[Lucifer] Ch: 46 [The Cost of Silence] (Patreon)

Dan’s eyes dropped toward the open section of floor, then toward the evidence bag in Chloe’s hand. The color drained from his face for only a second before he forced himself to recover and stepped farther into the warehouse.

“Chloe, I was looking for you,” Dan said quickly. “I saw you leave the precinct with the Palmetto files, and I figured you might come back here, so I wanted to make sure you were…”

Before he could continue, Lucifer turned his head toward Chloe and gave her a quick wink.

Chloe immediately understood.

Lucifer had suggested putting pressure on Dan and making him believe they already knew the truth. Judging from the way Dan had reacted to the open hatch and the evidence bag, the plan was already working better than Chloe wanted to admit. A part of her wanted Lucifer to be wrong, but she wanted the truth.

She gave him the smallest nod. 

Lucifer turned back toward Dan, and the playful smile disappeared from his face. "Oh, save the knight-in-shining-armor routine, Daniel. The jig is remarkably up."

Dan went completely still.

Chloe tightened her grip around the evidence bag and stepped forward, allowing the anger and betrayal she'd been carrying for months to surface. “How could you, Dan? I trusted you.”

Dan stared between them before forcing out a nervous laugh. “What are you talking about? I don’t…”

“Oh, please!” Lucifer interrupted as he gestured toward the open hatch. "We've seen your little secret passageway. So why don't you try locating your spine and tell her the truth? She's earned that much, hasn't she?"

Dan flinched, but he tried to argue once more, “Chloe, whatever Lucifer told you, you need to understand that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Lucifer stepped closer, his voice becoming more serious. “Remember what I told you outside Lux? Secrets have a nasty habit of becoming uglier once they’re exposed. You’ve dragged this one around long enough.”

Dan looked toward Chloe, but she didn't say anything.

Lucifer continued, “Think about Trixie, Daniel. Think about what your choices have already done to Chloe. She has spent months being treated like a pariah, a lunatic, just for questioning Saint Malcolm of the LAPD. And you stood right next to her, knowing it was all a lie! Is this the shining example you want to set for your daughter? Lying until the bitter end just to save your own skin?"

Dan closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

"I'm sorry, Chloe. Malcolm was dirty. You were right about all of it."

Chloe was stunned.

Dan's face was filled with guilt. “That night, I followed you to the warehouse. I used the hidden entrance and got inside before everything went bad. Malcolm saw you. He pulled his gun, and he was going to kill you.”

Chloe’s grip tightened around the evidence bag.

“So I shot him,” Dan continued. “I shot Malcolm to save you.”

'Okay. I've no idea what's going to happen next,' Lucifer thought.

Dan swallowed. “After he went down, I panicked. I just shot a cop! If I came clean, everything would have unraveled. What I knew, how long I looked the other way... I would've lost my badge... Gone to prison. And with the whole precinct treating Malcolm like a martyr, I somehow convinced myself that telling the truth would only drag you down with me."

Chloe stared at him.

Dan’s voice dropped. "So I kept my mouth shut. And every single day, the lie just got heavier."

He rubbed a hand over his face. "I had to watch everyone turn their backs on you. I watched you think you were going crazy. I kept begging you to let Palmetto go, but... you're you. You just wouldn't drop it."

His eyes lowered.

"I am so sorry, Chloe. For all of it. For what I put you through, for ruining our marriage, and for what Trixie had to absorb because her dad was a coward."

Chloe's eyes became red as she was holding back her tears. Dan's silence all this time hit her harder than she expected. All this time he knew and yet did nothing. 

Dan kept going. "I was going to turn myself in. I still am. I have a stash of evidence proving Malcolm was dirty. It's enough to nail him for the Aoudi deal."

'That's new,' Lucifer thought. 'I love this new butterfly effect.'

"The only reason I hesitated was his family. If Malcolm goes down as a dirty cop, his wife and kid lose his pension. They don't deserve that."

Dan looked at Chloe one last time.

"I know it doesn't excuse a damn thing I did to you."

