Chapter 4
Chloe's Pov
At the Precinct
During the warm morning, I was sitting at my desk looking through paperwork on Lee Garner's background story, his career and his criminal record. Trying to find some connections to his death. Had my hair tied up in a ponytail and I was wearing a blue striped blouse.
By the corner of my eye, I spotted a young, black woman in a flowery dress was wandering down the staircase looking around the room in puzzlement like she was lost or she was looking for someone. Guessing that this must be the victim's sister, so I stood up from my spinning chair and walked over to the woman, I called out, "Megan Garner?"
"Yes" she answered with a baffled look on her face.
"I'm detective Decker, I was the one who called you to come"
"Yeah. Something about my brother? Can you please tell me what's going on?" Megan questioned.
"Can we talk in private?" I suggested because I have to tell Megan about her brother's death and it will shock and upset her, and I don't want people looking at her when she'll be in that state.
After Megan agreeably nodded, I led her to the back of the precinct and we entered inside a quiet, glass room. I sat down by a long table that was furthest away while Megan was sitting opposite to me. She repeated her question in a more anxious tone, "What is this all about?"
I took a deep breathe in because I knew that this was going to shock Megan to her very core, "Megan, your brother, Lee was found murdered yesterday."
"What? Lee is dead" I watched as Megan was hit by a shock wave.
"I'm so sorry" I whispered in an understandable tone. Megan started sobbing with hands covering her sniffing nose and her dry, open mouth. I offered her some time to progress and tissues as Megan's breathing gradually became calmer before I could speak, "Megan, we need to know as much about Lee as possible in order to find his killer."
"Lee is… was a huge risk-taker. A gambler. He owed a lot of money to a lot of people" she commented as she dropped her hand with the wet tissues away from her face, "My brother always ran with a sketchy crowd. He'd spend money he didn't have, get into debt, steal to pay it back."
I nodded while trying to picture what our victim was like, character-wise, and I wondered, "When we found your brother, he was on a very expensive yacht that he owned. Maybe he turned his life around?"
"Yeah. That'd be a first" Megan huffed in disbelief, clueing me that Lee probably have been on a rough path with gambling and stealing throughout his lifetime, and it has been deeply disapproved and disappointed by his family. Megan continued, "My brother was a magnet for bad people, bad things. He was forever stuck in this vicious cycle. He was probably just riding a high. He was bound to come down sooner or later."
"Do you have any idea why someone would want to cut off his hand?" I asked. Thinking that Lee has done this for a long time, then he must have been threatened by anyone in anything. I have seen some poor people who were caught in some criminal gangs and who were ended up with missing nails or fingers or had their eyeballs ripped out. Lee must have been in a similar situation.
"They cut off his hand? My God, why?" I watched the shockwave hitting Meg's face hard as her eyes widen and her jaw dropped halfway.
"It's what we're trying to figure out. You don't recognize that as any kind of message?" I questioned, but looking at Meg's reaction it tells me that Megan has no idea about the missing hand.
"I haven't seen Lee in years. I can't even say I really knew the man anymore" Megan answered, "If that's a message... it's not one that I know how to read."
"Decker!" I heard my name shouted from outside of the glass room, I lifted my head and gazed through the glass wall and saw Maze aggressively pushing a man against the glass wall, she shouted again, "Got a lead!"
After allowing Megan to leave the precinct, Maze and I interviewed our new suspect, who explained that he was in a similar position as Lee where they were both in debt with a gang leader called "Dirty Doug." We also learnt that Dirty Doug hosts a high price poker game down in the centre of L.A, giving us a plan to lure Dirty Doug into a confession about killing those he loaded and couldn't payback.
Maze will have to do it alone because I can't do any fieldwork due to the pregnancy, as this is a downside of having a baby that you have to miss out on all the actions. But, Maze would be fine because she's an immortal, strong woman and it's a good thing that demons are invulnerable. I instructed Maze on the plan step by step; during a poker game, Maze needs to lose in order to get Dirty Doug to come to her and load her some money. Although, I didn't agree with her silver dress, though she does look really great, it was a bit revealing to my taste.
