Later that day

Chloe looked up as a well-dressed middle-aged woman knocked gently on the door frame. "Det. Decker?" the woman asked, stepping into the cubicle space. "I'm Doctor Harris. I was Annalise Gibson's faculty adviser. "

Chloe motioned to the chair beside her desk. "Good to meet you Dr. Harris. What can I do for you?"

The older woman sat primly at the edge of the chair and eyed the detective warily. "I was speaking to Detective Chavez from your missing persons division. He said that the search for my missing student may have become entangled with another case, a murder which occurred near the Cecil hotel."

Chloe mentally cursed Detective Chavez for his loose lips about a case not really his own. "It's possible her disappearance might be related. Did you know Annalise well?"

The woman shrugged. "About as well as I know any of the other hundreds of young women who I act advisor to. In her case - perhaps a little better as she was majoring in journalism which is my subject. I was helping her with a story she was writing about famous haunted locations and what made people believe in their cursed history."

Chloe thought about that for a moment. "So the Cecil wasn't her only target - just her first one?"

Dr. Harris smiled thinly. "I wouldn't call them targets, Det. Decker. It wasn't like she was trying to do a hit piece for the National Enquirer. She was just trying to show that places like the Cecil, or for that matter places like the Stanley Hotel, the LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans or the Winchester House in San Jose were more a product of people's need to believe in spirit intervention rather than a real gateway to the afterlife. Annalise believed that people saw patterns in tragedy that didn't exist except to reinforce their own belief in God's purpose for mankind. She had planned on making it a multipart YouTube experience and was starting with the Cecil."

Chloe's eyes brightened. "So she was filming as part of her story. Do you know what might have happened to the material she had already collected?"

Dr. Harris sighed. "No, sadly I do not. I remember asking her to be sure to backup her work on a secure server in case of accidents. I was frankly concerned that the hotel management might take exception with what she was trying to do or even go so far as to sue to prevent her from posting her work online. I had an unfortunate conversation with the hotel's current manager - a Ms. Simonton - when Annalise first went missing. She informed me that my student had been on the verge of being fired for sneaking around the hotel in areas she had no business looking into and that the new owners might take it badly if she posted anything she had seen to the web." The professor shrugged. "She seemed more concerned with the hotel's reputation than the girl's disappearance which I found very odd. It's not as though the building's name could be any worse considering the history about it that was already out there after that unfortunate Elisa Lam incident. It was a minor miracle that a buyer could be found for the property at all after that."

Chloe mentally agreed. "Well thank you for coming in to tell me about this, Dr. Harris. It was very helpful."

The woman rose from her chair with a shrug. "I can't imagine how it could be of much help in your homicide. Annalise disappeared well before this latest unfortunate incident." She strode away, disappearing from sight as people milled about.

Chloe nodded. "Maybe not - but it may be she saw something that she wasn't supposed to see or record. Something that caused our unknown perpetrator to make her disappear - and that disappearance led to my victim's search and death." She glanced at the phone, wondering if it would be worth the trouble to run down Lucifer and get him to accompany her back to the hotel. Or worth the stress on her nerves as she dealt with his disregard for the tragedy of both cases.

"Hey, who was that?" Dan called out, trotting out of Ella's work area.

"Annalise's faculty advisor" Chloe replied, gathering up her notepad and jacket. "She wanted to let me know that her student had been planning this YouTube series about famous haunted houses and why they really weren't . And she was starting with the Cecil." Chloe's eyes hardened as she thought about what she had just heard. "Seems the manager of the hotel told her that Annalise was on the verge of being sacked for poking abound the hotel in places she wasn't supposed to be in. Which again makes me very curious why she didn't mention talking to our victim about that flyer right before he died."

Dan nodded in agreement. "I was headed that way to talk to the staff. Why don't you go with me? That way it will be harder for her to stop us talking to her employees without explaining what she's been holding back."

"Works for me" Chloe said. "Just let me leave a note with Ella in case Lucifer decides to actually show up and be helpful. This would be an easier conversation if I could aim him at her and find out what she's really wanting from all of this."

Dan shrugged. "We interrogated suspects before Lucifer showed up - not like we need him that much. But okay - tell Ella where we're going and I'll catch up with you outside." He trotted off towards the elevators, disappearing in the crowd just as Dr. Harris had done.

"Yeah - but that was before I was working with the Prince of Hell" Chloe thought morosely.

Back at the Cecil

"Tell me again why you insisted on dragging me back to this place without calling Chloe first?" Amenadiel complained, trying to look less intimidating so as not to attract attention. It wasn't an easy feat considering his height, build and the misconceptions many had of a black man in the streets of L.A.

