Lucifer was sitting on his couch in the penthouse flipping through the file he'd managed to get on Malcolm Graham for the detective. In the background, he listened as Beatrice practiced on the piano. He'd started teaching her to play it several months ago. He had been kind of impressed by her determination to learn. He'd expected her to give up when she realized how much work it would be, but she kept up with it.
The piano stopped a few moments later. "Am I doing good, Daddy."
Lucifer stood up and approached her. "You're doing well for the amount of time you've been practicing. You still have much to learn though." He didn't lie to anyone. He certainly didn't intend to start with his own child. It annoyed him immensely when he heard idiot parents tell their children they were perfect at everything. All that did was turn them even further into arrogant little beasts. Beatrice was given a realistic outlook of her talents, and Lucifer made sure she understood that to be good at things, she was going to have to work hard for it most of the time. She responded very well to that. It made her more eager to learn.
Beatrice smiled at her father. She liked it when he told her the truth like that, not that her daddy would ever lie. She liked it because then it made her try harder to do better.
"Alright, you've been at it for an hour now. We'll stop for today. Maze will be here soon to take you out for dinner. Go get ready," Lucifer said. He'd invited the detective over to share what he'd learned about Malcolm Graham and he preferred Beatrice not be present for that, so he'd asked Maze to take her for a couple of hours.
Beatrice nodded and ran off to her bedroom.
No sooner than the child was gone did the elevator ding. Maze stepped through seconds later. "Hey. The kid ready?"
"She will be in a few moments." Lucifer said.
"Good. I wanna get out of here before the human gets here," Maze said.
Lucifer walked over and sat back down on the couch. "So how are your games with my brother coming?" Maze told him a while ago that Amenadiel had approached her to try to help him get Lucifer back to Hell. She had been messing with him ever since.
"Over, unfortunately. He figured me out. It's a shame. It was fun yanking an angel around," Maze said with a smirk. In truth, under different circumstances, she might have helped Amenadiel because she did miss Hell, but the kid changed things. She would be hurt if they went back to Hell, and Maze wouldn't allow that. The kid was probably the only human Maze actually cared about.
Lucifer chuckled. "There's my treacherous demon. Though, I don't condone lying, of course."
Maze smirked. "You don't lie. I'm a demon. I take no issue with it."
"Hmm. So long as you don't dare try it with me," Lucifer said in a slightly dangerous tone.
Beatrice came back out moments later in her shoes and jacket. "Hi, Maze. I'm ready."
"Great. Let's get out of here so your dad can get ready to talk shop with his boring partner," Maze said.
"Chloe's coming? But I want to see her," Beatrice whined. She did not know Chloe was coming over when her father told her Maze was taking her out. She would've wanted to stay if she did.
"You just saw her last weekend when she took you shopping. She's coming over for work. You don't need to be here for that," Lucifer said firmly.
"But…"
"Perhaps I can talk her into staying until you get back, but I make no promises. Either way, you will be going with Maze. You'll have another chance to see the detective, I assure you," he told her."
"Okay. Bye, Daddy," Beatrice said in a disappointed tone.
"Goodbye, Urchin. I'll see you soon," Lucifer said.
"I don't know why you'd wanna spend so much time with the most boring human on the planet anyway," Maze said as she led the way to the elevator.
"Chloe's not boring. She's really fun," Beatrice said as the two of them disappeared.
Meanwhile, Lucifer got up and went to the bar. He poured two drinks, one for himself and one for the detective when she arrived. He didn't have long to wait. He heard the elevator again moments after he finished pouring.
Chloe stepped into the penthouse seconds later. "Hey."
"Hello, Detective," he said as he walked over to her and held out a glass. "I took the liberty of pouring you a drink."
Chloe took the drink. "Thanks. I can't stay for very long. I have to be in early tomorrow morning, so I need to get some sleep. You said you needed to talk to me about something."
Lucifer gestured to the couch and watched as the detective went and sat down. Lucifer went over and sat next to her.
Chloe caught a look at the file Lucifer had on his coffee table and figured out why he asked her to meet him. "Why do you have a file on Malcolm Graham?"
"Don't you remember, Detective? We talked about me assisting you with your theory regarding Detective Graham," Lucifer reminded her.
"Yes, and I told you I had to think about it. I assumed that by saying nothing else, you'd have figured out that my answer was no," Chloe said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, Detective, you should never assume with the Devil," Lucifer said with a large grin.
"Clearly not. Lucifer, do you know how many lines you've crossed. I can only assume you broke the law to get whatever it is you have in that file, and if that's the case, we could both be in a lot of trouble," Chloe lectured.
"You needn't worry. Nothing can be traced back to either of us, and I think you'll be very interested in what you read," Lucifer said.
"No, I shouldn't read that. The moment I do, I become complicit in this whole thing," Chloe said. She was saying more for herself than for Lucifer. The compulsion to read that file was extreme. She wanted to know if she was right about Malcolm, but she knew it was wrong to look in that file knowing that she'd gotten it through shady means.