I was stuck at the precinct since Trixie was staying at Dan's this week. I started working at my desk researching some background history on this Dirty Doug on my computer. Seems like Dirty Doug has been dealing with overdue loads and how he beats up his clients as punishment.
Then my phone began buzzing on the side of the keyboard, with the title 'Maze' showing on the screen. Quickly picking it up and answered, "Maze? You okay?"
"Yeah, I think I got something" Maze answered, pleased to hear that she's okay and unharmed.
Then, I remembered that this is Maze, who hunts criminals down for a living and I think that maybe she might have a bit of a gnarly taste of violence. Which won't surprise me. my fingers were pressed against the side of my forehead and began rubbing in small circles, "Tell me you haven't hurt Doug or anything."
"No, but someone did get hurt… ish" Maze replied which made me raised my eyebrows, and before I could say something Maze ended, "You better come down."
So that's what I did, I dashed out from the prescient and drove down fast, but carefully, to the direct location where Maze would be. When I finally reached the destination, there were already police officers outside sealing the area with their yellow police tapes. I recognised that we were outside of the building where Dirty Doug held his high-pricing poker games. Then, I spotted Maze and Ella standing together talking in between two cars with small bumps on their front sides. I jumped out of my car as I rushed towards the ladies and yelled, "Hey! What happened?"
"I was chasing our new lead until he got whacked-and-smacked" Maze explained as she pointed to the two cars that our new lead was hit by and has died from.
"Well, no ID on your street kebab yet, but I found this on him" Ella revealed holding a small, black gun in an evidence bag, "It's a 45."
"Same as the one that killed Lee" Maze added.
"Yep. And my Spidey-senses tell me this is our murder weapon, but I'll know more when I get back to the lab" Ella ended, I was pleased to hear that we have finally found the murder weapon and possibly our killer. Although, it was a shame that our killer didn't spend the rest of his life in jail as he should, but I guess that perhaps the killer might have ended up in Hell. Certainly, a place for the guilty souls to be punished for their crimes.
"Great" I nodded, pleased to hear that we have a lead in solving this murder puzzle.
I decided to walk up alone to the dead body that was lying in the centre of the cold road and kneed not so close to seeing if there's anything suspicious things hinted on the body. However, there was nothing but large cuts and bruises on the entire body and some parts of the body were slightly disjoint. I almost
Suddenly, a loud cough and a small amount of blood were spat out from the dead body's mouth. Thought that I was hearing things or seeing things but it moved, it really moved. I jumped away in shock as I watched the dead body lifting the top half of its' body above the road. Its arms were crimpled and cracked in different directions which made my gut nauseatingly twisted.
"Oh, man. Geeze, this is a wrecked body" it talked, spitting out more dry, dark blood from his dislocated jaw. Which made me feel even sicker.
Why does this look so familiar? A dead body, well not dead now, then suddenly began moving again. Then I remembered the case when Father Kinley and that Rapper died, then Lucifer and Maze explained to me how demons could possess dead bodies of doomed souls.
I looked around checking if anyone else has noticed the awaking dead body, but it was only me who was around. My body was still shivering in fear from the unexpected shock while I stuttered, "Ar… Are you a demon?"
"Yes. Lord Lucifer has sent me to give a message to 'the detective' about her case" the demon answered in a less frightful tone than what a usual demon sounds like. Because the last time I meet a possessed demon, they scared the shit out of me because they almost got me killed.
Usually hearing Lucifer's name aches my sore heart but hearing it from a demon who may have actually been in contact with Lucifer recently. My heart was lifted in joy, of course, it was stupid of me to raise my hopes so quickly, but I couldn't help myself as I grew a small smile.
"Lucifer? Yeah, that's me. I'm the detective" I pointed the finger to myself as a small smile was just blooming on my face, "How is he?"
"He's the King of Hell, so he's great" the demon answered in like an 'obviously' tone. Though, I doubted his words as I know how Lucifer really feels about Hell, not wanting to be there in that dark, torturous place. Alone.
