the table, in a friendly manner. "Okay, Agent Mac." 'N-Cheese. His accent put him out of D.C., but that much was expected.

Mac attempted to resume the interview. "So some of these questions are going to seem personal, but we have our reasons for asking them. Do you have an opinion on the Lieutenant's romantic involvement with your ex-wife?"

Jesus Christ, yes. Dan hoped his 'cop face' hadn't slipped. This was going to be a long day. He let a hostile tone creep into his words, knowing the answer but wanting it said aloud anyway. "Am I under oath right now?"

Mac sighed. "It would be helpful if you would consider yourself so. We are recording this conversation."

Dan went diplomatic, nodding as if it mattered. "If I did have an opinion, I don't see how that has anything to do with my job, or what happened. Chloe didn't ask my opinion, and probably for a good reason. Not least of which that I don't have a say in her dating life." Marcus was a raging asshole and I'm glad my ex-wife came to her senses even though it broke her heart at the moment it had been happening. She lowered her standards and fucked up her morals over him and I'd rather see her with Lucifer who seemed to give more of a shit about her than he ever did. There should be no sex in the evidence room.

Agent Mac frowned over his notes. "Did you know he was the so-called 'Sinnerman'?"

"Not until less than a day before his death. And I'm absolutely sure Chloe wouldn't have thought he was boyfriend material had she known his identity. Is their relationship important?"

The agent's voice dripped ice water. "It is if she ever covered for him or destroyed evidence on his behalf."

This time Dan hoped his expression conveyed everything on his mind. "No."

"No?"

"Absolutely not. She would never do that." She made a personal mistake, but not a professional- okay yeah, that too, but still.

He hmmmpf'd and made a note. "So she wasn't sleeping with her boss for favors? Maybe a promotion?"

Dan tamped down his anger. The Agent was trying to get a rise out of him, blurt out something. "The thought had never once crossed my mind. I didn't think it was a good idea, but she wasn't under his mind-control. She didn't talk to me about their relationship - you should ask her this stuff."

"She hasn't been very open with us."

"Gee, I wonder why."

"She has been communicative about the relationship. If all goes well, she shouldn't be in too much hot water over it, as long as she can prove she wasn't aware of his secret criminal identity. It's the attack itself we're tripping up on."

"Why not say so?"

"We need you as her character witness too. Her partner has been supportive of her when we do talk to him, but it's been all in passing. Your testimony here, now and possibly later in court- if necessary- will be helpful in establishing that she was innocent of knowledge that Pierce was heavily involved in criminal activity."

Dan gritted his teeth.

"It doesn't look good for anyone here that she nearly married the boss, and that the precinct was unaware of what Pierce was up to. To top that off, you have a consultant working closely with the police for the past three years under a fake name."

"Fake?" It had to be. Dan had always assumed Lucifer's paperwork had included his real name. No one could be that sloppy, right?

"Has to be." Mac echoed his thoughts. "Regardless, we have some questions about Pierce's death and I'm hoping you can shed some light on them. We're aware you weren't present for it, but you were in contact with Detective Decker at the time of the attack."

'...Maybe I do…' Dan rubbed his face. "Fine. What are your problems?"

"He attempted and failed to defend himself against an assailant in hand-to-hand combat, stabbed in the chest with either a short bladed weapon or curved knife. Seemed like an odd way to go, for a guy surrounded by functional sidearms and as big and strong as he was."

"What? In the gunfight?" Dan thought back to the reports he had read. "I don't remember a knife being found? Tons of bullets, guns." The attack area focused on the middle of the room. "Debris, glass. Broken architecture." The place had been a real mess. Ella had to take photos of the entire floor - she'd been at it for hours. When he arrived not long after the attack, Chloe had remained at the scene sitting on the stairs, between the broken stone pedestals and amid broken window glass everywhere.

She said she told Lucifer to leave. At the time, he thought it had something to do with Pierce's death, but he preferred not to know one way or another. Vigilante justice could only end in Lucifer's arrest. In self-defense, he could have a good shot at trial, if anyone pressed charges. Dan secretly hoped one of his henchmen were responsible for his death, but he had doubted it even then.

