Chapter 15: Not much of a sin

Beckett looked up and smiled slightly as Chloe and Lucifer returned. Chloe looked like she needed a strong drink Lucifer looked like he was enjoying himself. "Traffic bad?" She asked knowingly. There was a reason New York was famous for its traffic.

Chloe shuddered and lent on the desk. "Horrendous."

"You have no sense of fun detective." Lucifer laughed.

Castle grinned. "You get used to it after a while." He encouraged.

Chloe shook her head. "I can't wait to get back to LA."

"Well hopefully we can get you going soon. We may have a break." Beckett said. Javier had come with the news only a few minutes before the two had walked back into the precinct.

Chloe looked excited. "What did you find?"

"The church might not have CCTV, but the bank across the road does and they've agreed to give us the footage." Beckett got to her feet and Castle bounced up with her. "We were just going to have a look through it."

"Sounds incredibly boring." Lucifer noted with disgust.

Chloe gave him a flat smile. "You're here to help, so help you shall." She said firmly. "Come on." Beckett grinned at her and led the way to Tory's station.

Their tech guru already had the footage up and running. Javier and Kevin were watching as it whizzed past.

The four of them joined in and watched eagerly.

Tory slowed the footage. "This is the start of our window of opportunity." She said, Beckett noticed her throw a few keen glances at Lucifer who was leaning against one of the walls looking bored. The man was a definite distraction.

"There's our victim." Castle pointed out. Beckett turned her attention back to the screen and watched the woman walk calmly into the church. She didn't look worried or stressed, just an ordinary person heading to church for the evening.

"What do we know about her?" Chloe asked.

"Amanda Barnes, 33. Arrested six years ago for drink driving and a hit and run. Served four years. Before that she was pretty unremarkable and since then she's been on the straight and narrow." Beckett filled them in.

Castle added. "So he's following the pattern, sinners for the phrases of hell."

"Not much of a sin." Lucifer noted. "But beggars can't be choosers I suppose."

"Doesn't look like anyone followed her in." Tory interpreted them. "I'll keep going until after our window, hopefully we'll see this guy leave."

They all watched eagerly for a few more minutes. "There!" Castle exclaimed, pointing eagerly as a figure in a hood walked past the camera. "He came out of the church."

"We don't get much of a look at his face." Tory muttered. "Let me just…" She trailed off her fingers flicking over the keyboard.

"Anything?" Lucifer asked impatiently.

"There, he half turns to the camera. I'll run it through facial recognition and see if we get a match." Tory said, producing with a flourish a face half masked in shadow.

Beckett sent her an appreciative look. "Let us know when you get something." She said and the six of them trooped out of the room.

Lucifer was looking thoughtful. Chloe looked up at him. "Did you recognise him?" She asked.

Beckett frowned, what were the chances that Lucifer would recognise their suspect?

Lucifer shook his head. "No." it was surprisingly short for the normally effervescent man, but the look he and Chloe shared suggested this meant more to her than it did to Beckett. She looked over at Castle who tilted his head and shrugged. He didn't know what they were talking about either.

That made her smile. She and Castle had worked together long enough to know roughly what each other was thinking, surely it wasn't that surprising to find another pair who worked together like that too.

"Is something wrong detective Beckett?" Chloe asked.

"Please, Kate. No it's fine, just thinking." Beckett tapped her pen on her desk and looked back at the murder board. "Well we have a suspect, even if we don't have an ID yet. I think the victims are picked conveniently out of the congregation. He's waiting for them. So it has to be the church's he is picking. We need to find out what they have in common.

"Urgg." Lucifer said. "That sounds very dull."

Chloe had already grabbed a chair and pulled over the file on the case. "If you aren't going to help then try not to get into too much trouble."

Lucifer looked pleased at the dismissal but before he could take a single step Tory had stuck her head out of her office and called out to them. "I've found him."

"That was fast." Castle said.

Tory hurried over and caught the comment smirking. "He's in the system. Jason Thompson, 23 he's been arrested a couple of times for possession. All pretty minor stuff, but look at this." She handed over the printed pages of Thompson's record. Chloe and Castle leant around to read over her shoulder.

"He's known to have mental problems. Schizophrenia." Beckett told them. "We have a last known address." She looked over at Chloe, "Ready to go?" The other detective nodded eagerly.

Beckett flicked her glance at Castle who smiled at her. Lucifer shifted around to stand at Chloe's shoulder. "Let's go."