Chapter 3
Clark hovered high above the city, knowing he needed to find an appropriate alley and touch down fast enough to not be seen by human eyes. Spotting a likely one near the cafe Lois had suggested that was mercifully unoccupied, he streaked down, spinning into his street clothes the instant his feet were on the pavement.
He’d gone out early this morning, California time, to fly very visible and obvious patrols over Metropolis in order to keep up the separation of Clark Kent and Superman in the public’s mind. Unfortunately, a nasty crash on the Luthor Expressway had delayed his departure, and now he was running late to meet Lois for breakfast.
“Sorry I’m late,” he told her as he jogged up to her. “Got stuck in traffic.”
“Where did you get to last night?” Lois asked as he joined her in the line.
“Oh, I went out for a walk. Needed to clear my head.” He paused. “I found Lux, by the way.”
“Lucifer’s club?”
He nodded.
“And?”
“I talked to him for a while. He’s… an unusual guy.”
“I doubt he’s the only rich playboy in LA, Clark.”
He shook his head. “That’s not it. He is a playboy, but… I think we underestimated him.”
“Yeah, well I’ll believe it when I see it,” replied Lois at her most caustic.
“I know you don’t like the guy, Lois, but you have to admit he was effective in interrogation yesterday.”
They reached the head of the line and placed their orders.
“I want to know how he does that ‘desire’ thing he was doing yesterday.”
Clark shrugged as they sat at a table near the window, placing the number the cashier had given them in the middle of the table. “I have no idea, but if it works-“
Lois made a noncommittal sound, but Clark could see she had mellowed slightly from her antagonistic stance of the day before. He’d had his reservations about the detective and her partner as well, but they had definitely worked as a cohesive and effective team.
“We still don’t have any real leads,” she pointed out.
“Come on, Lois. You know these things can take time.” He paused, looking at her curiously. “Why are you so anxious to close this and get back to Metropolis? It doesn’t have anything to do with Lex, does it?” Clark asked the last question gingerly, hoping she would disagree.
“No, of course it doesn’t,” she denied. “Look, I just don’t like working with the police. There’s so many rules they insist on following before they do anything, and who knows if we’ll even get a story out of it at the end of all this?”
“There’s nothing else we can do, Lois. We have no contacts or sources out here,” he reminded her.
“I know.”
The waitress delivered their food, effectively ending their conversation.
***
“Decker!” Chloe tensed as Lieutenant Marcus Pierce’s voice rang through the bullpen at a volume just below a shout. She tapped the file she’d been looking through against the desk, ostensibly to neaten the papers inside, but as soon as she realized she was just delaying the inevitable she rose and rounded the desk toward his door. No sense giving him a reason to bellow at me again, she thought as she entered his office.
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
Marcus narrowed his eyes as he gave her what he probably thought was a no-nonsense look but that Chloe saw as more of a glare. “Have you made any progress on the Stephens case?”
She straightened her shoulders. “A bit, but not much. We’ve been interviewing potential suspects, but we haven’t gotten any solid leads so far.” Which you would know if you bothered to check my logs.
“I have a lead for you from one of my sources,” he told her brusquely.
Chloe blinked in surprise. It wasn’t unheard of for cops to maintain active sources once they were off the street, but it was unusual. “Uh, I’ll be happy to look into anything you can give me.”
“Word on the street is that one Tomas Martinez heard or saw something that might be relevant. Check him out. He’s a junkie living on the edge of Skid Row, I’m sure you can find an address for him; he’s been brought in before.”
He looked down at the papers on his desk, clearly dismissing her.
Chloe waited for a moment to see if there was anything else, then rolled her eyes and walked briskly out of his office. Some people just can’t keep their business out of their work, she thought as she huffed quietly and sat back down at her desk.
***
Lucifer looked down at the file he’d picked up from the Detective’s desk, leafing through the evidence they’d collected so far and skipping over the more technical aspects that’d he’d never bothered to familiarise himself with.
“Are you sure this is murder?” he asked the Detective as she walked over to her desk, unable to pinpoint what it was that had attracted her attention to this case.
