The devil learns about jealousy
"I want to see Palmetto street again," Chloe said after they dropped Trixie at school. Lucifer looked at her, head tilted and eyebrows raised, but didn't object. She drove them to Palmetto and walked with Lucifer to a door. "Here was I. In the months leading up to the shooting, we were following a French drug trafficker Nikolas Aoudi… one night, I tracked him here, sneaking in through the side door. And I hid behind this glass. I could see them. It was Malcolm and Aoudi and his bodyguard. Malcolm was holding cash. I leaned forward to hear what they were saying. And accidentally, I made a sound. Malcolm saw me, but he didn't react. And that's when shots went off, bullets were flying everywhere. When I ran in Aoudi and his man were dead, Malcolm was on the floor, bleeding out.
"Aoudi didn't shoot him," Lucifer said. "It would be stupid for him to shoot the dirty cop on who he spent all that money."
"Exactly. But there was no one else. The shooter couldn't have left without me seeing him."
"There was no obvious exit?" Lucifer asked.
"No." She looked around. "So... maybe… there is a secret one."
She walked to the next room, knocking on walls, Lucifer stepped forward. The sound of his footstep echoed somewhere below the floor. They both looked down. "A hatch!" Chloe snapped.
It took them many minutes to find how to open it. It uncovered stairs going to a dark passage below the building. With a lamp held high Chloe slowly descended the stairs.
"Something glittering on the step you just passed," Lucifer said.
Chloe turned, lowered the lamp to have a better look. "A key. A 999 key. Remember what the lieutenant said? Dan had lost his. Is this his key? Was he here? Then he knew this passage. Then he shot Malcolm."
"I hate to defend detective Douche, but it was to save you," Lucifer said.
"To cover his own ass," Chloe said. She inhaled deeply then nodded slowly. "To cover is own ass."
"He wanted to tell you something yesterday evening."
Chloe snorted.
In the precinct Dan was at his desk making notes on a report. Chloe walked straight to him, certainly planning to confront him, but Lucifer grabbed her arm. "This is not going to help."
"I didn't know you want to help Dan," she snapped.
"I don't care about detective Douce, but any fight in public is going to come back to the urchin, one way of another." He looked more serious then ever, almost un-Lucifer. "Please, let me first."
"Daniel," Lucifer started.
Dan looked up in annoyance.
"Yesterday evening you wanted to say something to the detective."
"Yes, to Chloe. In private."
Lucifer grinned. "That's no problem. I get three coffee out of that machine and while I'm busy with that you can say what you need to say." He bent over to Dan. "And for the child's sake you better tell what you need to tell."
Lucifer walked away. Dan sat with his eyes closed.
"Well," Chloe said. "What? I have work to do."
"I shot him," Dan whispered. She didn't react. He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Malcolm. It was to save you. Believe me. I know him. It was to save you."
She took at the 999 key they found and threw it on his desk. "On the stairs beneath that hatch at Palmetto."
Dan just looked at it. He looked as if he was sick. "You knew…" he murmured.
"From now on we only have contact about Trixie or work," she said. "Nothing else."
"You're my boss, so…" he shrugged.
"Your boss? What are you talking about?"
At that moment Lucifer returned. He gave both Dan and Chloe a coffee. Despite her anger she noticed he seemed to know for both what their favorite choice of coffee was. "Let's drink it at your desk, detective," he said.
"Yes," she said. "Not here."
They had taken the first sip of their coffee when Lucifer's phone chimed. "Maze?" he said with surprise in his voice. Chloe couldn't hear Maze, but Lucifer opened his eyes wide and reacted with short replies as 'what', 'how dares he', 'I kill that bastard', 'I'm always careful', 'never', 'forget it' and 'no one else?'.
"Amenadiel has been in the Lux and to Maze' quarters, the ninth floor. He has stolen one of Maze' knives."
"Did Maze see him?"
"Not in person. It happened two days ago when Maze was hunting our archer lady. There is a hidden camera in the elevator which registers everyone that goes above floor four."
"Why would your brother steel a knife?"
"It's a hell forged blade, detective. It can kill an immortal."
