Asking the devil for a favor
Chloe was sitting in her living room, on the sofa, her feet on the low table in front of her, one arm still in a swing. She was on medical leave and bored. She was sweeping through news items on her tablet without reading them, when her phone rang. "Dan?"
"Hi, Clo'. You remember Nick Hofmeister?"
She sat straight. "Yes."
"Involved in an accident in which one guy died, not Nick. Want to come?"
"Yeah. What is the address?"
Two cars were at the side of the road, one laying on its site, the other standing with minor damage. Dan came to Chloe. "Dead guy was riding that car. He was being followed by a paparazzo. Tried to lose his tail. Instead, lost control of his car. Died on impact."
Chloe looked around. "The paparazzo following him was...?"
"Was Nick Hofmeister, yeah."
"Who's the victim?"
"Robbie Russell Jr," Dan said. He lead her to a body next to the car that was on its side.
"The son of the movie star?" Chloe asked. "He wasn't in the business, was he?"
"No. Didn't stop everyone from wanting pictures of him." A guy taking pictures was pushed back by a uni. A paparazzo, young guy with tinted skin and hear straight up. "They're vultures."
"You got a statement from Nick?" Chloe asked.
"You can't be involved in an active case until you're off medical leave."
Chloe sighed. "I'm not involved. I just want to see what is happening."
Dan shook his head. Chloe watched him go on with his work. She walked to the car were Nick Hofmeister was sitting in the back. Hands cuffed behind his back. She opened the door. "You finally did it, Nick. You finally wanted a photo so bad that you killed someone. You're not gonna get away with this. I'm gonna make sure of it."
Nick looked away from her. "You're right."
"Say that again?"
"You're right. I went too far. I'll confess."
"What? Are you drunk? Are you high?"
Nick gave her an annoyed look. "I don't drink and I don't blow when I work."
She shrugged and closed the door.
Later that day she showed up in the precinct and asked Dan for the case file. He shook his head, but gave her the papers. After reading she turned to Dan. "Something is wrong."
"What?"
"There was a fresh roach in his car."
"Yes?" Dan asked.
"Nick said he doesn't blow while working. That could mean there was someone else involved also."
"You think Nick Hofmeister is innocent?" Dan asked. "You?"
"He confessed, Dan. Nick wouldn't confess to a parking ticket, let alone a murder. It just sounded like he was covering for someone."
"Chlo', please. Nick confessed. Case closed."
"I want to interview him again."
"You're on medical leave."
She won that argument with Dan, but the interrogation of Nick turned out to be useless. He simply sticked to his statement: he was driving that car and he had been alone in the car and he had no explanation for the roach.
"You should go home, detective Decker," lieutenant Monroe told her. "I get problems with HR if you do any work."
Chloe visited Robert Russell sr, movie star and father of the victim.
"I already spoke to the police about Robbie. I don't know what else there is to say."
"I'm just following up. I want to make sure there aren't any suspects we overlooked. Mr. Russell, I, um… I don't think Nick killed your son."
"What? Are you... Is this a joke?"
"I'm sorry."
"Y-You just don't know what Robbie went through because of my work. Now he's dead because of me."
"You know, my mom is Penelope Decker. So I was followed by paparazzi all my life, just like Robbie. But, you know, that wasn't my mom's fault. And you got to know, it's not your fault either. The only person you can blame is whoever ran your son off the road. I want to make sure we get the right guy."
"There was one other paparazzo. I have no name or a description, because Robbie never spoke with him."
Chloe ended up at home again. Trixie was with Dan and she was browsing through the copy of the case file Dan had given her. No one to turn to, to discuss the case with. Seeing Nick in jail had been a wish for years, but turning in the wrong person was for her against all standards and values. It didn't take long to realize there was only one person she could ask for support… and that person was the actual, biblical devil.
She shook her head. No way. She took her tablet and scrolled through news sites. A scene with the victim Robbie Russell Jr, taped a few days ago. A man was filming Robbie.
"Hey, Robbie, where you been?"
Robbie took a piece of paper out of his pocket and showed to to the camera. "If you're gonna follow me, maybe I can do something good with this. This... is the Web site for the Red Cross. Give blood, volunteer. Don't be like the asshat filming this."
"Good job, kid," Chloe murmured. "Better than I did." She put down the tablet and sighed. He deserved that the man responsible for his dead was found and if she didn't do it, no one would. She sat in silence, staring at the black screen of the tablet. Then she got up and grabbed her car keys.
She parked a block away from the Lux. This might be a bad idea. It was twelve days since she last saw Lucifer, a dozen one night stands for him. Most likely he didn't remember her and if he did he might not be interested anymore at all. The queue in front of the Lux was long. She walked along and looked at the entrance. Using her police badge, just as last time would mean the bouncers would call someone who would ask Lucifer and then he might… she didn't know what he might say.
