I didn't have the time to get into a pair of clothes suitable for the station, I came straight from the TopMeet event hosted at the headquarters itself, so walking into the station with the suit on was a cause for discussion among my colleagues. My first impression of Benji is I couldn't understand how it is he's suppose to be famous but I haven't seen or heard of him. I think it's to do with how I have a non-existing social media presence at all.

Here I am, in my suit, sitting across from Benji in one of the interview chambers the station has. It is quite late, early hours of the evening team that took over the officers who were on morning duty. My hair is thrown up in a half up a down hairdo, to keep strains from getting in my face, and with a rub of my face I opened the file of Kim's to give Benji a good look at her.

He seemed quite surprised at the death of Kim as he continued to look over the facial scars on Kims face, that correlated to her attacker putting up an arm to slash at her face. " I went on a date with... her. Just The other night. Oh my gosh. Still can't believe she's, uh.. dead." I hummed, not believing his sincerity, as my instincts aren't usually wrong with these instances. Why would he try to run out on me after I showed him my badge? He is who I would assume be not the one to run if he wasn't a man of guilt. 'Though I can't help but feel like my own instincts have been misconstrued as of late.' So really I can't say they've been on the nose with my assumptions and such.

" Oh? Did you think she'd survive you murdering her?" Said Lucifer, innocuously and casual is his approach to how he said those things he did with a gesture of his hand, and stares unbelievably at Benji. " Highly doubtful you don't believe she is, in fact, dead when you were the one who saw her last. Benny boy."

" I told you, I'm innocent!"

" Well, you're an overpaid DJ. So, that is up for debate."

I put my hand up to stop Lucifer talking, which he followed with a silent smile of assurance he'd he'd be a good boy and listen to me, leaning more into the role as an angel than a detective. I want to try and understand my intuition better. With a slight nod of my head, I focused on being intone in dealing with my instincts. I wanted to see if it was me being subconsciously making me believe if Benji is actually guilty or if he really is innocent as he said he is. " You were the last person to ever see Kim alive, Benji. You don't think for a second that isn't a least a little suspicious to us. Tell us if we are wrong or we're right."

" You're wrong. When I dropped her off after our date, her roommate was still there."

" How do you know that? Did you see her there?"

" Because that is the reason why I didn't go any where near upstairs like Kim suggested. I was trying to avoid Esther."

The woman with the odd liking for Kombucha martini's? That Esther? She is the reason why Benji didn't enter the house? I am now even more on the confusion side of my mind. Was there something I missed? A feeling I didn't see while Esther was in the same place as I was before? My Brain began to go into overdrive with all of these different thoughts and possibilities. " You mean the kombucha martini girl? That Esther?" Lucifer pressed on, wanting to know if he heard right, it's hard for me to believe as well. " And you know of her and her love for the blasted monstrosity of a grass drink?"

" How could you not when she's someone who is glued to her phone and talks in hashtags."

" How did you two meet?" I asked, wanting all of this night to be over with once and for all because all of it is staring to bring my mind in a to sudden state of haze, hands on my elbows crossed over to my chest. " You and her seem to run in two very different but equally the same social circles. How is it you met her?"

" We matched in the TopMeet app, a few weeks ago. And went on two exhausting dates. But I went on that second date, cause I wanted to see.. I wanted to see Kim again. I met Kim, when I was picking up Esther for our first date. However she wasn't there the second time." Jealousy? Maybe. Esther became jealous, that she wasn't being paid enough attention to, so she and Kim got into it at their shared apartment because of Benji's being interested in Kim not her. " You can imagine how happy I was when she popped up on the TopMeet app."

" No, I don't. Actually. You're saying you used that top hat to get a shoe? He must be lying. Tell me he is lying, Detective."

Benji is telling the truth. He's telling the truth. I leaned back, affirming that he's in fact the one in question being true to himself than I thought him to be otherwise a douche bag who is lying straight to our faces, and couldn't begin to explain why it is I wanted him to be so guilty. He didn't come off as the first person you'd expect to kill another. " I actually do think he's telling the truth, Lucifer. Something I catch believe myself." I muttered, to him, which he looked at me as if to question what is wrong with me but I brushed it off.

" Because I am telling the truth, man. I really.. I really liked Kim. I'm telling you that now. She is, well was, different than all the other woman on the app."

" Different as in duller, more mundane and dressed for less?"

" No." Benji corrected. " As in she didn't make me feel like I had be on all the time." A sadness made its way into his eyes, recollecting the memories in his mind going back to his time with Kim. " With Kim... I felt like I could be myself, you know. She made me feel... good. Like I could show her the real me and she wouldn't judge me. If that makes sense. I didn't have to be someone else I wasn't."

" Interesting." Mutters Lucifer, softly.

That's actually sweet. Romantic.

" Thank you. I am sorry, again, for dragging you here but please understand that this is a delicate matter at hand." I apologised, taking on the role of my wrongdoing in the progress of this case we are investigating, giving my hand to Benji and he took the time to shake it. " Lucifer, it's time to go. We got what we need." I slap his shoulder, using the Manila cream coloured file paper, as to have him snap out of his deep thinking. He arose out of his seat, still a mile away in his own thoughts. I lowered my voice to the degree only Lucifer could hear me. " What if Esther is the one to have killed Kim? Think about it. Jealousy, how she couldn't get Benji to herself, and to mention the lack of a reaction to her roommate dead on her couch?"