"It can kill you," Chloe understood. She frowned. "Maybe you should stay in…"
"I'm not going to hide in the penthouse, detective. You sound just as Maze."
The expression on his face made clear he would not. But Amenadiel got that knife to kill Lucifer, what else. And Maze agreed with her. Before she could decide what to say, the phone on her desk ringed. "Decker."
"Lieutenant Monroe here. Can you come to my office, detective Decker?"
"You must have realized already I now miss four senior detectives and one forensic technician," Olivia said as soon as Chloe was seated in front of her.
"I… Well, I know, but I didn't think about it."
"Anyway, you will have known there were a few promotions coming up. Now I lost those four detectives, I have some open slots and the Deputy Chief of the Detective Bureau allowed me to promote two more detectives to fill the ranks."
Chloe nodded, not sure what to say.
"And you will be one of those. Effective tomorrow you're grade two.
"Thank you, lieutenant."
Olivia shook her head. "You earned it. The whole Palmetto case clouded this department for too long, but you should have been promoted anyway. As detective two I will ask you to supervise two lower ranked staff members. First your ex."
"Lieutenant! Dan knows how to work as a detective, he doesn't need me to supervise him."
"No? You yourself said he closes case too soon and we know he doesn't mind looking away if a colleague does wrong. You know him and you know his weaknesses."
Chloe took a deep breath. "There is one thing on Palmetto…"
"Whatever it is," Olivia interrupted her. "I do not want to know." The lieutenant fiddled with the papers in front of her, then looked at Chloe and said softly: "Does it involve anyone else than the five that are already found?"
"No, lieutenant."
"Then you can handle it. The case is closed and we don't want more publicity around it. Good. Next. Clark of forensics is one of the four that will be fired. By accident we were going to hire a new technician for forensic. Planning was she would start six weeks from now. But now Clark is gone, I called the woman and asked whether she can come immediately. She is moving to LA today, so I expect her in the precinct tomorrow or day after tomorrow."
"A woman? And not from LA?"
"From Detroit. She worked as forensic technician for the DPD for four months now, but she wants to live in LA. I will ask you to also supervise her. Ella Lopez is her name."
Chloe decided to do a final check of the cabin in the woods where Rachel Lape had camped. They found a laptop, a freezer with seven arrows of frozen blood and two crossbows. The laptop showed files with piles of information on Ben Kipric and his four buddies. "Enough to close the case," Chloe said. "Let's go back to the city."
Back in the precinct a Latin-American woman, almost still a girl, came to Chloe. She had her black hair in a bun and a huge smile. "You must be detective Decker?"
"I am. Just say Chloe."
"Ella Lopez," the young woman introduced herself. She gave Chloe a hug. "I come to work for you."
"Work with me," Chloe corrected.
"For, with, whatever, girl. I talked with some officers this afternoon and I'm so proud I can work for you."
"Proud to work with me? I'm just an average detective of the LAPD."
"Modest, I see, but not average." Ella counted on her fingers. "Delilah, Robbie Russell, Ali Thornton, Lindsay Jolson, Paola Cortez, Roger Brady, Nancy Lape for the OCSD and the dirty cops here in the precinct. Eight cases in a row and eight solved cases. A hundred percent closure rate. Every one tells me that you and your partner are unique." It was all told with a delighted face as if she was telling about her favorite sports team or pop star.
"Me and the detective are unique?" Lucifer asked, showing up behind Ella. He just came with coffee for Chloe.
Ella turned. "You must be detective Decker's civilian consultant, mister Morningstar!" As soon as Lucifer had placed Chloe's coffee on her desk, so took him also in a big hug. Lucifer froze, hands raised and eyes wide with a bewildered look, the same reaction as when Trixie hugged him.
"Yes. Fine. Please," he stammered as soon as Ella had released him. "Please call me, Lucifer."
"Cool!"
"I would expect a different reaction considering your choice of bling." He pointed at the cross hanging around her neck.
"Oh. Dude, I have a friend who says he is Elvis," Ella said. "Only he can't sing. Can you show me horns or a tail?"
Chloe chuckled.
"I don't have horns or a tail," Lucifer said, a bit offended.
"You see my point?" Ella said. "And besides, I think the devil gets a bad rap."
