Tiny Wings - Lucifer Morningstar

Chapter Three - Detective

The next morning, Rayna woke up and checked her phone as usual, except this time, she found herself disappointed.
Matt: Hey chick, I'm afraid the guys and I have band practice, so we're gunna have to cancel on you for today, but tomorrow? X
Rayna sighed heavily.
Rayna: Yeah, that's fine. Don't worry about it. You guys enjoy yourselves. If you've got any time free after practice, let me know and I'll be over x
She dropped her phone back down on the bedside table and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"Ben, you up?" She called through the penthouse.
No answer.
Rayna frowned to herself and threw the sheets off herself before going out to the living area.
"You always did suit the bed head look." An annoyingly familiar voice said.
On the couch, sat Lucifer, one leg over the other in a rather expensive looking navy blue three piece suit and black shirt.
"You have got to be kidding me..." Rayna groaned. "What are you doing here, Lucifer?"
"Come to welcome my old friend to a new day in good ol' LA." He smirked, situating his hands in a praying position against his mouth.
"Yeah, well I don't need welcoming. What have you done with Ben?" She folded her arms across her chest as she leant against the bedroom archway.
"He left a couple of minutes after I arrived - asked me to tell you that he had a really good night and left you a few grams of the good stuff." He winked.
"Oh good. Apparently I'm going to need it." Rayna rolled her eyes and sat on the couch opposite her company, immediately rolling a rather large joint.
"Dad always said sharing was caring, you know." Lucifer teased as the Vampire licked the rolling paper and folded it over.
She rested the smoke between her lips and released a frustrated sigh as she got up to go to the rooftop.
"And you never listened to anything he had to say." She replied in a bored tone. "Come on then."
Lucifer smiled cheekily, patted his thighs and got up, following her out of the door.
Outside, Rayna looked out over the Los Angeles skyline when she heard the sound of a phone buzzing.
"You're getting a call." She said, putting in no effort to make eye contact.
"What? Oh." Lucifer reached into his pocket and was almost surprised to see that he was, indeed, getting a call. "Detective. What can I do for you?" He smiled.
Rayna used her Vampire-enhanced hearing to eavesdrop.
"We've got a case downtown. Meet me there, I'll send you the address." A woman's voice replied.
Rayna frowned to herself.
'A case?' She thought.
"I'll be there soon." Lucifer told her and hung up.
"A case?" She repeated out loud.
"Yours truly has taken up solving murders to pass the time." The Devil straightened his suit jacket proudly.
"Lucky LA..." Rayna replied as sarcastically as possible, handing the last half of the joint to him.
He smiled, taking it from her.
"Fancy joining me?" He asked. "Oh wait; you're meeting your friends today, aren't you."
Rayna squinted. "How did you know?"
"The bartender attempted to kick me out using the 'she's busy today' shtick." Lucifer shrugged, taking a deep toke of the joint.
"They postponed until tomorrow. So I suppose I'm free to meet this detective you've lured into your trap."
"Since your version of compulsion is unfortunately better than mine, you could actually come in handy." Lucifer pointed out.
Rayna sighed. "I'd better get dressed then."
As she went to leave to change, Lucifer grabbed her hand, spinning her around, causing her to fall right into his chest.
"Get off me, you moron. Do you want my help or not?" Rayna scowled.
Lucifer smirked. "Just wanted to remember how that felt."
"Fuck, I hate you." The Vampire scoffed, pulling herself out of his grasp.
"I know. Now go get some fresh panties on, we have a murder to solve."