"Hey, go to the back of the row," one of the guys waiting to enter, shouted.
Another man laughed. "Why? They won't let her in dressed like that."
One of the bouncers looked at her, tipped another on the shoulder and pointed at her. "Miss Chloe Decker?" the second bouncer asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Please this way, miss Decker," He opened a door and gestured her to enter. "Welcome to the Lux. Over there to the right, miss, and you're at the top of the stairs to the dance floor."
A bit confused she walked the way he had pointed and a few seconds later she looked down at the dance floor of the club. Lucifer was playing piano just as the first time she entered. But this time the floor and tables around it were filled with guests and music mingled with the buzz of voices and clinking of glasses. She slowly descended the stairs, hesitating to disturb his playing. Within minutes Mazikeen popped up and handed her a cocktail.
"I didn't order anything," Chloe said. With some fear she remembered the prices in the Lux.
"Lucifer has put you on the VIP list. Welcome cocktail when you enter, free drinks and snacks during your visit."
She stared mouth open to Mazikeen.
"Anything wrong? You don't like this?"
"No. Yes. It's fine. Thanks." She took a zip. "It's wonderful."
Mazikeen smiled. "Good."
"You and Lucifer seem really close."
The smile deepened. "I followed him through the gates of hell."
"Ah. You're also a devil." Chloe managed to roll her eyes as if it was a joke.
"There is only one devil, Lucifer. I'm a demon."
"Right." Chloe took another zip, not knowing what to answer. There was no need to answer since Mazikeen walked away. The piano stopped playing. She looked and saw Lucifer coming to her, smiling.
"Detective! How good to see you again."
It was clear he remembered her. She was a bit overwhelmed he gave her such a warm welcome. "Hi, Lucifer."
"I hope you do come for me."
"I do."
"Ah." His smile widened, he gave her a suggestively look.
"I hope you will help me with a case."
For a second he looked disappointed, then his smile was back. "We are a good crime-fighting team, aren't we."
"So you will help me?"
"Yes, but I ask a favor in return. We go on a date when the case is solved."
"No one night stands, Lucifer."
"Just diner with the two of us in the penthouse. Nothing more, I promise."
"Ok." Did I just made a deal with the devil, she asked herself.
"On we go," he said.
"Don't they need you her in your club?"
He grinned. "If I had chosen one or two bed partners and gone upstairs, the Lux had also missed me the rest of the night."
"What is the case?" Lucifer asked as soon as they sat in his car, a black Chevrolet Corvette 62, that might have costed more than she made in a year.
Chloe hesitated for a second, then decided he need to know in order to help her. "Two weeks after the release of Hot Tub High School my father was murdered. When I left the funeral a paparazzo took a picture of me, from less then two yards away. I flipped out and knocked the camera out of his hands."
"Good."
"That paparazzo was Nick Hofmeister. Nick is sitting in a cel at the precinct at the moment. They think he caused the dead of Robbie Russell jr, you might have seen in the news."
"I didn't. You need him to confess? You want to see him in jail."
"No. O, I hate the guy. But I'm convinced he didn't do it. He is backing up for someone and I want to know who."
He frowned and casted a surprised look at her. "You don't want to punish him?"
She had some idea what he meant by that and after a moment of thinking said: "If you punish people, they should be punished for the right thing. If you punish someone for the wrong thing, the real offender escapes his punishment."
He took the time to think that over and then nodded. "As always, you are right, detective. So it is the same as usual: you're the one that digs until the truth is found."
At nine o'clock in the evening the precinct was almost empty. Almost all of her colleagues were gone, including Dan and lieutenant Monroe. They could take Nick to an interrogation room without anyone questioning why she was here.
Lucifer leaned over to Nick and looked him in the eyes. "Tell me, dung beetle, what is it you desire?"
"I... would like to confess."
"Yes, yes, yes, but why?"
"Because I deserve it. I've just done… so many terrible things, you know? If I tell you, he's just gonna... No. Just..."
"He? Who?"
"No. I just did everything I could to keep him from making the same mistakes I did. That's why I…"
"You want to tell me," Lucifer said. "Who are you protecting from following in your footsteps?"
"I can't. Josh… It's... I just... I can't." Nick collapsed, sobbing.
"Josh?" Lucifer asked Chloe.
Chloe already went through the papers. "There is a Josh Bryant. He freelances for Nick."