"Oh. You do, do you?"
"Sure" Ella said, looking at both Chloe and Lucifer. "I mean, what did he really do that was so bad? Rebel against his dad? Ask some naked lady if she wanted an apple?"
"Be still, my heart," Lucifer said with his hands against his chest. "Do go on."
"I suppose he does run hell," Ella continued. "That's not so great, you know, with the torture and eternal damnation."
"I'm retired," Lucifer said. "And besides, I didn't create hell. I just worked there."
"And now you're talking in the first person?" Ella frowned. "Wait. Are you a method actor?"
"I am the devil, miss Lopez."
Ella rolled her eyes. "Are you going to stay in character all day?"
Chloe quickly stopped that conversation by asking Ella what she had done for the DPD.
Next morning a new day came with a new case. A therapist was killed, a doctor Bernie Shaw. When they arrived Ella was already at the crime scene and taking pictures. She briefed Chloe and Lucifer. "It happened last night, roughly around nine. No locks forced, so most likely someone he knows. The murder weapon was this statute." Ella pointed at a metallic statute, two feet high, that was laying on the ground.
"Blood on this side," Lucifer noticed, studying the statute.
"Indeed," Ella said. "The killer used what he found as weapon. And the alarm was on. As if the murderer knew the system and the code and turned it on when he left."
"That weapon might indicate he didn't plan the murder," Chloe said. "Killer most likely knew the vic and it seems like a crime of passion."
"Sounds boring," Lucifer said.
"Boring?" Chloe smiled and handed him a tablet. "You didn't see this."
"Oh! Hello. The Cheater Therapist."
"Yeah." Her arm in his arm they read the article she found on the therapist. "He encouraged couples to cheat to save their marriages."
"Sounds like a great idea."
"Really?" She looked him in the eyes.
"Teasing, detective. But only a month ago I would have said yes to it." He grinned, pulled her to him and kissed her hair. "But not for us."
"Wow, so you are a couple," Ella said.
"No, we are not," Chloe said. She stepped away from Lucifer and blushed. "I mean… Yes we are, but I don't want the whole precinct to know."
"You know they are making bets? Whether you are a couple or not, whether you already slept with each other, when you will first kiss in the precinct."
"What!? Who?"
"Officers Marian Nolan and Arantxa Caluzzi told me. Yesterday in the precinct, before I saw you. They mentioned many names who placed bets. And most of the women are a bit jealous of you. Some more than a bit."
Chloe was shocked. "Ella… please, I don't want my love life discussed in the precinct."
Ella shook her head. "I won't tell them." She made a gesture as if she closed her lips with a zipper.
"Not so fast," Lucifer said. "Let's think about the possibilities. That bet about when we will first kiss in the precinct. Ella could put a lot of money on that one and then…"
"No," Chloe interrupted him.
He laughed. "Ok, we don't think. We go on with the murder."
"The victim was facing his murderer when he was hit," Ella added.
"Which matches the option they knew each other," Chloe said.
In a next room they met the victim's wife Alexandra. She was crying and a guy with a short beard and heavy glasses was handing her tissues.
"I was out of town," she sobbed.
"And just got back to find her husband dead," the tissue lad added.
"I'm Detective Decker," Chloe said. "This is my associate, Mr. Morningstar."
"Jonathan Medina," the tissue lad introduced himself. "Colleague of Dr. Shaw."
Lucifer sank on one knee for the woman. "Your husband was an original therapist. Desire shouldn't be contained... it's unnatural. Your husband recognized that."
"Bernie," Alexandra whispered, still sobbing. "He-he just wanted to help people. He dedicated his life to others. Who would do this?"
"We'll find out, mrs Shaw," Chloe promised her. "Can you tell us whether anyone had threatened your husband?"
"Every one of her husband's patients is a suspect," Chloe said after they left the two.
"Oh! Does that mean we get to dive into patient files?" Lucifer grinned and kissed her hand. "Read the deepest, darkest secrets of L.A.'s most unfaithful? That might be inspiring."
"I didn't know you needed that. But, we can't look at them without a psychologist to protect patient confidentiality."
"Perfect! May I suggest Linda Martin."