Once dressed, the pair made their way down to the parking lot, where Lucifer's beloved 1953 Chevvy Corvette was appallingly parked.
"How the Hell haven't you had this work of art towed?" Rayna sighed, opening the passenger side door.
"I'd say Divine intervention, but... Probably not." Lucifer replied.
Rayna rolled her eyes and strapped in.
Roughly forty-five minutes later, the two arrived at a filthy old warehouse, the exterior littered with cop cars and a Coroner's truck.
"Bloody LA traffic always killing my buzz. And people wonder why I prefer to drive at night." Lucifer scolded under his breath.
"Finally, you're here." A woman walked up to the car as the Devil and the Vampire got out. She had mousy brown hair with blonde highlights and wore a not-so flattering pantsuit. She looked to Rayna with a frown. "Who's this?"
"An old friend from way back when. Detective, Rayna, Rayna, Detective." He introduced.
Rayna held out her hand, which the Detective shook.
"Detective Chloe Decker, LAPD." Her expression remained sceptical.
"Rayna Ives. Your consultant's consultant." She gave a small half smile.
"Right..." Detective Decker replied in monotone before looking to her partner. "Lucifer, can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Of course, but we might want to disappear a few blocks; Miss Ives here has a Vampire's ear, you see." Lucifer smirked.
"Devils and now Vampires... Great." The Detective sighed, grabbing Lucifer by his suit jacket to drag him off to the side.
Rayna did, indeed, listen in.
"You can't just bring people to a murder investigation. Is it a British thing? Is that what you guys do or something?" The Detective folded her arms across her chest.
"I'll have you know, Detective, that Rayna is very gifted when it comes to this sort of thing. You thought my eye thing was good; well wait until you see hers."
Chloe sighed again. "I am so going to pay for this..."
The pair walked back over to Rayna, who was waiting patiently, leaning on the hood of the Corvette.
"One time only, I promise." Rayna pouted, putting her hands into the praying position.
"One time." The Detective said, sternly pointing a finger between the two immortals before her.
The pair nodded and Chloe walked away, clearly expecting them to follow.
"So what's the case?" Rayna asked as they walked into the massive warehouse.
"See for yourself." Chloe sighed, stepping aside to reveal a body tied to a chair in the middle of the building.
"Jesus..." Rayna raised an eyebrow.
"Excuse me, ma'am. You can't be here." A uniformed officer approached the Vampire.
"She's with us, officer." Chloe stated which quickly silenced him, before she turned back to the victim. "John Beckett, forty, tortured before taking a single bullet to the head."
"Execution style, excellent." Rayna nodded her approval, earning an odd look from the Detective. "I mean, I haven't worked on a case in a while, so I like it when an interesting one comes up that I get to be a part of."
Chloe made an 'o' shape with her mouth, the rest of her expression sceptical. "May I?"
Rayna pointed to the victim, suggesting to take a closer look.
"Go ahead. It seems pretty straight forward. We knew this guy was drug running for some pretty sickening gangs, the problem is finding out which one pulled the trigger." She said, handing Rayna some latex gloves.
The Vampire put them on and bent down, inspecting the body.
Both of his Achilles tendons had been sliced, which made Rayna wonder what the point in tying him to the chair was, he clearly wasn't going anywhere. She saw that his toes, fingers and thumbs had all been smashed to pieces by something rather heavy. A mallet, perhaps? She then looked up to his knees, seeing nails through his kneecaps so long, that they were coming out of the underside of his legs. Up further, his mouth had been poorly sewn shut, but there was far too much blood for just the stitches.
"Does anyone have a scalpel or a pair of scissors?" Rayna asked, looking up at everyone.
Chloe held up a finger and went to the nearest Forensic scientist, who handed her a pair of scissors.
"Here." The Detective gave them to the Vampire.
"Thanks." Rayna replied, moving back to the mouth of the victim. Carefully, she cut the thick chord and forced his mouth open. "Ha. Knew it." She smiled.
"What is it?" Lucifer asked.
She handed the scissors back to Chloe and proceeded to search the body.
In the breast pocket of his black dress shirt, was his tongue.
Rayna pulled it out, a disgusted look on her face as she held it up to show her company.
"Oh my God..." Chloe gasped.
"I'm afraid he had nothing to do with this..." Lucifer grimaced.
Chloe opened up an evidence bag for Rayna, who dropped the tongue inside before turning back around.
"Now, where's the eyelids?" Rayna wondered out loud, seeing the blood trails that looked like he had been crying the stuff she constantly craved.
"An officer found them in the corner by the fire exit." Chloe informed her.
Rayna frowned. "Fair enough..."
Upon further inspection, the left bicep area of the man's shirt had been cut, so she decided to take a closer look.
"Something's been filleted from this guy's arm." She curled her lip in disgust.
"Yeah, we think it was a gang affiliation tattoo, but we have no idea where it is." Chloe disclosed.
Rayna nodded, without turning to face them.
When she was done, she sighed and stood up.
"Well, you have one fucked up gang attack on your hands." She shrugged.
"Is that all you've got?" Chloe raised an eyebrow, believing this whole thing to be a waste of time.
"Considering I've only just got here and have already found more evidence, I'd say that was pretty good, to be fair." Rayna shrugged, stuffing her hands into her leather jacket pockets after removing the latex gloves. "Tell me about the gangs in the city – the worst of the worst. My area of expertise, after all, lie within the living."
"Well," Chloe began. "There's Armata Strigoi, Los Diablos and the Black Syndicate. They're the main ones. We believed he worked with AS and Los Diablos, but the Black Syndicate are notorious for sticking their noses in where they don't belong."
"Armata Strigoi? Army of the undead, seriously? Jesus, these gangs are getting really unimaginative these days..." Rayna held her head in her hands with shame.
"Yep." Chloe replied, popping the 'p'.
"I think we-I mean you should round up the presidents and their vices for an interrogation. Someone's gotta know something." Rayna pursed her lips in thought.
"Good idea." Chloe agreed. "Since Lucifer thinks that your powers of suggestion are better than his, would you like to join us for questioning?"
Rayna looked quite shocked, whereas Lucifer looked almost proud.
"Um, sure. I suppose." The Vampire shrugged.