Another update, enjoy! As you can see, I'm on a roll at the moment, I so hope it lasts a little longer 'lol

Thanks to Senema for her quick beta and her help. All remaining mistakes are my own.

This chapter is more of a filler before I come to the next part, so it is shorter than usual.

Chapter 24

Chloe was standing outside the building, looking up at it. Flashlights bathed the surrounding area in red-blue light as police cars, fire engines and ambulances surrounded her.

There had been an anonymous call that something terrible had happened and that the police had to come at once. Apparently, this was true, as the faces of the patrol officers who had first responded to the call were noticeably pale and nervous.

"How does it look like in there?" Chloe asked the senior patrol officer on the scene.

"There was a massacre", the woman replied grimly. "I've seen quite a bit in my years on the streets but that in there is something else."

Dan had now joined Chloe. "Are there any survivors?"

"Definitely not ones that are still in the building." The woman hesitated. "We asked passers-by questions. Apparently, earlier this evening a lot of people left the building in an orderly manner. Our witnesses said many of them looked very distraught but none of them seemed panicked or scared."

"So there are witnesses?" Chloe asked interested.

"Well, not ones who admit to being in there while the murders were happening." The woman shifted uncomfortably. "Something feels wrong here. As our witnesses told us, for several months' people came here once a week, always at the same time, and most of the time these meetings lasted about two hours. Nevertheless, none of the witnesses knew even one name of any of the participants. When they started conversations with the strangers, they were taciturn; nobody said a word too much and they were very evasive. It's like they belonged to a secret club and when you're not one of them..." She shrugged.

Chloe frowned. "That sounds quite clandestine."

"Yes, it does", said the police officer grimly.

Chloe nodded at her in thanks and entered the building, Dan followed right behind. As she entered what appeared to be the main hall, she noticed the subdued atmosphere. She counted seven victims, most of whom were near a long row of tables with nine chairs. She saw Ella kneeling next to a victim lying more in the middle of the room.

"Can you tell me anything already, Ella?" Chloe asked as she stopped next to her.

Ella straightened up, looking confused and worried. "His heart was ripped out. The bones of the thorax were pushed inward, in my opinion it was with just one blow. It must have been a blunt object but I can't say which one yet." She hesitated. "If I didn't know any better, I would say that someone punched through the chest with a clenched fist, opened it and then pulled the heart out."

"That's completely impossible." Chloe was incredulous. "The rib cage is the most stable part of the human body." She crouched next to the body. "I have only ever seen this type of injury in serious traffic accidents."

"I know and I agree." Ella looked frustrated. "I have three other victims with the same cause of death. Another victim has a broken neck, which is by far the most normal cause of death in this room."

Ella went to the tables. "This woman had her head torn or cut off, but don't ask me about the murder weapon, I can't tell you yet either. The edges of the wound are weirdly uneven." She frowned. "Almost as if someone had hit off her head with bare hands, which is impossible as well." She shook her head and pointed to a man lying halfway across the table. "His tongue was ripped out, he choked to death on his own blood. His tongue is here on the table."

"Someone definitely wanted to send a message", Chloe said thoughtfully. "The display of violence must have been unbelievable, no wonder the people our witnesses saw, were distraught. But why didn't they run out of the building screaming?"

"I really don't know." Ella sighed. "There's another body, an elderly woman. She appears to have been tortured first, after which her head was also severed the same way as the other woman."

"So we're talking about a total of eight victims", Chloe said thoughtfully.

Ella nodded. "The search of the building is still ongoing but other than the older woman the violence appears to have been limited to this room."

"Thank you Ella." Chloe looked around and took in the crime scene. The clothing the victims wore were an odd mix of rich and poor, different cultures and attitudes. Why had such different people from such different backgrounds met here?

Dan moved from one corpse to the other, staring into their faces before finally joining the two women. "Do we have names?"

"Another oddity. None of them had ID's on them." Ella looked grim. "Honestly, it's one of the weirdest crime scenes I've ever seen. Something very remarkable happened here." She sighed, troubled. "I fear my report will have more than one question mark in it."

Dan nodded. "Almost looks like it."

"Everything here looks like a lesson, the violence was deliberate. Whoever committed the murders did not choose their victims at random." Chloe looked at Dan. "What do you think?"

"I agree." Dan looked around.

Ella nodded vehemently. "Me too. The only victim that does not fit this pattern is the tortured woman. I think someone else murdered her."

"The question is why were only these people killed when the hall must have been full?" Dan asked seriously.

Chloe frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe they knew something that had to remain a secret."

"Or they did something", Ella speculated. She pointed to the bodies. "This looks like revenge to me, like punishment."

Chloe sighed. "We're not going to find out anything by standing here and speculating. First, let's find out who the victims are. After that, we might find out why they were killed."

Chloe left the building with Dan while Ella stayed behind at the crime scene. She let her gaze wander over the spectators, who watched everything curiously. She noticed a man in a suit, who looked out of place among the other spectators; he held a cell phone to his ear and looked quite unhappy. "Dan, do you see what I see?"

"Yes, I'll talk to him", Dan said and made his way to the man.

Chloe watched as the man noticed Dan coming towards him and then put his cell phone back in his pocket. After that, he calmly waited for Dan to join him. She watched Dan pull the man aside and they talked for a few minutes. When Dan came back, he looked calm and a little amused.

