The devil discusses his mum
Chloe looked at her daughter. Trixie stared at her and Lucifer, or better said, at Lucifer's wings. "Monkey," Chloe started, searching for words that could prevent Trixie to panic.
Before she could say a second word, the girl rushed to them, wrapped an arm around Chloe and the other one around Lucifer and she – with an exited expression – asked her mother: "When you get a baby, will she have wings?"
"I…" Chloe stammered. "We…"
"I don't think your mother and I can have a baby, urchin," Lucifer whispered.
Trixie stroked a wing. "Because… because you're an angel?" The girl frowned. "Because you are…"
"I always told you the truth, urchin," he said.
"The devil," she said, looking at him, but still holding him. "But you love my mommy."
"I do."
"And you love me?"
"Also, child."
"And you are a nice guy, a bit clumsy. And you have wings."
"I am not clumsy."
She smiled at him. "But why can you and mommy not have a baby? Angels can do magic."
"No, we can't."
"But your dad…" Trixie frowned. "Your dad must be God and abuela says He is almighty."
"Does Penelope say that?" Lucifer asked.
"Penelope is called nana," Chloe explained. "Dan's mother we call abuela."
"Ah, Leonor," he said.
"Abuela says if you pray to the Lord he will give you," Trixie said. She thought that over for a second and then said: "But you had a fight with your dad."
"I had, spawn."
"Then I will ask Him to give you a baby." She looked at Chloe. "Abuela has often told me how to pray and it is not really difficult."
"I don't know whether Lucifer's dad will listen, monkey."
"Maze," Trixie suddenly changed subject. "If Lucifer is the devil, then Maze is really a demon."
"Yes, monkey. You don't have to be afraid of Maze."
"Of course not, mommy. She is my best friend."
"But tomorrow at school you better not talk about this," Chloe said.
"I will not talk about it," Trixie promised. "No one would believe me. Oh. Tomorrow at school, we all need to bring a picture of when we were one or two years old. Do you have one I can take with me?"
"Trix." Chloe took a deep breath. "Since when did you know you needed such a picture?"
"Teacher ask us… uh two weeks ago and reminded us yesterday..."
"It is almost ten o'clock and…"
"I forgot, mommy. Sorry."
"I will find one."
"Can I text Maze I saw Lucifer's wings?"
"Tomorrow morning, monkey. Now you go to sleep. Back to bed."
"Can Lucifer bring me?" Trixie grabbed his hand and pulled him with her. "Can you take me flying?" she asked while they left.
Trixie will text Maze. Chloe thought back at the time Lucifer be accident had showed her his face and thought she would be afraid for him. She took out her phone and called Maze.
"Is Lucifer acting up, Decker?"
"No, Maze. He is a lovely devil." Chloe took a deep breath. "With gorgeous white wings."
After a second of silence Maze said: "Yes… white wings. Why do you mention?"
"Don't freak out, Maze. Trixie still sees you as her best friend. She saw Lucifer's wings."
"So now she knows. What did she say about me?"
"As I said: you are her best friend and she wanted to text you. She took it well, she wants Lucifer to take her flying."
Chloe heard Maze laughing. "That's my girl. Thanks for warning, Decker."
"What are you going to say to Maze?" Chloe asked her daughter, handing her her breakfast.
Trixie raised her eyebrows. "Going to say to Maze, mommy?"
"Yesterday evening you wanted to text Maze about Lucifer's wings."
The girl poured herself a glass of milk and sat down in between Lucifer and Chloe. "I already texted her." She shove her phone to Chloe. Ten to six her daughter had send the first text to Maze: 'I asked Lucifer if he could take me flying? Have you flown with him?'
As Chloe had expected, no explanation how she knew and no telling Maze she wasn't upset with what she knew.
'Every time we came to Earth Lucifer had to carry me,' Maze had answered seven to six. 'I can't fly myself. I'm not a seagull.'
'Lucifer is not a seagull, he is an angel.'
'What is the difference between a seagull and an angel? They both are annoying, make a lot of noise and leave shit behind. Does he want to take you flying?'
'He says only if mommy approves. Can you talk with mommy?'
'I will, Trix.' After that, the conversation changed to last episode of 'Leave it to Leslie' with Maze explaining to Trixie why Leslie's newest boyfriend was a jerk; at least, in Maze' not so humble opinion.
The victim was bound to a pillar under a bridge over a at that moment dry channel. Ella was already on the crime scene when Lucifer and Chloe arrived.
"His name is Nicholas Sands, 35," she could tell them. "Worked as an exec at the Internet startup called Wobble."
"Wobble?" Chloe asked.
"Please tell me that's a pornography site," Lucifer said.
"Oh, no, no," Ella answered. "Wobble's like a next gen Facebook, you know? People post updates, photos, links. Mine's mostly slo-mo videos of me doing cannonballs onto inflatable pool toys. You should check it out."
Chloe and Lucifer looked at each other with eyebrows raised.
"I'll pass," Chloe said. "But thank you."
