Chloe spent the next few hours going over witness statements and trying to firm up alibis for the main suspects. Lucifer, in typical Lucifer fashion, had declined to sit around and help and had retreated to his club. Amenadiel had begged off assisting as well, claiming a prior commitment. Chloe had talked again to the victim's wife Candice and her brother James Milton, who come in with their lawyer to answer more questions. Neither had been terribly cooperative but had at least given their locations when the victim had disappeared off of everyone's radar. His wife, still sullenly quiet when question, had said she was at a fundraising dinner for her former sorority and had spent the night in town rather than drive home. Her brother had claimed to be at their Brentwood home all night, playing on-line chess with a friend from England.

"You know" Chloe mused to herself, sitting back and rummaging through what little she had found at the victim's office. "Mrs. McIntyre never did tell me who had contacted her about her husband's death. She had to know almost as soon as we did to get to his office so quickly. Maybe her brother…?"

"Earth to Chloe" Ella called out as she slid to a stop in front of the detective's desk. "You know you're talking to yourself, right?"

Chloe shrugged. "No one else to talk to" she admitted ruefully. "Both Lucifer and Amenadiel seem to have deserted me. No sign of how my vic got to the hotel – his car is MIA and no one at the hotel remembers him arriving by cab. Not sure where Dan is and still waiting on the autopsy report for a set time of death."

Ella glanced back at her work space. "Wish I could tell you more but there was literally NOTHING in the room he rented. No bus token, no receipt from a cab, nothing to say how he got from point A to point B. He didn't even have a change of clothing with him. Which is weird, if you think about it. Why rent a hotel room for a night but not bring clothes to change into?"

"You've never worked vice have you?" Chloe replied dryly.

Ella grinned. "I actually did think of that but there was no sign of any of the "other" things you might find is a room for the hour assignation. I have to wonder – did whoever kill him take his stuff as well or did he not have any stuff to take?" She glanced at the papers on the detective's desk quizzically. "What's all that?"

"Paperwork Lucifer and I found in the victim's office – things his wife was trying to shred and things she didn't quite get to." Chloe waved a hand over the stacks in exasperation. "None of it has to do with the hedge fund company he was working for so his boss was more than happy to let me bag it up and take it away."

Ella poked at a few pages, trying to read it upside down. "Looks like it's more about the history of the hotel – and this missing girl Annalise."

Chloe sighed. "I WISH it were more about Annalise! At least then I could maybe get a handle on why he was so interested in her. I don't even know what got him started looking for her."

"I think I can help with that" Dan trotted into the office space, a folder in his hand. "I ran into Bill Tao at Missing Persons. Remember him?"

Chloe frowned for a moment, trying to remember why the name was familiar. "Friend of your family's?" she guessed. "From your old neighborhood?"

"Right in one" Dan agreed. "He was able to dig up the original report filed on Annalise Gibson. Didn't take long to see why no one was looking too hard for her."
Chloe sighed. "I'm not in the mood for a guessing game. What's her story?"

Dan opened the folder and laid it on her desk. "Annalise was reported missing nearly a week ago when she didn't return from her night shift at the desk of the Stay on Main – aka the Cecil Hotel."

"The missing girl was a desk clerk?" Ella asked in surprise.

"She was that night. Looks like she had been working at the hotel for a while in a lot of different positions. The desk clerk that night had called in sick and Ms. Gibson offered to cover for him. She had just completed training on the computer system and the new owner was considering her for the position. She clocked out at 8:00 and never made it home."

Chloe shrugged. "Who filed on her?"

Dan pointed down at the report. "That's where this gets interesting. Seems her dad showed up on LAPD's doorstep almost five hours after she didn't arrive home. Uniform tried to tell him he had to wait 24 hours since his daughter was legally an adult but someone above that officer's pay grade walked up and took the guy back to Missing Person's to file his report."

It was Elle's turn to frown. "What made him so special? Was he related to someone on the force?"

Chloe finished reading the paperwork Dan had brought in and looked up at her ex in surprise. "He was a gang member?"

