Art, the devil and roses
They wakened Maze so Trixie could be put to bed. The girl asked for bed time stories from her mom, Lucifer, Rory and Maze, but Chloe decided one story was enough. It turned out she was right, for her daughter was asleep before she finished the story. Back in the living room Rory handed her a glass of wine.
"By the way, where is Rymane?" Chloe asked.
"I brought her back two days ago," Raziel said.
"My sister was frightened to death by a human," Maze added, "so she wanted to go home."
"You mean hell?" Chloe asked.
Both Maze and Raziel nodded.
"A demon was frightened by a human?" Chloe shook her head. "How?"
"A handsome guy she had sex with, few times," Maze said. "He told her she was so sweet and lovely. He asked her to marry him. Rymane freaked out. My sister is a demon, remember. We can't handle emotions and certainly no happy emotions."
"She insisted I flew her back to hell," Raziel said. "But I gave her a pentecostal coin, just in case."
"Ah," Lucifer said and frowned. "Mm, was that needed?"
Raziel shrugged.
"So Rymane is afraid of emotions." Chloe looked at Maze then at Raziel and back to Maze. "But you…"
"I'm living on the Earthly plane for six years now. I talked with Linda about emotions and I'm Trixie's best friend. I…" Maze took a deep breath.
"It's still not easy for her," Raziel said. "But she had time to get used to and before we talk about any problem, I warn her upfront so she can drink a few bottles of vodka," The angel grinned, pulled the demon to her and pressed her lips on Maze' lips.
"Summary of my youth," Rory chuckled. "If I looked right I saw my parents french kissing, if I looked left I saw my aunts french kissing. Either you two or Ella and Ray-Ray who are just as bad. Never mind, T and me survived all that. Shall we invite nana for diner this evening?"
Lieutenant Monroe came to Chloe's desk. "Morning, Decker, Lucifer. In the mood for an overtime case, Decker?"
Chloe took the papers Olivia gave her. "Overtime case, lieutenant?"
"A man was found dead three days ago. His doctor called it a hearth attack. But…" The lieutenant took a deep brief. "He seemed to doubt his own judgement, since yesterday he asked a pathologist for a second opinion and the pathologist found the man was poisoned. Disturbing detail: since no one realized it was a murder, the room where he was found is cleaned, body was brought to the hospital and no one cared about securing traces. But let Ella go with you anyway. Maybe she still finds something."
"Poor miss Lopez," Lucifer said. "In this case she will have a hard time to convince me to wear gloves."
"Do you ever?" Olivia asked with a smile. "Don't say, I better not know.
Chloe grinned, checked the file and summarized for Lucifer: "Victim is Bert Halleman, fifty-one. Married to Kelly, who found her husband dead. He is a 'broker', but in the file it's not specified for what." She looked at Olivia.
"If it's not in the case file, we do not yet know," Olivia said. "He seems to be wealthy, as far as I understand."
Kelly Halleman was a good looking woman as there are many in LA: bit of plastic surgery, personal trainer and subtle cosmetics made her look at least ten years younger than the forty-seven she really was. "I found him here, at his desk with his laptop opened, around eleven," Kelly told them. She had brought Chloe, Lucifer and Ella to a room in the house her husband used as office. "I came to ask him to come to bed; he isn't home that often. But he didn't answer, didn't move."
"What was he doing behind his laptop that late in the evening?" Chloe asked. She saw a smile appearing on Lucifer's face and gave him a warning look.
"I don't know. Bert was always working. Out to find potential customers at least five evenings each week. But I don't know what he was doing yesterday evening. The screen was black and you need a password and a code on his phone to unlock it."
"That is the laptop?" Lucifer asked. The woman nodded. Lucifer opened the laptop.
"I know neither the pa…" Kelly stopped talking. She looked mouth open, eyes wide at the laptop that unlocked when Lucifer touched the keyboard.
"Locks open for the devil," Lucifer said to Ella.
"I know," Ella said and grinned. "Shall I see what I can find on it?"
"What did your husband do for a living?" Chloe asked.
"He mediates in the purchase of art," Kelly said.
"And given this house he must be successful with it."
