At the hospital

Dan fidgeted in his seat as he and Amenadiel waited for the doctor's to tell them whether their prisoner would wake up or be headed towards the morgue. He was always edgy when he was in a hospital – too many bad memories of people he had known and cared for coming in and sometimes not coming back out. Like Chloe when she had been shot by Jimmy Barnes or the time she had been poisoned by that crazy Professor Carlisle. He glanced over at Amenadiel for a moment, remembering that particular event. "You know I would have taken you back to Lux if you wanted – right? This has got to be feeling uncomfortable for you."

Amenadiel smiled peacefully. "Not really."

Dan frowned. "But someone told me you pretty much took down the hospital's security guards to keep them from moving Chloe when she got poisoned. I'm kind of surprised they even let you in here after that."

Amenadiel shrugged. "Probably because I'm with a legitimate police officer. And I did apologize to the guards after the fact. I just had to give Lucifer time to find that antidote and … well keeping others out of Chloe's room just seemed the best option."

"You really believed he's find it?" Dan replied skeptically.

"IF Luci says he's going to do something then he will do it. Even if it does sometimes come back to bite him in the ass." The angel shrugged, unconcerned.

A middle aged Asian woman in scrubs walked quickly up to the waiting duo, a chart in her hand. "Det. Espinoza?"

Dan rose quickly. "That would be me. And you are…"

"Dr. Chan. I'm just finished me preliminary examination of the subject you brought in." She glanced down at her chart briefly. "Says here you told the EMT's that you thought he might be over dosed on meth? By the way – do you have a name for him? He didn't have any i.d. on his person when we started to treat him."

Amenadiel sighed. "He said his name was Jonah. I'm afraid that's pretty much all he said that made any sense at all."

Dr. Chan nodded, making a note on the chart. "Okay – so Mr. Jonah, last name unknown, was unconscious when he arrived. We did the standard tests based on what you and the EMT's described and I'm going to hazard a guess it's not meth. I won't know for sure until our doxological results get in but something about his vitals doesn't read meth overdose to me. He's still not responding to external stimuli so I'm afraid you won't be able to talk to him anytime soon. We'll let you know if and when he regains consciousness."

Dan's shoulders slumped. "Okay – thanks Doc." He handed her a card with his office number on it and turned away. "Come on Amenadiel. Guess our next stop is going to be…" his voice trailed off to silence as the world came to a slow stop.

Amenadiel concentrated as he willed time to slow then stop for a moment. Glancing up, he could see Jonah looking small and fragile in one of the examining rooms. And just beyond it – a small figure watching the room as well. "Azrael" he called out softly. "Are you here for this man's soul?"

Azrael didn't look anything like what most people assumed the Angel of Death would be. Or at least, this particular physical manifestation of her was different from the ways she had been portrayed through the ages. She was small, nerdy and totally harmless looking. A young woman in kooky clothing, not the angel responsible for taking a newly released soul to either Heaven or Hell. She peered up at her brother with a smile. "Oh, hey Amenadiel! How's our brother doing?"

Amenadiel sighed. Their sister's affection for Lucifer had always seemed odd as far as the rest of the Celestial Choir were concerned, as had their Heavenly Father's acceptance of it. Working with Lucifer now Amenadiel had come to understand their sister's affection - even if there still times he wanted to throttle his brother."He's fine. But I need to know about the man in the bed Ray-Ray. It's important."

She glanced over at the drug addict's pasty face. "He won't last an hour" she mused. "Someone made sure of that. Pity – he won't get a chance to make up for all his mistakes in life."

Amenadiel glanced at the still figure. "We need to know who did this to him. It may be important to finding a young woman who is missing."

"If it's who I'm thinking you're looking for…" She sighed. "I can't tell you that girl's fate and you know it."

"I know and I'm not asking you to. But Dan and Chloe are looking for a person who has killed two people at the Cecil hotel…"

Azrael shuddered. "That place! It's too tainted – even Lucifer doesn't like it."

"Lucifer said it wasn't a gateway to Hell" Amenadiel protested, shifting his feet as he tried to keep time slowed for a little longer.

"He SAYS it isn't – but he knows it's a bad place. Why else would all those broken people end their lives or the lives of others at that one spot?"

Amenadiel sighed. "You've been watching that TV program again haven't you?"

She shrugged. "Sometimes I get bored – and besides Lady Gaga made a great vampire don't you think?"

"What I think is that boy is going to die soon and whatever he knows about the person who sent him to plant another clue for us to find will die with him."

Azrael shrugged. "Sorry bro – rules are rules. Can't talk about the business of death. You're the one that taught me that – remember?" She stepped back into the shadows as time began its normal flow around them.

"Hey, Amenadiel!" Dan called out, puzzled by the fact his friend had gotten so far down the hall without him seeing him move. "Let's had back to the precinct. No point handing out here – I don't think we're likely to get anything from Jonah anytime soon. Maybe Ella has worked her magic on that broken flash drive you found."

Amenadiel looked over at the junkie sadly. "Yes – let's."

At the precinct

Ella squinted at the cracked drive casing. "Okay – so who stepped on it?"

Lucifer smiled. "Amenadiel. He's clumsy that way."

Ella snorted. "If I didn't have brothers of my own I'd swear you're just saying that to be mean to him. Give me some time and I'll get the data off it for you." She dashed off, flash drive in hand.

"I am NOT being mean" Lucifer protested. "He's just…"

"Your brother so you can say whatever you want about him and he won't take your head off – at least not anymore." Chloe sighed.

Lucifer leaned against the wall for a moment, watching Ella work in her office. "I suppose. So – what's our next step? Something interesting I hope – like running down that Bradley spawn and making him tell us what he knows about all of this."

