Lucifer made his way up the five flights of stairs through the halls of a run-down apartment building. There were officers walking past him with possible evidence in boxes. He made his way to the open door at the end of the hall. He peered in a noticed Miss Lopez snapping photos of what looked like the inside of a large dumpster. A dirty mattress in the middle of the apartment with discarded trash all around it. The only thing that looked barely used was the laptop that laid on the little folding table.
"Good Morning, Miss Lopez." The Devil greeted cheerfully as he carefully watched where he stepped. "What do we…?"
"Hold on!" The woman hand was up in his face as she interrupted him. Lucifer took step back from the woman his hands up wondering if he was in trouble. "When I don't answer your calls or reply to the first five texts, please know that I am sleeping. I didn't need sixty-seven text asking me 'if we found anything' when I woke up this morning. Night is for sleeping, if you didn't know that already. I'm just surprised you didn't come of barging into my house." Ella finished her little rant.
"Well, it did cross my mind at one point." The man admitted to the scientist.
"Were you really up all night?" The woman asked, concerned for friend.
"Yes. I'm just eager to catch this bad dude." He flashed her a cheeky smile.
"Yeah, we all are. Trust me." The woman reassured him. "But some of us also need rest. I was lucky enough to get a solid four hours after the night we had. Where were you by the way? We thought you rush off to see Chloe, but you weren't there." Ella reprimanded the devil, giving him a hard time.
"I…I needed a drink." Lucifer replied. He knew it wasn't the answer she was looking for, but it was the truth. He was tired of people giving him a hard time about his lack of appearance when it came to the detective.
"A drink?" The woman rolled her eyes. "Probably more like twelve drinks. Which would explain the texting. But I don't understand this one." The woman showed him her phone. "Magnifying glass, zombie, hammer, chain, down arrow, chair, battery, eggplant, repeat one, bathtub, repeat one, rat, pants, knife, coffin, praise hands, coconut drink, whisky, smoke?" The woman was out of breath after she went through the nonsensical string of emojis.
"Oh, sorry. That one was for Maze." The man's brow furrowed. "That may explain why she didn't reply. I thought she would be down for that one. She usually is."
"What does it mean? I don't get it?" The woman was often confused by the things that come out of his mouth.
"It's simple. We have to find the monster, knock him out, chain him down to a chair, attach a battery to his…" The man casually answered.
"You know what? Sorry I asked. I don't want to know what weird fetish things you guys have going on." The woman pulled her phone away from him a put it back in her pocket.
"Very well. Did you find anything this…" The man looked around the dingy apartment "place?"
"This is James Colbert's last known address." Ella informed the man.
"That human stain lived here? No wonder he killed himself." The man scoffed with disgust.
"Lucifer, not everyone can have your lavish lifestyle. I bet your place in Florida is amazing." She knelt down a took a picture of the soiled mattress.
"Florida? What on earth are you talking about." The man was astounded by the notion.
"Didn't you go home to Florida?" The woman questioned, as she took a close-up picture of an ashtray that was beside the bed.
"No." The man corrected the scientist. "I did go home down south. It was absolute hell. But not Florida, I would never go to that place."
"Well, it looks like our guy James was in a bad place. That's for sure." Ella let out a sympathetic sigh.
"What gave away that idea?" Lucifer looked around the room with sarcasm.
"You see here." She pointed to the ashtray. "Used syringes. And the spoon with burn marks. The shoe laces. It's clear that he was a heroin user and who knows what else. He must have had are hard life to go out the way he did."
"Well, he chose this life. No one forced him." The devil showed no remorse for the man.
"It's not always black and white like that, Lucifer." Ella stood up and defended James. "With any addiction, I find people want to get out, but they don't know how or don't have the help."
"Well, he took the easy way out." Lucifer muttered to himself, but the scientist could still hear him.
"I wasn't that easy, it was actually kinda gruesome." Ella paused for a moment, before she continued. "We found an empty box in the bathroom with a card. It was instructions with a time and location. The time of the explosion." Ella informed the devil. "So, you were right, someone else was behind this. There was no postage stamp, whoever did this wanted to cover his tracks."
"Imagine that, I was right." The man had self-satisfied look on his face.
"Fine. You were right. I don't know where you got the information, but it got us a lead." The woman put the lens cap back on her camera.
