Chapter 1: New Beginnings
Lucifer rolled himself about the bed. It was colder than he expected. The recollection of the "pop" up problem of his wings preventing his usual romping seared through the beginning of his headache. 'Wait? Headache? Oh, that must mean…' Lucifer's thought was cut off as the elevator pinging.
"Lucifer, I've been trying to get in touch with you all morning. We've got a case in the shopping plaza downtown." The footfall of the detective stopped outside his open door. "Come on, Lazy bones, let's go."
A groan greeted her as Lucifer began heaving himself off the bed. The quick shuffled of the detective's feet reminded him that his lack of company had not translated into a sleeping with clothing on. Regardless of her new boy toy, it brought him a small sense of satisfaction to know he still affected her. He chuckled darkly to himself. 'Of course I still affect her. That was the whole point.' The bitter thought let itself free as he quickly showered and donned his Prada suit. The detective waited by the elevator, smiling softly as she fiddled with her phone. A ting of anger hit him. While he was aware of the detective's feelings toward her new found human companion, some piece of him still wished that the parts of her life that were his would stay as such. Including any of their "case" time.
"A quick stop by Lux and we can be on our way, Detective." He called out as he pours a glass and approached her. She nodded along, typing away, as they stepped on the elevator.
In Lux proper, Maze was standing behind the bar smirking. Saturday nights had not been bring in as much money as they once had. Therefore, her newest solution was to hire new girls to dance. One of them had a pretty fancy sounding degree for dance and choreography. As a test of these implied skills, the new girl was leading a squad of dancers through piece of her own design to be performed this Saturday. If everything went well, and the money flowed, Maze offered the eager girl extra pay compared to the rest of the dancers. Assuming they keep bringing in crowds. So far, Maze was at least enjoying the show. New Girl was pretty serious, stopping the music and correcting each miss-step among the other girls.
A familiar ping drew her attention from the practicing dancers to the elevator. Out stepped an annoyed looking Lucifer and distracted Chloe in tow. Although he seemed to immediately perk up at the sight of the practicing squad. "Well, well. What's this little surprise Maze?" He asked, refilling the glass that came downstairs with him.
"Potentially our Saturday night solution." Maze retorted, self-pride oozing from the demoness, as she turned back to watch. New Girl was teaching them the next step sequence. A declaration of "From the top" managed to drag even Chloe from her phone and back into the real world just as Lucifer let out a small "oh" as the girls restarted. Even the sweatpants and tennis shoes for practice could not undermine the combined sensuality.
"While I'm sure supervising strippers is a full time job, we do have a case to get to Lucifer." Maze rolled her eyes at her no fun roommate.
"My apologies, Detective. You seemed distracted enough for me to attempt to actually enjoy my morning." He recanted sweetly. Regardless of his implied desire to stay at Lux, his glass found its way onto the bar top as he cut a path to the front door.
With a sigh and muttering of "TGIF", Chloe smiled at Maze, shook her head, and followed him out. Maze rolled her eyes again, convinced they would stick to the top of her skull one of these damn days. "Lucifer and his weird ass hobbies." She commented to the mostly emptied space as she returned to "supervising strippers".
Dan and Ella were already on scene, discussing details of the case quietly to not be overheard by the flock of paparazzi. Once she and Lucifer crossed the police type and closed in on the group she asked what they had so far.
"Victim is Ashley Mithers, 25. Upcoming B-movie actress, agent says she was supposed to be at a scripting pitch last night. Called in a missing person this morning when she never showed up on set. Few hours later, some poor mid-morning jogger found her." Dan explained as he motioned to the man in jogging shorts talking with a couple uniformed officers.
Lucifer's brows knitted together as he looked over the body, "Ashley? I thought she said her name was Michelle."
"Typical," Dan muttered turning to Lucifer, "Let me guess, she's graced the halls of your penthouse?"
"No, not exactly." Lucifer counter, half-nervous.
"One of those deals again." It was very much a statement and not a question as Chloe crossed her arms. A honest frown working its way across her face.
"I merely introduced her to her agent. I was giving out so many favors at the time, it's not like I had time to seduce all of them."
"How many times is this going to happen?"
Lucifer shrugged defensively, "It's not like I control what other humans do, Detective. I meet numerous humans, that alone makes me more likely to know them when they end up dead."
Chloe nodded along as Ella took her turn. "Looks like injuries from a high fall. The body shows no signs of being moved, but if you look around, not really much in the way of jumping options. I mean, she'd be more… splatty, ya know?" Ella said with a half shrug as she pointed to the nearest building, which was easily 20 stories high. In the heart of downtown L.A., that was a short building. "But based on cooling, I'd put time of death at about 7 hours ago. So 4 am roughly."
"Just before sunrise, huh. Ok, is there any footage from security cameras in this area from that time frame? Why did it take so long for anyone to find her?"
"Tapes are being pulled now," Dan started as he handed Ella something out of her forensics bag, "as for witnesses, the city had this block closed off last night till about eight this morning for some road construction. Our jogger found her after that."
"Any struggle signs?" Chloe asked turning back to Ella.
"Other than what looks like bits of skin under the nails, nothing. Some lab work will tell us if the skin is hers or from an assailant."
Chloe's head bobbled along, a frustrated sigh escaping her. "On to the agent then?" Lucifer prompted, "Or shall I return to Lux and continue my sport?"
"To the agent." Chloe said with a half-heart-ed chuckle as she headed back towards the car.