In this AU Delilah was never murdered. Lucifer part time runs the Lux, part time rules hell and Maze regularly goes down to spend a few days torturing souls.
Chloe and Lucifer first met at the Gillian Taylor case (2x01) Lucifer helps Chloe solve the case and she and Ella notice some strange powers Lucifer has. When a criminal tried to kill Chloe (chapter 5), Lucifer protected her with his wings: so Chloe, Ella and Trixie found out Lucifer really is the devil.
Chloe asked Lucifer how he could ignore his dad's orders if he didn't have free will. God listened to prayers of Chloe, Lucifer wanted to know why. God showed up to explain. During the Big Bang he gave the cosmological constant a wrong value, he in the present needs help to warn himself in the past and change that value. He tells Chloe and Lucifer together will give that help without realizing.
We now have Julia (human) and Na'amah (demon) as Rory's sitters. Julia, Raziel, Maze and Na'amah have visited Raziel's home in heaven. Uriel seemed not to be pleased by that happening.
Chloe and Lucifer are working on the Philippe Ordonez case, a man that made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Philippe published a book about that pilgrimage. It appeared he stole the manuscript of that book.
Chapter twenty-three: Looking the same
[C]
"We can expect Sergio told his family, at least his wife, about his diary. Read pieces to her or maybe to all of them," Chloe said. "When they saw Philippe's book, they must have realized he stole it from Sergio."
"Ah." Lucifer gave it a thought and nodded. "And became suspicious he had something to do with Sergio gone missing. Which of them?"
Chloe shook her head. "I think about that tomorrow. Let's go home. Trixie and Rory will be waiting for diner."
Despite her words during the car ride home Chloe gave it a thought. Which of them? "None of them will confess and they might cover each other."
"Very likely," Lucifer admitted.
"If we first… Can you give Maze and Raziel a call?"
He raised his brows and gave her a questioning look.
At home they got an update from Julia on the accident she, Na'amah and Rory had witnessed. "...and apart from the accident, something strange happened."
"Can I tell?" Rory interrupted.
"If you wish," Julia said with a smile.
[R]
"I was in the car and we talked about surfing," Rory told, her eyes going from Chloe to Lucifer and back. "And Na'amah said they could go to Hawaii to surf and then I saw myself."
"Yourself? In a mirror?" Lucifer asked.
"No. Myself. Sitting on the other chair in the back of the car. And the next second I was gone. Julia saw me too and that is why she stopped."
"There were two Rory's," Julia acknowledged. "That's why I stopped or else we might have been hit by that truck."
"We would have been hit," Na'amah said. "This was just before the accident. Julia and Rory saw a second girl. Then there was the accident. I turned to tell Rory everything was ok and then she disappeared. I was looking at the backseats. Normal daylight. It was only for a moment and then she was back."
"That is what Na'amah saw," Rory added. "But I saw myself double again, only now on the other chair."
"What?" Lucifer and Chloe said at the same time. "How can that happen?" Chloe asked.
"I don't know if I even can follow this tale of what happened," Lucifer said.
"Me and Julia we first just saw Rory," Na'amah explained again. "Then Rory was double for may be a second. Then it was just Rory again, until… three minutes later she was gone for a second. Then she was back. After that second nothing strange happened anymore."
Lucifer slowly nodded. "Ok. But you…" He looked at Rory.
"I saw myself suddenly double and then normal and than double again."
"You were not scared?" Trixie asked.
Rory gave it a thought. "No, it happened to quick to become scared."
"You must have seen a reflection," her sister said.
"How does a reflection explain Na'amah didn't see her?" Chloe mused.
"Shall I ask ayaya?" Rory said and folded her hands. Ayaya, she thought. The girl expected her grandfather to pray back to her, but his voice in her head said: wait, red kite. I'm coming.
Next moment God appeared in the living room, as always with very short trimmed hair and beard, socks in sandals and a grey, woolen cardigan. He kissed all present, lifted Rory in his arms and than gave Chloe and Lucifer a worried look. "This should not have happened. None of it. That truck should not have been there. The driver got an anonymous phone call, that should not have been made and he missed his exit from the highway. He was speeding to compensate for the time lost. He was blinded by the sun shining in a mirror that a child had found. A mirror that should not have been there."