"Lopez!" An older gentleman approached. "Colbert's family is at the station. I'm on my way over there now. Are you almost done here?" Lucifer noticed the badge attached to his hip as he spoke to the woman, as if he wasn't even there.
"Yeah. I will do a once over to make sure we didn't miss anything. Then I'll be right behind you. Not behind you but follow behind. To the station." The woman fumbled over her words and gave him a nervous smile. There was an awkward pause. "Oh, right." She realized that Lucifer was stand beside her looking back and forth between the two. "Lieutenant, this is Lucifer Morningstar." Ella gestured towards her friend.
"Lieutenant Ross McCallum." The man introduced himself extending his hand. "I transferred from Florida a month ago."
"Florida really? What a lovely place".The Devil accepted the firm handshake with an amused smile. He eyes shifted to the woman.
"The Lieutenant is overseeing the investigation on the James Colbert case" Ella explained to Lucifer, but eyes were on the other man.
"Oh, is he now?" Lucifer noticed that Ella seemed infatuated by the man. He hasn't seen this side of Ella since Marcus first joined the precinct, just over a year ago. "Interesting."
"Well, when one of my detectives is nearly blown up, I need to know who is behind this." The Lieutenant was straight to the point.
"Lucifer is…was Chloe's Partner." Ella informed the Lieutenant, she saw the discomfort in Lucifer's eyes when the man said, 'blown up'.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were a detective." The man interest in Lucifer peaked.
"He's not." Ella and the devil spoke at the same time.
"I'm not. Police consultant." The devil corrected, offended that the man hasn't heard of him yet. "I assisted Detective Decker solves cases for the last five years. Kind of a modern-day Sherlock Holmes and Detective Watson." Lucifer nudged Ella with his elbow. "I'm clearly Sherlock." He looked at the woman for a reaction but received nothing. "So, I will gladly help with the case."
"Well, since I now know your relationship with Decker is personal." The man patted Lucifer on the back and started walking him out of the apartment. "I suggest you go home; better yet, go be with Chloe in the hospital. We can take it from here."
"Nonsense." Lucifer pulled away from the man. "You need me on this case."
"Lieutenant, he does have some insight on this case that may be helpful." Ella spoke up defending her friend.
"Well, if we need a consult we will call you." The man waved his hands to one of the officers. "This is a closed investigation. Law Enforcement personnel only. And as far as I know, you haven't work for the LAPD since I've been here. Thank you, Mr. Morningstar."
"No. No. No, you don't understand." Lucifer voice rose with frustration. "I need to be here, I need to help." The officer started to escorted Lucifer by the elbow. "Let go of me." The devil barked as he pulled himself away. The officer stood in front of him, blocking the way. He looked over the man at Ella, who mouthed 'I'm sorry.'
Lucifer turned around and stormed down the hall to the stairwell. He stopped and punched the wall in frustration making a decent size whole in the wall. His eyes glanced up. "Great." He huffed to himself as he started down the stairs and stopped abruptly. "Wait a minute." He turned around and ran back down the hall to the apartment. The officer stepped in front of him.
"There was no postage stamp." Lucifer shouted over top the uniformed man. He caught the attention of Ella and Ross as they stepped toward him.
"And?" The man didn't seem to be interested in the information he already knew.
"Well, last time I checked, packages don't just appear. Someone has to drop it off." The man paused hoping the others would catch on, he let out an annoyed sigh. "The surveillance camera in the stairwell. It's the only way in or out."
"Why didn't I think of that?" Ella blurted out in frustration. "Of course, we can see who dropped it off…"
"And he is either going to be our killer or someone who may know something." Lucifer gave the two a large grin.
"Good work, Mr. Morningstar." The Lieutenant praised the devil. "We can take it from here."
Lucifer was about to object but before he could mutter a word the forensic scientist spoke up. "We need him." The woman was firm. "Yes, this may be personal to him, but he is good, really good and I think we can use what he has to offer." She looked up at her friend and saw the gratitude in his eyes.
"Fine. You can stay." The Lieutenant agreed. "But if there is any indication that you can't handle your emotions, you are gone. Is that clear?"
"As a crystal." Lucifer agreed to the terms.
"See you both at the precinct." The men spoke before he turned to leave.
"Ella." Lucifer looked down at the woman. "Thank you."
"I can't do this without you, Sherlock! None of us can." Ella pulled the man into an embrace.