[Lucifer] Ch: 44 [Cracks in Palmetto] (Patreon)

[Ten Minutes Later]

Chloe pushed through the precinct doors with the Palmetto files tucked tightly beneath one arm and headed toward the parking lot.

The morning had already been bad enough.

Malcolm Graham was being taken off life support within twenty-four hours, half the precinct seemed to think Chloe was personally attacking a dying hero, and Dan had made it clear that she needed to find something concrete before Malcolm's family pulled the plug.

As if that wasn't enough pressure already, Lieutenant Monroe had called Chloe into her office barely ten minutes earlier and casually informed her that Lucifer Morningstar was now an officially approved civilian consultant for the LAPD.

More specifically, he'd be working alongside Chloe whenever his particular talents proved useful.

Considering Lucifer considered himself useful in almost every imaginable situation, Chloe had a horrible feeling that arrangement could last for the foreseeable future. She still hadn't decided whether she wanted to laugh, scream, or walk back upstairs and demand that Monroe undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Footsteps followed several feet behind her.

Of course they did.

Chloe kept walking through the parking lot without looking back. She could practically feel Lucifer's pleased expression from behind her, and every second of silence somehow made it more irritating.

Lucifer had been following her since she'd left the lieutenant's office, wearing that unbelievably pleased expression while waiting for Chloe to acknowledge his latest invasion into her professional life.

Eventually she stopped beside a row of parked cars and released a long sigh.

"Okay, spill. How exactly did you do it?"

Lucifer stopped behind her with both hands resting comfortably inside his trouser pockets. "Do what, Detective? You'll have to be more specific. I've accomplished several impressive things today."

Chloe turned around and gave him a flat look. "Ten minutes ago you were a deeply irritating nightclub owner who kept crashing my crime scenes. Now you're an official LAPD civilian consultant. Assigned to me."

Lucifer smiled proudly. "Ah, that little matter."

"Yes, that 'little matter'," Chloe replied while shifting the Palmetto files beneath her arm. "How on earth did you convince Lieutenant Monroe to sign off on something this insane?"

Lucifer stepped closer with complete confidence. "I merely asked Olivia nicely, and we exchanged favors."

Chloe stared at him.

"You traded favors with the Lieutenant."

Lucifer nodded. "Precisely. She desired something, I desired something in return, and we came to a mutually beneficial arrangement. Like civilized adults."

Chloe's suspicion immediately grew. "I'm terrified to ask, but what exactly did she want?"

Lucifer's smile widened. "A gentleman never kisses and tells, Detective. That is strictly between Olivia and myself."

Chloe closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed her forehead. "You know what? I don't even want to know."

"Probably wise," Lucifer replied as he continued walking beside her. "Though I must say, Detective, you could show slightly more enthusiasm. We're officially partners now."

"We're absolutely not partners."

"Colleagues, then."

"No."

"Crime-fighting companions?"

Chloe stopped again and faced him. "Look, I'm busy. And stressed. Today is really not a good day for your... Luciferness."

Lucifer's amusement faded slightly as he looked at the files beneath her arm. He'd heard enough while wandering through the precinct to understand exactly why everyone had been staring at Chloe like she'd committed some personal betrayal.

"I heard the little peasant uprising inside," he said. "They're pulling the plug on the chap you believe is dirty."

Chloe looked kinda lost and frustrated. "Malcolm Graham."

Lucifer gave a small nod. "And for the record, Detective? He is corrupt."

Chloe stared at him. "You don't even know Malcolm."

Lucifer tilted his head slightly. "Oh, I know his type intimately. He's definitely going to Hell, by the way."

Chloe stared at him for another second before finally giving up.

"Of course he is."

She turned around and continued walking toward her car.

Lucifer followed immediately.

For several steps, neither of them spoke. Chloe unlocked her car from a distance using her key while Lucifer watched her more carefully than before. The frustration in her shoulders had become obvious, and even he could tell this wasn't the moment to continue treating everything like entertainment.

"Alright, Detective. All jokes aside... let me help you."

Chloe slowed slightly.

"Two pairs of eyes are better than one. Particularly when one pair belongs to an immortal, devastatingly handsome celestial being," He said.

Chloe glanced sideways at him. "Wow. You almost managed to sound sincere right up until the end."

"I was being entirely sincere! The handsome part is just an objective truth."

They reached her car.

Chloe placed one hand on the door handle, although she didn't open it immediately.

Lucifer stopped beside the passenger side and looked at her.

"You know I can help."

Chloe turned toward him.

Lucifer gestured lightly toward the files tucked beneath her arm. "Whenever we team up, we catch the bad guy. Our bad-guy-catching success rate is a flawless one hundred percent. Statistically speaking, Detective, we are bloody magnificent together."

Chloe raised one eyebrow. "That's not even remotely how statistics work."

