The devil is looking for his mum


"How do we recognize your mother?" Chloe asked after all glasses are filled again.

Lucifer looked at Amenadiel, Amenadiel looked at Lucifer. "She is a soul without a body. Bright burning light," the dark skinned angel said.

"Yes," Lucifer confirmed.

Maze snorted. "Ignore them, Chloe. They are both simple angels. Their mom will possess a dead body. A human that is just dead and even now mom's powers will be able to heal the body and let her look like any ordinary human."

"Any human?" Chloe frowned. "So, I repeat my question. How do we recognize her?"

"She will not care about the damage her actions will cause," Lucifer said. "Murder, chaos, havoc. She won't mind."

"Fine. For the first days she will not understand the world around her," Maze added. "A kind of Lucifer squared. She won't understand human emotions, reactions, technology. But she will learn quick." She looked at Chloe and Ella. "So keep an open eye and open mind on any crime scene for what might be strange."

"We have an average of five murders a week in LA," Chloe said, thinking over Maze' words. "And we don't know which body she will choose."

"And it might be a body from an accident or so," Ella added.


Ella compiled a list of sixteen persons that almost died the last few days but against medical expectation did recover. "She will be one of these," Lucifer had said and he had left together with Amenadiel to check these sixteen. Two days later Lucifer was back in the precinct. "None of them," he told Chloe. "The last one was robbing a jewelry story. It was fun but no mum."

"What was the fun this time?" Ella asked.

"We left the guy at the scene of the robbery with only his underpants, feet tied together and waring some jewelry."

Chloe shook her head but smiled. "Another one for a police report full of mystery. But no mom."

"But no mum," he admitted.

"Maybe she is not in LA?"

He gave a thought before shaking his head. "Amenadiel brought here down, I kept her prison. She will come after us."

Before he could say more an officer came to Chloe with a paper. "A case, detective."


A dead body was reported on a studio set. "Good to be back?" Lucifer asked while he, Chloe and Ella walked over the set towards the crime scene.

"Not really."

Lucifer chuckled. "It's bringing back memories of your acting days? If you're feeling nostalgic, sure I can find some horny teenagers and a hot tub. 'Cause the movie you were in needs a sequel."

Ella grinned.

"Yeah, I got it." Chloe rolled her eyes, but also smiled.

"You really want the world to see your girlfriend's boobies?" Ella asked

"O no, miss Lopez. There will be only one copy of that sequel and it will be in my…" He stopped and stared. Chloe looked where he was looking. A woman laying dead in a carousel, two pieces of metal sticking in her head as… the horns of the devil.

Ella rushed forward to inspect her. Dan came to Chloe with his notes. "Our victim's name is Gillian Taylor. She was a stand-in for Amy Dodd, the lead actress on Leave It to Leslie."

"Stand-in?" Lucifer asked. "Doing the stunts?"

"No, that's a double," Chloe explained. "Stand-ins are used to light a scene as the actors prep, so the camera set-up can be done. Usually they want to be actors themselves."

"That's weird," Ella said. They walked the last few yards to her.

"What's weird?" Chloe asked.

"Well... you'd think cause of death would be the giant chunks of metal sticking out of her head, but no, she was strangled. Look. You can see the contusions on her neck."

"So, the horns…" Chloe gave Lucifer a quick look, "…were added postmortem?

"Yeah, soft tissue at the point of impact is yellow-pink," Ella said. "That means that there was no blood pressure when our killer went all stabby-stab. And... she was killed somewhere else. This body was moved here."

"So, the killer is sending a message," Chloe concluded.

"Ah, good," Lucifer said. "So you agree with me."

"Well… Maybe. But maybe the message was not to you."

Lucifer shook his head. "Who else would it be for?"

Ella took a form from her bag to make notes. "Today is…" She grinned. "It would be my first day."

"What do you mean?"
"Original planning was to start today in LA, remember? I came earlier because you solving Palmetto caused Larry Clark to go. But if that would not have happened, this would have been or first meet."

"Ah," Lucifer said and smiled. He adjusted his cufflinks. "You're a newbie, aren't you?"