"Former" Dan replied with a shrug. "High up in the Hell's Angels if you believe the Gang Task force's reports. Micah Gibson – aka Mad Dog – became an enforcer for the gang as a teenager then moved up to whatever passes for upper management. He was caught and convicted of a drive by only because his pregnant girlfriend turned him in. She gave birth to his daughter Annalise while he was in prison. His conviction was thrown out due to a technicality and got custody of his kid after his ex was cut down in a drive-by just before he was released. She didn't have any family and since his conviction was gone Child Protective Services couldn't keep him from petitioning to get his kid back. Not that they didn't try but his slimy lawyer managed to convince the judge that living with her dad couldn't be any worse than being in foster care. So he was out on the street with a kid to support and, according to what the task force put together, he managed to scrape together enough money to buy himself a little nothing dinner near the waterfront and has been keeping his head down ever since."

"But the task force doesn't think he's turned his life around – do they?" Chloe guessed.

"No one knows for sure. But I'm betting even if he HAD wanted to go straight the gang wouldn't have taken no for an answer."

Ella waved a hand in the air. "Question? Did his kid know what he did before he owned the diner? Maybe she just decided to make a run for it when she put two and two together and came up with a theory on who had killed her mom."

Dan nodded. "That was what Bill and I thought as well. Would explain why there wasn't much effort put into finding her."

"All very interesting but what does that have to do with my victim?" Chloe asked.

"Seems Annalise was doing better in her life than her old man. She was early admission to UC Berkley with a major in journalism and was pledging to a sorority - Sigma Kappa."

Chloe glanced at her note from that morning. "The victim's boss said something about his wife being part of an alumni association for a sorority. And the victim's wife's alibi for that night is she was at a fundraiser for her old sorority. I wonder…"

Dan glanced up as an officer arrived, holding up a set of large evidence bags. "Ella – looks like the guys I had searching the vic's home may have found something."
"I hope so" Ella replied. "Cause this case is just way too odd." She trotted out to retrieve the bags and get to work.

Dan glanced down at his wife in concern. "So… how are things with Lucifer? You two seemed kind of off since you came back from Rome."

"We're fine" Chloe replied quietly. "Finding out that my fiancé was in fact a criminal who my consultant had to save me from has kind of put us in a new head space. But I think things will work out – hopefully."

"Yeah – right" Dan replied doubtfully.

Back at Lux

Lucifer watched the staff get ready for another night of drunken revelry. "The more things change – the more they stay the same" he mused, taking a quick swig of his drink.

"You never did way why you came back" Maze's voice floated out of the darkness behind him as she took her place at his side. "Home not good enough for you anymore?"

"Hell was never home" he corrected coldly. "It was just the cell dear old Dad decided to leave me in while he got on with making a fuss over his newest pets." He looked over at the demon who had followed him through every one of his adventures in the land of mortal man with a speculative gleam in his eyes. "So, Mazzy, tell me what you know about the Cecil Hotel?"

"That dump?" she countered with a snort. "What's to know?"

"Oh, I don't know. It would be interesting if you knew of any of your siblings has taken up residence in that sad establishment, using it to lure men to their worst fates."

Maze shrugged. "Not that I know of – but then again I wouldn't put it past any of my sisters. You decreed there would be no more possessions but that doesn't mean one of my kind can't use men's own banality to get them to be the worst they can be."

Lucifer frown. "If I find any of those miserable succubus interfering in this realities natural slide towards oblivion…"

"Isn't that what you're doing?" Maze shot back. "You're always interfering with things by working with the cops."

"I'm doing what my old man decreed I should do – punishing evil doers. I'm just doing it MY way – not his." He tossed his glass back at the bartender who caught it neatly in mid-air and placed it in the sink behind the bar. "I'm sure you have other things to do tonight Maze that don't include hanging around here."

"Why? Don't you want me to see you and Decker smooching in a corner?"

Lucifer moved into her space quickly, backing her up against a pillar. "If you have a problem with my renewing my relationship with Det. Decker then maybe you should find somewhere else to be. Somewhere you won't have to watch."

Maze shrugged. "Whatever. But I'd watch my back if I were you. That priest she talked to wasn't the only one gunning for you." She turned and walked seductively out of the club, leaving her former master and friend to contemplate just what it was she knew that he didn't.

Somewhere near the docks

A hand reached out to the laptop in front of it and quickly dropped a set of image files into an email addressed to Det. Chloe Decker. It had taken some persuasion and more than a little cash to get the name of the officer in charge of the murder investigation – and more importantly to get her personal email address. But once the message was sent things would start rolling along at a much quicker pace – and the hounds would start looking for their prey with much more enthusiasm then they had been. A quick click – and the message was off.

"Now" a voice rumbled in the darkness "let's see how long it takes them to find the link between you and Annalise."