Chapter 9:
Juan had landed with Ramzi's private jet in Los Angeles two weeks later, where his contact Mark was waiting for him. Mark had been following from the moment that they came in public again.
"Hello, Mark. Let's go to the hotel so that you can tell me what you know about, Miss Decker."
"I have much to tell you." Mark grinned while they stepped in his car and drove to a hotel near the famous nightclub Lux, "This is the nightclub owned by Miss Decker's' boyfriend Lucifer Morningstar, a crazy dude who thinks he is the devil."
Juan did know otherwise though. He hadn't seen what had happened but you needed to be skilled to go past the guards and defeat his boss. Especially the moment he heard that they were only two of them, two brothers.
"Don't mess with him though. He is like a sort of godfather who works for the police. There is nothing that he can't achieve with the contacts he has. That's well known in the world of crime here in Los Angeles, there are people stupid enough to go against him though." Mark continued.
"Why did you agree to help us?" Juan asked. Juan was a Spanish man who found a job with Ramzi while on vacation. He had taken him under his wing when his parents died in his hotel. He owed the rich sheik so much, the best way to show it was through loyalty. If the man asked to make someone suffer he didn't ask questions. He just did what he was told.
"Let's say that I am having some financial problems and the sheik had given me some good arguments." Mark smiled. He had been out of his problems by accepting the job alone. The sheik had paid him two million dollars in front and he would receive another five million when he would make Chloe suffer for rejecting him.
"So killing her boyfriend is out of the question?" Juan asked curiously.
"No, not really but I have an even better victim for you." Mark grinned evilly.
"Better than the one who keeps her safe?" Juan asked confused.
"Much better but we need to be careful though, we don't want them to know that we are behind it or we so screwed, at least not yet." Mark responded smiling at his confused face, "She is a mother you idiot, what is more important for a mother than her child."
"How are we going to do this?" Juan asked.
"Did you bring with you what you were supposed to bring?" Mark asked still wearing his evil grin.
"I did bring it. When are we planning on doing it?" Juan noticed that Mark already had a plan.
"Good, I gave them a bit of a distraction. You will be following her daughter these few days and try to make contact with her. The most important thing that you need to know is that it needs to happen before Saturday afternoon because then I will make the anonymous call that makes them find the last distraction." Mark said before he explained the things he needed to know to make everything work, in other words, Juan's part of the plan.
The next day Juan started his part of the deal, it was simple, don't lose sight of Trixie. He would be following her for two days. On the third day, they would execute their plan.
Chloe lay half spread over her fallen angel, her head on his warm chest, her leg intertwined with one of his. They had decided that they weren't going to wait any longer for living together. They all stayed at the penthouse until one of Lucifer's other more child-appropriate houses would be ready to move in. It was a matter of days.
Everything that needed to be packed was already packed in boxes. They were going to move in an exclusive neighborhood not too far from Trixie's school. So the boxes stood all around the penthouse. Something that agitated Lucifer immensely.
The sound of a phone started to ring through a silent penthouse. Chloe groaned before answering her phone with a sleepy, "Decker!" It was her first day at work again.
"We found a body in an old brewery on the edge of town." Sounded through the phone, it was Dan.
Lucifer was now awake too, "Is this a bloody hour to murder someone." he groaned after he looked on his phone it was only 5 am.
"Text me the address, we will be there." Chloe responded still sleepy before nudging her devil, "come on babe, time for work."
It took them another hour before Chloe stopped her cruiser at a very old building, broken windows everywhere, and an old wooden sign above the entrance. There were cracks in the paint but the name of the brewery was still readable 'Diamond brewery' in red letters.
Chloe and Lucifer both walked underneath the yellow tape not prepared for what they were about to find.
They saw Ella, standing around one of the old machines, probably where the bottles were filled at the time.
"Hi you guys, this one is brutal," Ella said shaking her head, her long dark ponytail going from left to right.
The body was a young girl, not older than Trixie. Her shirt ripped from her body with the word YOU carved over the length of her upper body.
"What can you tell us, Ella? Do we know how she died?" Chloe asked swallowing down that it was a child that had to die. Even Lucifer was quiet seeing this. He may despise children but he didn't wish for them to die.