"Boring details."

Lucifer's expression became more serious again as he nodded toward the Palmetto file.

"The point is, the clock is ticking. Twenty-four hours is all you've got."

Chloe looked down at the folder.

Months of suspicion, arguments, ruined relationships, and professional isolation sat inside that collection of paper.

She hated admitting it, but Lucifer had helped her more than once already. He noticed things other people missed, suspects talked around him in ways they never did around cops, and whatever impossible trick he used to pull desires from people had solved problems Chloe would've spent days untangling.

More importantly, Lucifer believed her in his own weird way. 

Right now, that was something she didn't have much of inside the precinct.

Chloe opened the driver's door and looked at him across the roof of the car.

"Get in."

...

...

[In the Car]

Chloe pulled away from the precinct. Lucifer sat on the passenger seat, holding the files.

For the first few minutes, she drove without saying anything. Her eyes remained fixed on the road while her mind continued running through every statement, photograph, evidence log, and witness report she'd already read more times than she could count.

Lucifer eventually looked down at the files, then toward Chloe.

"You know, Detective, instead of agonizing over the same dreary stack of paperwork for the dozenth time, why don't we just take a little field trip back to the scene of the crime?"

Chloe glanced toward him. "The crime scene?"

"Precisely! Paperwork only tells you what some boring people bothered to write down. I say we go back and see if we can find something everyone else missed."

Chloe almost dismissed the suggestion immediately.

The warehouse had already been processed thoroughly. Detectives, uniforms, crime scene technicians, and internal investigators had gone through the building after the shooting. She'd spent months studying everything they'd collected.

Still, Lucifer had an irritating habit of noticing details everyone else missed.

She tightened her grip around the steering wheel.

Putting faith in Lucifer Morningstar still sounded like an excellent way to get herself committed, though she was running out of options.

Chloe checked the mirror, waited for an opening, then turned the car around.

Lucifer smiled beside her. "Ah, Detective. I knew you'd eventually succumb to my superior deductive charms."

Chloe kept her eyes on the road. "Don't make me regret this before we even get there."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

...

[Palmetto Crime Scene]

The abandoned warehouse looked exactly as Chloe remembered.

Dust covered the windows, faded paint peeled from the walls, and rust crawled across the metal framework surrounding the loading area. Police tape remained near one entrance, though months of wind and weather had left most of it sagging toward the ground.

Inside, their footsteps echoed through the large empty space.

Chloe stopped near the center and slowly looked around. Being back here felt different than studying photographs. Images she'd spent months trying to organize suddenly became memories again. The smell of dust... rattling glass... Gunfire exploding through the room.

Malcolm bleeding on the floor.

Chloe pushed the memories aside.

"Alright. We're going to reenact the shooting. I need to figure out what the hell I missed."

Lucifer looked around the warehouse before spreading his arms slightly. "Excellent. I've always enjoyed immersive theater."

Chloe pointed toward him. "Lucifer, you're going to play the seedy criminal element."

He placed a hand against his chest with theatrical offense. "Oh, I believe you mean the handsome criminal element."

Chloe ignored him and dragged an old paint can across the floor and positioned it a few steps away from Lucifer.

"And this paint can is Malcolm."

Lucifer stared at the dented container.

"Really?"

"Just humor me."

Lucifer looked between Chloe and the paint can before giving it a disappointed nod. "My deepest apologies, Malcolm. As if getting shot wasn't enough of an indignity."

Chloe moved toward one of the dusty glass partitions and positioned herself behind it. "And I'll play myself, a chick who still can't figure out what the hell she saw."

Lucifer's amusement faded slightly as Chloe began walking through the memory.

"For months before the shooting, we'd been tracking a French drug runner. Nikolas Aoudi."

Lucifer immediately brightened again. "Ooh, can I have a gun? I feel like Nikolas would definitely have a gun."

Chloe kept talking as though he hadn't spoken. "Somehow, Aoudi kept slipping through our fingers. Every sting, every surveillance op, every single time we tried to corner him, it all went sideways."

Lucifer sighed dramatically at being denied his imaginary firearm, then moved into position near the paint can.

Chloe continued while studying the room. "Eventually, I bagged one of his guys. I thought for sure he'd flip. He was terrified, and he knew we had him dead to rights."

She moved slowly along the glass.

"Then suddenly he changed his tune."

Lucifer's expression became more interested.

"The only cop who spoke to him before that happened was Malcolm," Chloe said. "That made me suspicious. So one night, I followed Malcolm here after I saw him sneaking in through the side entrance."

She pointed toward the doorway. "I came through there and hid behind this glass."

Chloe's eyes became distant as the warehouse around her slowly blended with the memory.

"I had a clear view. Malcolm was standing right there with Aoudi and his muscle. It looked exactly like a payoff."