"Your therapist?" She knew he had regularly sessions with Linda. She knew he once had sex with her to pay for these sessions, but stopped having sex with Linda a week before he told her, Chloe, he wanted to be her boyfriend. He now normally paid with money for the sessions. She trusted him and was a bit curious to see that doctor again. "Problem is, it's out of our hands. Court-appointed. A judge needs to sign off."
He shrugged with a smile. It took him less than ten minutes and three phone calls to get Linda assigned to their case.
"Happy to see your therapist one more time?" Chloe teased while they were waiting outside doctor Linda Martin office.
"Detective! I really think she will be helpful for the case. I told you…"
"I know, Lucifer." Chloe tapped his arm. "You broke up with her and I trust you. I'm not jealous."
He smiled and kissed her. She looked around to check no-one saw them and kissed him back. He rocked her slowly in his arms and mused: "I don't understand humans and jealousy. You are not jealous when I see Linda, but you were jealous for that attorney mrs Richards."
"Have you ever been jealous?" Chloe said.
He gave that a thought. "Before I met you? I was angry humans got free will and angels didn't. Was that jealousy? Maybe. After I met you? I didn't like it when I saw you talking with your ex at the start of the Benny Choi case. Was that jealousy? I don't know. I never had such a feeling before."
She stroke his cheek and smiled. "We have a case with therapists, psychiatrists. Pay attention and you might learn about feelings in general."
She had meant it as a small joke, but he nodded seriously. "A good idea, detective. First jealousy and… Hey!"
He looked past her and pointed at a door. "Doctor Canaan?"
"That is written on that sign, yes," she said.
"How biblical." He strode to the door and knocked. There came no answer.
"Lucifer?" a voice behind them asked. They turned and faced Linda Martin.
"Doctor," he said. "Do you know this mister Canaan?"
"No," Linda answered. "The landlord of the building informed me another psychiatristwas renting an office. He started yesterday, but I didn't see him yet."
"Big, muscular, bald, Afro-American?" Lucifer tried. Chloe raised her eyebrows. Did he expect his brother?
"I've not seen him yet, Lucifer," Linda repeated. "But I found a patient file. Patient named Richard Kester. His wife convinced him to try Dr. Shaw's therapy."
"Hmm, let me guess…" Chloe said. "It didn't end well?"
"She had an affair. They got divorced. And then Richard sent Dr. Shaw a death threat."
Before the building where Richard Kester worked, a crowd was standing and looking up to the roof of the building. Chloe and Lucifer just got out of the car to walked to the mob when Chloe's phone rang. "Decker."
"Uh, hello, detective." It was doctor Martin. "It's about Richard. I wanted to warn you. He may be unstable. Possibly dangerous. And I mean to himself."
Chloe had reached the people looking up, looked herself and saw Richard standing at the edge of the flat roof, as if trying to find the courage to jump. "Lucifer…" She looked around and didn't see him.
"There's another one," a bystander said. Chloe looked up and saw Lucifer next to Richard.
He smiled. He waived at her and then started to talk with Richard. She couldn't hear the words, but Lucifer seemed interested, asking, reasoning, while Richard changed from desperate to confused and then thinking. In the end Richard turned and went back into the building. Lucifer looked down to her, spread his hands as if he didn't understand and shrugged.
"Not guilty, not jealous," Lucifer said when he brought Richard to Chloe. "Sad. Bernie was such a great help kind of thing." Nevertheless they interviewed Richard, but he had an alibi that was confirmed.
"Poor Sandy," Richard said after she told him he was free to go.
"Who's Sandy?" Chloe asked.
"Dr. Shaw's wife, Alexandra. Her friends all call her Sandy. I just ran into her two days ago. Sandy was planning a surprise for Dr. Shaw and everything."
"You ran into her two days ago... are you sure about that?"
"Yeah."
Chloe frowned. "Alexandra told us she was in Phoenix. She had plane tickets to prove it. What was the surprise?"
"I don't know. You can't think she did this?"
Chloe and Lucifer went back to meet Linda again. "Turns out Mrs. Shaw flew to Phoenix but rented a car and drove back a couple days early," Chloe said.
"So, dear, sweet Sandy was here just in time for the murder," Lucifer added.