"Trixie always likes my posts," Ella said.
"Trixie has an account on it?" Chloe said. "I didn't know that."
"Oh," Ella sounded worried. "Please don't tell her I betrayed her."
Chloe took a deep breath before shaking her head. "The victim. He was set on fire."
"Yes. He was killed by the fire. Someone posted a movie on Wobble." Ella handed over her tablet to Chloe. She and Lucifer watched, it was the victim tied to the pillar, swobbing, saying he was sorry and wanted to take 'it' all back.
"Nick's confession was posted to his Wobble account six hours ago," Ella said. "Right around the time of death."
"Which means whoever did this wanted us to find that video," Chloe said.
"So we could see how weepy this chap was before he died," Lucifer said. "Now, that is cruel."
"Ella, do we know how the fire started?" Chloe asked. "Any chemicals we can trace?"
"So far, all we've got is paraffin oil," Ella said, showing an almost empty container. "Which is highly flammable, but also, like, everywhere. Even in crayons, so color at your own risk."
"Doesn't help us narrow the suspects," Chloe understood.
Ella shrugged. "Okay, so based on the burn pattern, which is pretty gnarly in this case, it looks like the highest concentration of accelerant was placed, well... here." She pointed at the victim's genitalia.
"Goodness gracious, great balls of fire," Lucifer said.
Ella laughed, Chloe said "Lucifer" but with a smile.
"I mean, I've heard of hot pants," he continued. "But this really brings new meaning to the term "fire crotch," doesn't it?"
"Lucifer!" Chloe said again.
"His burning bush?" Ella suggested.
"Oh. Very good." Lucifer chuckled. "That was actually me, by the way, so don't tell anyone."
Chloe had a vague notion that burning bush might be something from the bible, but she wanted to start with the case. "Hey, guys? Dead body. Can you please take this seriously?"
"I assure you, detective, I'm taking this very seriously," Lucifer said. "Look at this. Our killer was clearly punishing his victim."
"And punishing is your job." She laughed and shook her head. "We need to figure out who had a personal grudge against the victim.
"Or you cheat, remember," Ella said.
Chloe looked at Lucifer, Lucifer looked at her. "Or we cheat," Chloe mused. "The victim must have seen the killer and this is so personal, he must know him."
After greeting his king the demon Maxwell looked at Chloe.
"You ask," Lucifer whispered in her ear.
She was a bit surprised, cleared her throat and tried to smile. "Hello, Maxwell. We're looking for Nicholas Sands, 35. He died seven hours ago in Los Angeles."
Maxwell quickly glanced at Lucifer who nodded once. "Yes, mylady," the demon said. Just as the first time he moved the paper ream he was writing on back. "Svarthal area, Arook level, corridor ninety-four thousand, one hundred and fifteen, cell twelve hundred and twenty. Lauthoru is responsible for his loop."
"Come, detective," Lucifer said. She didn't go with him, but still looked at Maxwell. "Detective?"
"Can I… Can I ask one more person, Lucifer?"
"Go ahead. Who?" he said.
"My dad? I don't… No… May be it is better not to see him, but…"
"Maxwell," Lucifer said. "John Decker, married with Penelope. Died July 27, 2000 in LA."
The demon moved the paper ream back, than shortly forward, back again and a few feet forward. "No John Decker from LA on that date, my king. Nor on July 26 or 28."
"What does that mean?" Chloe whispered.
"Your dad is not in hell, detective," Lucifer explained. "It means he is in heaven."
Nicolas Sands was wining and had a lot to regret. The demon Lauthoru gave Lucifer an overview of his hell loop before stopping it for the interrogation.
"So it was Ray Codfree, your head of HR," Chloe summarized after listing multiple times to his fuzzy explanations. "Ray was angry for all the pranks you did, such as setting the crotch of a new colleague Tommy Smith on fire and posting the video on your Wobble account? Ray is flipping completely?"
"Yes, yes, yes," Nicolas had his eyes closed and was crying.
"Please, take me out and away from here, Lucifer," Chloe whispered. The man, his doing, the loop, it made her sick.
"Of course, detective." He took her in his arms, ordered Lauthoru to continue the loop, walked outside with Chloe and unfolded his wings.
On the Earthly plane Nicolas Sands' supervisor was Leila Sands who welcomed them in her office. "We found some angry e-mails from you on Nic's phone," Chloe started the conversation.
"I was pissed off," the woman explained. "We had a short romance and when I broke up, he shared pictures of us together."
"Mm, mid-coitus?" Lucifer asked with a grin. "If so, we'll have to confiscate those immediately."
Chloe elbowed him in the ribs, while Leila answered. "No. Just of us at-at dinner. But I'm his boss, and inter-office romance is frowned upon here."
"Did he post more things that made some of his colleagues angry?" Chloe tried to maneuver to the video she knew Nic Sands had made of Tommy Smith. "Angry enough to kill."
"I will call our head of HR. He knows who complained about Nic."