She reached over and yanked the folder out of his hand. “Yes,” she told him. “I told you, there’s something fishy about it. I don’t buy that it was an accident. There’s no evidence that Stephens injured himself at his apartment, and we found skin cells under his nails- clear sign of a struggle.”
“Yes, well he didn’t strike me as a big fan of bathing. Who knows how long they’d been under there.”
“Lucifer.”
“Fair enough,” he replied, letting it lie. He’d learned very early on in their partnership that the Detective possessed notable instincts when it came to homicide; she was very rarely wrong about murder, and he’d never yet seen her fail to find the right person to punish.
“What did Pierce want?”
“Oh. He had a lead for us. Some guy called Tomas Martinez.”
Something about the Detective’s tone caught Lucifer’s attention. His eyes narrowed briefly.
“Is everything okay, Detective?”
“Yeah.”
Her falsely cheerful tone cemented his suspicion that Pierce had been taking his feelings out on her; he let the subject drop as she clearly didn’t want to talk about it, resolving to keep an eye on the lovesick former immortal.
“Oh look,” he commented. “Someone’s early.”
The two reporters were crossing the bullpen to the Detective’s desk.
“Ms Lane. Clark. Do you two always start work this early?”
The Detective looked at him curiously. “When did he become Clark?”
“Oh, he dropped by Lux last night. We had a very interesting little chat, didn’t we, Clark?” Lucifer gave Clark a knowing grin that widened with amusement when the reporter blushed.
In fact, Clark’s visit to Lux had left Lucifer with a certain amount of respect for the Kryptonian. While Lucifer might not understand or agree with Clark hiding his identity from the world, the man did live up to his clean-cut image. If he also managed to live up to his reputation as a seeker of ‘truth and justice’, as his paper had put it, they may even end up as friends.
Superman and the Devil. Who would’ve thought it?
“Lucifer? You ready?” The Detective’s voice broke into his musings.
Lucifer straightened up from where he’d been half-sitting on the edge of the Detective’s desk. “Just where does this Tomas Martinez live, anyway?”
“East Fourth and Omar.”
“East Fourth and Omar!” he repeated incredulously. “That’s right on the edge of Skid Row! We’re certainly showing our guests the worst Los Angeles has to offer, aren’t we?”
She threw him a grin as they walked to the elevator.
“I thought you liked danger.”
***
“This is a rough part of town,” Chloe warned.
“You’re not kidding,” Lois commented, looking out the window. Clark had to agree with her; this part of LA was easily comparable to the areas around Suicide Slum, back home in Metropolis.
Chloe pulled the car to the curb, killing the engine and turning in her seat to pin them all with a stare. “When we get out, I need you two to stay close. No wandering off, no disappearing, got it?”
Clark nodded, Lois agreeing a shade reluctantly.
“Lucifer. You’ve got my back on this, right?”
“Always, Detective,” Lucifer replied in one of the more sincere tones Clark had yet heard him use.
They popped the doors and climbed out, Clark deliberately staying on the street side of the detective as they rounded the car to get to the sidewalk. As he crossed behind the detective, his unusually sharp hearing caught a staccato sound he’d heard during his forays as Superman.
Automatic gunfire.
He saw Chloe’s head jerk in the direction of the sound of gunfire and screeching tires before she spun towards where Lois and Lucifer stood on the pavement.
“Back in the car!” she shouted.
As she dropped to a low crouch, Clark saw it; a bullet, flying in a direct path to bury itself in Chloe’s back. He reached out at superspeed, catching the projectile before it could make impact. Quickly he slipped the squashed pellet, still smoking, into his pocket before ducking back into the vehicle.
One hand on the holster at her hip, Chloe scanned the area before straightening up as no other shots were forthcoming. She stuck her head through the still-open driver's door.
“You three. Stay here. I’m going to go check it out.”
“What? No, Detective, you can’t go in there without backup!” Lucifer protested. “What if there’s still someone with a gun?”
“Lucifer, it was a drive-by. The shooters are blocks away by now. I’m going to go see if anyone needs help.”