"He is. We have no lack of money," Kelly answered. Then she frowned. "Is… He was, yes. I… How…"
"Last thing he worked on on his laptop is this spreadsheet," Ella reported in the meanwhile. "I guess this column is people that wanted to buy art, these are the ones that wanted to sell. These numbers might be his commission."
Kelly didn't know any of her husbands relations, "he never tells me," but Ella could give them names and addresses of many.
"The last five or so he did business with," Chloe asked. "We will start with them."
"You expect a deal that went wrong, detective?" Lucifer asked while they drove to the first address of Ella's list.
"Something," Chloe answered. "Someone that couldn't pay or didn't get his money or didn't get what he expected. We just go to get an impression of his doing business."
The first man they talked to was a Bobby Thatcher. "Bert Halleman dead? You must be kidding."
"I'm a homicide detective, mister Thatcher. I'm serious when it comes to murder."
"Yes, yes. Of course, detective. No means to offend you. Yes. I sold an ancient Chinese vase to a guy in Toronto. Bert found the man for me. I was payed twenty grands and Bert got five percent of that."
"No problems with the deal? How was mr Halleman to do business with?"
"No problems at all, detective. I knew his tariffs and he kept me informed all the time during the negotiations. I have a few more pieces of art I need to sell and my planning was to ask Bert again to help me."
The second person they found was a man named Rudy Johnson. "Bert? Tough man to negotiate with. I bought a statute, I'll show you." Rudy brought them to the hall upstairs and gestured to a two feet high statute of a man with wide spread wings on his back. A seconds statute was standing a few steps away.
"An angel?" Chloe asked with a quick glance at Lucifer.
"The archangel Gabriel," Rudy said. "Sixteen century statute."
"I wouldn't have recognized her," Lucifer said. "Especially since Gabriel is female."
Rudy looked at him with his brows high. "Which religion claims Gabriel is a woman? As far as I know all angels are male."
"Never mind," Chloe interrupted. "About Bert Halleman. You said he was a tough negotiator."
"Yes. In the end I paid five grands more than I wanted. Well, he worked for the seller and get's a percentage of the prize, so that's his job to get a high price."
"And it made you angry?" Lucifer asked.
"No. Why?"
Lucifer looked him in the eyes. "What do you want, mister Johnson? What do you desire?"
"To collect more statutes. I want an antique statute of each angel mentioned in the bible or the koran." He shook his head, blinked his eyes and added. "Bert sold me these two."
"So his dead is inconvenient for you?" Lucifer asked.
"Yes. How often do you think such a three hundred years old statute comes on the market?"
They talked with three more relations of Bert Halleman. The last one was Fausto Caparello, a sixty years old inverstor. "Halleman dead? Awkward."
"Why, mister Caparello?" Chloe asked.
"I've a large collection of art, half of which I have no idea what the value is. Halleman is making… mm, should be making a catalog for me. Do you mind if we keep this short. My wife Ginny has her twenty-thirds birthday today and she just came back from a business trip, so we have to cram the celebration in tonight.."
"They don't have a reason to kill him," Lucifer said. "As far as we could find."
Chloe nodded. "Fausto Caparello is over sixty…"
"Yes?"
"His wife is only twenty-three. That is a lot younger."
He looked at her and slowly started smiling.
"I'm thirty-six, Lucifer. That is much more than twenty-three."
"That is true, detective. But I…"
"You can be described as over sixty, Lucifer. Same as mr Caparello."
He nodded with raised eyebrows.
"Telling the truth in a special way. Learned from you, Lucifer." They both laughed.
Earlier that day Penelope had been pleasantly surprised when Chloe had called her to invite her for a family dinner that evening. Penelope entered Chloe's apartment with a smile, a bottle of wine and a chocolate cake. The cake she gave to Trixie, the wine to Lucifer and then she looked a bit uncertain at Rory. At the same moment Trixie turned to Rory with the cake.
"Do you like chocolate cake?"
"Just as much as my big sister. We always hided, or will hide, some cake in…" Rory's eyes went to Chloe and she grinned. "Never mind. I like it."
"And you are?" Penelope asked.
"Rory," Rory introduced herself. She stepped forward and hugged Penelope. "It's good to see you alive, nana."
"Nana?"