"Wait, Alexandra Shaw goes by Sandy?" Linda asked. "The doctor had a female patient Tiffany Rogers who was stalked by someone with the initials S.S. That might be Sandy Shaw."
"If she was stalking one of her husband's female patients…" Chloe mused.
"Then maybe Dr. Shaw was engaged in his own open-relationship therapy," Lucifer said with a big grin.
"Sandy found out," Chloe. "So maybe she wasn't okay with it as she claimed."
Alexandra Shaw was not at house, nor did she pick up her phone when called. Chloe put out a search warrant for the woman and for her car and then called it a day. "I will go home. Trixie is with me and I want to be there at have diner with her."
She was not sure what Lucifer would do. He apparently was also not sure.
"I understand it if you have to go to the Lux," she said.
Lucifer made a call. "Everything fine at the Lux, Maze told me."He breathed deep. "I prefer to be with you."
She was driving, he was sitting in the passenger seat, but at the first traffic light she bent to him and kissed him.
"Something is not logical," Chloe said after they brought Trixie to bed.
"About the case?"
"No. It's not logical for Amenadiel to steal one of Maze' blades."
He raised his eyebrows. "It's a flaw in the English grammar that you can combine the word logical and my brother's name in a single sentence. But tell me, why it's not this time?"
"You expect your dad put us on each others path…" That was a comprise for whether his dad put her on his path or him on her path. Lucifer nodded.
"… and he knows I'm immune for your mojo and charm."
"Of course he knows."
"Does he know you're vulnerable near me?"
"Again, of course," Lucifer said. "He is omniscient. Al least as far as we know."
"In that case, why does Amenadiel bother stealing one of Maze blades? Any blade can hurt you when I'm around."
Lucifer seemed to think that over before he shrugged. "I have no idea."
"The only explanation is your dad didn't tell Amenadiel I make you vulnerable. You think your father wants to hurt you. He sends his best warrior to do so… But doesn't tell him your weak spot."
Lucifer scratched his chin. "Why didn't dad tell my brother?"
"That is what I'm wondering about ever since Maze told her knife was stolen," Chloe said. "If your dad wants to send you back to hell, he should have informed Amenadiel. Only logical conclusion: he doesn't want you to go back."
"What does he want?"
She felt silent for minutes, then shrugged. "You know your family, including your dad, better than I do. I can't figure it out. Speaking of Amenadiel. That doctor Canaan?"
"Amenadiel hardly ever needs a last name during his short visits to Earth. But the one time he needed a last name while in disguise, he used Canaan. Wanna bet it's him, sitting there to keep an eye on me?"
Early next morning uni's on patrol found Alexandra Shaw'scar and Alexandra. The woman was fighting with another woman, Tiffany Rogers, who was a patient of her husband. Alexandra was brought to the precinct and interrogated by Chloe and Lucifer.
"… you were throwing poop at Tiffany Rogers?" Chloe asked.
"Horse poop. Tiffany was sleeping with my husband."
"How'd you find out?" Chloe asked.
"My husband's colleague, Dr. Medina, called me to see if Bernie wanted to grab a last-minute drink. But Bernie was supposed to already be with Dr. Medina. That's when I knew my husband lied to me."
"But he was the cheater therapist," Lucifer said. "I don't quite see the problem here."
"The problem is he fell in love with her. I lied to him about my trip, then I drove back from Phoenix to see what he was doing. I was jealous."
Lucifer almost studied her face.
"I loved him." She cried. "I didn't kill him. I just wanted him back."
Lucifer's mojo confirmed her story. Her desire was to have her husband back.
"Back to square one," Chloe said during a quick lunch at her desk in the precinct. They just had their sandwiches when first Dan and then Ella came to them.
"Malcolm is dead," Dan told her. "Died in the hospital an hour ago. And I checked Alexandra's alibi. She was indeed on her way back to Phoenix at the time Shaw was murdered. Security cam of the road house were she has eaten, confirmed it.
"Remember the alarm system?" Ella asked two minutes later. "I talked with the guy who installed it. He installed the same system, same week in the office of Jonathan Medina, colleague of Bernie Shaw and friend of the family. And guess best thing?"
