Chloe turned quickly, finding herself looking into the dark eyes of a shabbily dressed young man. "And you would be?" she asked warily, inching her fingers towards her holstered weapon.
"I'm going to hazard a guess and say this is Gabriel" Lucifer purred, moving to step closer to their suspect.
Gabe took a few steps back. "I was going to be Father Gabriel when I was in the seminary. My mother's idea - she said she'd slept with the Devil and had me so the only way to redeem herself was for me to take Holy Orders. I was mildly okay with that since I had no other ambitions at the time. At least until I realized that just because you could quote chapter and verse from the Bible didn't make you a good man."
"Let me guess" Lucifer responded. "Father Kinley turned out to be less saint and more wanker?" He eyed the man in front of him with interest noticing that the grime on his clothes only seemed to cover his jacket and boots. His hair hung lank around his face but his hands and nails seemed cleaner than they should be if he had been living "rough" on the street.
Gabe shrugged, his torn and tattered clothes rustling as he moved. "Him – and others that agreed with him. He appointed himself as protector of men's souls – but he forgot to watch out for his own."
Chloe shot a hard look at Lucifer, hoping to keep this existential conversation short. "So – do you know where Bradley and Annalise are?"
"I can hazard a guess" Gabe responded, glancing over his shoulder. "But you'd better be quick about getting to them. Uncle's wife is losing patience – she's probably already plotting the last chapter in his life story."
"Where are they?" Chloe asked tensely. "Where are your uncle and Annalise?"
"Uncle has a private little cottage in the Napa Valley – an old hunting lodge that belonged to some relation of ours. Not that he does much hunting, except of young flesh to pollute with his sinfulness. I think he might have had Annalise taken there after…"
"After what?" Lucifer asked, quizzically.
"After Milton told him about her father's past – and the fact someone had told said father that she was seeing someone whose life Gibson would gladly snuff out if he thought his daughter was being used. Neither of them knew that Daddy Dearest already knew what was going on in that arena. Annalise made things entirely too easy to figure out. After all – he knew she was in seeing someone. And with all his street contacts it didn't take long to figure out who the suspects might be. Once he sees the photos I sent him this morning – he'll know for sure." The young man took another step back, moving into the shadows.
"Wait – what about McIntire and Milton's deaths?" Chloe glanced over at Lucifer, who had stopped trying to match step for step with the man in front of him.
"You're supposed to be good at this game, Detective" Gabe replied with a chuckle. "I think you already know who killed both your victim's."
"Knowing isn't proving" she responded tensely. "Unless I can make the case for the D.A. it doesn't matter how much of the story I know, it's all just a fairy tale."
"You won't have to prove anything if you don't get on the road to the lodge and find Uncle and his little whore." Suddenly the man bolted into the shadows, with Lucifer hot on his heels, leaving Chloe stranded beside the hotel. She pulled out her cell and dialed Dan's number quickly.
"Dan – I need you to run a check on something. Bradley has property in Napa where he may be holding Annalise. I need to know where it is. Also, do we have eyes on Bradley's wife, Regina Simonton and Candice McIntyre? I have a nasty feeling about all of them."
"Ella's checking for me on the property and as far as I know all three women are still in their homes but I'll have uniforms make a check on them. What's going on?"
"Lucifer and I found Gabriel – Bradley's nephew. He says Bradley has hidden Annalise away at his private little get away. And that he's sent the girl's father photos of her with Bradley so he's in the mix as well."
Silence on the other end of the line resonated almost louder than the street noises around her. "Chloe – I've read some of the case files for the crimes Mad Dog was convicted on. If he finds Bradley with his daughter…"
"With any luck he won't" Chloe replied tightly, hoping Gabriel had been wrong in his estimation of how much Annalise had let slip. "Just find that cottage!"
"And soon" Lucifer's voice floated up to her. He limped back to where the detective standing with a frown on his face. "Bloody little gave me the slip."
"How?" Chloe asked. "You're the Devil - how does anyone escape you?"