Then, I remembered that the demon mentioned that Lucifer has some information about our case. I wasn't sure how exactly Lucifer knows about my murder case, but then I theorised that maybe our victim must be in Hell and Lucifer must have encountered him. Then, our hitman died and this was Lucifer chance for him to send his message to me. I waited till the demon provided me with the information, "He wanted me to tell you... uh, it's safe where you stored it."
I lowered my eyebrows in deep confusion, "What? What's safe?"
"I don't know, you're the one that stored it" the demon cryptically answered yet it still wasn't very clear for me to understand.
"Wait, I stored it? Where?" I questioned while at the same time my brain began rattling out about what he was talking about while evoking back to the thing that I apparently stored something safe.
"Yeah, it's safe where you stored it... Oh, crap. This body is too jacked up to keep working" the dead body that the demon was possessing was uncontrollably shaking. His left arm was gradually lowering itself down.
"No. Wait, wait! I need to know about Lucifer…" I quickly begged, before I knew it the body was dropped back down on the cold floor, dead.
"Hello?" I leaned in forward and scanned for any movement, but there was nothing. Regret quickly flooded within my body as I have lost my chance of sending a message back to Lucifer.
"Decker!" Ella shouted from behind me. I stood up and felt worried that Ella might have spotted the demon possessing the dead body. Ella rushed over to me while I was brainstorming some lies to tell Ella if she did saw the dead body moving. Until, Ella complained, "What the hell? Did you move the body?
"No it was… it was a pigeon" I excused, and fortunately Ella didn't complain, although she did stare at me like I was talking claptrap.
The Next Day
In the morning, Maze and I went back to the prescient where Ella found the I.D to the dead body named Vernon Gill, a hitman so it clued us that Gill was hired by someone else to kill Lee in the boat, which makes this a premeditated crime. Then, I told the ladies about a clue I found last night about the quote 'it's safe where you store it.' At first, we were all baffled about what the quote means until Ella solved the puzzle when she realised that it's a storage facility in Pacoima called "You Stored It."
It wasn't before long before Maze and I travelled down to Pacoima and during our journey, I explained to Maze about the anticipated arrival of a demon. When we reached and walked inside the facility, Maze asked, "So why didn't you tell me about the demon? Maimed bodies, demons from Hell... It's kind of my jam, Chloe."
"Yeah, I'm sorry. It just happened really fast, and it caught me off guard hearing from Lucifer like that" I answered. It was a pretty big shock to acknowledge the fact that Lucifer has been helping us with my case. He really was my guardian Devil.
"Here it is" Maze pointed her stare at the open storage.
"It's open" I mentioned which widen our eyes.
"Stay behind me" Maze ordered and I did as I was told.
I draw out my gun from my side pocket and my torch to shine some light in the dark storage before I tiptoed behind Maze as she quietly crawled to the entrance. The whole storage was dark where they were shelves on the side of the room filled with boxes and two basketballs. We crept further inside the storage where we walked past some old frames that were laying on the side of the room.
When I stood in the middle of the storage, I heard a click behind my back and my heart completely stopped in horror. Maze heard the click too, unexpectedly for me, Maze twisted around and gently pushed me aside. My eyes focus on her hand as Maze reached out and grabbed the gun, lowering it down which then suddenly fired to the floor. Nearly making my terrified heart leapt out through my chest.
Then, Maze pushed the stranger back as they flew back and hit at the front of another storage. The demon rushed to them and encaged them between her strong arms and the metal door behind them. I dashed to them and I quickly recognised the stranger, "Megan?"
Megan was hissing in pain as Maze was pressing her arms against Megan's chest. Soon, Maze let Megan go and she began breathing heavily for air, then I questioned, "What are you doing here?"
"I went to Lee's apartment and saw a notepad with all of some codes and passwords, I recognised one and said it to be here" Megan explained herself as she was finally getting her breathe back, "I found this place and these credit card receipts. I kept wondering why they would take his hand. Then I saw the biometric safe."
She pointed to the small, black metal box that was at the back of the storage, Maze and I stare back at it and we quickly noticed that it was a safe with a handprint screen on the side. I figured, "They used his hand to open it. "
"Must have been where he kept all his money" Megan theorised.
"The safe at You Stored It. That's what Lucifer was trying to tell me" I whispered to Maze and she nodded in agreement.
