[Lucifer] Ch: 45 [A Key to the Truth] (Patreon)

Chloe’s eyes dropped toward the section of wooden flooring beneath Lucifer’s shoe.

“What was that sound?”

Lucifer shifted his weight again.

Creeeak.

The old floorboard bent slightly beneath him.

"Well, Detective... either this dilapidated shed has impeccable comedic timing, or we've just stumbled onto something delightfully sinister."

Chloe hurried across the room and crouched beside him, brushing dust away from the wooden planks. "There's a seam here. It's a false floor."

Lucifer crouched beside her and ran his fingers along the seam. Someone had done an impressive job hiding it beneath years of dirt and debris. From a standing position, the floor looked completely ordinary.

Chloe reached toward her pocket. “I’ve got a multitool in the car.”

Lucifer gave her an offended look. “Detective, please. You have me.” He pushed his fingers into the narrow gap and gripped the edge of the board.

Chloe immediately frowned. "Lucifer, stop, you're going to rip your fingernails off."

“Oh, ye of little faith.”

Lucifer pulled.

The thick wooden plank groaned before coming loose with a loud crack. He tossed it aside and reached for the next one, ripping that free just as easily.

Chloe stared at him. “You know, every time I start convincing myself there’s a normal explanation for you, you do something like that.”

“You’re getting closer to accepting the truth. I’m terribly proud.”

Lucifer reached beneath another board and pulled harder. 'Dang, where are there so many plyboards? There was only one in the show.'

A sudden sharp sting ran through his index finger.

He stopped. 'What the...?!'

It barely hurt, almost nothing compared with being shot or fighting Amenadiel, yet the sensation was so unexpected that Lucifer immediately looked down.

A thin piece of wood had pierced the side of his finger.

His eyebrows slowly came together.

Lucifer pulled the splinter free.

A tiny bead of blood appeared where it had punctured his skin.

For several seconds, he simply stared at it.

‘Bloody hell!’

Lucifer rubbed the blood between his thumb and finger.

He had made absolutely certain his subconscious understood the situation after discovering celestial self-actualization. He was invulnerable and powerful. He wasn’t going to allow some unconscious emotional nonsense to weaken him simply because Chloe happened to be nearby.

That had been the entire point.

‘Is self-actualization not working?’

Lucifer looked genuinely confused.

He concentrated.

The tiny wound healed almost instantly.

That only made the situation stranger.

Chloe, focused on the opening beneath the floor, didn’t notice the brief injury. 

He glanced toward her before looking at his finger one last time.

‘Interesting.’

What Lucifer didn’t understand yet was that his effort to prevent vulnerability had become part of the problem.

It was the 'pink elephant effect.'

Every time he reminded himself not to become vulnerable around Chloe, some part of his subconscious had to continuously check whether vulnerability existed. The more intensely he tried to suppress the possibility, the more attention his celestial self-actualization placed upon it.

'Don’t become vulnerable around Chloe.'

'Don’t lower your defenses around Chloe.'

'Don’t let Chloe make you vulnerable.'

His subconscious kept hearing the same connection repeatedly.

Chloe and vulnerability.

The celestial equivalent of being told not to imagine a pink elephant.

And without Lucifer realizing it, his own mind was beginning to create exactly what he was desperately trying to prevent.

He pushed the thought aside for now and helped remove the remaining boards.

Beneath them was darkness.

Chloe took the flashlight from her waist holder. She leaned forward and aimed it downward. “Lucifer, look at this.”

A narrow staircase disappeared beneath the warehouse.

Lucifer stared into the opening before smiling. "Oh, hello! Secret subterranean tunnels. Every respectable criminal conspiracy needs one."

Chloe stood and looked around the warehouse before returning her attention toward the stairs. "This wasn't in any of the CSU reports. Nobody knew this was here."

"Which strongly implies your remarkably competent colleagues missed it entirely. Or someone did their best to hide it," Lucifer said as he took the stairs down. "Shall we?"

Chloe followed him downward.

The air grew colder and smelled faintly of dust, damp cement, and rust.

Lucifer ran one hand along the wall as they moved.

"A veritable smuggler's run," he said while looking ahead.

The passage was barely wide enough for two people to walk beside each other. Pipes ran along the ceiling while old electrical cables disappeared deeper into the tunnel.

Chloe’s flashlight passed across a metal box mounted to the wall.

She stopped.

“Hold on.”

Lucifer turned toward her as Chloe wiped dust from the front of the box.

"Looks like an old breaker box." She opened it and flipped the largest switch.

Several bulbs flickered overhead.

One after another, dull yellow lights came alive along the tunnel.

Lucifer looked upward appreciatively. "Ooh, very atmospheric. You have to respect a villain with an eye for dramatic lighting."