They found Josh Bryant the next morning. He was sitting in his parked car, window open and looking through a camera with a telephoto lens Lucifer stepped in front of him, blocking the view of the camera. Josh looked up amazed. Then he saw Chloe and he came out of his car. "Chloe Decker? I'm a huge fan. Hot Tub High School was my favorite growing up."
He lifted his camera, but Lucifer pushed his arm down. "Yes, we're really not interested in your formative spank bank years, all right?"
He looked Josh in the eyes. "She wants justice for Robbie Russell Jr. But what is it you want, Josh? Hmm?"
Josh trembled. "To be first. To always be first."
"Did Nick teach you that? To be first?" Chloe asked.
"Yeah. I learned a lot working for him. He's my idol."
"So you took photos of your idol being arrested for murder?"
Josh chuckled nervously. "I didn't know what else to do. Nick would've done. Just a second."
He stepped aside and pointed his camera.
Chloe looked in his car. "You like smoking pot, Josh?"
"It's for my nerves. I have a prescription."
His camera clicked. Chloe and Lucifer looked. He was taking pictures of a woman hitting another woman.
"Good timing on that photo," Lucifer said.
"Just lucky I guess," Josh answered. "Sorry. Need to go." He stepped in his car and left.
"Far be it for me to call someone's morality into question," Lucifer said. "But... I believe that photo was planned."
"Yeah," Chloe answered. "Makes me wonder what else was."
They went to the Lux to evaluate. It was still before noon. The Lux was closed and only Mazikeen was standing behind the bar, some yards away and staring at them with a grim look.
"Did I already say 'Thank you, Lucifer'? Without you I would not have solved the Delilah case, I would have died and I would not have found Josh."
"No, you didn't." He looked at her with his head tilted and made a vague gesture.
She grinned. "Thank you, Lucifer."
"I would think thanks come with a kiss."
She grinned again and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "Thank you too, Mazikeen."
The demon woman looked surprised. "Me?"
"You pointed us at the soundtrack album's position in the charts."
The woman's eyes went wide open. "Apart for drinks, I never had a human saying thank you to me."
"I'm grateful," Chloe said.
"Well, we can make a threesome to celebrate," Lucifer said with a wink.
"No one night stands, Lucifer," Chloe replied. Had she not known what he was, his innuendo would have annoyed her. Strangely enough: it now amused her.
Mazikeen came closer. "You can say no to the devil?"
"He doesn't look devilish," she tried to make a small joke.
"I am the devil," he said.
"I only believe when I've seen proof," she repeated something she said before.
He shook his head and emptied his glass. Mazikeen looked at her eyes half closed, then shrugged and filled Lucifer's glass again. "You can call me Maze," she said to Chloe.
Now it was Lucifer that looked astonished. "She only allows persons she trusts to call her Maze."
"Thank you, Maze," Chloe said.
The demoness smiled and filled Chloe's glass also.
"Look at this," Chloe said. On her tablet she went through pictures taken by Josh Bryant.
"Celebrity shouting, matches, fistfights."
"Josh had the first photo on every one," Lucifer said.
"It escalates. Or so it appeared," she said.
"Well," Maze said with a thoughtful glance. "I suppose the best way to be first is to know it'll happen beforehand."
"So he follows Robbie, intent on running him off the road," Chloe mused. "But doesn't count on his own car running off as well. This is cold, premeditated murder."
"Enough to punish him," Lucifer said and stand straight.
Chloe suppressed a sigh. He was a loose canon. "Enough for you, Lucifer. But it won't do me any good if he ends up as Jimmy Barnes. I really get into troubles at the LAPD if the next suspect in the next case also goes mad. We talk with Nick again."
"We?" Lucifer asked.
"We is you and me, Lucifer."
Officially it was Dan's case, but in the precinct Dan was not at his desk, so Chloe could decide to interview Nick again without asking Dan. They showed Nick the sequence of pictures Josh had made.
"He caused all these?" Nick asked.
"Yeah. All of them," Chloe said.
"I can't believe it. I…" He sighed.
"Mm," Lucifer said. "Now you have seen this. What do you really desire?" He looked Nick in the eyes.
After a second Nick's shoulders slumped down. "I want this to stop. Yes. I lied. I didn't drive that car." He sat with his eyes closed. "Now I betrayed him."
"We found a roach in the car that caused the accident," Chloe said. "We will check it for DNA and that will point to Josh anyway. So you can just tell us everything."
Nick nodded. "I took Josh in when he was 16. He was a runaway. In him, I saw a little bit of who I used to be. So I took him under my wing. Taught him about all the lines a pap can't cross. You know, 'cause I just... I just wanted him to stop making the same mistakes I did. Two days ago, he calls me up, says he's been in a really bad accident, and said that he totally understood everything I was saying now. But it was too late. Someone was dead."