That head of HR was Ray Codfree, the man they know was the killer. Only they had to find legal evidence against him. A testimony of a damned soul in hell wouldn't do in court, so they needed to to collect Earthly evidence against Ray. Ray should them the video Nic's soul had mentioned: the one where Nic put fire on Tommy Smith's crotch.
"We had it removed from the server within half an hour," Leila told them. "But almost everyone had already seen it by then."
"Tommy left the company," Ray said. "So may be you should talk with him."
"Did you have a talk with Nic after he pranked Tommy?" Chloe asked. "To me that seems something HR should do." She was hoping he would slip a word they could use against him.
"Leila is his supervisor. She discussed his behavior with him," Ray answered.
"I explained to him it was against the company policy," Leila added.
"Was that during or after your affair with him?" Lucifer asked bluntly.
"During our short relation that didn't mean much," she said. She sounded nervous.
Lucifer shook his head and turned to Ray. "I'm only managing a night club, not a successful tech company, but I would never have a supervisor discuss inappropriate behavior with a subordinate while they have a love affair."
A nervous twitch played on Ray's face. "What could I do? I am not the CEO of Wobble. I don't make the policies. I have to live with them. You think I like them?"
Lucifer leaned over to Ray. "Indeed, Ray. But how would you like them? What was your desire after Nic pranked Tommy?"
Ray stared Lucifer in his eyes. "To destroy the jerk. He was hurting interns all the time and Leila always backed him up, let him get away with everything. Don't you see? It had to stop it.
"So you wanted him punished?"
Ray was still staring. "Yes. I wanted him dead. I had to do it." He shivered, blinked his eyes and shrank back.
"So you killed him?" Chloe asked.
"Yes." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I want a lawyer."
"I would like to see your phone," Chloe said. He had made the movie with Nic's phone, but she expected footage on his phone also.
"No," Ray shouted. "Talk to my lawyer. I have rights."
Lucifer moved between Leila and Ray, with his back to Leila while facing Ray. His eyes flashed red. Ray paled and with trembling hands offered Lucifer his phone. "Thank you, Ray," he said with a friendly smile. "You took some pictures for your own usage?"
"Yes. Please, please." He sobbed.
In the precinct several colleagues, including Dan and lieutenant Monroe, express their wonder about how fast they nailed down the perp; "… I didn't see anything pointing at him," as Dan added.
"Next two cases without cheating," Chloe whispered to Lucifer. He grinned and shrugged.
"You humans will always think of an explanation that avoids believing in me or hell," he answered.
"Let's see Ella," Chloe said.
They found Ella in her lab with a most unexpected company around her: Maze, Azrael and Raziel.
"I hope this has to do with mum or else the world is gone crazy," Lucifer muttered.
"You could first say hello," Azrael reacted.
"Hello," Chloe said and smiled.
"But it is about your mother," Ella said. "Azrael was getting prayers, is getting prayers from your mother all the time."
"She asks to see me," Azrael explained. "And I don't know why. She never liked me."
"She never liked most of us," Lucifer said.
"So I proposed to talk with Maze," Ella said. "Maze spent time with mom and I hopes she could explain why mom wants to see Ray-Ray."
"And I advised them call Raziel. She also talked with the goddess," Maze said.
Chloe and Lucifer also took a seat at the lab table.
"So we are discussing what mom might want," Ella said.
"You call her mom?" Chloe asked.
Ella grinned. "As long as Ray-Ray and I are lovers, she is a kind of my mother in law."
Chloe looked at Lucifer. He opened his eyes wide and shook his head.
"Well," Ella continues. "They are discussing, I'm listening. I don't know mom, but I've provided them with coffee, tea and sparkling water."
Azreal laughed, kissed Ella and said: "You and not talking? You said at least as much as each of us."
"Anyway, apart from watching the Ellen and Ray-Ray kissing show," Maze said. "We think the goddess needs something only Azrael can provide her."
"Such as?" Lucifer asked.
"Bringing three, four, five souls to heaven or hell each second," Azrael said.
"She plays with time, just as Amenadiel," Ella whispered to Chloe.
"Does mum has any use for that?" Lucifer asked.
Azrael shook her head. "Not that we can think of. I can make myself invisible, but we don't see a benefit for mother in that either. I know which humans will die in the next few hours."
"Mum hates humanity. She would like to see all humans die," Lucifer mused.
"But I don't cause them to die."
All were silent for a moment. Chloe looked around the table, the devil, a demon, two angels, Ella and herself, a most absurd company. "Maybe your mother prays to all your other siblings also?" she said.
Raziel shook her head. "I checked with a few, Saraquel, Jophiel, Hanjobadiel, none of them had a prayer from mother in the last two days."
"So what does your mother wants from Azrael?' Ella said with her arm around the angel's shoulder.
"Wait," Lucifer said. He folded his hands, frowned, his mouth tightened. "Amenadiel," he explained when he opened his hands again. "Mum is gone, left his apartment and he doesn't know where she went."