"I'm not guessing," Chloe said. "Just tell."
"They choose to use the same code to activate or de-active the alarm."
Chloe and Lucifer looked at each other. "Let's pay this Medina a visit."
Jonathan Medina was in a session with Tiffany Rogers when Chloe and Lucifer came in.
"Hello, tissue lad," Lucifer said. "Can we have a word?"
"No! This is a therapy session. That door was locked."
"Ah, well," Lucifer smiled. "Yes, locked. Now you mentioned." He looked back and nodded. "I thought so. Never mind. You're talking about jealousy I presume."
"She has thrown poop at me," the woman shouted.
"My dad, this isn't about you, Tiffany," Lucifer said to her. "No wonder you're in therapy."
"Lucifer," Chloe whispered and gestured towards doctor Medina.
"You're right. Yes." he stepped towards the doctor and smiled. "So what... what makes you jealous? Hmm? What do you desire that you can't have?"
"I…"
"Yeah?"
"I want Sandy."
Lucifer grinned. "Wanted some open relationship therapy of your own, is that it?But she didn't want you, did she? Sandy loved her husband, so you killed him, didn't you?"
"Shut up!" Medina jumped from his chair and tries to take Lucifer with his bare hands.
"I had to kill him, all right? He lied to her. He cheated on her. And I tried to tip her off, but no matter what he did, she still loved him."
Without any problems Lucifer pushed the man back in his char. "You've just given me the perfect example of unbridled jealousy. The woman that you loved was with someone else, someone you thought wasn't worthy of her. But no matter what you did... she never saw you the way you wanted her to."
"That's... That's pretty accurate," Medina stammered.
"Yeah," Lucifer stepped back and nodded. "I got it now, detective. Jealousy. That was what I felt when I saw you with the closed. Shall we go?" He turned away from doctor Medina, who was crying in his chair.
"We have to arrest him for murder, Lucifer," she told him.
"Oh? Murder?"
"The case, Lucifer. Bernie Shaw was found dead."
"Ooh, Ow!" He pointed at Medina smiling to Chloe. "He's the killer."
"Yeah, you think?" She rolled her eyes and take out the handcuffs.
To celebrate solving the case Lucifer proposed a drink in the Lux for everyone that was slightest involved in the case: himself and Chloe, Linda, Ella and Dan. Maze invited herself and volunteered to be the group's private bartender. "Drinks and snacks for free," Lucifer told them.
"And if I want to offer one of those lady's a drink," Dan asked, looking at a woman dancing.
"No problem," Lucifer said. "Just celebrate." Chloe followed her ex' gaze to a woman that was dancing. She was wearing a too short skirt, a sweater that showed four inches of flesh around her waist. Lucifer walked to the piano to play.
"Wow," Ella said, looking around. "The Lux. I was already told about it, but it's even better than the stories."
"Just a club," Maze said, drowning her seventh tequila. "Drinks, drugs if you want them, music, people to have sex with."
"But this is the best of LA and I don't think Detroit has anything better," Ella said.
"How can you drink that much that fast, Maze," Linda asked. "That is not healthy. You should al least also eat something."
Maze laughed. "And spoil the taste of my drinks? No, doctor. And don't worry. I am a demon, I can't get drunk."
"A demon?" Ella asked. "You're a method player? Just as Lucifer? Did you already played in any movie?"
Dan gave Ella and Maze a grim look and then left with a full glass to the dance floor.
"I have no intention to be a movie star," Maze said, filling her glass again. "I'm Satan's first lieutenant. Well, I was, until our devil decided to quit the job."
"Nice to stay in character. Are you just as good as Lucifer?"
Maze sighed and shook her head.
"Metaphors can help one deal with problems from their childhood," Linda said. Lucifer had left the piano and joined the four women again. Linda turned to him. "O, by the way. Do you know doctor Canaan? He was exactly as you described, big, muscular, bald, Afro-American."
"He is my brother," Lucifer answered.
"Afro-American," Ella looked at him. "Who of the two of you is adopted?"
"Neither," Lucifer said. "Same dad and mum."
Chloe saw Maze roll her eyes and Ella and Linda frown.