"Oh, hey, yeah. Ella Lopez." Ella laughed. "I just transferred in a couple days ago. You must be Detective Decker's civilian consultant."

"Lucifer Morningstar."

"As in the devil? Cool."

Lucifer raised his eyebrows. "Would you have said that? I would have expected just 'cool'. Mentioning the devil directly would be too much."

"Mm. You already know I always thought the Devil has a bad rap."

"Yes, yes. I just rebelled against dad and offered Eve an apple. You told me. To be honest, miss Lopez, I showed Eve something else that made her blush."

"Lucifer," Chloe interrupted. "We don't want to know."

"Sorry, detective." He looked really sorry.

"But I would certainly have hugged you," Ella said and took him in her arms.

He gave his usual frightened reaction, arms high. "Yes, yes, miss Lopez. No reason to demonstrate that. Detective, please. Tell her we need to concentrate on the case."

"No problem, Lucifer," Chloe said with a grin. "Ella's hugs are only friendly. She has my permission to hug you when needed."

"When needed?" he asked. "I don't see a need."

"When she thinks hugs are needed." Chloe specified and laughed.

Their banter was interrupted by a car that arrived that was stormed by paparazzi. A girl and a young man came out. "Amy Dodd," Ella said.

"Who is that dick head next to her?" Lucifer asked.

"Her boyfriend," Chloe answered. "Weird, for a girl who normally doesn't wear mascara, she's certainly wearing a lot. I wonder why. Trixie loves her show."

"Oh, my God, me, too." Ella was almost dancing.

"Keep my dad out of it," Lucifer grumbled.

Chloe shrugged. "Amy comes later. Let's first search the place where Gillian lives."


Gillian's landlord – landlady – was a Roberta Beliard, a sturdy, plump lady with red hair. She led them to a cabin in the back of her garden. "Gillian rented from me for four years," Roberta told while walking. "Such a sweet, strong girl. You know, I... I don't have a daughter, but, uh… You know, she got so close on so many auditions. I... I really thought that she was gonna break in."

Chloe looked around in the cabin. The usual furniture, movie posters, a bit of a mess.

"This is my fault," Roberta continued.

"Why do you say that?" Chloe asked.

"Well, I work as a set nurse," Roberta explained. "I pulled a few strings. I got her that job. If she hadn't met Amy..."

"Do you think Amy did this?"

"No, sweet, darling, innocent Amy?" Roberta scoffed.

"Oh," Lucifer said. "I'm sensing sarcasm and general loathing."

"Oh, that girl's a bad influence," Roberta said. "She has so much cocaine up her nose, it would snow if you shook her."

"Yes," Lucifer chuckled. "I've tried that."

"The show kept it out of the news. They even hid her O.D. a couple of days ago. But the hospital was barely able to start her heart again."

Both Chloe and Lucifer turned and looked at Roberta. "Well, hold on," Lucifer said. "You're saying Amy died, then came back to life, and then an innocent girl was found dead with devil horns shoved into her skull?"

"I... guess that's one way to put it," the landlady acknowledged. "Yes."

Lucifer looked at Chloe. She shook her head. "Later, Lucifer. We first finish searching here. What is this?" From under a cushion of a chair she pulled a large pile of dollar bills.

"Well, maybe she needed the cash to fund her flamingo army," Lucifer said while they left, pointing at the many fake flamingo's in the garden full of roses. "But mum's soul is in Amy Dodd."

"You might be right, but that wouldn't explain the ten grand in cash hidden in a chair," Chloe said. "We need to check on Gillian's financials in parallel. See if she made any large cash deposits and, if so, when. I don't know. Maybe we can find a pattern."

Lucifer shrugged and grinned. "Make a bet?"

"As in when you win you sleep with me when I win I sleep with you?" Chloe asked.

He put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her. "Ok. No bet. But you will see I'm right in this case."

"We will visit Amy," Chloe said.


In the car Chloe got a call from Dan. "I interviewed the crew and they said for the most part, Amy and Gillian got along great."

"For the most part?"

"Yeah, they got into a big fight a couple of days ago as they were setting up a shot. I send you the movie in an app. Unfortunately, they weren't rolling audio."

"Thanks, Dan. We take a look in it."

