Kneel

Case 19

  "I owe you an explanation." Lucifer said as he walked through my front door.

  "Don't worry about it. I get it."

  "....You do?" Lucifer looked at me with furrowed brows as I shut the door.

  "I'd rather you just say it to my face."

  "....You would?"

  "Yeah. It's a lot better to be told you don't actually want to be my friend instead of finding out after sitting alone in a restaurant for a couple of hours. Silly me should have caught on sooner." I waved my hand while placing the other on my hip. "But, you know, Dr. Martin said to trust more, have better confidence in myself. Should have figured that didn't include you."

  "Wait, hold on now-"

  "Lemme guess, I'm just the convenient person to help clean up your messes?" My gaze was harsh while my tone was calm. "Thought it'd be funny to play a little trick on the 'imp'?"

  "Okay, look, that's not at all what happened." Lucifer raised his hands.

  "Then what did? What happened?"

  "I....got caught up with something else."

  "Really? Too caught up to at least send a text that you wouldn't be coming?"

  "....Well, no."

  "That's what I thought. Now, I was on my way out, so you gotta go."

  "You're upset." Lucifer made a face like he was a bit surprised and confused. "And I mean genuinely upset."

  "Of course, I am, Lucifer. You go on and on about being my friend, and then stood me up without so much as a text. Friends don't do that."

~

  "Hello?"

  "What did you do?" Chloe's voice came through the phone as I was folding laundry, and I paused from her tone.

  "Uh....laundry?"

  "No, I mean to Lucifer. He showed up at my place and tailed me to the trial. He's been acting weird, so what happened at dinner?"

  "Wait, trial? For-"

  "My dad's killer. Yes. Made some crappy excuse about coming to help support Mom and I when he clearly didn't even remember the trial."

  "Well, I can tell you it wasn't me then because there was no dinner. He bailed." I held the phone between my ear and shoulder as I went back to folding clothes.

  "He did?"

  "Yup." I said while popping the 'p'. "Told me something else came up. Ask him about that, it might be why he's being weird."

  "Lucifer, stop! I'm on the phone." Chloe hissed.

  "Sounds like you gotta go."

  "I do. Bye, I'll talk to you later."

  "Okay. Bye." I said before the call ended. Setting the device down, it dawned on me that I might have actually done something. Lucifer was rather emotionally driven- It was possible what I told him this morning was leading him to overcompensate.

  Shaking my head as I sighed, I turned my attention back to the laundry while Morningstar was curled up and napping a few feet away.

~

  "Detective Sobieski. Do you mind if I just call you Misha?"

  "Uh....who is this?"

  "Oh, right. This is Charlotte Richards. If I'm not mistaken, you're Chloe Decker's partner, correct?"