"What did you find out?" Chloe asked curiously.

"Nothing that helps us with the case." Dan shrugged. "He works for the real estate agency who owns the building. Apparently, it has been vacant for quite some time and whoever used the building did so without the real estate agency's knowledge. One of the local residents who also works for the agency called and informed him of our presence, so he came here." He laughed humourlessly. "He fears that now the chances of ever selling it are close to zero."

"Which explains his rather unhappy expression", Chloe said, rolling her eyes.

"Do we go back to the police station or do you want to stay here?" asked Dan.

"There's nothing we can do here." Chloe frowned. "I'm surprised Lucifer isn't here yet."

Now it was Dan's turn to roll his eyes. "I don't miss him."

Chloe laughed and looked thoughtful. "You know I'm wondering if maybe this has something to do with Elijah's case?"

"What makes you think that?" Dan asked surprised.

"If Elijah is telling the truth about his innocence, it's a conspiracy. And from what we've learned, these meetings here have been very conspiratorial." Chloe looked uncertain. "Can there be two conspiracies that have nothing to do with each other?"

"Who knows? But these meetings appear to have been going on for several months before Elijah ever planned to come to Los Angeles." Dan looked doubtful.

Chloe sighed frustratedly. Dan was of course right in his objection, the timing wasn't right. She went to her car. Somehow, she had a feeling that this case would give her quite a headache.

xxxxx

Dan was relieved to be finally able to leave the crime scene. As disturbing as the brutality of the murders had been, he knew only too well that things could have been far worse. He knew the Originals were known for their high body count when somebody crossed them.

Elijah, and he was sure it was mostly him, had killed seven members of the Council and one man he didn't know. Dan had recognized them and he suspected that they were directly involved in this conspiracy. The only two survivors from the Council belonged to the human faction, which told him something about the origin of the conspiracy.

Dan was glad that Elijah actually seemed to keep his word to keep bystanders out of his revenge plans and only hold the guilty accountable.

When Chloe sent him after the bystander to ask him questions, Dan was relieved she didn't go herself. He recognized him as a vampire he had met a couple of times but had never spoken to. He suspected that was why the vampire tolerated his approach and allowed Dan to take him aside.

"Hello Martin, do you remember me?" Dan asked when they were far enough away from the other onlookers.

"Yes, you are one of the cops who knows about the supernatural", Martin readily replied. "You used to work for the Council. I've heard good things about you, which is the only reason I'm even talking to you."

Dan ignored the vampire's arrogance; he'd had enough practice with Lucifer's attitude. "I assume Gwendolyne sent you here?"

"Yes, we were supposed to clean up here, but we were too late." Martin looked unhappy. "Gwendolyne won't like this."

"The Originals have been acting pretty low key with only eight dead." Dan's voice sounded uncertain. "Or will we find more victims?"

Martin snorted amused. "Well, not here, but get ready for a big fire at the harbour with lots of dead bodies. The werewolves and witches were actually dumb enough to challenge the Originals in open battle. It didn't go well for them."

"Oh, wonderful", Dan said sarcastically. "Will there be more or will it stay with the two massacres?"

"Not from what I've heard." Martin shrugged. "The Originals have the masterminds behind this conspiracy. Whatever happens to them, the Originals will keep it private. They know there have already been too many high profile murders, they don't want to rile up the authorities too much."

"That's good to hear." Dan sighed with relief. "The conspiracy, what was it about? What did they want to accomplish?"

Martin hesitated, his face turned grim. "Witches were prepared to wipe out the vampire race with one spell, and a lot of werewolves wanted to help them with their plan."

Dan looked at him in shock, he felt sick at the thought. "They wanted to wipe out an entire race?"

"Yes", Martin confirmed, his eyes hard.

As little as Dan liked vampires, he also knew that most of them just wanted to be left alone and live their lives. Wiping out an entire race was worse than anything vampires had ever done. "That's madness."

Martin looked at him kindly. "Glad you think so."

"I assume efforts are already underway to cover this up?" Dan asked resignedly.

"Not to cover it up but we don't need too many questions being asked either." Martin looked serious. "I fear this and the other massacre will remain unsolved."

"It think it is better so too." Dan thought about Chloe. He knew how much she hated not being able to solve a case. "Can you tell me anything about the building, which I can use to deflect my partner?"

"It's owned by Gwendolyne, she made it available to the Council and their meetings." Martin looked over at Chloe. "You can tell your partner that I work for the agency, which is true by the way. Just tell her we didn't know anything about who met here or what happened."

"Will do, thank you for your answers." Dan sighed. He went back to Chloe and shared what she needed to know.

Dan's heart almost stopped when Chloe made the connection to Elijah's case. She was right, of course, but not in the way, she thought. He just hoped he had successfully dissuaded her from that idea.

And he also hoped that whatever cover-up the vampires used for the other massacre, it didn't lead to Elijah and his family. He didn't want Chloe to become even more involved in the supernatural world.

Volanna = Thank you for your comments.

There will certain another chapter from Lucifer's view but my favourite character is Elijah, so he has priority for me but I try to give every character their right.

About Amenadiel, I find his character hard to write so I don't think he will appear again.

Guest = Thank you, and here is your update 'lol