In an exclusive hotel somewhere in the city
Maze stared down at her quarry with contempt. "I hope you're worth all the running around I've had to do. Lucifer doesn't pay me enough for this."
Bradley's eyes narrowed. He didn't remember exactly how he had been stripped of his clothes or ended up handcuffed to the bed in his expensive suite. The last thing he remembered was seeing the Champaign bottle headed for his head then nothing after that. "Maybe I could make you a better offer than Mr. Morningstar?"
Maze shrugged. "You're awake – awesome. Like our little hookup did you? Was it as good for you as it was for me?" She smiled coldly. "As for you making me a better deal – I doubt it. You don't have what it takes to make a better offer than that old serpent I sort of work for. Besides, LAPD will be here soon to take you in for questioning about the murders by the Cecil Hotel. If I were you I'd be more concerned about what you were going to say them. From what I hear, you've got a lot of explaining to do."
"I'll tell them you assaulted me, that you threatened me!" he sputtered.
"Go ahead. You're word against mine. Not that I plan on being here when they arrive - way to complicated. And considering what they already know about you and your little sorority row hookup not sure they would believe you. But before you go down that road you might want to take into consideration that two men you know were killed. Two men who had ties to your business and to you. Personally, getting conked on the head with a bottle during a little horse play with a possible new partner seems like the least of your worries." Maze picked her jacket up off the floor and moved the trash can containing the broken bottle out of her way. "Unless, of course, that bump on your head is making you forget how many people out there might be looking for you blood – like maybe that gang banger daddy of your very young sorority type you've been getting it on with." She tossed the jacket over her shoulder and sauntered to the door. "You might work your way out of the hands of LAPD but remember – there's a whole lot of other folks out there that will be looking for your ass who won't be as polite when they ask you a few pointed questions." She slid out the door, pulling the shadows with her as she left.
Bradley yanked desperately at the restraints holding him in place then stopped. The woman was right – Annalise's father would be a worse adversary than some cop. At least they would have to keep him alive. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth against the pain in his head. "They better get here soon."
At the Cecil – T-minus 10 minutes to meeting time
Lucifer carefully arranged the chairs he had bribed one of the porters to bring into what had been Elisa Lam's room before her death. One chair per lady. "Mad Dog won't need a seat" he said to himself. "He's going to need to be able to move fast when this all goes down."
A knock on the door broke his concentration for a moment. "Come in?"
A shabbily dressed figure entered, looking around the room with hooded eyes. "You were expecting me?" Gabriel Bradley asked, leaning on the now closed door.
"I thought leaving a message with that scruffy lot you've been keeping company with might get back to you. Wasn't sure you'd get it in time to be part of the game but now that you're here…" Lucifer waved a hand at a particularly dimly let corner of the room "Have a seat. The shows about to begin."
Gabriel looked around the room then shuffled off in the direction the Devil had pointed, crouching down in the corner. "So – what happens now? Do you call up the beings from the infernal realm to take everyone's soul to Hell?"
Lucifer snorted with laughter. "Trust me – I that was my Modus Operandi there wouldn't be many humans still around. This reality would simply be another antechamber to Hell – and despite what those street corner preachers say it's not anywhere close to that." He looked at the three chairs in front of him with a smirk. "No, I'm just in a curious state of mind. A puzzle has been set in front of me, mostly by you, and now I want to see what the outcome of this really is. Who is to blame for the corruption that led to these deaths? I'd like to be sure before sister Azrael comes along and takes their souls to their appointed postmortem fate."
Gabriel frowned. "Azrael? The Angel of Death? I remember Father Kinley talking about her."
Lucifer's smile vanished. "Which is probably why, among other reasons, he's currently stewing in his own juices in a well padlocked cell in Hell. She can be quite prickly when posers use her name to justify their actions. I'm betting she was more than happy to drop kick his ass all the way down to his punishment."
Gabriel shrugged, unconcerned. "The guilty were punished in Rome. That's all that matters."
Lucifer stared down at him with glittering eyes. "Not all the guilty. After all, you claimed what, illness, so you wouldn't have to go with Kinley that night? I'm going to guess you knew exactly what they were out to do and didn't want to get caught when the Italian police broke up their little Exorcism. Which does bring to mind – how did the police know where and when to go to find them? Perhaps a little anonymous tip from someone who was tired of all their sanctimonious crap?"
Gabriel looked down at the floor, his eyes in shadows. "Does it matter how it was done? Sometimes those who do the punishing need a little help to find the evil doers."
"Like sending both Det. Decker and myself those photos? An incentive to get us working on finding more occupants for Hell? Or maybe a motive much less pure? After all – get rid of your uncle and his wife and all the family money goes to you."
Gabriel waved a hand languidly in the air in front of his face. "I'm not material like that."
"No – you just think you're the son of the Devil and so you must atone for your mother's sins by exposing other sinners. News flash little boy – you're nothing more than an unwashed mortal trying to play judge and jury so you can get someone else to play executioner for you." Lucifer looked towards the hotel room door. "Ah, listen! Our guests are arriving! The fun is about to begin."
Gabriel sank down and settled in the corner, reaching inside his jacket to make sure the gun he had stolen from his uncle's house and the bottle of Holy Water he had "liberated" from the church he had visited were in place. "By all means - Let the games begin."