Lucifer, on the other hand, was attracting as much attention their way as he possibly could. "You got a better look at that wanker with the shopping cart, brother. It should be easy for you to pick him out for us."

"Out of the multitude of homeless derelicts milling about the hotel looking for a handout?" the angel replied dryly. "Luci, you grossly exaggerate my abilities."

"Probably" Lucifer agreed. "But I noticed the last time that we were here that Azrael's little reapers were busy at work waiting to snatch up souls from the transients around the hotel and thought they might be able to point us in the right direction. And as I, unlike you, are persona non grata in Heaven..."

"You thought they would be more willing to talk to me than you." Amenadiel shook his head in amusement. "We've already had this discussion brother. This is a mortal problem - not a Celestial one."

Lucifer's smile thinned. "Oh we both know with the right encouragement dear old Dad will make an exception to any rule. Maybe this will be one of those times."

Amenadiel bit his lip to keep from saying what he was really thinking and looked down the alleyway where the body had been found. Crime scene tape still hung from areas the police had cordoned off and a suspicious dark spot was visible on the dirty concrete. The angel frowned as his eyes picked up something at the other end of the alley, just out of range of all the police activity. "Luci - look there. I think that might be our shopping cart."

Lucifer peered in the direction his brother was indicating. "Looks like very other cart in this filthy place" he replied.

"One way to find out" Amendiel said, moving quickly to the now empty cart. He pushed it gingerly and then pointed. "It has a bad wheel just like the one we saw yesterday. Maybe not the same one but it's at least a place to start. This was where our figure disappeared so maybe he chose to leave it behind because it was slowing him down."

"Wonderful find, brother, but we don't need the cart. We need the wanker who was pushing it."

Amenadiel looked down the block at the various "residents" of Skid row. "It's empty so I'm guessing it's been here long enough for others to come and take what was in it away. Maybe if we talk to one of them..."

Lucifer sighed. "I'm in my favorite Armani suit and you want me to wade through that filth to maybe find one person who MIGHT know what happened to another of their kind who was attached to this cart. I think I'll pass."

"Hey! What are you two doing back here?" a gruff voice called out. A young uniformed officer walked up, gingerly stepping around the garbage heaps between them. "You two are NOT from Social Services or the hotel - so what are you doing here?"

Amenadiel kicked his brother's ankle swiftly, knowing that if he didn't take charge of this conversation Lucifer's propensity for telling the exact truth would come spilling out - and now was not the time to be visible as hunters to anyone, not even the police. "We were looking for someone we had seen in the street yesterday. He was pushing this cart and... well he looked like someone we had once known so we were hoping to locate him and see if there was anything we could do for him."

Lucifer nodded at his brother's words, carefully wording his response. "Yes, we would really like to know where he's gone."

The police officer shrugged, sweat beading on his dark brown skin. "If he was hanging out here at Skid Row the chances of you finding him again are pretty slim. Know his name?"

"No" Amenadiel admitted. "He was just a passing acquaintance. Seeing him was disturbing."

The officer sighed. "For you and everyone who works this neighborhood. Social Services and a lot of the non-profits try to help but..."

"Unless these people want your help you're just wasting your time" Lucifer responded coldly.

"Not sure I'd word it that way but your friend is right. I and some of my friends from our church come out here on a regular basis trying to pass out information about help that is available to them but most times it's like whistling into the wind." The officer glanced at the cart for a moment with a frown. "You know, now that I think about it, I sort of remember someone pushing this wanky old cart around in the last day or two. Not a regular though. He seemed to "clean" to be living rough on the streets for very long despite the layers of clothes he was wearing." He glanced up at the two men in front him with a slight smile, not quite sure why he was offering this. The well-dressed one didn't seem all that sympathetic but his companion seemed to radiate the kindness he had seen in many who had volunteered to help the unfortunates on his beat. "Look, these folks know me. They will talk to me before some stranger coming out of nowhere - especially considering all the police activity in the last day or two. Give me your number and if I hear anything about your missing friend I'll let you know."

Amenadiel fished one of Linda's cards out of his pocket and handed it gratefully over. "This is my partner's number. If you call her she'll make sure the message gets to us. And thank you for all you do for them and for us."

The officer blushed as he tucked the card into his pocket. "No problem man. Just trying to do the Lord's work best I can." He turned and returned to his patrol, waving goodbye as he did so.

"The Lord's work?" Lucifer scoffed. "Really?"

"Shut up Luci" his brother replied with a sigh. "Just shut up."