Sitting on a stool in her lab, Ella pondered the three challenges she had in front of her, each perplexing in a different way.
First and foremost, The Feather challenged her in ways she could never have predicted the other day, when she decided to run the mass spec test. She still couldn't identify the bird to which the feather belonged, other than having a high confidence that it was a raptor, a bird of prey. But it was far to large to come from any raptor on Earth.
No, The Feather remained a puzzlement, one that so far had defied her abilities to solve. She was starting to refer to it as "The Impossible Feather." Because it was literally impossible.
The major mass spec has been no help; or, rather, the results had raised far more questions than answers. She'd then run a sample through an Accelerator Mass Spec to check the carbon and nitrogen ratios. What came back had freaked her out a little bit.
Trying to organize her thoughts, Ella typed the startling results into her personal journal:
Hg levels zero. Not lower than expected: zero.
13C to 12C ratios were not consistent with any kind of reported results for birds—raptors or otherwise
15N to 14N ratios similarly out of whack. They simply could not be.
Ella stared at her notes. The mass spec and AMS results didn't make any kind of sense. Take the non-existent level of mercury in The Feather. That just didn't happen, not in these modern times. Mercury was both a bioaccumulator and a biomagnifer, meaning that pollution didn't disappear: it accumulated in aquatic environments from run-off and groundwater contamination, and then ended-up in fish, and other flora and fauna that lived in the aquatic ecosystems. Which were then eaten by birds.
And while mercury accumulated more in aquatic environments than it did in terrestrial ecosystems, it was still present in land animals to one extent or another. Small land animals: the kind raptors preyed on. Raptors who preyed on small land animals were going to accumulate mercury, and it was going to be found in their feathers. It was always found in raptor feathers, to one extent or another.
But The Feather? Nada. None. Zero mercury found, which was basically impossible.
The carbon and nitrogen results were similarly impossible. The isotopic analysis results were supposed to show where in the food chain the bird was; but the results from The Impossible Feather indicated that the bird it came from wasn't even in the food chain! That made no sense, at all.
Every analysis result was just not possible. Ella had in her possession an Impossible Feather. It shouldn't exist. But The Feather obviously did exist!
Ella wasn't about to give up now. The anomalous results were like waving a red cape in front of a bull. She would have a DNA analysis run on The Feather. Let's see what you're really made of, she told herself.
In the back of her mind, she heard Chloe and Lucifer asking her not to examine it, and she remembered her promise not to do so. But that promise was fading away, to be replaced by a stubborn determination to understand the mystery she'd been given. Now, to take a snip from The Feather and send the snippet in for DNA testing…
While she prepared the sample, she thought about her second problem, which was the Jerry problem. Jerry was a problem because they had connected so strongly at Lux. After she'd said goodnight to Chloe, Jerry and she had talked for what seemed like hours. He'd talked about his dreams for what he might do after he passed the bar, and she'd talked about her job as a forensic scientist. The science stuff hadn't bored him! He had listened and even asked intelligent questions.
Jerry was a problem because she still wasn't ready to start a relationship. But still …
She didn't want to start a relationship, but when he'd asked for her number, she'd willingly given it to him. She hadn't even hesitated a second. Chloe vouched for him, which was a big plus in the Jerry column. So if she didn't want a relationship, why was she starting a relationship with him?
The Jerry problem had gotten worse. Before she'd gotten home that night, he'd already texted, asking her out on a date. He'd said that, between school and bartending, he didn't have many free nights, but he hoped she could make herself available for a couple of hours on Friday night—which was just three days away. Absolutely, she'd replied. No hesitation. That didn't sound at all like she didn't want a relationship, did it?
How had she leapt from no relationship to a Jerry relationship? Ella felt as if her brain just didn't work around Jerry. She was all heart when he was around. How weird was that?
They'd agreed to meet for dinner at six, but it would have to be a quick dinner, because he'd have to be at Lux by nine. So much for no relationship, right? Still, she found herself looking forward to the date. Friday seemed so far away!