Dan had been ready to throat punch Lucifer for leaving her with the body of her dead ex on the floor, but Chloe insisted he missed him by maybe a minute.

Mac eyed him as he processed the information. After a beat, he asked, "What do you think they were shooting at, Detective?"

Dan cocked his head. "I mean, it wasn't Chloe, her vest protected her from only one shot, not fifty."

"So you heard about that?"

"She went to the hospital, came back. I saw the bruise. She didn't say anything else to me except to say she was fine. Her vest was processed and removed from service. The main attack wasn't on her or Pierce - he wasn't full of holes. Well, not bullet holes." There had not been a knife in Pierce when he got there, that he saw, but then he had not been looking for one. Still, that seems like something he would have noticed. If Lucifer removed it from the scene, well, that wasn't good either.

Mac tapped something on a tablet. He had it angled away from Dan. "That's the point. No one there ended up full of holes. Not a single body recovered at the scene had those kinds of wounds. Frankly, our task force is at a loss to find a reason to shoot at something like that. Some of the men had body bruises that made them look like they'd been hit with sandbags. In total, the injuries of the men killed or treated for bullet wounds did not add up to enough bullets. After the shot count, we're still missing several dozen spent rounds. My best guess right now is we're missing a body full of bullets, maybe taken by an escaped associate or two of Sinnerman. You weren't aware Marcus Pierce died with a knife to the heart?"

That was new. The report he had didn't specifically mention that bullets remained unaccounted for. He wasn't sure he remembered a detailed shot count, just cartridges, maybe a shell count. He might have incorrectly assumed that the shell count matched the bullet count. "I wasn't there and no one told me - I'm assuming since I wasn't supposed to be told. But I don't see how it matters whether he was shot or stabbed. Knife wounds aren't uncommon in our line of work - for cops or victims."

Mac tapped in more notes, keeping his finger in the air when he stopped. "Lucifer and Sinnerman. Seems like a weird combination. Do you think he knew?" The agent spoke as if he had more information than he did. Something about it made Dan think it was a bluff though. The agent was trying to set up for something else. It had to be a coincidence, even if the names were bizarre.

Dan felt his mouth flatten. "Lucifer? He claimed to. I don't know where he got his information. We had some incidents previously where he said the Sinnerman had been involved. The man we arrested cut his own eyes out - and obviously did not turn out to be the guy. Have you talked to Lucifer yet?"

Agent Mac sniffed shortly. "He's been hard to get a hold of."

Ha. He's probably seduced Agents One through Four by now. Two men, two women. The remaining four were men. Mac didn't look like Lucifer's type.

"When you next talk to him, it would be very helpful if you could let him know we'd like to have a chat before we resort to dropping in at his club? Perhaps for a health inspection? That one can usually be done pretty easily."

Double ha. "You don't have his number?"

"He doesn't return our calls. Our attempts to call the business line have been met with...resistance."

Maze? Dan felt torn. He wanted the FBI out of the building and off their necks. Simply waiting for them to give up seemed unlikely. "So you didn't get anywhere with Chloe either? His partner?"

"Her strangely off the books partner added to the consultant list but oddly not payroll, by a previous Lieutenant for reasons we haven't quite figured out. Detective Decker ceased lodging complaints a few months after they started working together. We assumed it was due to a romantic or at a minimum, physical involvement given his...reputation. That doesn't seem to be the case."

Dan tried very hard not to look smug. "Oh?"

"For one thing, she correctly logged paperwork every step of the way during your divorce. She also put in a notice with HR when she and the Lieutenant started dating. Nothing in there for Lucifer."

"Oh."

"And on top of everything else, for some reason, we've had trouble getting a local judge to sign off on a warrant to search Lucifer's apartment."

That was both entertaining and...worrisome. Anytime the LAPD felt they needed a warrant, one could be processed very quickly. The FBI should have even less trouble. Who the hell did Lucifer have connections with exactly?

FBI Dude read his expression correctly. "I'm glad you see the problem. So, if you have any additional information?"