"What do you mean with all the 'should not's?" Chloe asked.
"Contrary to what many believe, I do not control everything. Most things I leave to cause and effect. That phone call doesn't fit in the chain of causes and effects. The presence of that mirror doesn't fit either."
"How is that possible?" Lucifer asked.
His father slowly shook his head. "I wish I knew."
"And me being double?" Rory asked.
"Should also not have happened. Not for at least ten years."
"So you know what did happen with Rory?" Chloe asked.
"We should forget this. It can't do her harm, but she is too young."
"But what…" Lucifer started.
"Too soon, boy. I promise I will keep a closer look at Rory. She will be safe."
"But…"
"She will be safe," God repeated and disappeared.
[C]
"The diary was written by Sergio Casanas from Louisiana and Philippe has stolen it from him. Sergio is missing for three years now," Chloe informed Dan and Ella. "I already found he has children, a wife, a brother and two sisters."
"Two sisters?" Ella interrupted her. They were meeting with four in a conference room in the precinct. Two white boards were filled with notes. "Philippe… Well, in fact Sergio, but anyway, the author of the book mentions several times he had a phone call with his sister… Just sister, as if he only has one."
"Good point," Chloe said. "Check with his provider which sister he called. If they still know after three years.
"We can't just ask his siblings," Dan warned. "They will act as if they don't even know him, never heard of Sergio's diary. And it might be this sister, but it can be any of the other relatives."
Chloe nodded. "I realize. Lucifer's mojo might help, but the killer might confess some other big desire. So I asked Maze and Raziel to fly to Spain and search for Sergio's body."
"What can they do what the Spanish police can't?" Dan asked.
"Maze' nose should be able to find any remnants of his body, even after these years," Lucifer explained. "Raziel can bring her down slopes and in chasms that are too difficult to climb."
"If they find him, we can go talking with Sergio's family pretending we only try to find out how he ended there, pretending we don't know Philippe and never heard of a diary," Chloe added. "If they think we don't relate either them or Sergio to Philippe and to a murder, I hope they are less careful. In the meanwhile we search social media and police files for more on Sergio's relatives."
They found the brother, one of the sisters and Sergio himself were registered to own a gun. "His wife and children of course have access to that gun," Dan said.
"But all three guns are of the wrong caliber," Chloe mused.
"They would be stupid to use a gun registered to themselves for a planned murder," Dan said. So they looked on.
"In the handwritten diary he says more about calling that sister," Lucifer said while studying the pages Sergio wrote. "Here, this is not in the printed book. Intenté llamar a Tara pero estaba con su hermana gemela. I tried to call Tara but she was with her twin sister."
"Twin sister?" Chloe reacted. "One of the sisters is indeed named Tara, Mandy is the second sister. But neither is a twin."
Dan was already checking the civil administration and confirmed. "Tara is not a twin."
"Neither sister made phone calls to Spain," Ella reported within fifteen minutes. "But according to her provider, Tara was called many times from Spain."
"Strange," Ella said late afternoon.
"What?"
"Tara posted a lot on social media on the evening and night of the murder. All showing she was to a concert. Look, more than ten pictures and some short movies."
"What is strange about that?" Lucifer asked. "Well, it gives her an alibi."
"Exactly. But look further. She never posts anything. Except for this night there are only two posts in four years."
"To give her an alibi," Chloe said and looked at the pictures. "But… it proves she was not near Philippe that night." She gave it a thought. "We have to call it a day, we have to pick up Trix and Rory for diner."
[R]
Rory was giggling, hiding the mask she and Julia had made under the diner table. Her mom and big sister were sitting at the table already, her dad just brought the last bowl from the kitchen area. "What's funny, red kite?" he asked.
"Nothing," she managed to say in between more giggles. Her parents and sister were now looking at her. She dived under the table, put on the mask and came back on her chair again. "Where is Rory?" she asked with a low voice. The mask was a picture of Julia, cut out and held in place with an elastic band around her head.
"Hi, Julia. Where is Rory?" her mom echoed her own question. Rory laughed.