"First a wine, take a seat and then we can talk," Rory said. "You like a dry rosé." She poured a glass for Penelope. Without asking she gave Chloe a semi-dry red and Lucifer a bourbon. Chloe frowned and touched her belly.. Rory shrugged. "No issue at all. Little me has a celestial metabolism already."
"Do you know what my favorite alcoholic drink will be?" Trixie asked.
"I do, but you will have to find out yourself."
Trixie nodded and smiled. "Time travel one-o-one."
"Are you a clairvoyant? Can you see in the future?" Penelope asked.
"I come from the future," Rory answered. She unfolded her wings. Penelope stared mouth half open at the giant red angelwings until Rory pushed them away again. "I know you like dry rosé, because I will see you drinking many glasses of it."
"A sister of Lucifer?" Penelope whispered.
"Not his sister." Rory grinned. "His daughter. Shall we take a seat?"
"So you know what we will do in the future?" Penelope asked.
"She does, nana," Trixie said. "But she is not allowed to tell us. That is dangerous!"
"But just…"
"No, mom. We don't ask," Chloe said.
"Well…" Penelope took a deep breath. "Oh. Sorry. It is nice to meet family of Lucifer."
"We will talk about that," Rory promised. "But first mo… Chloe will tell you something."
They were now seated around the dining table, although the food was still on the stove and in the oven. Chloe took a deep breath, repeated in het head the first sentences she had prepared and started: "Six weeks ago I needed to read a long file in one evening. There was not enough time to do so, but I knew that two days in hell is less than five minutes on Earth."
Penelope's eyes flashed between Lucifer and Chloe. "You… He…"
"We spent two days in Lucifer's rooms in hell. It's really no point, mom. With no windows I didn't see anything else than normal looking rooms." Well, she thought, apart from the face of Naamah, the demon woman that had served them their meals, but she decided not to tell her mom. "We were back on Earth in less than an hour after we left, but we spent two days and two nights in hell."
"Mommy means she went to bed with Lucifer," Trixie said to Penelope. "She doesn't want to say that when I'm around, but I understand adult stuff. And mommy told you an angel and a human can't get a child on Earth, but they were not on Earth those two nights."
Penelope's eyes slowly get wider. "You mean?"
"We didn't know, mama Decker," Lucifer said. "But it turns out an angel and a human can procreate in hell."
Chloe was already walking to het mother and hugged her. "You will have a second granddaughter."
"What! A daughter? How can you know if she is only six weeks… Oh, pumpkin, does it make you happy?"
"Yes, mom."
"Then I'm so happy for you. It's a bit early, but did you already think about a name?"
"Aurora, mom. Short Rory."
"Rory…" Penelope turned slowly to Rory.
Rory smiled, raised both hands to gesture she couldn't help it and said: "Aurora Jane Morningstar, nana, that's me. I will be born seven months from now to grow up as Trixie's little sister."
"But now you are…" Penelope shook her head, eyes closed.
"She is my big sister," Trixie said with excitement.
"But only for a few more days, nana. Then I will go back." She went to hug her nana.
It took some seconds but than Penelope smiled. "Welcome, granddaughter."
Next morning Ella rushed towards Chloe as soon as Chloe and Lucifer entered the precinct. She slabbed down some papers on her desk. "Bert Halleman's spreadsheet of the deals he made. I selected the last twelve months."
"Yes?" Lucifer said.
"I marked four of them. Yellow marker."
Chloe picked op the papers and looked. "Four deals on which he got fifty percent commission instead of" – she checked a few other lines – "his normal five."
"And those are our large transactions," Ella said. "Lowest was three hundred thirty grand. And all four with the same seller, a 'Kurt' without address or phone number."
"What is the connection with the murder?" Lucifer asked.
"We do not yet kn…" Chloe stopped, frowned and handed the papers to Lucifer. "Line thirty-three."
"Four hundred grand?" Lucifer said.
"The buyer," Chloe said.
"Anil Nassar. That is our Anil? Adrianna's father."
"We will check with Adrianna."
"One more thing," Ella said. "Kurt is a German name. I checked his phone and agenda. Bert Halleman made four trips to Germany. Around ten days before each of these transactions he made a trip to Munich, Germany."