She had been seriously thinking about "wandering" over to Lux about ten or eleven. Make it seem like it was just random. Have dinner, give him a hug goodbye (no kiss because that would imply more than she was ready for). Then go home and change into a party outfit. The casually go over to Lux. Probably to chat with Chloe. Yeah, that was a good plan, right? Normally there'd be a long line at that time but, now that she knew the doorman knew her name, she wasn't too worried about the line. She'd just walk right in, looking good. She'd just wave at Jerry, maybe thank him for the dinner. Nothing more, right? Casual. And if they got to talking … well, that was just chance.
She'd been in the middle of planning her dinner outfit and the subsequent party outfit when Lucifer had texted her.
He'd texted that he hoped she could make herself available Friday night for a celebration—say, about nine? Not at Lux, which was surprising. No, he wanted her to show up at Chateau Seurat, which was the hottest restaurant in town. Ask for Auguste, he'd said. She'd hesitated for a while, thinking about Jerry and her post-dinner date plans. She finally decided that she could have dinner with him, head over to Seurat for Lucifer's party, then head to Lux after. Maybe arrive about eleven or twelve. It would make a late night for her, but she could sleep in on Saturday.
She could make it all work, right? Of course she could! A Jerry relationship wouldn't be a problem because she could compartmentalize, right? She could balance everything and everybody would be happy.
She texted Lucifer her RSVP. In reply, he said it was dressy. In typical Lucifer fashion, he'd typed Know you have outfits for Vegas, but if not comfortable wearing them in LA, let me know and I'll have a few things sent to you. She'd replied Not necessary. She smiled. It gave her the perfect excuse to show Jerry what she looked like when she was ready to party. Not that she wanted to lead him on. No. But still, he should know.
Having made progress on her first two challenges, she then turned to her third puzzle: Rae-Rae's strange insistence that Lucifer and Chloe get married—and soon. Rae-Rae had implied that she knew Chloe, and might have even met her before, yet when Ella had dropped the name "Rae-Rae" in the conversation at Lux, Chloe hadn't reacted. Didn't even bat an eye—though she did ask if Rae-Rae had wings. Chloe had seemed strangely relieved when Ella had said no. Ghosts don't have wings.
Ella thought about the situation. If Chloe didn't know Rae-Rae, then how did Rae-Rae know Chloe? What had Rae-Rae said? Everybody knows Chloe where I'm from. But nothing about that statement made any sense. Was Rae-Rae lying? She'd never lied to Ella before—as far as she knew—but there was always a first time.
Ella wished that Rae-Rae would make another appearance and explain herself better. Right now, all she knew was that Lucifer and Chloe were supposed to get married soon, and she knew the two of them weren't going to listen to her about the need for the marriage if she didn't have more information to give them. Chloe, in particular, would need a "why" answer; though Ella suspected that Lucifer ultimately would go along with whatever Chloe wanted, just because he would want to make her happy.
She sent the snippet for DNA analysis and marked it URGENT. A little white lie for the DNA lab. Hopefully, she'd have the results in a couple of days. Then she picked up a file from the pile on her desk. It was the ME report about that poor girl, Kathryn Erin Jacobsen. Dead, age 23.
Cause of Death: Blunt force trauma to the head, subdural hematoma, exacerbated by a pre-mortem cervical fracture. Basically, the girl had been pushed or thrown into the side of the tub, causing major damage to her brain and breaking her neck. Then, apparently, the perp had arranged her in the tub headfirst, making sure she would bleed out.
Ella had guessed the CoD at the scene, but she always felt better when the ME's report corroborated her guesses. The perp had been smart to clean up the bathroom. He hadn't left much evidence behind. Except for the one print! Ella thought. But that wasn't much to go on. She wondered if Detective Joe had interrogated the owner of the print yet, and what he might have learned—if anything. Ella knew that when Decker and Lucifer had interrogated a suspect, the suspect would be either cleared or arrested. She didn't think the new detective had the same level of skill.
