A lieutenant helps the devil
"It was not Lucifer you saw on Ocean Avenue," Chloe said to Adriana. "It was Michael, his twin brother."
"Michael?" Adriana took a deep breath, keeping a firm hold of Linda. "As… the archangel Michael."
"Yes," Chloe answered.
"And also a brother of Raziel," Adriana said. "Was she really an angel? Was Rymane really a demon."
"Was? They still are," Lucifer said. He folded his hands.
"His dad is searching Michael," Chloe explained. "Lucifer is now telling his dad Michael was seen in LA."
"His dad? His dad is…" Adriana dropped in a chair, trying to breath and eyes closed. Both Linda and Chloe knelt beside her and whispered all was fine.
"Dad looks around LA again," Lucifer reported. "But he still can't find him."
"But I did see you or him… or…" Adriana said with a trembling voice.
"That's ok. We do believe you," Lucifer said. "But an angel can fly to any place on Earth, heaven or hell within half an hour. So being on Ocean Avenue yesterday morning doesn't even guarantee he was still on Earth at lunch time."
"Is there any thing we can do to help finding Michael?" Chloe asked.
"Not that I can think of," Lucifer said. "Not that dad asked for."
"Let us go on with the case, so Linda can stay with Adriana."
Linda nodded. "I will do."
"Twenty-three roses," Chloe updated Ella and Dan. "Fausto Caparello's wife Ginny had her birthday yesterday."
"Twenty-third birthday it was," Lucifer added. "My guess? Fausto found out Ginny and Bert had an affair."
"I didn't find any of that in his phone," Ella said. "Although he deleted lots of text messages and calls with numbers that are not in his directory. Let me find out what I can recover."
Dan in the meanwhile was reading through the notes Chloe had made of the case. "That Ginny was on a business trip earlier this week?"
"That was what Fausto told us, yes. Can you check airline reservations?"
Ella came back within thirty minutes. "Of course Bert got calls from and made calls to numbers not in his contact list. Almost all only one or two calls, as you would expect. If you call someone more often, you put him in your contact list. But one exception." She gave Chloe a paper. "This number he called a hundred times in the last two months, but never put it in his contact list."
Chloe looked at the paper. Information of a mobile provider. "That number is registered to Ginny Caparello."
"Ah," Lucifer said with a smile. "Affair. Fausto found out. Murder."
Dan was the next to come. "Ginny made a four day trip to Munich, Germany."
Chloe frowned. "Same place as Bert used to go? And just when he was poisoned? That doesn't fit with the having an affair theory. Ella, can you find that Kurt in his phone?
Ella was already checking again. "No Kurt in the contact list. There are some numbers in Germany but none starting with plus-four-nine-eight-nine what would be Munich."
"Bert flys to Munich," Dan said. "That does not mean Kurt lives in Munich, only close to."
Ella blinked her eyes. "Close to? Yeah, you're right. I just looked for a number in Munich. And some are German mobile numbers, all with family names, no first names. And mobiles can be anywhere."
"Can you give me the family names of his German contacts? I will google them in combination with 'Kurt' as first name."
Ella and Dan split the effort and shorty after Ella said: "I have a Kurt Friesinger who owns an art gallery in Augsburg, that is one hour by car from Munich."
Chloe looked at the screen of Ella's computer, threw a quick glance at Dan and whispered to Lucifer. "I want to talk to that Kurt Friesinger."
"On the phone?" he whispered back.
"In person." She stand straight. "Lucifer and I will see whether Kelly Halleman knows this Kurt Friesinger."
Dan frowned, for a moment it looked as if he was going to say something, but than shrugged. "It's your case."
Chloe and Lucifer drove to the Lux. "Dan was at the point of saying: why not call Kurt," Lucifer said as soon as they left the parking garage of the precinct.
"Or something as: call the German police in Augsburg and ask them about Kurt," Chloe said.
"But you want to fly Devil Airlines to Germany." He grinned.
"If you don't mind." Chloe looked aside, realizing she had assumed he would be willing to bring her without asking him.
Lucifer looked on his watch. "It's already past eight in the evening in Germany. That gallery will be closed before we are in Augsburg.
"Mm." She hadn't thought about the time difference. "You have Kurt's mobile number? And the name of that painting Anil Nassar had bought?"
"Dr Rütlischwur," Lucifer said.
"I can't pronounce that, can't even repeat in my head what you said."