He looked at Chloe. "Nick Hofmeister finally tries to do something good with his life, and he gets played. You must really be enjoying this."
"I'm really not. Believe it or not, I forgive you."
Nick was brought back to his cell. Dan was standing outside the interrogation room with an angry face. "You interfered with my case."
"I solved your case."
"It was solved. And why did you bring that nightclub owner with you?"
"Lucifer helped me with the case."
"He shouldn't been here at all and the same holds for you. You're on medical leave."
Lieutenant Monroe came to them. "Well done, detective Decker. You were right again." She noticed Lucifer. she blushed and giggled when Lucifer gave her a kiss on the hand. Then she turned to Chloe. "But you're on sick leave. Better go home and let detective Espinoza handle all the paperwork of the case for you."
"Thank you, lieutenant." Chloe smiled at Dan, who gritted his teeth.
While they left the precinct, Lucifer said: "May I ask you for a diner in the penthouse, detective?"
It was so easy to forget that this handsome man was truly the devil, but she had promised it. "Just diner, Lucifer."
"Only diner, detective."
Chloe considered she had to give a small gift, for both the dinner and his help. But what to give the devil? What to give a man who could buy half of LA if he wanted? Flowers? Whiskey? It all felt wrong.
"Does he like chocolate, mommy?"
"I believe so. He likes sweets."
"I know a shop where you can buy chocolate figures," Trixie said. "A pony or a cat or a mushroom."
Chloe gave it a thought. "I don't think he likes ponies or cats or mushrooms."
"They can make anything."
"Mm. Do they have a website?"
Of course they had a website and the afternoon before her date with Lucifer she was down town with Trixie to buy the chocolate Chevrolet Corvette model she had chosen. After getting the chocolate model she and Trixie visited a tearoom for tea and cake. They had ordered and were waiting for the order when someone said: "Hi, Decker."
Chloe looked up. "Hi."
It was Maze. "Your daughter?"
"I'm Trixie," her daughter said. "Are you also working for the LAPD?"
"No. I'm a bartender. Bartender in the Lux. And I handle all tasks that Lucifer finds too boring to do."
"You know Lucifer?" Trixie jumped up. "I like him. He is so funny."
Maze laughed and sat down at their table. "I will tell him."
"Is bartender a nice job? I want to be the president of Mars, but my dad says I better think of another job."
The tea and cake arrived, Maze ordered a beer and turned back to Trixie. "What would you like to be?"
"Zookeeper is also nice."
"I was a zookeeper, well a kind of, before we came to LA," said Maze with a grin.
"But mommy says I should become a lawyer, that pays better than zookeeper, she says."
"Lawyers can make a lot of money, yes," Maze agreed. "They always hope to bribe me with it. False hope."
"You meet a lot of lawyers in the Lux, Maze?" Chloe asked.
Maze smiled a demonic smile. "Also, but much more in my previous job."
"Do you also know a lot of zookeepers?" Trixie asked.
Maze gave it a thought. "No. I dealt with millions of lawyers, but hardly any zookeeper."
In her previous job… Chloe would like to ask more but still didn't want to reveal what she knew. She scratched her chin. Millions of lawyers… in hell, apparently. Maybe she should rethink pushing Trixie to become a lawyer. Or… She breathed deep and shook her head.
"Do you want to be my friend?" Trixie asked Maze.
"Friend?" Maze asked, clearly confused. "You and me?"
"I like you. What is your name?"
"Mazikeen. But you can call me Maze."
Chloe had never thought about where and how Lucifer lived. He lived in a penthouse on the highest floor of the building above the Lux. Everything in the penthouse screamed 'expensive'. The view from the balcony of the city was marvelous. There was a bar with, according to Lucifer, the largest whisky collection of the city.
He had ordered Mexican food for her. "From the best Mexican restaurant of the city, detective."
She had heard of the restaurant he named. "I didn't know they deliver."
He smiled. "They normally don't, but they owed me a favor."
"How many people owe you a favor?"
"Many thousands, detective. Close to ten thousand. Five courses. And the right wine for each course." He pointed at five bottles on the bar.
They ate, they drank, they talked and laughed. Between the courses he played the piano for her and sang along. "You have the voice of an angel," she said with a smile.
"You count that as proof, detective?"
She pretended to think it over and then shook her head. "Nope," she said with a teasing smile.
Half past eleven she said: "It was the best evening of my live, Lucifer. Thank you."
"I will bring you home to make sure you're safe."
She told him that was not needed, but he insisted and walked with her up to her front door. "If in the future you're ever ready for the best night of your life, just let me know, detective." He smiled at her, kissed the back of her hand and walked back to his car.