Strength was needed to push or throw a woman into a bathtub so hard she died. The perp was going to be a man, Ella was sure of it. And she hadn't seen any indications that the girl had fought back; no defensive wounds or bruising. That made the perp somebody she knew, most likely. Somebody she knew and trusted. She hoped Detective Joe was compiling a list of friends and associates. The murderer could be on that list.
The murder itself might have been a crime of passion. An argument gone wrong; an overreaction. Ella felt that could be the story. But then the perp had deliberately arranged the girl so as to bleed out—but maybe also to suggest something sexual. Head down, butt up. Very suggestive. The arrangement of the body could mean it was pre-meditated. Passion first, then a deliberate attempt to clean up and mislead. That's what it looked like to Ella. Oh well, that wasn't for her to decide. She hoped Joe saw it that way, or had a better theory of his own.
Ella started to scan the ME's report, noting how it confirmed her guesses and supported her theories. She suddenly paused, then flipped a page, then went back to the first page. She shook her head. Damn! What a tragedy! She wondered what Detective Joe was going to do with this information, not that he'd ever discuss it with her. That dude was a closed book, for sure. Not a team player at all.
The phone rang—it was Chloe. Ella answered at once, eager to share her theories and what she'd just learned about the victim, Kathy Jacobsen. And maybe to see how Jerry was doing.
And maybe to put in a little nudge about marriage.
#
Friday finally arrived, and with it came a beehive of activity for Ella. She'd taken a personal day to make sure her hair and nails were done properly. Not for the dinner with Jerry—or so she'd told herself—no, because of the after-dinner party at Chateau Seurat. She wanted to look good for Chloe and Lucifer, not for Jerry. Yeah, that was it.
She had her dinner outfit and the fancier party outfit both laid out, and ready to go. In fact, she'd had them both dry-cleaned and then she'd steamed them again in her apartment. Just to be sure. Her bling was out as well. Not too much for the dinner, just some nice earrings and a necklace. But she was going to go all out for the party. And if some of that bling came with her to Lux afterwards, that was okay, right?
But first, she had to make a quick stop at her lab, to pick up the DNA results on The Impossible Feather. She was just going to pick up the results and head back home to finish getting ready. In and out.
She waved at her friends as she walked quickly to her lab. She picked up the envelope containing the DNA test results when Detective Joe stuck his head in. "Got a second, Lopez?" he asked.
"Hey, uh, Joe. Yeah, but only a second, okay? Today's a personal day for me."
Joe gestured at the envelope in her hand. "You taking your work home now?"
"Uh, not really. This is a personal thing. Just had it delivered here."
Joe nodded. "Okay, fine. Whatever. But here's the thing: I'm having some trouble with the Jacobsen investigation. Thought you might be able to help me a bit."
"Okay. Shoot. Did you interrogate the suspect? The one who matched the print?"
"Yeah. Charles T. Pearson, age 46. Lives in Pacific Palisades. Attorney. And get this: he's an Executive Producer on the same Warner Brothers series the seven bachelor party boys work on."
"Oh, wow. So not only did he know them, he also was there in the house."
"Well, that's the theory. Pearson claims he doesn't really know them, because he's more of a back-office guy on the show. He was careful to say he knows them, because he sees the payroll records, but he also said there's no real relationship. Absolutely not friends, according to him."
"What did he say when you said his fingerprint was found on the victim?"
Joe made a face. "Pearson clammed up. Then he lawyered up. We're not getting any more from him unless we get a warrant."
Ella nodded. "And what you have is some circumstantial evidence, but nothing that would hold up in court. Doubtful if you'd get a warrant."
"Exactly. I don't really even have enough to arrest him." He grimaced. "I need something more, damn it!"
"Did you get a list of the vic's friends and acquaintances?" Ella asked. "The lack of defensive marks might indicate that Jacobsen knew her killer."
"Yeah, but nothing so far. More importantly, no obvious links between Pearson and Jacobsen. We checked cell phone records, and no calls between them."
"Sounds tough. I don't know how I can help you."
Joe sighed. "I know. I was just hoping, looking for a 'Hail Mary,' you know?" He paused. "You know she was roofied, right?"