Lucifer shrugged. "Huamn form has its disadvantages for me. And I hate to admit it but one homeless, unwashed body looks and smells like another. He just blended into the population before I could catch him. But he won't be free long. I've already contacted Maze and she'll find him soon enough."
"How is she going to find him if we neither of took a picture of him that we could pass on to her?"
Lucifer's chilling smile shone out of the darkness. "I have faith that Maze will be able to find him - eventually. And she'll have all those unwashed bodies back there to dig through until she does. She'll be quite entertained."
Chloe bit her tongue before she could say anything they would both regret later. "Fine. Let's hope he's still alive when she does. I think Gabe knows more about all of this that he's not telling. Like why he's involved at all. I can't see Bradley leaving anything to his estranged sister's son so inheritance isn't a motive. And he's been in L.A. only a short while. He can't know the people involved in this clusterfuck – why should he care enough to stir the pot?"
"Perhaps, like Kinley, he's got plans for my returning to Hell accompanied by several guilty souls." Lucifer motioned towards the detective's car. "No point in discussing this now – we need to find Bradley and that girl before his betrayed wife makes corpses out of both of them."
Back at the precinct
"Found it" Ella crowed. "Mr. Bradley had put the property into escrow under his company's name so pretty easy to find."
"Which makes no sense of you're trying to hide an illicit love nest" Dan mused. "Who actually filed the paperwork on that?"
Ella scrolled through a few pages and then stopped. "Well – that's strange. The actual paper work, according to these notes, was done by John Milton."
Dan snapped his fingers. "And I'm betting that's how Bradley's wife found out about it. McIntyre's wife is Milton's sister, she finds out from her brother that her sorority sister's husband is shacking out with a much younger woman at a property her brother has filed papers on. She tells Mrs. Bradley…"
"And she and her fellow sorority sisters decide to take him out of the picture? Wow that's one evil women's club."
"Makes sense in a strange sort of way" Dan insisted. "Once Bradley's gone his wife has all his money to spread around to keep her friends happy – and silent."
"But why kill McIntyre? Or Milton for that matter?" Ella glared at the computer screen for a moment. "It still doesn't make sense."
"We're still missing pieces to this puzzle" Dan admitted. "But right now we need to text that address to Chloe and Lucifer. Hopefully they will get to Bradley before anything else happens."
"Anything else? What else?" Ella looked at her friend warily.
"Before Mad Dog Gibson's street crew finds their trail and sets out to show our rich man how things are done outside of his wealthy neighborhood."
At Linda's apartment
"He's asked you to do what?" Amenadiel responded incredulously. Mazakeen stood partially in the door of the house with her blades in her belt and motorcycle keys in her hands.
"Lucifer wants me to find some guy named Gabe who has ducked out on him in a group of homeless hiding out near the Cecil." She grinned evilly at the towering form in front of her. "Knew it wasn't one of my guys you kept seeing. Might feel like home to them but with Lucifer on his "no possessions" decrees none of those guys would be stupid enough to try something so close."
"Where are Lucifer and Chloe right now?"
Maze shrugged. "No clue – just got a quick call from He Who Still Thinks He's My Boss telling me to pick up this guy. Didn't even give me a photo to work from. Just said I'd know him when I saw him – something about him being too clean."
Amenadiel nodded. "It maybe this Gabe person hasn't been living full time on the street like the others. Which would make him cleaner – and easier – to spot." He grabbed his jacket and shoved the demon gently out the door. "Come on - I'm going with you."
Maze glared at him for a moment. "Look – the only reason I bothered to come over was to tell Linda I wouldn't be able to babysit tonight. I wasn't looking for a partner."
"I have a few questions for this Gabe person – and it will be easier if I ask them before you beat him to a pulp for trying to escape you." Amenadiel shrugged and his huge wings unfolded from whatever place he kept them hidden. "I'll fly shotgun above you at least until we get to the Cecil."
"Think you can find him before me?" Maze asked, mounting her motorcycle.
"This isn't a game, Maze" Amenadiel warned.
"Maybe not to you" she replied with a shrug. "But it sure feels like one to me." She roared off leaving the winged figure in her dust.
"A game" Amenadiel muttered. "Maybe that's what all of this has been all along."