"A painting showing three men making an oath on the Rütle meadow above Lake Uri, supposed to have happened early fourteenth century. With that oath the first three cantons of Switzerland promised to help each other against the Austrians. Pure mythological, detective."
"Mythological?"
"That oath never happened. You shouldn't believe everything people tell you."
She gave him a glance with eyebrows raised. He grinned.
"Give Kurt a call. Say you are an art specialist Anil Nassar hired to take a look at that painting. Tell him you think it's a falsification and you want to talk about it."
"That would be multiple lies," he said with a deep sigh.
"Tell him Anil's daughter showed you the paining and that you don't know whether it is a falsification or not."
Lucifer gave that a thought and nodded. "I indeed don't know whether it's the original painting, so I can say it."
"Tell him we will be in Augsburg in an hour and we want to meet him in the gallery."
Fifty minutes later they found the door of the gallery locked, but the lights were on. "There is someone in the back," Lucifer said. "We don't know what the protocol in Germany is, so." He reached for the door handle and the door opened.
"Wanna bet this is against their protocol?" Chloe asked, but nevertheless she entered the gallery.
The someone in the back asked something. His voice was loud, but trembled. The language was one that Chloe didn't recognize, she expected it to be German. Lucifer answered and the person slowly came to them. Chloe picked up their names, Decker, Morningstar, in the words Lucifer said. Then Lucifer turned to her. "This is herr Friesinger."
"Why are you breaking in?" the man said, also changing to English.
"We didn't break anything," Lucifer said. "The door opened when I reached for it."
"Mister Friesinger," Chloe said. "What is your relation with Bert Halleman?"
Kurt Friesinger looked for some seconds at her before admitting: "I know herr doctor Halleman from university. We both studied History of Arts."
"Herr doctor?" Chloe asked.
"Herr is mister and doctor just means he promoted at some university," Lucifer explained. "Not medical, but what you call PhD in the US. It is normal in Germany to include the title when talking with one that promoted."
"We promoted in the same year on the same subject," Kurt said. "He in LA, I in Munich and we knew each others dissertation."
"Ah," Lucifer said with his charming Lucifer smile. "I should also say herr doctor. Entschuldigung, herr doctor Friesinger."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Apart from the history. You sold some paintings to Bert Halleman."
Kurt scratched his ears, his chin and coughed. "You suggested one was a falsification."
"We really don't know and we really don't care." She showed her badge. "Los Angeled Policy. You sell stolen Nazi art and let it smuggle out of the country. And your friend Bert Halleman is murdered."
"Murdered? He was ill she said."
"Ah," Chloe said with a smile. "She said. Who is she?"
"I have nothing to do with murder."
"Convince me."
"I was called four days ago. A woman saying herr doctor Halleman was ill, seriously ill and in a hospital. He asked her to collect the next painting for him."
"What was her name?"
"Ginny. She never said her last name."
"Aha." Chloe gave it a thought. Ginny Caparello. But this didn't look as an affair hew husband found out. This looked as dear Ginny knowing Bert was murdered and taking over his business. Chloe constructed the timeline in her head. Ginny must have been on her way to Munich even before the poison did its job. "Where do the stolen paintings come from."
"Stolen paintings?" Kurt protested. "I didn't steal anything."
Chloe pinched her nose. "Listen, mister Friesinger. My case is the murder of Bert Halleman. The stolen art and the smuggling is a bit outside LAPD's territory." She preferred not to think of all the paperwork that would come if she had to inform the German police. "But I ought to inform my colleagues here in Augsburg, unless you can solve this in another way."
It was a bit of bluff. How was she going to explain this trip to Augsburg? But he swallowed and nodded.
"An acquaintance of me, he works in the woods in the South, he found an abandoned bunker with thousands of paintings. We pick up a few each month. I sell them to people all over the world. I will send the police an anonymous letter describing where the bunker is. We only sold not even fifty of the thousands that were in that bunker.:
Chloe considered it. It would stop selling stolen art and would stop the smuggle. Good enough as far as she was concerned. "Can you tell us exactly what Ginny Caparello told you."
"Caparello?"
"Her last name."
He nodded and started to talk.
Early afternoon in LA they were back in the penthouse and they went straight to the Caparellos. "What is your relation with Bert Halleman?" Chloe asked Ginny.
"My wife hardly knew him," Fausto answered.
"That's correct," Ginny added.
"You had dozens of phone calls with him."
"What?' Fausto said, sounding truly surprised.
"And you made a business trip this week," Chloe said to Ginny. "Where did you go?"
"My wife is a model, she was in Wyoming for a photo shoot."