Ella nodded sadly. "Yeah, I saw the ME's report. Flunitrazepam: C16H12FN3O3. A pretty high amount. That could explain the lack of defensive wounds. So maybe she didn't know her killer. Tough to say."
Joe shook his head. "This one is tough, that's for sure." Then he left the lab.
Ella didn't wait for any more interruptions. She held the envelop with the DNA results tightly in her hand as she raced for the elevator and her car.
#
"Well … damn it."
Ella looked again at the DNA test results. They were … unexpected. And that was putting it mildly.
She opened her laptop and pulled up her personal journal. She stared at her list.
Hg levels zero. Not lower than expected: zero.
13C to 12C ratios were not consistent with any kind of reported results for birds—raptors or otherwise
15N to 14N ratios similarly out of whack. They simply could not be.
To that list she added a fourth bullet:
Feather DNA is 96% congruent with Human DNA. Which is impossible.
It was impossible because avian DNA would never, ever, show such a high congruence with human DNA. Chimpanzees and humans had a 99% congruence, and gorillas and humans had roughly a 98% congruence. Mice and humans had a 90% DNA congruence. But avians? Not so much. Chickens and humans had only a 65% DNA congruence.
So basically, whatever humongous bird of prey owned this feather had way more in common with humans than it had any right to have.
Suddenly, Ella recalled her conversation with Chloe earlier in the week. She'd been asking Chloe about all the weird stuff going on, and Chloe had asked her if she really wanted the answers. What had Chloe said?
What would happen to your faith if you knew about Heaven and Hell? If you knew, beyond a doubt, everything you'd been taking on faith all these years? The truth, the falsehoods. Everything. What would that do to your faith?
Ella looked again at her list of impossibilities associated with The Feather. The Impossible Feather. The feather that Chloe and Lucifer had brought to her. She thought about a feather that couldn't possibly exist, and Linda getting "picked up" from the penthouse by Amenadiel, who was Lucifer's "brother." She thought about Lucifer's crazy talk and how Chloe had—eventually—accepted his method acting as just being the way he was. Chloe had just accepted Lucifer at face value, even though his assertions were obviously impossible. Ella even remembered that Maze had said Lucifer had kept her mom's ring for 70 years, which was obviously impossible as well.
And yet … what if the impossible was possible? After all, she had The Feather. It was real, even though it was impossible. What if everything else was real, as well?
Suddenly, she saw the answer. It had been right there, right in front of her all the time and she'd never seen it. It was Clarke's Law, wasn't it? This was all about Clarke's Law. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." It only seemed impossible because the technology used to make it happen was more advanced than she could understand.
There was only one explanation that made the pieces of the puzzle fit together: The Feather had come from a space alien. An extraterrestrial who had bird-like features but a startlingly high congruence with human DNA. And of course the space alien wouldn't be found in the terrestrial food chain. It might not even be able to eat anything from this planet!
Which led to the next obvious conclusion: Lucifer and Chloe were in contact with these creatures. Maybe Lucifer had been the first contact, and he'd brought Chloe into it. Lucifer and Chloe, and maybe Maze. They were all in contact with extraterrestrials who used advanced technology to do things like swoop over and pick up Linda from the penthouse.
And maybe Lucifer's ability to get suspects to confess came from some kind of advanced alien technology, as well?
Ella didn't want to believe in space aliens. She had to, though. As Sherlock Holmes said, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." The only way this made sense was if The Feather belonged to an alien from another planet—likely another star system. There were one or more extraterrestrials living on Earth. She'd figured it out!
The conclusion also explained why Chloe had been so reluctant to answer her questions! What would happen to your faith if you knew the truth? Well, she knew the truth now—or at least some of it. Maybe the rest of the truth was how long the aliens had been on Earth. Yeah, that might be a part of the story, and Ella could see how Chloe might have been worried about her faith, if that was the case.
But never mind that. She had the truth now. She might as well go all the way.
Wow. Tonight she was going to triumphantly show Chloe and Lucifer that she didn't need their answers, because she'd figured out most of the answers on her own. Then she'd find out what else they'd been keeping from her!