Lucifer reached into his jacket and pulled out a thick wad of cash and held it out before him.

"A bribe, maybe," Chloe continued. "I'm still not sure what the money meant. Malcolm was holding cash, Aoudi was talking to him, and his bodyguard stayed nearby."

She leaned closer to the dusty glass.

"I leaned in to hear what they were saying."

The memory sharpened... Her shoulder brushing the divider, followed by the sudden rattle of loose glass.

"And I accidentally made a sound."

For a second, she could almost hear the glass shaking again.

"Malcolm looked right at me. I know he saw me."

Lucifer watched her carefully now.

"But he didn't react," Chloe continued, quieter than before. "He looked right at where I was hiding, then just turned back toward Aoudi and continued the conversation."

She swallowed.

"And that's when the first shot went off."

The remembered gunshot thundered inside her head.

Chloe flinched slightly despite knowing the warehouse was silent.

"Everything happened fast after that. Bullets started flying everywhere. I ducked behind the door until the shooting stopped."

Her eyes moved toward the place where the bodies had fallen.

"Then I ran inside."

She walked across the warehouse slowly, following almost exactly the path she'd taken that night.

"Aoudi was dead. His bodyguard was dead."

Chloe reached the place where Malcolm had collapsed.

She knelt and touched the floor. "And Malcolm was right here. Bleeding out on the floor. There was absolutely nothing I could do."

Silence filled the warehouse.

Lucifer dropped the playful expression completely and walked toward her. He rested one hand gently against her shoulder.

"Are you alright, Detective?"

Chloe remained kneeling for another moment before nodding. She pushed herself back onto her feet.

"Yeah." She nodded.

Lucifer watched the room around them, his attention moving from the glass to the entrances before finally settling on the imagined positions of Malcolm and Aoudi.

"Well, this doesn't make any sense at all."

Chloe looked toward him.

Lucifer gestured toward the paint can. "Aoudi would have no desire to kill Malcolm. Trust me, if there's one thing I know particularly well, it's desire."

Chloe folded her arms.

Lucifer continued, more seriously now. "If Malcolm was actually a dirty cop feeding Aoudi intel, then Malcolm was his golden goose! You don't slaughter the man keeping you one step ahead of the police unless something has gone catastrophically wrong."

Chloe looked back toward the spot where Aoudi had been standing.

"So you're saying Aoudi wouldn't be the one to pull the trigger."

"I'm saying it would have been incredibly bad for business."

Chloe's brow furrowed as she replayed that memory again in her head. "What if there was someone else here?"

Lucifer nodded. "Yes. A third person makes considerably more sense."

Chloe immediately started scanning the warehouse again. "The precinct searched this place top to bottom. Crime Scene picked it apart. They didn't find a single piece of evidence suggesting another shooter." She looked around the empty warehouse, frustration slowly creeping into her voice. "What if I'm just wrong about all of this, Lucifer?"

She looked toward him.

"What if I just spent the last few months tanking my entire career over something I completely imagined?" Chloe asked. "What if Malcolm was just meeting Aoudi working an undercover angle? What if I just saw the cash and assumed the absolute worst because I'd already made up my mind?"

Lucifer's eyes narrowed slightly.

"What if Dan is right and this is just my crazy obsession?"

He stepped closer and asked, "Tell me, Detective... did you search this place personally?"

Chloe stopped as her eyes widened slightly as the question landed.

"No."

Lucifer waited.

Chloe looked toward the warehouse around them. "The uniforms tossed it. CSU swept it. Dan was here, too."

Lucifer's expression became thoughtful at the mention of Dan. Then he smiled and said, "Well, seeing as we're already here..."

He spread his hands toward the enormous warehouse.

"We might as well have a poke around ourselves. Who knows? We might find a hidden compartment, a secret passageway, a trapdoor... some delightfully theatrical villain lair your colleagues were too blind to spot."

Chloe gave him a tired look. "This isn't a Scooby-Doo episode, Lucifer."

"Humor me."

Well, they began searching...

For the next ten minutes they worked through the warehouse section by section.

Chloe checked behind shelving units, underneath abandoned tables, around windows, and along the side doors. Lucifer examined the walls with considerably less discipline, occasionally knocking against old panels and complaining about the terrible decorative choices.

Chloe crouched beside an old ventilation opening before shining her flashlight inside. She found nothing. She stood and released a frustrated breath. "There is nothing here."

Across the room...

'Time to use my knowledge.' Lucifer found the spot and stepped on it. The wooden floor beneath his right shoe creaked.

Both of them stopped.

Lucifer slowly looked downward and shifted his weight.

The floor creaked again.

Chloe's frustration vanished immediately. Her eyes were on the spot where Lucifer was standing. She then looked up at him.

Lucifer looked up at her, a delighted smile spreading across his face.

"Well, well, well. Would you look at that."