Dan thought about it. He would help - he was a cop. But if Lucifer was responsible for Pierce's death, he'd also do everything in his power to help him. "I know Chloe doesn't share her loyalty easily. She trusts him. Lucifer may not actually be a cop, but he has instincts that help from time to time. He's not always great at communication, but we all have our issues, right?"

"Our issues are that he's a black hole. No previous work history other than running the damn club. No training as a cop or even in basic security. Your other consultants on call for the precinct don't hang around on a daily basis, and they tend to work all over the city. Not your guy. It's like you have a consultant openly claiming to be...who he is, who appeared out of nowhere, no family, no friends, just...connections and a night club." Mac waved a hand vaguely in the air. He had a wedding ring.

Dan considered it. "How about his dad? Lucifer complains about him constantly."

"We've been told the father figure he talks about is part of the persona, not a real person."

He lost his train of thought. "Satan has a father?"

"God as his father, apparently. 'Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.'"

Dan cocked an eyebrow.

"Job. When I was told the name of your consultant, I did some light research."

Dan opened his mouth and closed it. "So the one person he has been bitching about isn't even real? To him?"

Agent Mac shrugged. "He might be 'real,' but we haven't had enough clues about him to understand who he might actually be talking about."

Dan bit his tongue. If the dad figure wasn't a real person, then neither was Amenadiel directly related. He might get shit over it later, but he didn't even know Amenadiel's last name, so he didn't volunteer it. Then there was Charlotte.

Dan pursued an alternate idea. "He can't have appeared out of nowhere? Someone somewhere has to have claimed their uncle or cousin or whatever is the guy that runs the most successful club in downtown L.A.?" Come to think of it, Dan probably could have tried that line of thought himself.

FBI shook his head. "Claimed to? Sure - in spite of or because of the name. Turned out to be true? No. 'Morningstar' isn't even all that unusual of a surname, but none of those families have a legit claim to him. We checked. Do you know if he has a middle name? Or a social security number?"

Lucifer's Social wasn't in his paperwork either? Well, there was the accent and he never claimed to be born in America. "Wouldn't he have a Visa? Why all the curiosity?" Dan tested the agent. "He didn't kill anyone. Pierce did. The Lieutenant should be charged posthumously with multiple murders."

Mac remained unfazed. "And he will be. You could be charged with kidnapping. Who killed Lt. Pierce?"

"If it was Lucifer, I'd throw him a parade. If it wasn't Lucifer, I'll throw that guy a parade. Besides, you said it was a fight; Pierce lost, he wasn't murdered."

"I'll remind you that we're being recorded."

Dan struggled to not simply repeat himself.

Mac continued, "Not all self-defense ends in death. Lucifer could have tried to end it without killing him. Pierce had no other wounds consistent with self-defense. And why wouldn't he own up to it if he was?"

"Ask him?"

"We're trying to."

"You haven't arrested him, so you don't have enough evidence for it."

Agent Cheese tilted his head. "Yet. Between the lack of cameras and Decker's unhelpful statements, we haven't gotten far."

"What do you expect to find in a search of his apartment anyway?"

"The knife."

Dan's palms grew damp. He picked up the always-present water glass and took a sip. He knew his actions might send signals to those behind the glass, but it couldn't be helped. "Do you know what it might look like?" Doesn't Maze have knives? Do they know about her? Should I say anything?

Mac peered at him. "The wound was clean and short. Both edges of the blade were curved and non-serrated. Sort of like a claw, but flat. There might be an inlay on the blade, as something on the sides tugged on his soft tissues going in and out. Your Ms. Lopez was quite thorough in her report."

Dan tried to think if he'd seen anything like that.

"In fact, hers was dead on the money, same as ours. She's not concealing anything."

Dan growled. "Big Brother, much?"

Mac added, conversationally, "Normally, when you're trying to stab someone in the heart, you have to turn a blade sideways to get between the ribs. Otherwise, it can skip right off. If you don't know what you're doing, especially through layers of clothes, it's easy to miss your target. On the first try? You really have to know what you're doing. Some first time murderers make a body look like it fell on a deli meat slicer."