Chloe parked the car and together they looked at the movie. "No audio, but I get the gist of it," she mused. "Gillian had a bunch of money hidden away at her place."

"What do you think?" Lucifer asked. "Anything to do with Amy's secret drug problem?

"Gillian found out about it and was blackmailing her?" Chloe suggested. "If so, that's a pretty strong motive."

"But Amy is now possessed by my mum who knows nothing about this fight or a blackmail."

"She won't remember?" Chloe asked.

"You mean as remember what Amy did before she died? No. Mum just has the body, not Amy's soul, neither her memories, nor knowledge, what so ever."

"Option one," Chloe said. "You mom possesses Amy and the money had nothing to do with Amy. Option two. Amy is Amy and the money has anything to do with Amy's drug addiction."

"Option one," Lucifer answered.


Lucifer already walked towards Amy's trailer while Chloe was hold up by a call from the precinct about an older case. Her first reaction was to tell the officer she was busy with a new case, but he connected the case to her lieutenant, Olivia Monroe, so she had to answer a few questions while Lucifer entered the trailer. She made one quick call to Trixie before also going to the trailer.

"…Let's stop playing games, shall we? I know you're not who you pretend to be," Chloe heard Lucifer say when she came in.

Amy turned to Chloe then to Lucifer. She stepped to him and said: "I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm so innocent. But I'm not, and I'll prove it."

Lucifer recoiled. "Mum?"

"Amy," Chloe said and showed her badge.

"What? Mum? Policy?"

"LAPD," Chloe said. "I have some questions about Gillian… But first Lucifer's question. Who are you?"

The girl blinked her eyes. "Amy Dodd."

"What is your boyfriend's name?"

"Otis Swalm."

Chloe looked at Lucifer.

He shrugged. "My mum would know that by now."

"Trixie watches Leave It to Leslie and reads all she can find on you on the Internet," Chloe said and turned to Amy. "She told me you like chocolate cake with strawberries and whipped cream."

"Raspberries," Amy corrected her with a confused look.

"That's true," Chloe said to Lucifer. "I just checked with Trixie. Unlikely your mother would know such detail."

Lucifer frowned, adjusted his cufflinks and then shrugged. "Mm. So she might not be my mother."

"Of course I'm not your mother." Amy almost yelled.

"Option two," Lucifer muttered.

"You were using drugs," Chloe changed the subject.

The girl wined "I'm in so much trouble."

"We don't care about your drug use, Amy. What we care about is that you Gillian had an argument right before she died. Why?"

"Does it matter?"

"We found a lot of cash at Gillian's house," Chloe said. "So if she was blackmailing you..."

Amy scoffed. "She wasn't blackmailing me. She was my sober companion."

"Well, clearly not very good at it." Lucifer chuckled.

"The production company thought it was a good idea to hire my stand-in to also keep an eye on me," Amy explained. "They thought it would help keep it a secret."

"What was the fight about?"

"I was getting tired of her treating me like a child," Amy said." I'm an adult! I can make my own decisions. I'd gotten a new supply in. She was trying to take it away from me."

The girl rushed to a cabinet and grabbed a bag with a white powder out. "Just take-take it all away." To the bag a red devil face was stocked

"A devil emoji?" Lucifer said. "That's it. I'm speaking to a copyright lawyer today."

Chloe elbowed him in the site. "So Gillian cut off your supply. That must have pissed off your dealer. Who is he?"

"I-I never met him," Amy said. "All I have is a number. I'd text him, he'd messenger me the drugs."

"Okay, good," Chloe said. "I'm gonna need that number."

"The production company confirms that they paid Gillian under the table to be Amy's sober companion," Chloe said to Lucifer after a few phone calls. "That explains the cash. I'm not saying Amy's innocent, but I don't see a motive anymore."

"What about our emoji-loving drug dealer?" Lucifer asked. "The devil emoji matches the horns he put in Gillian's head."

"I have put a warrant in to locate his cell phone."


"Where do we go?" Lucifer asked, while they entered her car.

"Home. Trixie is with me… us this night."

"Us," he said with a smile. "Game night?"

"Monopoly with four. Trixie invited Maze."