Adriana was visiting Linda and when called, the two women came to Adriana's home to meet Chloe and Lucifer. "Dad bought this painting seven months ago," Adriana said, pointing at a painting in her dad's workroom. She looked a bit unsure. "I do not know from who he bought it, but he said for much less than the real value. He didn't tell more."
"The name of the painter, the name of the painting?" Chloe asked.
Adriana shook her head.
Lucifer took some pictures. "Let me call some guy. Ken Barnard. He owns an art gallery."
He app-ed Ken the pictures and called the man. He had the call on the speaker and they could hear Ken make a guess of the painter: a Swiss impressionist living at the end of the nineteenth century. Ken gave Lucifer the name of someone in Zurich to call.
Again the pictures were send, a call was made. The name of the painter was repeated, a second man in Switzerland was called in a conference and the call was continued in a strange language. "Swiss German, Schweizerdeutsch," he said to Chloe and Adriana after finishing the call. "I have to make another call. To Croatia this time."
This call was done in Croatian. After the call he stared at the painting with his lips pressed together.
"Lucifer?" Chloe asked.
"The painting was stolen in Zagreb, Croatia, during World War Two. Nazi German occupied Croatia then and German officers took it from a Croatian banker. No-one knows were this has been between 1943 and now."
"What is the value?" Chloe asked.
"If it would be legally on the market the guess is two million in an auction."
"How does Bert Halleman get hold of stolen Nazi art?"
"The guys in Switzerland guess this 'Kurt' has found a collection of stolen art. There are thousands and thousands pieces of art still missing since 1945. If one would find some, it ought to go back to the original owners, if they can be found."
"But of course our Kurt can keep it secret and find people as Bert, "Chloe mused. "It looks as Bert smuggles it to the USA and sells it far below real value to rich guys that don't ask questions. Sorry, Adriana."
Adriane didn't react. She looked a bit pale and was trembling.
"What is it, Adriana?" Linda asked.
"He spoke Hindi with my aunt. He speaks Swiss German and Croatian."
"Yes," Lucifer said.
"Stop, Lucifer," Linda said, then turned to Adriana again. "He is just Lucifer, our friend."
"O, my god," Adriana whispered, eyes wide open. "Rymana. Rymane said she was a demon. She threw aunt through the room as if…" She breathed heavily. "He… he…" She looked at Lucifer.
"The devil speaks all languages, Adriana," he said with a smile.
"Lucifer!" Linda snapped. "Can you give her some time? Please, go to the living room, so I can talk with Adriana."
Chloe decided to let Linda talk with Adriana in private and went with Lucifer downstairs.
"What did I say wrong?" Lucifer muttered.
"Nothing Linda can't repair," Chloe said. "So Bert was involved in illegal activities. Does his wife know?"
"We can ask. But what does it have to do with murdering him?" Lucifer asked. "The four buyers got valuable art for a low price. This Kurt uses Bert to find customers in the US. Everyone benefits. None of them has a motive to poison him."
Chloe slowly nodded. "My gut feeling says this is a dead track. We need to know more of his personal life."
She opened her notes and went over them. "According to his wife he just works. No hobby."
"When she thinks he is working, he is out. Not at home many evenings. He can be skydiving, having a secret lover or watching MMA fighters," Lucifer objected.
She gave that a thought. "How do we find out?"
Exactly at that moment her phone rang. "Ella?"
"Hi, Decker. Guess what. Minutes ago Bert Halleman's phone was called. A flower shop. He had ordered twenty-thee red roses for yesterday, but never came to collect them. They wanted him to pay anyway. I told them he was murdered, so it was not him to blame."
"Did they know why he ordered red roses?" Chloe asked.
"Secret lover," Lucifer mouthed, followed up a big grin.
"No," Ella answered over the phone.
After they ended the call, Chloe checked her notes. "His wife was forty-seven."
Lucifer looked at her, head tilted. "Of course not his wife, detective."
Linda came downstairs with a still pale but no longer trembling Adriana. "Lucifer, Adriana saw you yesterday. You looked straight in her face, but you didn't say goodbye," Linda said.
"Saw me?" Lucifer asked. "When? Where?"
"Ocean Avenue," Adriana whispered.
"And you were not wearing a suit," Linda said. "Jeans and a corduroy jacket."
"Me? Wait!"