I faced Megan again and this time I gave her a serious stare, "Meg, you do realise that you are interfering with a criminal investigation?"
"I know, I'm sorry. But, I had to know what happened to Lee" Megan replied as I felt how her voice nearly broke down into sadness. I know because I've been there since Lucifer's absence.
"Who else knew about the safe?" Maze questioned
"I don't know. Um... His old crew, maybe? He was pretty tight with them" Megan clarified.
"And what were you going do with that gun?" the demon questioned harder.
"I heard you guys coming. I freaked. I grabbed Lee's gun to defend myself. I thought it might have been... I don't know, his killer coming back?" Megan explained herself in a remorseful tone, "Honestly, I don't know what I would've done if it had been Lee's killer. I was just so angry."
"It's a lot of legwork to do for a brother that you've already written off" I wondered since we last spoke, Megan told me that she hardly knew Lee since they both separated from their lives. Telling me that Megan hasn't really given a thought about her brother for a long time.
Megan exhaled a sharp breathe before answering, "Yeah. I kept telling myself it didn't matter, I didn't care that he was gone, but, uh... his death's drugged up a lot of emotions. The truth is—"
"That you still miss him" I ended her sentence.
Recognising her pain in Megan's voice in that depressing tone of missing someone, a person who she still loves. No matter how much you've tried to deny this awful feeling and try to make yourself believe that you'll be fine, where in truth, you still have that sure wound scared on your heart. While I was still really excited about having my baby as it might make me feel that I'm still connected to Lucifer. But, deep down even after all of the convincing, I still feel that lost and sad feeling of never having Lucifer in my life again and be a part of his child's life too.
"All right. We'll take you home. Go on" I kindly instructed.
Megan was about to move before she stopped and stayed and asked, "I'd like to grab some of Lee's things if that's okay."
"Yeah, go ahead" I nodded as Megan walked off to the storage and started scanning looking around and inside of Lee's boxes.
Maze turned and faced me with my arms folded across her chest, "So what's next? We gonna crack some skulls, track down Lee's old crew?"
"Yeah. You go ahead, but I'll take Meg back home" I suggested as Maze can do the fieldwork while I can fill out the paperwork. I
"Sure" Maze "You'll be okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine" I confidently grinned, before we could go our separate way, I faced Maze one last time and instructed, "And, don't kill anyone"
"Why do you have to suck the fun out of everything?" Maze snarled before walking off.
I took Megan home, during our journey Megan was chatting to me about her childhood with Lee and how they used to close. Megan talking about her happy times with her brother was the only thing that was helping her to progress with Lee's death. I listened to her childhood stories making me daydream of what it would be like when the baby comes around; picturing Trixie happily playing with her little sibling.
When we reached to her home, I helped Megan to carry one of her lightweight boxes to her house. The shadowy street was all consumed by silence including the huge houses in the block. We walked up to the front door where Megan unlocked the door to let us in.
"And then Lee took me to see Saw. It was our first R-rated movie. I was..." Megan didn't manage to finish her sentence as she suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway. I crept behind her and saw what Megan was staring at, a hand laying on the kitchen island.
"That's Lees' hand" I muttered beneath my whisper. So many questions ran to my head; like firstly, why was Lee's hand here in Megan's house?
Suddenly a loud 'click' sound echoed closely and we shifted our gaze across the room and spotted a man loading a bigger gun. I heard Megan took in a sharp breathe while my gut straightaway twisted in deep fear. The scary guy yelled at me as I felt his death stare sharply pointing at me, "You, put your gun on the counter!"
"All right" I sedately obeyed and carefully lifted my gun out from its pocket and placed it on the kitchen island. Afterwards, I raised my empty hands up, "Let's just all stay calm."
"You're Rod. You used to room with Lee" Megan identified the stranger, "Did you kill him?"
"That loser brother of yours gave us no choice. He still owes us our cut from our last job. Now, where's the money from the safe?" Rod raised his gun up and targeted it directly at me.
"You don't have it?" I questioned.
"The safe was empty when we got there" Rod explained. Which was puzzling as the safe was empty when Maze and I found it, believing that the killer must have come in before us and stole the money.