"Well, I could read it to you instead," Lucifer said.
"No! You should just throw that away. I shouldn't know what's inside," Chloe said.
"Even though you were right. Detective Graham is hiding something," Lucifer said.
Chloe looked from Lucifer back to the file. Now she was more tempted to look. Lucifer had just told her that her suspicions of Malcolm were accurate. She wanted to see that herself. She wanted to stop him. But she knew it was wrong to do it. She could get into a lot of trouble. "Even if you somehow have a smoking gun in there, I can't use it to take him down. It would kill my own career before it would his."
"I understand that, Detective, but it could at least help you figure out how you want to proceed next. It could help you find a way to bring him down," Lucifer reasoned.
Chloe hesitated as she continued to stare at the appealing file. "You've read it, right?"
"You said it's worth it, right?" Chloe asked.
"It's interesting. It proves you're not off base, but it still lacks what you would call evidence," Lucifer said.
Chloe's curiosity got the better of her and she picked up the file. She started flipping through it and found herself into Malcolm's financial records. "Damn. I knew Malcolm got his hands on a lot of money, but this is five hundred grand!"
"Hmm. I haven't been able to figure out how he got ahold of it, but it certainly wasn't an inheritance, as he claimed," Lucifer said.
"There doesn't seem to be a trace at all. The money seems to have just appeared in his account one day. This has to be the result of illegal activity. Someone worked hard to make sure this money couldn't come back to them," Chloe said.
"He was likely paid cash and then deposited it into the bank," Lucifer said.
"But this kind of money would have to raise a red flag, wouldn't it? A bank should at least question it," Chloe said.
"Even if they did, all it would take is knowing the right person and having the right dollar amount," Lucifer said.
"Where the hell did he get it," Chloe asked rhetorically as she continued to look at the file. Suddenly, a small detail caught her attention. The date the money went into Malcolm's account. "July 9, 2011."
"Does the date mean anything to you?" Lucifer asked.
"No, not that complete date, but that year. It's just a coincidence, that's all, and it's not even a really be one. It really doesn't mean anything," Chloe said.
"Well, it obviously means something if you're focusing on it. What is it, Detective?" Lucifer asked.
"It's just that it was less than two months after my daughter disappeared that he got his hands on this. Like I said, it doesn't mean anything. I think the fact that the two dates were so close just struck me for a minute," Chloe said. As she said it though, a nagging feeling was stuck in her gut. Something was saying that it was more than a simple coincidence.
"He received a half a million dollars no more than several weeks after your daughter went missing essentially in front of him?" Lucifer asked.
Chloe shook her head. "No, I'm making too much out of it. I have to be."
"You told me that Detective Douche was asleep when your child went missing. Where was Detective Graham at that point?" Lucifer asked.
"He said he was asleep too. It wasn't farfetched. They both admitted to drinking. Dan was legally drunk. I made him take a test. I wanted to know how far gone he was when he neglected our daughter. I don't know about Malcolm, but he did say he was drinking," Chloe said.
"Was abduction ever considered?" Lucifer asked.
"Well, every angle is investigated when a child goes missing, but all evidence pointed to Trixie walking out the front door by herself. We figured if anything, someone picked her up afterwards. There was no sign of a break in," Chloe said as her eyes darted back to the file. "But there wouldn't be if…. Oh, God, what am I doing? I'm going crazy here. Malcolm's a cop. Being on the take is one thing, but we're talking about child abduction."
"It's not impossible though, is it? He was there, and there's no one who can account for his actions when your child disappeared," Lucifer said.
"Do you think he took my baby?" Chloe asked in a shaky voice. She couldn't believe this was happening. Was it even happening? Did she finally have a lead on her child or was her mind trying to come up with one that didn't exist? This was far from damning evidence. It wasn't really evidence at all. It was a bunch of money and a date. It meant nothing.
"I don't know, but I think it's possible. No one knows exactly what happened that day. And he did come into a lot of money afterwards, the kind things like this can buy," Lucifer said, finishing with a low growl. Crimes against children infuriated him. He didn't like any child other than his own, but he had a special disgust for people who harmed them. He very clearly remembered Beatrice's biological father abusing and trying to sell her, just as Malcolm Graham may have sold the detective's child. It infuriated him.
"I…I don't know what I really believed happened before. So many possibilities ran through my head, each worse than the other. This was never one. My kid sold on the black market? I don't know if this is better or worse. If she was, it means maybe she's still alive, but it also means I'm not likely to ever see her again," Chloe cried. She didn't know what to do with this, if it was even true. She still had no idea if Malcolm played any role in her daughter's disappearance.
"What do you want to do, Detective?" Lucifer asked.
"I have to know. I have to know what role Malcolm played that day," Chloe said. She was all in with Lucifer investigating Malcolm now. She didn't care if it was legal or not. This was her child. She had to know what happened to her.
"Very well. I will do everything I can to help you find out," Lucifer promised.
"Thank you," she said before leaning in and hugging him tightly.