He waited for Dan's nod of agreement, then went on. "Most go for the throat - from the front, no bones to get through. Easy kill. No digging around, a quick slash and the victim is incapacitated. A stab to the chest can miss the heart, embed in the sac that surrounds the heart, or even get stuck between ribs if the blade isn't turned flat. That short of a blade wouldn't even reach the heart if you tried to stab up under the rib cage altogether. But you'd know all that from murder scene investigations, wouldn't you, Espinoza?"

Dan knew when to keep his mouth shut. He waited.

"This went straight through bone, slicing cleanly through ribs like a hot knife through butter."

He inhaled. "How do you know the wound went the full length of the blade? That it wasn't the tip of something bigger?"

"Because it stopped."

The agent dropped all pretense of 'Generic Agent.' He tapped out something on the tablet. "This took skill, knowledge, experience and either the sharpest knife known to man or someone very very strong. Or maybe both. Had the blade been longer, Pierce would have had his back ribs cut too."

He picked up his own water glass. "You don't stab someone in the chest if you're short on time." Mac turned the device around to face Dan, an image in blue and black on it. "Wanna see the x-rays, Detective?"

She almost married the Sinnerman.

Both Charlotte and Pierce were suddenly, violently, gone at the same time. Plus people who could be identified as actual Henchmen - When did his life become a Bond movie? - Killed or arrested, all within a day of each other, maybe others not yet rounded up. Pierce and Lucifer both had some kind of more profound mysterious history. It was all too much.

He and Chloe couldn't even really comfort each other to any degree, even if she had wanted to talk to him. Lt. Pierce, even as a confirmed Bad Guy, had a history as someone she had felt something for, before his betrayal.

Dan caught Chloe playing with a white feather at her desk. She dropped it in a drawer and slammed it shut when she noticed Dan watching her.

He didn't ask about it. Maybe it was some weird therapy thing.

They and others were forced to attend at least one grief counseling session with a state-assigned therapist who visited the precinct. He hadn't paid much attention to the woman on his scheduled visit. She tried to pass him her card and he had stuffed it in a pocket somewhere. He was sure she was a decent professional, he just didn't want to talk to her.

"Are you doing okay?"

Chloe blinked, shaking herself. "Hmm?"

"You okay? How's Lucifer?"

"I will be. He hasn't been assigned to any new cases, and the FBI doesn't like that Lucifer doesn't have security clearances of any kind. They want to put him through police training before he's allowed to do anything useful." Her voice was strained.

Maybe Dan should pull some files and find Lucifers resume and paperwork himself. Their casework had been next to nil these days, and Dan needed something interesting to occupy his time while waiting for the FBI to disperse.

He'd always wanted to know Lucifer's real name anyway.

"Do you think this will all be over soon?"

Her eyes came back to his. "What?"

Dan gestured at the office covered in warning signs. Every file inside had been boxed up.

"...No. I don't think it will."

"Even though he's...gone?"

"Is he gone? Or is he just somewhere else now?"

"I'm… pretty sure he's dead." He was completely sure about that, actually. Dan did not want to ask where she was when he died. If she witnessed it or not. Her feelings, despite breaking off the engagement, had to be all over the place. She and Dan have been apart several years, but he knew he'd still be heartbroken if Chloe died. He thought they were still friends.

She'd been pretty wooden to everyone since returning, not just him.

Chloe blinked several times. "Yeah, sure. No, I was there, he's...dead. They told me he was cremated after the fact. I don't know if there had even been a funeral. Or where they put his ashes."

He didn't really know how to respond to that, so he picked a standard: "I'm sorry." Dan offered his hand. "You need someone to talk to?"

She met his eyes, taking his hand and squeezing it. "Maybe later? I'm still sorting things." Her hand hovered at the handle of a drawer, then she dropped it.

Dan contemplated his coffee mug at his desk. The day had come and gone, as work does. Dregs of cold work coffee had been swirling around the bottom of his mug for the last three hours. He had made no forward progress in poking around Lucifer's history. For a fake name, it was genius, frankly. Made it virtually impossible to uncover any other information below the surface.

Somehow the Lux building really did belong in the name of Lucifer's company, which began and ended with the ownership of said club. The taxes on that thing were horrendous - unsurprising for the location. If asked, Dan would be lying if he said he didn't consider quitting his job and opening a club right then and there.

