Chapter 22: One feather for another
Chloe was glad when Beckett ducked out to the tech room because it gave her a chance to grab Lucifer by the sleeve and drag him into the evidence room. She chose the room because it was slightly more private than anywhere else in the precinct, and there didn't appear to be any cameras.
"Detective?" Lucifer asked curiously, "What's wrong?"
Chloe had spent the last half an hour searching local churches, Holy Trinity wasn't exactly an uncommon church name, and in between that had been trying to work out how to phrase her big worry to Lucifer. Normal murders Chloe could deal with without breaking a sweat, they were easy. Anything involving the supernatural went way out of her comfort zone. Previously it probably wouldn't have bothered her because she could have waved it aside as crazy. Now though…now everything had changed, ever since the moment that had been burnt into her mind.
Bloody feathers and Lucifer.
These days any case that had an edge of the supernatural to it made her grateful that Lucifer had her back. Though in LA Chloe tended to be a little paranoid about the possible presence of the supernatural, which was actually very rare in her cases, here that paranoia was probably what was going to solve the case.
"Lucifer. If this guy has a feather from the angel of death, and if he can see things…properly. How are we supposed to stop him?"
"The same way you would stop anyone else detective, he is still human for all the voices in his head." Lucifer's tone was patient which was a jarring enough note to make Chloe pause. Lucifer wasn't normally patient; he was the most impatient immortal on the planet as far as she knew. If Lucifer was being patient then he was probably worried too.
"Ok, but what about the feather? If we get it off Thompson it's just going to get passed into police hands and start everything up again." Chloe insisted. Really, Chloe thought, she should know better than this by now. Lucifer was horrifically literal; she really needed to just spell things out for him.
Lucifer shrugged as though it was barely a concern. "So we swap the feather. To someone who doesn't know any better Azrael's feather will look much like a crow's feather." Chloe liked that idea; it wasn't really tampering with evidence, just keeping everyone safe.
"The other problem is how we do that without anyone noticing." Chloe pondered. "How can we get the feather off Thompson?"
"We trade him for something better." Lucifer suggested. "One feather for another."
Chloe frowned and nodded slowly. "That could work, your feather wouldn't be evidence so we can just keep it and get rid of it later." Chloe then shook her head. "It would never work. You heard his roommate, he's really attached to that feather he's not going to trade it for anything."
"I think you'll be surprised Detective. Think about it, what would you rather have, a feather from a lower angel that makes you want to kill people, or a feather from an archangel that makes you feel like you have everything you ever desired and more?"
Chloe stared at him for a moment. "When you put it like that… well it's worth a try, at least it's a plan."
"In that case, Detective the only thing left to do before we find him is to get ourselves some bait." Lucifer chuckled.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Okay, how?"
Lucifer rolled his shoulders and his wings unfolded, buffeting Chloe with a wave of sweet smelling air. Chloe smiled, she never could help herself. As much as all this was overwhelming and confusing, this was the truth behind Lucifer.
Lucifer's massive wingspan was very cramped in the tiny evidence room. The luminescent white feathers brushed the shelving along the walls.
"Pick a feather Detective, preferably not a big one." Lucifer turned slowly, careful not to knock anything off the shelving. His right wing was tucked in close to his body; he stretched the left one as much as possible and lowered it so Chloe could reach it.
Feeling slightly sacrilegious Chloe stepped forward and buried her fingers in the downy feathers closer to Lucifer's back. She burrowed her fingers down until she felt skin and selected a smaller feather, about the length of her hand. She grabbed the quill and pulled hard. Lucifer grunted and Chloe felt him flinch away from her but the feather came loose.
Chloe stepped back and Lucifer folded his wings away again. She turned the feather over in her fingers before holding it out and returning it to its owner. Lucifer studied the glowing white feather in his hand for a moment before he tucked it into his breast pocket. "Now we just need to find our killer."
Bit of a mish-mash of comic and show lore in this one.