His smile grew bigger. He made a call with Amenadiel who apparently also had no luck tracing their mom today.

When they reached Chloe's home, Maze was already there practicing knife fighting with Trixie, luckily with wooden knifes. They had diner and played Monopoly that turned into a victory for Maze. Chloe and Lucifer read Trixie her bedtime story and when they came back in the living room, Maze was gone. Chloe raised her eyebrows, but Lucifer walked to the front door, opened it and said. "Don't make it too bad for him, Maze."

"What?" Chloe asked after he closed the door and sat on the sofa.

He smiled. "There was someone in your garden all evening. Both Maze and I heard him. Maze is finding out why."

"How…" Chloe frowned, realized what Maze was and raised from her seat. "She can't torture him."

Lucifer grinned. "Oh, she can. Sit down again, detective. I can hear him talk already."

As a policy woman she couldn't let that happen, so she didn't sit down, but headed for the door. The door opened just before she reached it. A man was thrown in by Maze, His hands were bound behind his back, his mouth closed by tape. His face was blushing red, his eyes showed panic.

"Otis, Amy Dodd's boyfriend," Maze said. "You know from 'Leave it to Lesley'." She sang the words as was done in the opening tune of the show.

"Maze!" Lucifer said. "Don't tell me…"

"What?" The demoness said. "I love that show, makes me laugh. Anyway. He followed you, had a knife with him. Jealous because you visited Amy or something like that. Did you?"

"We did," Lucifer said. "The detective and I. I told you."

"You went in first," Chloe said. "I was on the phone and entered later. So he must have thought you visited his girlfriend. You have to let him free."

"He didn't mention you," Maze said to Chloe while she set the man on his feet. "Must have missed that. But he told me Amy has two dealers. A certain Irwin with the devil emoji and a Bobby B." She took the tape from his mouth.

"I didn't do anything," Otis screamed.

"Where can we find this Irwin or this Bobby B?" Chloe asked.

"I swear I don't know. Amy bought big from Bobby, but Gillian cut that off. But I don't know anything more."

"He doesn't," Maze acknowledged. "I made him tell everything already. Shall I throw him out or do want to arrest him for walking in your garden with a knife?"

"Let him go," Chloe decided.


Next morning they made a quick visit to the penthouse for Lucifer to change suit. The gsm number of Irwin, the devil-emoji loving dealer, was located at an AA meeting, so they went to visit that. It turned out Irwin was chasing buyers at AA meetings, knowing some would need something to replace the alcohol. Chloe confronted him with a picture of the dead Gillian with the pieces of metal as horns sticking in her skull. He threw up by the sight of it.

"This can't be acted," Chloe whispered to Lucifer.

"If it's acted he deserves on Oscar," Lucifer answered, looking with disgust at the man.

"Not the killer," Chloe decided. "We will check his alibi, but I think we have to find that Bobby B."

Irwin's alibi confirmed he hadn't be at the studio set at the time of the murder, so they sat at Chloe's desk to do research. "All Amy gave us on this 'other dealer' slash 'Bobby B' is that he's selling prescription pills. Oxys. Percocet," Chloe sat

"Oh, not my faves," Lucifer said and shook his head. "But they'll do in a pinch."

Chloe gave him a smile. "So if the story stands, we're looking for someone in health care: doctor, pharmacist. I'm gonna go through these booking sheets for anyone in the medical industry that's been charged in the last couple years."

"Sounds exciting," Lucifer mumbled.

She handed him a set of papers. "Feel free to jump in and help me."

"Joy of joys," he said and sighed. He picked the first sheet, froze for a moment and then slowly sank to his chair. "Detective…"

"What is it?"

He turned the page to her. It showed Amy Dodd, Roberta Beliard and Gillian Taylor, smiling and looking into the camera. "Yes?" she asked. "We know them."

"What would you in daily life call a boy named Robert?"

"Bob," she answered and after some hesitation. "Bobby…"

"First character of Roberta's last name?"

"B," she said. "Bobby B. You think…"

At that moment Ella came rushing towards them. "I found it. There were chemicals on those pieces of metal in Gillian's scull. Flower fertilizer."

"Roses?" Chloe asked.

"Possible," Ella said

"So the rods were taken from a garden."