Chloe shook her head. "Ginny? We already checked airline reservations. We have a signed statement from Kurt Friesinger about your visit."
"Who is Kurt Fries-whatever?" Fausto asked.
Lucifer pulled the man aside and looked Ginny in the eyes. "Ginny? Dear, what do you wish? What is your deepest desire?"
"To make my own money," she stammered. She opened and closed her mouth a few time.
"Come," Lucifer said. "Tell us more."
"I want to get rid of Fausto. I feel dirty if he touches me. I will sell Kurt's paintings and make a million a year."
"So you seduces Bert?"
"Yes!" She still stared Lucifer in the eyes. "I made him tell me all he did."
Ginny stepped back. "No! I didn't say that. It is not true."
"So you killed him," Chloe said. "Ginny Caparello, you're arrested for the murder of Bert Halleman. Mister Caparello, please don't touch or remove anything in this house. I call a forensic team to look for evidence."
Ella came with two colleagues. They found the poison that had killed Bert, they found the painting Ginny had taken with her from Germany, a copy of Bert's spreadsheet and calls with Bert and with future clients on Ginny's phone.
Next morning in the precinct Chloe noticed Dan looked nervous, but when asked what was wrong, he said he was fine. She shrugged and went to give Ella and Olivia Monroe an update on the trip to Augsburg and on Adriana finding out what Lucifer is. It was Ella who mentioned Michael: "Azrael said Adriana had seen Michael."
"Michael?" Olivia asked. "Who is he? One of Bert Halleman's customers?"
Chloe hesitated for a second, Olivia knew who Lucifer was, but was never informed about Lucifer's mum or the Flaming Sword. "Sorry," Ella said softly.
"The archangel Michael, Lucifer's twin brother," Chloe said to Olivia.
"Another angel that is also in LA?"
"Not exactly." Chloe decided to give the lieutenant a brief update on mum, Uriel, the sword and Michael.
"You have spoken with God? Really him? Standing in front of you?"
"And he told me he smiles when I pray to him!" Ella became as exited as when she met God in Frank's church.
Olivia smiled at her, then frowned. "But God can't find Michael, but Adriana saw him here in LA."
"That is correct," Chloe answered.
"Did you check security and traffic cams around Ocean Avenue?"
"Without an active case that requires that, I'm not allowed to do," Chloe said.
"This Michael looks like Lucifer?"
"I've never seen him, lieutenant. But I'm told they have identical faces."
Olivia nodded. "Ella, last week the software to search pictures of the security cams in the city has been upgraded. Did you already try all new options?"
Ella's look showed she was surprised by the change of subject. "Not yet, lieutenant."
"Take a few hours to play with it. Not for any case, just book it as training exercise. See whether you can find Lucifer anywhere in the city."
After a moment Ella started to grin. "In the system log I just look for Lucifer for training exercise, lieutenant."
And no auditor would have a clue Ella was looking for Lucifer's twin, Chloe understood, which was definitely against the rules.
In Ella's lab four people were looking how she searched the footage of the security cams, well technically two of the four were not people: Lucifer and Azrael were looking together with Chloe and Olivia. "Here," Ella said. "On Ocean Park Boulevard."
Ella zoomed in on a pedestrian. "Lucifer," Olivia said.
"No, Michael," Azrael said. "No doubt. The expression, the hair, the clothes."
"Thank you, sister," Lucifer said. "I prefer rather to be dead than look like that."
"This is about twenty minutes after Adriana had seen him on Ocean Avenue."
"But Adriana only guessed the time," Chloe said and added: "Search days before on that cam."
Ella typed and dragged a scroll bar. "Early evening three days ago," she said. The screen showed Michael with the same clothes as yesterday morning, walking almost along the same spot.
"So it was not a single visit," Azrael mused. "What is he doing in LA?"
"He wants your blade," Lucifer said. "And you are often in LA."
"How does he hide then? Father and mother can't find him."
They all looked in silence at the picture on the screen, until Olivia sat straight and asked Ella: "Can I have a look at Google maps?"
Ella brought op a map. "Is Apple maps ok, lieutenant? I have that open."
The lieutenant bent to the screen and pointed to the upper right corner. "Can you scroll a bit to here? That's enough…" Olivia took a deep breath and tilted her head. "I don't know much about these things, what God can do and what an angel can do. But there is an exhibition somewhere in Mar Vista, eh…"
"Yes." Ella almost jumped of her chair. "Father Frank told me about it. Yes, you must be right."