The three civilians sat in tense silence once Chloe had disappeared down the street. Clark restrained himself with difficulty from making an excuse and finding somewhere to spin into the Suit; if it had been Metropolis, he would’ve responded without hesitation, but here, even his fall back excuse of going to get help wouldn’t work. Not with the detective along with them.
He turned in his seat as Lucifer’s phone buzzed, watching as the other man’s expression cleared.
“Detective! Are you alright?”
***
Lucifer listened in mixed relief and worry as the Detective explained her continued absence. While she sounded physically unhurt, her description of the scene sounded harrowing. Few people knew how badly crime scenes affected the Detective the way Lucifer did. And he didn’t like the thought of her being the only officer on the scene until the backup she’d summoned had arrived.
Hanging up the call, he turned to the two reporters he’d been saddled with.
"I'm going to go help the Detective,” he announced. “You two go... do whatever it is that you do.”
He swung the door open and was on the sidewalk before Lois and Clark could react, striding off in the direction the Detective had taken.
***
Now Lucifer is going? Lois questioned internally. Well, there was no way Lois Lane was going to sit idly in a car when there was a story to be gotten.
“I’m going too,” she informed Clark, scrambling out of the back seat.
“Lois!”
Knowing that Clark would follow her, she didn’t bother to look over her shoulder as she followed in Chloe and Lucifer’s footsteps.
Crossing the last street needed to reach the scene, she stopped in her tracks, causing Clark to nearly collide with her.
She’d seen the aftermath of drive-by shootings before- like many large cities, Metropolis had its share of gang violence.
But never this fresh. Never this raw.
The crumpled remains of what had been people going about their lives just a few minutes earlier. The screams of the people left behind. The red pools of blood, dark against the asphalt.
And amongst all of the chaos, Chloe and Lucifer knelt by the victims’ sides, faces set in nearly identical expressions of rage and grief, blood in their hands as they tried to help the fallen.
***
Lois choked back a sob and turned, burying her head in Clark’s shoulder. Instinctively he comforted her, reaching up and cupping the back of her head with one hand while he himself averted his eyes from the tragedy before them.
He’d seen some truly horrific things in his time at Superman- things that would haunt his dreams for years to come- but he never ceased to be appalled at the things humans did to one another.
“Hey. You okay?” he asked Lois softly.
She nodded, stepping out of his loose embrace and drawing herself up. He gave her a half smile, knowing that a show of strength was how Lois coped with the more challenging aspects of their job. She moved away, clearly searching for whoever was in charge now that police units and ambulances had started to arrive.
“Clark.”
Clark pulled his attention away from Lois at the sound of Lucifer’s voice, suddenly aware that he hadn’t seen the other man leave the detective’s side and approach him.
“Did I see you catch something back there at the car?” Lucifer asked tersely.
Clark nodded, pulling the slug out of his pocket and giving it to Lucifer. Lucifer wrapped his hand around it tightly, his jaw tightening. For a split second, Clark could have sworn he saw the other man’s eyes glow red.
***
Lucifer swallowed hard at the knowledge that it had happened again. The Detective had once again been in mortal danger, and it had been another man that saved her.
He hadn’t protected her.
Granted, while she was in such close proximity he wouldn’t have been able to do what Clark had done. With the way his invulnerability disappeared around the Detective, the bullet would have shredded his hand had he tried to catch it, but that wasn’t the point.
He hadn’t protected her.Every instinct he possessed demanded that he seek out the person that had fired at the Detective and deliver some of his own personal brand of punishment, but he wasn’t able to do that either. Both the improbability of finding one gun-toting idiot in a city with over a hundred thousand active gang members and his own missing Devil-face made that an impossibility.
He gritted his teeth. He hated being beholden to anyone. At least this time it had been Clark and not Pierce. “Good thing you were here, Superman,” he ground out.
Clark spun and gave him a warning look.
***
“Not so loud, Lucifer!” Clark hissed, glancing around to make sure that neither Lois or the detective had heard Lucifer’s indiscreet comment.
Lucifer turned, his previously dark expression lighting to one of unholy glee. “Ooh, so it isn’t just the world you’re hiding that from, is it? Even your prickly partner isn’t in on the secret!”
“She doesn’t know,” Clark confirmed, deciding to bypass the categorisation of Lois as ‘prickly’.