Unexpectedly, a short sound of laughter echoed to my ears, I turned to my right and stared in confusion as, out of the blue, Megan was lightly chuckling to myself. I wanted to tell Megan to shut up before she would get the both of us killed.
"What the hell's so funny?" Rob growled.
"I mean, of course, it's gone" she loudly chuckled sounding so unafraid at the fact that a gun was pointing directly at her for one minute, "You knew my brother. He probably thought he could double it at a casino, or, I don't know, spend it on that stupid boat."
Rod fired a bullet at the side of the room, hitting a photo frame now with a huge hole near the edge. Quickly reload his gun, Rod aimed it back at us making Megan and I raised my hands ever higher and our hearts beating faster as they unsteadily rattled between our ribs. Rob roared, "Quit stalling and give us the money!"
"Alright! I've got the money!" I cut in, I just remembered that there was Lee's gun in the brown bag. When I grabbed Rob's attention, I slowly walked towards the corner of the kitchen island where the bag was hanging on.
"I've got the money. It's right here. It's in the bag" I draw Rob's attention to the bag. Once I spotted how Rob was lowing her gun, it gave me the opportunity to grab the gun which was still in the bag and I pulled the trigger. The bullet flew straight through the bag and shot at Rob's stomach and he dropped down to the ground.
For a moment, I was consumed with relief knowing that we are not in danger anymore. That all changes where more footsteps rushing from the front entrance. There were three more men who were possibly working with Rob who crashed through the entrance and had their own guns loaded and raised.
"Get down!" I shouted and grabbed Megan by her hand and pulled her to my side behind the kitchen island.
The fast-firing started at us as Megan and I sat down and pressed our backs against the side of the kitchen island. They were all firing at once and hearing their multi shots was in a rhythm like in the rhythm of my scared heart beating fast per second. Nonetheless, it doesn't stop me from thinking of the plan while I was loading my own gun. Megan was sitting very close to me as I could hear her breathing heavily.
"They're going to have to stop shooting and reload" I whispered to the side of her head, however Megan looked baffled as she doesn't understand what I was talking about. I added, "That's when we're going to run. I'll draw their fire."
"No, no, no, I can't. No, I can't!" Megan shook her head as she doesn't have enough faith in herself to take that risk, to jump up and run for her life because she is afraid of getting shot in the back. I don't blame her, but it's our only chance of survival.
"Meg, listen to me. You can do this" I whispered louder, trying to draw her attention to me and away from listening to her discouraging and frightful thoughts of doubts in her mind about us escaping from this hellish situation. When Megan locked her gaze onto me, I continued, "We're not going die here. So, get ready."
The gun firing continued and every shot I heard or saw or felt through the goosebumps on my arms, made me doubts my own inspiring words. I only had one plan, and this was it, I can't call for back-up, no Dan, no Maze, no one was coming for us. Lucifer would have thought of a different or possibly a better plan.
Then, a crazy thought came to me, stupid as it may but if Lucifer is an angel, then can he hear prayers? He never mentioned it but I evoked a few times when Lucifer was in a praying position. I only tried praying when I prayed to God about bringing Lucifer back to me and to his unborn child. So, as stupid as it was, I prayed, "Lucifer, if you hear me! Help me! I need you!"
Soon, the firing was gradually calming down, meaning our opportunity of escaping was near. I gripped my fingers tightly around my gun, while Megan was holding onto the side of my arm waiting for me to take the first leap. I could feel her fear nervously vibrating through her arms and into my body which was already filling up with fear as I scared for my life. I was scared for my baby's life.
Until, I heard someone was whistling.
But, it wasn't just that that caught my attention, instead it was the song they were whistling at. Called me crazy, but it almost sounded like Lucifer's made-up them song that he wrote about us on the guitar. The whistling was coming closer and closer behind the kitchen island where the men were. Suddenly, the whistling stopped and a voice appeared, an angelic voice that I thought I would never hear again.
"Hello, bad guys" Lucifer's voice echoed, my ears pricked up and my heart began panting faster than a second, "I hope I'm not late to the party."