Dan knew Lucifer owned more than one building, but pulling information was difficult and he didn't want to drag the FBI into it by asking too many questions. The Lux building itself had recently been declared a historical site, so he had that to dig into too.

Dan picked up and put down his mug again. It was a gift from Trixie. "Best Dad in the Whole Universe." Hand-painted with flowers, hearts and a white unicorn In pink and purple outlines. Somehow she'd gotten glitter to stick on the mug, saving his desk from being covered in sparkles. Mostly. He ran his thumb over the mane of the mythic creature, wondering if she still wanted to ride a horse someday.

A pair of sleek designer shoes with red soles invaded his peripheral vision. Dan didn't need to look up to see who it was, but he did anyway.

Lucifer stood there, hovering, his usual smile absent. For a moment, Dan thought Lucifer stared at the mug too, expecting a scathing comment on the artistry that didn't come.

Dan pretended he had paperwork and picked up a pen. He tried to remember the last deliberate conversation they'd had. Probably him requesting Lucifer's help with a suspect.

Their consultant didn't particularly want to do his interrogation 'trick' with the FBI around. They wanted to watch him do it, after hearing about it from several officers. Lucifer made himself scarce when both a suspect and FBI agents were around.

Even Dan grew more curious since Chloe insisted it wasn't 'a trick.' He went back and reviewed a few interrogation tapes but the angle was never good, usually focused on the suspect. A few times, Lucifer had been briefly alone. A few of those times, something occurred, as they readily spilled their guts shortly after in a panicky burst of word diarrhea.

Dan never gave the technique much credibility before now, assuming Lucifer remaining an employee had more to do with passing his playboy free time than wanting to do actual work.

It bore looking into again, with the FBI so curious about it. Surely they had their own methods that didn't amount to "Scare the suspect into thinking they're talking to the literal Devil." Even if it certainly appeared to be effective.

Hell, Dan had even tried it out once, with horrifically embarrassing results. So much for improv classes. He thought he did a pretty good Lucifer too.

Tell me, *Rhonda*, (leaning in with a tiny head tilt and holding a finger against his face with his best leer) what were you really up to last Thursday? Something wicked?

Rhonda, after holding perfectly still for three seconds, giving him hope, burst out laughing. Thank gods Lucifer hadn't been present for that. Thank gods he didn't try it with the accent too. It didn't backfire, exactly, but at least it didn't work for any of his tittering coworkers either when they tried it on other suspects. He was, however stuck with the nickname 'Blue-eyed Devil' for a few weeks. Only Lucifer himself could seem to perform his trick.

Speaking of which. "What's up?"

Lucifer appeared to be actively biting his tongue, finally asking, "How is the offspring?"

Caught flat-footed, Dan didn't have a quick response. Crickets had time to sing in the time his brain figured out the question. He was stuck on why he'd even be interested. "Trix? I've got her this coming weekend. Haven't you seen her this week at Chloe's?"

He visibly twitched. "I haven't been as welcome at the Detective's residence as of late."

That was weird. Dan thought the two had been pretty good friends. "Did something happen?"

Another long, uncomfortable pause. "It did, yes."

Dan debated strongly over getting involved, but Chloe hadn't said anything and he knew Trixie adored Lucifer. He assumed whatever his and Chloe's tiff was, had to do with FBI crawling up their asses. Maybe they'd been told not to talk to each other until this was wrapped up. Not that Lucifer would obey such an order, but Chloe would. "Do you want to drop by my place Saturday? I'm sure Trixie would love to see you again."

A bit of light touched his eyes. "I wouldn't want to impose."

For all his claims to be the Devil, he was an open book some days. He smiled. "Should I bring...something? That's the social rule, is it not?"

"If it's a nice day out, I'll grill some burgers on the porch. Bring whatever you like on yours or maybe some potato salad. The place has been pretty empty." He immediately winced, having forgotten and then remembering that Lucifer had a close relationship with Charlotte too.

Lucifer nodded, apparently not making the connection. He spotted an FBI agent headed their way and abruptly turned and left. Dan blinked, and Lucifer was gone again as if he hadn't even been there at all.

What in God's name am I getting myself into?