Chloe didn’t say a single word.

She stared at Dan for several long seconds while everything he’d confessed settled into place. Months of isolation, whispered insults around the precinct, people questioning her judgment, and nights spent wondering whether she’d destroyed her career chasing something that had never existed suddenly had an answer.

Dan had known the truth through all of it.

Her eyes glistened as she walked toward him.

Dan barely had time to react before Chloe’s hand swung across his face.

SMACK!

The sound echoed through the empty warehouse.

Dan’s head snapped sideways, and a red mark immediately began forming across his cheek. He didn’t raise a hand or try to defend himself. He simply stood there with his eyes lowered, accepting the anger he knew he’d earned.

Chloe’s lips trembled as though she wanted to say something, but nothing came out. She simply walked toward the warehouse exit without looking back.

Her footsteps disappeared outside.

Silence settled over the warehouse again.

Lucifer watched the doorway for a moment before turning toward Dan. He walked over and gave the detective a surprisingly gentle pat on the shoulder.

"Well, that slap was certainly long overdue,” Lucifer said before studying him more seriously. “For what it’s worth, Daniel... I don’t actually think you’re a terrible person. You’ve just made some spectacularly dreadful choices, mostly born out of fear, selfishness, and an overwhelming desire to protect your own arse.”

Dan looked toward him with exhausted eyes.

Lucifer gave his shoulder another pat. "Turn yourself in. Confess the whole sordid affair, hand over the evidence, and take your punishment like a man. Do that, and you might actually become the hero your daughter already thinks you are. Earning back the Detective's respect? Well, that's a much steeper hill, but I suppose you'll manage."

Dan gave a painful chuckle. "Thanks, Lucifer."

"Oh, please don't thank me, it makes my skin crawl. And as for Malcolm’s family...” Lucifer added as he started toward the exit, “let’s just say the Devil has deep pockets.”

Dan looked up in surprise.

Lucifer glanced back with a faint smile. “Maybe he'll do an anonymous donation to their welfare fund. They shouldn't have to suffer just because Malcolm was a corrupt little weasel."

With that, Lucifer turned and walked out of the warehouse.

...

[Outside]

Lucifer opened the passenger-side door and slipped into Chloe's car before quietly closing it behind him.

Chloe hadn't moved.

She sat behind the steering wheel with both hands covering her face, her shoulders slightly hunched while she tried to control her breathing. Lucifer said nothing at first. He simply leaned back against the seat and gave her the silence she clearly needed.

After several seconds, Chloe sniffed and slowly lowered her hands. Her eyes were red as she stared through the windshield. "So... this is what you really meant back then at my apartment?"

Lucifer turned his head toward her. "Yes. Though I assure you, everything else I said was entirely true. I merely omitted one rather crucial detail, seeing as it wasn't my secret to spill."

Chloe gave a quiet, humorless laugh while wiping beneath one eye. "You knew Dan was involved with Palmetto, and you just stood there watching me try to figure out what you meant."

Lucifer's expression softened. "It was Daniel's burden, Detective, and his confession to make. I can nudge the guilty toward the light, but robbing a man of his free will? That would make me no better than dear old Dad."

Chloe stared at him for a moment before looking away again. "I'm not even going to ask how you figured it out."

"A remarkably wise choice for your continued sanity."

Chloe sighed heavily and leaned her head against the seat. "I just can't believe him. All those months, Lucifer... he stood by and watched the entire precinct treat me like a pariah. He watched me question my own mind, and every single time I brought up Palmetto, he just looked me in the eye and told me to drop it."

Lucifer's voice became quieter as he watched her. "The truth can be a remarkably blunt instrument, Detective. It often hurts far more than the lie. But at the very least... you finally know you were right all along."

Chloe swallowed and nodded faintly while staring ahead. "Yeah. I guess I finally do." Then she looked at him. "I... I need a minute to process all of this. I have to go talk to the Lieutenant and figure out how to untangle this colossal mess. Can you do me a massive favor? Pick Trixie up from school and just... keep an eye on her for a few hours?"