"Even if we could find him" Chloe pointed out, dropping into a chair. "All we have is him confronting my victim and Dan's missing person. He's not assaulting them just arguing with them. While that might be the first step in developing a motive it doesn't really give us anything to hold him on."

"Well – what about the priest collar that drug addled wanker at the Cecil was wearing when we found him? Surely that's a clue to be followed? I mean how many priest do you know lose their collars around infamously hotels these days? Mostly they…"

Chloe held out a hand. "Stop right there. Not in the mood to hear your over the top opinions of the clergy. But you are right about one thing – that junkie probably didn't find that collar around the hotel. Besides which it could have easily belonged to the priest who found Milton's body. It's a tad coincidental that he should not only know Bradley's nephew but also Milton and his sister. And be the one who finds Milton's corpse."

"He said his friend had let him into the room to wait until the Devil, meaning me, came to take him away." Lucifer shifted his feet slightly as he looked down at Chloe. "I wonder…"

"So do I" Chloe sighed. "We should probably talk to that young priest who found our last victim and see if he recognizes… what was his name again?"

"Jonah" Lucifer replied with a shrug. "Somehow a very fitting name for a very unlucky soul." He glanced down at his watch and sighed. "I need to make a run back to Lux and make sure things are still up and running. You know what they say – when the cat's away the mice will play."

"I seriously doubt anyone working for you at Lux is just waiting for you to be out of the building so they can play hooky" she grumbled. "Go – I have too much to do with this case to try to keep you entertained and out of trouble."

"Detective! I thought you liked it when I was in trouble. I seemed to find all our best information when I'm breaking all the rules." He sauntered off towards the elevator with a smirk, calling out a quick greeting to various uniformed officers of his acquaintance as he did so.

Chloe shook her head in quasi disbelief. "Just when I think he understands how things really are – he's back to being charming, unconcerned Lucifer again."She glanced at the pile of files on her desk and sighed. "Let's see where all this paper leads me."

Across town – in the Bradley home

"You have to do something!"Candice Milton hissed at her hostess, clutching the shot of bourbon Regina Simonton had pushed into her hand after she had appeared disheveled at the Bradley Home. Bertha Bradley sat opposite her with that same, self-righteous smirk on her face she had since college. "This isn't going at ALL like we planned it!"

Bertha shrugged. "Actually – I think it's going just fine. You wanted your husband dead before he could find out just what kind of grifters you and your "brother" really were. And it's happened."

"James wasn't supposed to die" she stuttered, clutching the glass in shaking hands. "Just John. And then…"

"Yes, and then…." Bertha replied with a sneer. "And that's still on the agenda. We've just had to make a few adjustments to the plan." She held out her own glass, silently ordering Regina to fill it from the decanter in her hand.

Regina poured the bourbon carefully. "James ruined this all for us when he decided to add a few "flourishes" to our plan. This was all supposed to be laid at the feet of that interfering, nosy little bit Annalise but with his making her disappear…"

"Her father is a gang-banger! Did you know that?" Candice whimpered. "My lawyer heard it from someone at the LAPD. They are trying to tie her disappearance to John's death. Now they'll try to tie it to James as well."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they will trip over a clue and blame the girl for all of it. Not, however, before there is one last crime." Bertha swirled her drink in her glass thoughtfully. "And if that doesn't work – well there is always that creature my husband's batty sister spawned. I got the distinct impression that Detective and her Consultant were already suspicious of him. It would take much to put him right in their headlights."

Regina cleared her throat. "What about Don? Surely your husband is starting to get suspicious of all the deaths occurring around him."

Bertha laughed. "He's so involved in that merger he's been working on that the zombie apocalypse could occur outside his window and he wouldn't even notice. That's why we decided on the Cecil for our first act. A murder at a hotel known for death would surely cause any proposed buyout of the property to drag on – giving us time to make sure our other acts were clean and neat and not in any way related to us."

"But that's not what happened!" Candice said stiffly. "James said he met John and dealt with that problem – but if James shot John then who shot my brother!" She looked up at the two women, her sorority sisters from Hell, and gasped. "It wasn't me! It had to be one of you two!"

Regina snorted. "Why would I kill James? He was more useful to us alive as a fall guy. Now that he's dead things are becoming too complicated."

"Getting cold feet, are we Regina?" Bertha sneered. "You certainly didn't have an issues when we first came up with this plan. You even suggested the plot from that movie – Diabolique – when we were at the art house revival." She looked appraisingly at the woman in front of her fireplace. "When did you decide you wanted Don to die? When he dumped you for a younger woman – or when you found out that younger woman was working at the Cecil right under your nose?"

Regina grimaced. "If we're going to talk about motives Bertha – when did you decide that killing your husband was the lesser of two evils? Divorce or being a widow?"

Bertha shrugged. "Maybe the once we should be asking about motives is little Candice here. After all, that little slut of a sorority sister of ours was making it with her husband as well as mine." She smiled cruelly. "You never did tell me how you found out, my dear."

"Photos" Candice whispered. "Horrible photos of John and that girl, embracing, kissing. I showed them to him but he laughed and said they were just celebrating the end of their first podcast. James said he was a liar, just like our father was."

"Just like you and your brother were?" Bertha sneered. "Let's be real – if John had EVER found out some of the scams you and James had pulled before you "conveniently" ran back into each other after college he would have run straight to the police. Don would have fired James, and the two of you would have been on the road again back to doing whatever disgusting things you did to survive."

"And none of this is getting us anywhere" Regina commented reasonably. "We need to decide how we're going to leverage what has occurred to our advantage before Don starts to suspect us of having a hand in these events."

All three women began to discuss various strategies to keep their one remaining target from suspecting anything. None of them noticed the shadow at the door as it backed slowly away into the house

References made to American Horror Story and movie called Diabolique