Chloe ignored him and continued forward before reaching an old metal gate. Rust covered most of the hinges. The lock was open. She carefully pushed the gate open.

The hinges groaned loudly.

Beyond the gate, another set of stairs climbed upward. Both of them went up. Chloe reached a heavy metal hatch and pushed it open with a grunt. The hatch lifted slightly before opening onto the sidewalk beside an alley behind the warehouse.

Chloe looked outside.

"It opens right into the back alley."

Lucifer stepped beside her and examined the alley. "Meaning our mystery guest could pop in and out without ever being spotted by your perimeter sentries."

This discovery changed everything.

She closed the hatch again, and both of them got down.

Lucifer looked around the ground and found a small key on the ground. 'Bingo!' He crouched and looked closer. “Detective... I believe someone dropped this."

Chloe looked down and noticed the key. She pulled a pair of gloves from her pocket and reached down and picked up the key.

Chloe turned it beneath the yellow light.

“A 999 key.”

Lucifer raised an eyebrow. “I assume that means something considerably more interesting than its rather uninspired name.”

“It’s LAPD-issued,” Chloe replied while examining it carefully. "Every cop gets one. It opens department padlocks, gate boxes, and secured access points."

She looked toward him.

“Malcolm had his on him when he was shot.”

Lucifer’s expression became serious. "So this little trinket belonged to someone else."

Chloe stared at the key for another moment as months of doubt suddenly began rearranging themselves inside her head. Someone else had been in the warehouse. This person knew the place well enough to find a hidden underground passage that the police missed and also had a key from the LAPD.

Lucifer slowly smiled. “Well, Detective... it appears you weren’t crazy after all.”

Chloe looked toward the tunnel behind them. "This means another cop was in this warehouse during the shootout. There was a third person here, Lucifer."

Lucifer nodded while his eyes moved toward the hidden stairs. "And a badge-wearing one at that."

"I wasn't crazy. This cop knew about the tunnel, snuck in, and chances are... they're the one who put Malcolm in a coma."

She paused while everything began connecting.

“If Malcolm was working with Aoudi and someone discovered what was happening, or if another dirty cop was involved, then this passage gave them the perfect way in and out without anyone seeing them.”

Lucifer folded his arms. "But why plug poor Malcolm? A disagreement over the spoils?"

Chloe carefully placed the key inside an evidence bag.

"That's exactly what I'm going to figure out."

Lucifer looked at her for a moment before stepping closer. His expression softened into a small smile.

"Ah, ah. Correction, Detective."

Chloe looked toward him.

Lucifer nodded toward the evidence bag in her hand.

"That's what we are going to figure out."

...

[A moment later]

Lucifer climbed back through the opening behind Chloe and brushed the dust from his trousers while she stood nearby, turning the LAPD key inside the evidence bag.

"The question now, of course, is which of your badge-wearing brethren is the corrupt little worm in question?"

Chloe looked toward him. “Yes.”

Lucifer slipped both hands into his pockets and studied her for a moment. "Well, I'd say the answer is glaringly obvious. Who is the one person who has continuously, vehemently begged you to drop this crusade? Who has spent months gaslighting you into believing you were losing your mind?"

Chloe's expression changed.

Dan's face immediately flashed through her mind.

She remembered every argument they'd had over Palmetto, every time he'd told her she was destroying her career, every warning that she needed to let the case go, and before almost every case she takes on, he reminds her about Palmetto and how she shouldn't get too obsessed with her cases. And during those difficult times, she was married to Dan, and he never took her side and always said she was wrong. 

Chloe shook her head. "No. No, there has to be a logical explanation. Dan was on the Palmetto task force. He had legitimate reasons to be at this crime scene."

"Tell you what, Detective. How about I set the stage for a little impromptu theater, and you just follow my lead? We'll see soon enough if Detective Douche takes the bait," Lucifer said with a wicked smile.

Before Chloe could reply, footsteps sounded near the entrance.

Both of them turned.

Dan walked into the warehouse and stopped almost immediately.

He'd come back to check the secret entrance one final time before Malcolm was taken off life support. He had seen Chloe walk out with files on the case. So, he expected her to be at her apartment, going through those. And he knew that she'd eventually come back to the scene. So, he wanted to make certain the tunnel was still hidden and that nothing remained behind that could ever connect him to what happened that night.

Instead, he found Chloe and Lucifer standing beside the opened false floor.

His eyes immediately dropped toward the exposed staircase.

Then he noticed the evidence bag in Chloe's hand.

Dan's face went pale.

Chloe stared at him. “Dan?”

Lucifer slowly smiled, stepped forward, and opened his arms.

"Ah, Detective Douche! Though, for such a momentous occasion, I suppose I can use your real name. Dan... welcome to the party."