Chapter 7: The Devil strolled in
Chloe sunk into her office chair and opened her email, she was sipping at her first coffee of the morning and she was running a little late for everything. Trixie had lost one of her shoes which had resulted in a frantic search around the house during which time Chloe had lost her keys. By the time she arrived at work she already felt like she had been working for hours. She wasn't exactly frazzled, Chloe was too well controlled for that, but she was a little ruffled.
Scanning down her emails and deleting the requisite spam Chloe caught herself about to delete something marked urgent. She frowned slightly; it was from the NYPD captain she had sent the translation to a few days ago. She clicked open the email.
Regards Detective Decker, Both you and your consultant have the NYPD's gratitude for your assistance with the translation the other day. There has been a second murder related to the first. We have another message and we're hoping your consultant could translate for us again. Captain Gates 12th Precinct NYPD.
Chloe clicked open the crime scene photo, it looked like the same language. She opened an email to reply.
Captain Gates, I am happy to help. As soon as my consultant arrives in I will get him to translate it.
She sent the email. She didn't actually know if Lucifer was planning to come in today, but if he wasn't in by lunch time she would head over to the penthouse and roust him out of bed to read the phrase.
The knowledge that the email was sitting there waiting for attention made Chloe uneasy. There was a murderer out there who could be getting away because Lucifer couldn't keep normal office hours.
The devil strolled into the precinct just after 11 looking far more refreshed that anyone who didn't get to bed until dawn had any right to look.
"About time." She told him with more irritability than she meant.
"It's always a pleasure to be missed." Lucifer replied happily.
Chloe rolled her eyes and pulled up the crime scene photo. "Can you read this?" She asked keenly.
Lucifer sighed and came around behind her leaning over her shoulder to look at the computer screen. Despite knowing better Chloe always expected the smell of brimstone when Lucifer was close by, she was always faintly surprised when she only caught a whiff of his expensive cologne. He saved the brimstone for when he was in a mood.
"Yes." Lucifer straightened. Chloe waited and when it became apparent he wasn't going to say anything else she narrowed her eyes. "What does it say Lucifer?" She really should have learnt to be more specific by now.
Lucifer chuckled. "Open Ye the gates of Hell." He went to his own seat. "Someone is definitely trying to get some attention from on high." He rolled his eyes upwards indicating heaven. "Or down below I suppose." Lucifer straightened his cufflinks absently.
Chloe frowned and sent off the translation with an apology for the long wait. "Who would speak the language of the angels well enough to send messages?" She asked him.
Lucifer shrugged. "I'm sure there are any number of bored priests who would love a way to try and sleep their way to the top, as it were. It's not a difficult language to learn, just rather pointless." His fingers still toyed with his cuff links. "But enough with the boring out of state murder, surely we have a mangled corpse of our own?"
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Nothing I've been assigned to, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time." She turned back to her computer and Lucifer went in search of coffee to mix with his mid-morning booze.