“Really? Why not?”
“Because unlike you, Lucifer, I don’t tell everyone I meet that I’m not human!” Clark’s heart was racing. Didn’t Lucifer understand how fragile his life was? What a delicate balancing act it took to maintain all the secrets that kept everyone safe? That Lois would find a way to murder him when she found out he’d been lying to her daily for almost a year?
“Well at least I’m not the one hiding things from my partner,” Lucifer fired back.
“Oh really? So Detective Decker knows you’re the Devil, does she?” Clark asked pointedly.
“I’ve told her,” Lucifer hedged.
“And?”
“She doesn’t believe me. But at least I’ve tried. Which is more than what you can say, my cape-wearing friend.”
“If you tell her-“ Clark started.
“Oh, do you think I should?” Lucifer replied, clearly taunting him. Clark was taken aback for a moment. He wasn’t used to dealing with people who knew he was Superman.
“Lucifer, I swear to God-“
“Don’t.” Lucifer’s expression became deadly serious, nearly offended, and for a moment Clark almost flinched away, remembering the previous night’s revelation of how Lucifer had been treated by his father.
“You say you love this woman. So why not show her your other side? Why keep her in the dark?” Lucifer pressed.
“Because I prefer to be judged on who I am,” Clark insisted through a clenched jaw.
“Right.” Lucifer was almost dismissive and Clark felt the tension running through him ratchet that much higher.
***
“Dan.” Chloe waited until her ex-husband he finished giving instructions to the uniformed officers he was talking to before attracting his attention.
“Chloe? What are you doing here? I thought you were working the diner case.”
“I’m the one that called it in.” She crossed her arms over her chest, noticing the blood that stained her hands for the first time. “We were following a lead down the street when we heard the shots.”
Dan tilted his head sympathetically. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. It’s just…” she trailed off as she saw the team from the medical examiner’s office start to load the four victims onto gurneys and shook her head. “They were just kids.”
“I know,” Dan said gently.
She blinked, forcing herself to remain professional. “What do you need from me?”
Pushing her emotions aside, she gave Dan a rundown of everything that had happened since she’d heard the first shot, then looked around. She’d known that telling Lucifer to stay put at the car had been a waste of breath even as she’d said it, and she’d been grateful for his help and support when he’d inevitably shown up. But now she had to gather him and the two reporters up and get back to the case they were actually working.
Chloe walked over to where Clark and Lucifer were locked in what looked like a quasi-argument, ducking under the police tape that had been set up now that the other units she’d requested had arrived.
“Hey. What’s going on?” she enquired, looking from one man to the other.
“Nothing, Detective,” Lucifer replied, looking away from Clark and giving her his usual grin, the little crease between his brows the only evidence of his inner emotion.
Chloe took another look at the tension on the reporter’s face and raised an eyebrow before deciding she didn’t have the mental energy to deal with a fight right then.
“Okay. Are you guys ready to go?”
“We’re not taking this case?” Lucifer gestured to the activity behind the taped-off area.
“No, the gang unit is piggybacking homicide on this one and it’s officially out of our hands. So. Let’s go back and pick up our guy.” She looked around for Lois and found her questioning Hernandez from the gang unit.
“Does she ever stop working?”
***
“Tomas Martinez?” The Detective knocked on the door, which rattled under the blows.
Lucifer surveyed their surroundings with distaste. The hallway they stood in was dark, narrow and smelled of a disgusting combination of mould and urine; somehow he doubted that the interiors of the apartments would be much of an improvement.
“Mr Martinez? LAPD!” The Detective knocked harder on the door, causing Lucifer to worry about its structural integrity.
“Just kick it in, Detective,” he advised.
She shot him a look. “No. Not without a warrant.”
He rolled his eyes, stepping forward and grasping the doorknob; under his hand, he felt the lock tumblers realign themselves, and the knob turned easily.
“Detective?” He gestured for her to proceed him into the apartment.
She gave him another dirty look. “You have got to stop doing that.”
“What? We’re in, aren’t we?”
She shook her head as she stepped past him into the tiny sitting room, followed by Lois and Clark.