"If Rory is not here, I'm going to eat her chocolate cake dessert," Trixy said.
"No!" Rory shouted.
"Of course, Julia," Lucifer agreed with Trixy. "If Rory is not here, she can't get chocolate cake."
"I am here!"
"No, Julia. You are Julia," her dad said.
Rory ripped off the mask. "Nothing no. It's my desert."
She saw her father and sister grinning, her mother smiling and shaking her head. "You thought I was Julia," she said.
"No, we didn't," Trixie answered while at the same time her mother said: "Yes, we did. How did you make that mask, red kite?"
Her mother was reading Rory her bedtime story. The girl had heard this story dozens of times and nodded after each sentence, happy her mother told the story the way it should.
"I looked just as Julia," she suddenly interrupted.
"You did, red kite."
"You didn't see a difference?"
"I didn't," Chloe assured her.
Rory nodded with a smile. "And Jacky went to look in the shed," she quoted the next line her mother had to read. But her mother stared into space, frowning.
"Mommy?"
"Sorry." Chloe shook her head and gave her a shy smile. "And Jacky went to look in the shed."
[C]
"She is asleep," Chloe said to Lucifer. "I had to read Jacky And The Two Puppies."
"Again?" He grinned. "Luckily me it was your turn to read."
"But she asked a question. Whether I saw a difference between her with the mask and Julia."
"Well… You told her you didn't."
Chloe gave him a short smile then frowned. "It made me think. Why did Sergio call his sister a twin?"
He shrugged. "She is not a twin."
"So, why? I thought… it would make sense if she looked like someone else. A nickname. I need to call… No. I'll wait until tomorrow."
First thing that tomorrow in the precinct was a visit to Ella. "… is there a way to check whether the woman at that concert is really Tara?"
"Of course. There is face recognition software," Ella said.
Within half an hour Ella came to Chloe's desk. "Not Tara. The pictures are not that good, not really sharp, dark. But the software is more than 99% sure it is not Tara."
"Who is it?"
Ella sighed. "Not easy to say. The pictures are so dark I have to manually align faces in the pictures. The software can't do it, so searching if you have no idea who to look for is difficult."
Chloe called Dan and Lucifer at her desk and explained: "Most likely explanation. Tara tried to make a false alibi. Someone who looks like her went to that concert, made those pictures and Tara posted those as if it is herself."
"If she needs an alibi, she is most likely the killer," Dan said.
"Go there and interrogate her," Lucifer proposed.
Chloe shook her head. "We are not in a hurry. Tara – if she is indeed the killer – has no idea we link the murder of Philippe to the diary of Sergio or Sergio's family. I still want to go on with the original plan: wait one or two days until Maze and Raziel find Sergio's body and talk with the family as if we come to inform them about Sergio, no mentioning of Philippe. In the meanwhile we try to find out who that woman in the pictures is."
It was Dan who found the woman. "In an online yearbook of her high school. The year Tara graduated," he said. "Nicole Fraser."
Chloe did take a look at Nicole's picture in the yearbook. "Indeed, she looks like Tara."
"And see what Nicole wrote: 'After four years together at school, I will miss my twin sister'. According to the civil administration Nicole is not a twin."
"Also referring to being a twin. Ella, can you check with the face recognition software?"
Meanwhile Lucifer was flipping through the pages of the yearbook. "Him," he said, circling the mouse around one of the pictures.
Chloe gave him a questioning look.
"He owes me a favor, detective. I will call him to see what he knows of Tara and Nicole. I will order him not to inform Tara nor Nicole."
Chloe nodded. "Dan, can you see what more is known about Nicole Fraser.
Four results arrived almost at the same time on Chloe's desk.
"The woman in the pictures on Tara's socials is Nicole," Ella confirmed.
"Nicole Fraser owns a gun," Dan reported. "Same caliber as the gun that killed Philippe."
"Tara and Nicole were best friends at school," Lucifer could tell them. "They were nicknamed 'the twins' because they looked so alike."
And a phone call came from Maze. "We found him, down in a chasm. Well bones, a backpack, shoes. And an id-card with his name. Raziel is calling the local authorities."