Slowly, I peek over the top edge of the marble kitchen island, and my eyes were getting a view of the three hitmen on the other side and the stranger that was standing in the middle of the hitmen. And that stranger, was none other than the devil himself, wearing the same black suit and trousers with a white vest and red handkerchief. I loudly gasped in disbelief, "Lucifer?"
Unknowingly to me, I whispered too loud for one of the hitmen to hear me and tried to shoot at my head. Fortunately, I ducked down fast enough before the bullet could touch my head,
I peaked over the edge again and I spotted that same man had his head crashed through the wall. My best was Lucifer. Until my attention flew past Lucifer to another man standing and he held his gun up to Lucifer. I quickly recalled Lucifer's vulnerability around me, so I jumped up and fired a shot directing in the centre of the man's forehead.
"Run! Meg, run!" I yelled and Megan did as she was told as she dashed behind me to the other room.
However, there was a third man near Lucifer who was already reloading his gun again. Unlucky for him, Lucifer was faster than any other human being as he dashed to that third and snapped his gun in half before Lucifer plunge the man through the wall and he landed into the other room. I watched in surprise because I often forget about how strong Lucifer can be. Once we knocked off everyone, Lucifer and I stood up straight and still, especially me as I was frozen still. On the other hand, Lucifer straightens his suit jacket before he slowly walked in my direction.
"Thought you could use a hand but looks like someone beat me to it" he started off with his casual jokes, but I didn't really listen as I was too focus on his face.
Studying his facial figures as billions of questions were flooding into my exhausted head; How could this be? How could he be here? Here? In front of me? Looking exactly the same as the last time I saw him in his black suit and his red handkerchief. He looked so calm and steady, yet a bit unemotional.
I whispered, "Lucifer?"
He walked closer and stopped by only a foot away, when our eyes were locked on each other and Lucifer held a delightful smile, "Hello, detective."
That was the voice I have been waiting for a long time, that moment where he would call me by my nickname 'Detective.' No one says it better than him, listening to his angelic voice made me chuckle a blissful grin. I couldn't control myself as I brought my lips his and pulled his head closer with my hands behind his flock of black hair and neck. I want to feel his warmth again.
I could hear Lucifer pleasing moan behind his closed lips, but, something didn't felt right, and that was it his lips were still closed. Usually, Lucifer would have tried to deepen our kiss, but he didn't. And something felt a bit unusual, as Lucifer somehow felt a bit different.
I was the first one to parted our lips and pulled away, I held a puzzled look however Lucifer didn't reflect the same reaction. I asked, "Lucifer, is everything okay?"
"Of course" he calmly answered, acting like everything was as meant to be, but it feels a bit derisive to me.
"You just seem… different" I defined out.
Instantly, Lucifer's face was painted in shame as he glanced down for a split second before gazing back at me, "I'm not sure how long it has been."
"Two months" I revealed.
"Oh" Lucifer's face formed in a sad portrayal. I was going to ask what's wrong until Lucifer started explaining himself, "Well, you see for you, it's only been a couple of months, but down there, time is different. For me, it's been thousands of years"
"I'm sorry" I whispered.
He grinned at my compassionate apology as Lucifer reached his hand out and softly touched the side of my face. I felt his warmth he locked his gaze upon mine as he held a wolfish grin, "But the only thing that kept me going... was thinking of you."
There were no words to describe what I was feeling at that moment after hearing Lucifer's confession. Knowing how he spends thousands of years in Hell while all of that time he was thinking of me, how he never gave up on us and on how there was a chance of us meeting each other again. While, I've spent two months missing him while Lucifer spent longer in a dark and isolated place.
I melted into his sweet words as I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his shoulder. Lucifer did the same thing as I felt him bringing my body closer to his. At the same time, happiness flamboyantly bloomed inside my soul as I discerned the fact that now Lucifer has returned to our lives now. Then, perhaps he could stay and learn about the greatest news of his life; my pregnancy.
I purred next to his ear as I closed my eyes, "I've missed you."
Lucifer cooed, "And, I've missed you, my sweet, sweet detective."
Happiness blinded my instincts as I didn't notice a similar sinister smile growing on his face.