Tomas Martinez sat on the stained and torn couch, his eyes fixed on the television with the vacant stare of the high.
The hypodermic syringe, spoon and foil on the rickety coffee table told their own story.
Walking over, Lucifer leaned close to the suspect, snapping his fingers in the other man’s face and receiving nothing more than a delayed shift of the eyes in his direction.
“Detective, I don’t think we’ll be getting any sense out of this one for a while.”
***
“Are we really going to just stand here and wait for him to sober up?” Lucifer queried as they watched Martinez through the one-way glass of interrogation.
“We don’t exactly have much choice,” Chloe pointed out. “He couldn’t string two words together when we picked him up.”
“Yes, but that was two hours ago, Detective. Surely by now, he’s come down enough to question?”
She rolled her eyes at his impatience but privately conceded he had a point. They’d be more likely to get useful information out of their witness if he hadn’t started to go through withdrawals, and they had no way of knowing how quickly they’d set in once he’d sobered up completely.
“Okay.” Gesturing to Lois and Clark to stay and observe, she left observation and entered the interrogation room, settling herself at the table across from their witness while Lucifer lounged at his ease in a chair off to one side.
Martinez was about what she’d expected; vague, strung out and easily distracted, none of which was unusual for a junkie.
“Do you know this man?”
Chloe placed a photo of a dead Carl Stephens on the table in front of Martinez.
“Oh man! Someone killed this guy? Man, that's so weird, I just saw him like two, three days ago. I always thought he'd just as soon kill you as look at you, but he just stumbled right by like I wasn't even there!"
“Stumbled by? Stumbled by where?” she pushed.
“This warehouse in South Central. West Fifty-Seventh. I was down there to meet my dealer. He’s always got real good stuff.”He got a longing look on his face, and Chloe knew he was probably thinking of his next fix.
“Okay. So when was this? Two days ago, or three?”
“I dunno, man.” Chloe saw the witness’s eyes try to focus and heard Lucifer scoff from behind her.
“Oh, it’s like watching Dan try to think.”
She held up a hand, silencing Lucifer while Martinez tried to gather his thoughts.
“Three days ago. It was three.”
“Uh huh. And how do you know Mr Stephens?”
“I don’t. I seen him around is all. He’s a bad dude.” He shuddered.
***
The Detective paused in the doorway to observation.
“We’ve arrested Martinez for felony possession. And I’ve phoned in for a warrant to check out the warehouse, but it’s late. Chances are we won’t get one till tomorrow.”
The Detective left the room. Lucifer made as if to follow her, then caught sight of the expression on Lois’s face. It was one he was extremely familiar with.
Desire.
“Ohh… you want to go and check out that building, don’t you, Ms Lane?” He grinned, catching her eyes.
“You heard the detective. She won’t get a warrant till tomorrow.”
“Yes, but I bet that’s never stopped you before now, has it? After all, who knows what newsworthy things you’ll find?”
He saw the tiny movement of her head and knew he’d gotten to her. “Come on, what are you waiting for?” he asked her with a wicked grin.
“Nothing.” She grabbed her bag and headed for the door.
“Lovely.” He trailed behind her eagerly.
***
Lois tried the knob and muttered something under her breath before fishing in her bag for something.
“You should probably let me do that,” Lucifer commented, knowing that his ability with locks would have the door open in an instant. She gave him a dirty look before inserting the tips of two dainty lockpicks into the keyhole.
There was a faint ‘snick’ as the tumblers aligned and the knob turned in her hand.
“You were saying?” she shot over her shoulder as she walked through the now-unlocked door.
“Impressive, Ms Lane. You know, I’m liking Clark’s human more and more.”
“Clark’s
what? I am not his-his
human, as you put it-” Calling her ‘Clark’s human’ had to be the weirdest attempt she’d ever heard at making a non-gender-specific personal remark about her relationship with Clark. What was with this guy?
“Ms Lane.” Lucifer attempted to draw her attention to the thug pointing a semiautomatic pistol in their direction.
“-Clark and I are partners. That’s it.” She huffed impatiently, glaring at Lucifer.
“Ms Lane.” He put his hands up.
