Chapter 7

Chloe Decker was feeling more than a little pissed as she arrived back at the police station. The tip that Lucifer managed to get his hands on didn't seem to have any meat to it. No one in that AIR B&B seemed suspicious or had anything that would've pointed to the fact that someone might've been committing murders. No one acted strangely, although, her mind, briefly, went to the young woman who seemed all by herself in this city. The cagey way she acted, the nervousness that had nothing to do with Chloe being a detective.

Since everyone moved out of her way relatively quickly, most likely sensing her bad mood, Chloe was able to plop back down at her desk. She resisted the urge to throw her paperweight at the passing rookies and street cops and instead slammed her head down on desk and screamed into the wood.

"Whoa. Rough day, huh?"

Chloe glanced up to see the young energetic new coroner, Ella, standing over her desk with an expression that was a mixture of concern and laughter. The detective couldn't help but smirk.

"You could say that."

"Did one of the rookies try to grab you?"

Chloe cackled. "They know if they did that, then they would be down one hand."

"True." Ella plopped herself down in the second chair that sat across on the other side of the desk, her face showing interest. "So, mind enlightening me on why you look ready to bitch-slap anyone that comes your way?"

"The tip that Lucifer received about the murderer being in an apartment building just a couple of miles down the road was wrong and we interrupted a lot of evenings." Chloe shivered at the memory of opening the door to a couple going at it. But then her brow furrowed, "But there was this one person that….I don't know…..she seemed a bit weird."

Ella cocked her head. "Do you like her for the murders?"

Chloe bit her lip nervously, unsure of how to answer it. She didn't think the young girl did anything suspicious but the way that she was acting set off all kinds of alarm bells in her mind. But not the right alarm bells, which means she was back at square one. She sighed, waving off the question before asking, "Was there anything forensic wise that you could find?"

Ella seemed to perk up, almost as though she was excited to talk about anything related to dead bodies. Which wouldn't surprise her if they actually did. "So…..forensic team came back and found that the thing we thought were stab wounds were actually teeth marks."

Chloe's stomach turned over like a pancake. "We're looking for a ritualistic cannibal murderer?"

"Well, seeing how chunks of flesh were missing and traces of saliva were found, I'd think it's safe to go ahead and say yes."

"Great. Los Angeles has too many weirdos already."

"What's one more, I say."

Chloe shot Ella a deadpan look and the younger woman seemed to remembered what the context she was speaking in.

"Oh…. yeah, sorry."

The detective just nodded. "It's alright just… send me what you found. Have you run that saliva sample through to the database yet?"

"I was just about to."

"Okay. Make sure to run it through local databases first before national. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll have been charged before for biting people."

Ella scribbled down the orders on a spare sheet of paper, before giving her a salute and walking off. Chloe sighed as she woke her computer up. Might as well run through the databases to see if there had been any priors so they could start building a suspect pool that they could eliminate. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, her eyes scanning the files, starting with central California before branching outward, going as far back as the past five years. She collected a large suspect list before going back and removing the names of those who had died or who were in prison. That took care of about half of the suspect pool.

Chloe was about to narrow it down even further when Lucifer sauntered in. She gave the devil a curious glance as he plopped down on her desk, wondering just why he was here and not spreading sin and debauchery from his precious nightclub.

"Good evening Detective. I hope my little tip turned out well."

"Sorry partner. But your little tipper wasn't that correct."

He didn't look all that disappointed but he did ask, "What about the young girl?"

"Are you going to tell me what your obsession is with her?" When he hesitated, she leaned forward, her eyes intense as she said, "Lucifer, you can trust me. I mean, you trusted me enough to reveal yourself to me only a few months ago. If you're in some sort of trouble then let me help you."

Again, he hesitated.

"Is it Hell?"

"Not this time, no."

"So, Heaven then."

"Detective please-"

"Don't 'Detective please' me! I'm trying to help you and by Go-, uh, George, I'm going to do it!" she slammed her fist on the desk for added effect. Lucifer's eyes went wide at the display.

"Alright then." He straightened his suit and smoothed back his hair a bit before explaining, "It's Heaven. They sent an assassin after me."

"But…...?"

"But the assassin isn't anything more than a Messenger, the lowest class of angelic beings. They don't even know how to wield a sword."

"But this one does?"

"Ah not only that, but she wields a flaming sword."

There was a pause, which Chloe didn't understand. Sure, a flaming sword sounded awesome beyond belief but what was the point? She shrugged as Lucifer gave her a look, the Devil sighing in frustration.

"A flaming sword was given to each of the principalities that guarded the gates of Eden." Lucifer stood up to pace around her little office area, more agitated than she had seen him a while. "There was only one that stayed on earth throughout history and he supposedly lost the bloody thing."

Chloe kept a straight face, nodding along like she knew what he was ranting about. She almost balked at the mention of a kickass angel warrior being on earth but took it in stride.

"So, you know who this principality is?"

"Only by name. From the report that one of my demons who also spent a lot of time on Earth. It only recently came to light that the two were meeting up and doing miracles."

That's when Chloe made a face. "Is that a…. supernatural euphemism?"

"No. But I do suspect some shagging."

"Oh…. okay."

"You asked."

"Not that part." Chloe facepalmed. She groaned. "Well, it's late. I've got to go and pay the babysitter before she bankrupts me. Keep me updated on this situation. Good night, Lucifer."

"You know…...you could always leave the monkey with the babysitter and you could come over to my place?"

Chloe scoffed at her friend's almost daily temptation to get her into bed with in as she jangled the keys on her pointer finger. "Keep trying, buckeroo. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I agree to that."

There was a sly smile that appeared on his face. "You know the lower parts of Hell are actually frozen, right?"

She needed to make tracks, now. "Bye Lucifer."

She left the police station, her head reeling with more questions than answers.