"At first sight it seemed that she got strangled, seeing the bruises in her neck. The word is carved after she died." Ella said.
"Do we know who she is?" Chloe asked. It was always much worse when the victims were children. She didn't look forward to informing the parents that their child just died. It made her think what if it was Trixie?
"Her name is Elena Johnson. She was declared missing only yesterday. She disappeared on her way from school." Ella sighed while taking pictures, "The officer over there has the address of the parents already."
"Hey are you alright, Lucifer?" Chloe asked when she saw his tense posture.
"She is just a child, detective. This shouldn't have happened." Was the only thing her partner said, which was odd for him. No jokes, no inappropriate behavior.
"Do we have a witness?" Chloe asked the officer who had the address of the parents.
The male detective shook his head, "This was called in by someone who wanted to stay unknown."
"Thank you, Dan." Chloe sighed.
Chloe stopped the cruiser in front of the house where Elena's parents lived. She hesitated to step out of the car though. Her hands holding the steering wheel so tightly that the knuckles of her hands turned white.
"Are you alright, detective?" Lucifer asked but his partner didn't react. He placed a hand on her shoulder, "Darling, are you alright?"
Chloe looked beside her, seeing the worry in Lucifer's eyes.
"I am fine, Lucifer. I just hate it when I need to bring such bad news to parents. Especially when they are Trixie's age. I don't want to think about what I would do in their place." Chloe sighed.
"I will try to keep you and the little urchin safe, detective." Lucifer smiled softly.
"I know you will, babe but even you can't control everything." Chloe sighed before she stepped out of the car and walked to the parent's front door. Lucifer's presence giving her the courage she needed.
She pushed on the button of the doorbell and waited until a black-haired, skinny man with large glasses opened the door.
"Mr. Johnson?" Chloe asked politely
The man nodded, "Yes, I am."
"My name is Chloe Decker, I am from the LAPD and this is my partner Lucifer Morningstar. Can we come in please?" The man looked at Chloe with hope and fear. This made Chloe swallow because she knew that she was going to crush that hope from the moment she would open her mouth next.
"Do you have some news about our Elena?"
"Let's go inside and I will tell you everything," Chloe said carefully.
She saw the hope to disappear in the man's eyes. He motioned for the detective and Lucifer to follow him towards the living room. He took place next to a skinny woman, the mother of Elena.
"I am from section homicide. I am sorry to inform you that we found your daughter but I am afraid she didn't survive it."
The woman held her hands in front of her mouth in shock. Tears starting flow out of her eyes. The man shook in disbelief, he couldn't believe it, his little girl was gone. The shock in his eyes was clear, so clear that even the devil was silent.
"I am sorry I have to ask you this in these hard times but could remember if your daughter had troubles with someone or do you know if someone wanted to hurt her?"
The man shook his head, "No…" he sobbed, "not that I'm aware of she had a lot of friends and was well-loved in school. I can't believe this is actually happening." the man cried uncontrollably.
"We will do everything in our power to punish the one who did this to Elena." Lucifer said determined to find this man, "He won't get away with this."
"Thank you." The woman sobbed between her tears.
"If there is anything you can think of that can help us, here is my card with my number," Chloe said in a soft tone of voice.
" Our condolence, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson," Chloe said before they left the house.
Juan sat in a gray SUV in front of the apartment building. He was sitting there for an hour now with a picture of Chloe's daughter that Mark had taken.
"It's a pity really, such a beautiful girl." Juan sighed before he heard voices. He looked towards the door and saw the little girl from the picture walking outside with Juan presumed was her father.
He dove out of sight when they saw that Dan and Trixie were about to walk past the car.
"I am free this weekend what do you want to do?" Dan asked not knowing they were watched.
"Oh, can we go to the Zoo daddy? They are going to introduce the new lion cubs to the visitors. I want to see that." Trixie jumped cheerfully.
"That's a great idea, monkey. Let's do that." Dan said to his daughter, "We could make a father-daughter day of it."
Juan grinned this couldn't be better, "Enjoy your last trip to the zoo little monkey. It will be your last." before he started his car ready to follow them.
TBC