“And friends.” Why had this weirdo tagged along with her anyway? And why had she let him?! Her relationship with Clark was none of anyone’s business, and she really wished that people would stop assuming-
“Ms Lane!!”
“What?” She snapped.
He jerked his head in the direction of the very surprised and annoyed drug dealer.
***
“Detective?”
Chloe turned to find Clark walking purposefully towards her.
“Have you seen Lois?”
“I thought she was with you. I’m just looking for Lucifer... oh no.” Chloe’s shoulders dropped.
“What?” Clark asked with foreboding in his voice.
“I bet I know exactly where he is. That building in South Central,” she said grimly as she gathered her things off the table and tucked them into her pockets.
“What?!” the alarm in his voice was unmistakable, but Chloe noted that he didn’t sound the least bit surprised.
She turned and strode in the direction of the elevator, leaving Clark flat-footed in her wake.
He stuck his hand through the elevator doors, stopping them from closing, then boarded the elevator with her.
“Why would Lucifer go to South Central?”
“You don’t know Lucifer. He’s impatient and impulsive and he has a habit of getting himself into dangerous situations.” She suppressed a smile as she heard Clark mutter something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘sounds familiar’.
The elevator stopped, opening to the garage level. Quickly she got to her car, opening the driver’s door and starting the engine before the door was fully closed. As she shifted into reverse, the passenger door popped open.
“You should find Lois,” she told Clark.
“She’ll be with Lucifer,” Clark sounded resigned.
***
Lucifer lowered his hands and took a step towards the gunman.
“Give me the gun.”
“Stay back!”
Lucifer made eye contact with the thug, giving him the little half smile that went so well with his ability.
“This isn’t really what you want, is it now?”
“I said, stay back!”
Lucifer ignored his demand and the increasingly shaky gun, taking another step forward.
“You don’t really want to shoot us. No, what you want is to be gone before the police arrive.”
A hand grasped the hoodlum’s gun arm and twisted, causing him to shriek in pain and drop the weapon. Lois then clouted him on the back of the neck for good measure, waiting until the criminal had collapsed to the ground before straightening up and pushing the hair out of her face.
“Well done, Ms Lane!” Lucifer beamed at Lois in pleased surprise.
“Lucifer?” The Detective’s voice came from outside the door.
“Oh, the cavalry’s arrived. In here, Detective!”
The Detective advanced around the door with her gun in hand, lowering it as she saw the criminal Lois had recently despatched on the floor.
“Did you do this?”
“Can’t take the credit for this one, no. This one was all Ms Lane.” He looked at Clark, who’d entered the room after the Detective. “I can see why you like working with her, she’s feisty.”
***
“Lucifer.” It was all Chloe could do not to shout at him. How many times were they going to have this conversation? Was there even anything new to say? Some secret phrase she hadn’t found yet, that would magically make Lucifer listen to her?
“What? This miscreant came at us with a gun, Detective.” He gestured between Lois and himself as he nudged the fallen man with the toe of his Italian leather shoe.
“You shouldn’t even have been here!” Dammit, there went the shout. Chloe clenched her jaw.
At their feet, the thug stirred. “I didn’t do it!”
Lucifer looked down. “Do what?”
“I just found him, I swear!” There was genuine fear in the voice of the man on the floor- something that piqued Chloe’s professional curiosity.
“Found who?”
***
Chloe knelt and snapped the cuffs around the wrists of the guy Lois had taken down, then stood and unholstered her gun again.
“Ok. You two-” she gestured to Lois and Clark “- watch him. Lucifer?” She jerked her head in the direction of the inner door that stood ajar.
Advancing slowly, she took up position behind the door, nodding to Lucifer to swing it wide before she entered, making sure Lucifer was behind her.
It was dark inside the abandoned warehouse; coming to a stop, Chloe fumbled at her belt for her flashlight, clicking it on and bracing it below her gun before resuming her sweep. The narrow beam of light fell across a lump in the middle of the concrete floor; knowing with absolute certainty what she’d found, Chloe cleared the rest of the cavernous building before returning to look down at the dead body.
“Well. No wonder our drug dealer seemed nervous,” Lucifer commented.