"Exactly, Ella said. "Garden tools, lawn accessories…"

"Like flamingos," Chloe said.

"Well, yeah." Ella raised her eyebrows. "I mean, that's oddly specific, but, yeah, flamingos…"

Both Lucifer and Chloe raised from their chairs. "Thanks, Ella," Lucifer said with a pat on Ella's shoulder.


"Detective Decker, mr Morningstar," Roberta said when she opened her door.

"Hello, murderer," Lucifer answered.

"Murderer?" Roberta stepped back. "I don't... I don't understand."

"Oh, Roberta, can we skip the boring part where you deny it?" he asked. "Just, uh... Let's get to the good stuff, shall we? Does it help if I call you Bobby B.?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You stole drugs from the hospital and sold them to Amy Dodd, your biggest client, who you met on set. You introduced Gillian to Amy, got her the job. But then she helped Amy get sober. You felt betrayed, you killed her. Then you tried to frame her new dealer," Chloe said. "No need to confess. We have a warrant and will search our house."

Roberta slowly turned away, then grabbed a fire poker, but before she could raise, Chloe had trained her gun at the woman. "Drop it."

Lucifer stepped closer. "Roberta, Bobby, look at me. What do you desire?" He looked her in the eye's. "Desire more then anything else."

"Money… Amy…" Roberta swallowed.

"Yes," Lucifer whispered. "Money?"

"Amy should buy from me. She was my best customer. It's all Gillian to blame. I took in that girl and I gave her a job and then she cut me off from my best customer. So, yeah, I put three inches of steel into her brain. And I actually liked her."

Chloe had taken out the handcuffs and cuffed the woman.


With Trixie at Dan's place, they ended up in the Lux and ate a snack at the bar in the club. Chloe was used that women were peeking at them, with yearning at him, angry at her. Some could be previous bed partners, envying her for being his partner now, others might be maddened because they had hoped for their first night with him. There were young, beautiful women among them, dressed to seduce. The first few times in the Lux it had made Chloe uncertain, not understanding why he choose her, while he could get those women, perfected by plastic surgery and personal trainers and ten years younger. But each time he kindly rejected them all and always stayed close to her.

This evening again, there was a young woman looking at them, a very young woman. Chloe glanced at her and doubted she was legally old enough to be in nightclub. Well, she had to be or else the bouncers of the Lux would have denied her access. She was short, black hair with dyed pink highlights. Chloe gave her a second glance. The girl smiled at her, as if she was pleased. Her punk look and bulky army boots didn't fit at all for Lux. Another reason to ask why the bouncers had let her in…

"Who is she?" she asked Lucifer.

"Who?" He looked over his shoulder. "I don't know. Never seen her."

"Maze?" Chloe beckoned the demonic chief bartender. "That girl, do you know her?"

"No. Never seen before," Maze answered. "But I suppose Lucifer know…." She was interrupted by clinking of breaking glass. They all three looked aside. One of the bartenders had dropped a bottle and now looked embarrassed at Maze and Lucifer.

"Just clean it," Maze said and rolled her eyes. "That girl…"

They al three looked at the girl… at the stool were she had seated, for the stool was empty and the girl was gone.

"You don't know her?" Maze asked Lucifer.

"As I already said to the detective: no, Maze."

"She came out the elevator, from the penthouse. So I thought she had been looking for you."

Lucifer frowned. "You hadn't see her going up earlier?"

"No. I might have missed her."

"How long have you been behind the bar?" Chloe asked.

Maze shrugged and looked at the clock. "Three hours or so."

"You don't miss what is happening, who uses the elevator," Chloe said.

"So she went up in the penthouse before Maze came in?" Lucifer asked. "What has she been doing there?"

He and Chloe went for the elevator and up. They looked around in the penthouse, but didn't see a sign of someone who should have been here for three hours.

"The doors to the balcony are closed," Chloe said. "They were open when we left this morning."

The bell of elevator behind them sounded. A woman stumbled out of the elevator. It took Chloe a few seconds to recognize the attorney that had helped Dan earlier: Charlotte Richards.

"Lucifer," the woman whispered. "Why can't I heal this body?"