'It's time to do some more digging into this.'

Lucifer use of one of the stations tablets to scroll on Esther's social media account, for the case purposes though highly doubt that he'd be an effective leader of example and not scroll for his own sake of checking out Esther.

Even if he claims he isn't doing anything of the type I didn't fully believe him as of now, proved useful. He did manage to somehow find a clue, a missing piece. A brand of dumbbell Esther promoted in a recent blog she posted for her AD deal. It matched with the weapon used to murder Kim. Which is how I needed up back at Esther's. Who is currently in a checkered bikini top, with a colourful cocktail of her choice in hand that has a cute tiny umbrella and cherry in it, waiting on us to question her.

" Thank you for making time for us, again. We, uh, We just want to ask you a few more questions in concerns about Kim's death." I coughed, while trying my hardest to keep my eyes on Esther's, in hopes to not be affected by her choice of clothes. She's allowed to wear anything she liked to and it isn't my place to police her on her wardrobe. It's her home. Laminated picture of Esther's promo shoot for the dumbbell opened, I set it up to meet her eyes. " So, would you mind telling me where.. this photo was taken?"

" Uh, I took that on my way to Tokyo, I think." It sounded like she didn't remember her own life. I nodded, slowly, thinking to myself how she could have not remembered a trip out of the country. I only traveled as far away as interstate. I've never been out of the country. I'd do anything to see the world. " Sorry, I travel so much, it's hard to keep track."

" I forgot to mention that we're actually trying to track something else down." I point out the pink dumbbell. " This was used the night Kim died. It is the suspected murder weapon."

" That's not mine. I don't work out. This is all god given."

" So, you're saying that dumbbell is Kim's?" I say, eyebrow shooting up to my hair, as I looked her up and then down checking her god given body. I blushed which I am quick to admit she did have a good, toned, body to begin with. I'm starting to be like Lucifer. Cut it out, Ellie. " And not yours? Is what I am understanding you are saying?"

" Yeah. Poor thing tried so hard to be like me."

A little self confidence doesn't hurt no one but a lot of the time it can transgress into something a little more than the covert route of narcissism. It doesn't take a genius to see that. I crane my head. " How did it feel realising Benji was more, or so, interested in Kim than he was in you? Did that.. make you feel something. Jealousy? Anger? Both of those emotions?" I asked, leaning in, to see if she would crack under my questioning. Her eyes slowly changed in size, a response to how sudden my questions were, and she parted her lips as if to answer me with a stutter then Lucifer puts his hand up to stop me. " Lucifer, what are you..."

" Ah. Ah. Hold it right there, now. Don't listen to the detective, Esther. She's trying to trick you in to confessing. Now look into my eyes, so we can both prove her wrong and tell her you are indeed innocent." He's trying to make me out to be the bad cop in this situation, which I scoffed at and I crossed my arms slouching my way back into the seat, one leg over the other.

" Now, you are too sophisticated to care about your boring flatmate's trifles, aren't you? Tell me. What is it you truely.. desire?" I leaned forward once lucifer had her in the trance, mind, state he usually had everyone in while they are under his desire control influence.

" I... want to stop posing and lying! It takes so, so, much effort ti make these pics looks so effortless. It's exhausting!"

" So.. you're saying it's all a Facade?"

" I don't even know what that word means!" Says Esther, exclaiming her point with both straight up frustration and her character breaks showing off her true personality, throwing her hands up. " I'm not worldly at all!" She suddenly arises out of her antique piece of furniture, her stiletto heel pumps bounding their way to an arch, and to my bafflement she proceeded to roll a backdrop of a windows design laptop wallpaper elapsed into an open and perfect frame. " Hashtag Barbados? No more like hashtag Bogus! The most exotic place I have been to is the gyms sauna."

" I thought you said you didn't work out?"

" Of course I do! With real equipment, at a gym, not in my living room!"

Why didn't she come clean with us and go with that? At first? " So, you are saying the dumbbell is really Kim's?"

I asked, still trying to piece what I thought was a reasonable idea of the crime that I knew but I was wrong. Even now I'm starting to think my place as a detective and have doubts.

" Yeah, she tried, like, everything to be part of my glamorous lifestyle." She explained, sighing, as I glanced my eyes over the backdrop. " She, even, was planning on getting surgery once all of the money came in." Wait. What is this money she is supposed to have gotten paid? Money wasn't at all mentioned before. " Before you ask, I don't.. I don't know what the money was for but Kim said it was worth it and made it sound life changing."

'Maybe this was, after all, for financial gain. Her killer wanted the money and all of this is for greed.'

~•~

There aren't leads to go on with the financial part of Kim's homicide case. I've tried looking for the angles i needed to get my head around her killer's motive for taking her life but nothing had come up. I was at my lowest point, running my fingers in my hair I had let down from its pinned up and slicked back style, walking around the station in a mindset mumbling to myself about what I'm not seeing in my case. I then get a startle of my life as a tap of my shoulder made me forget about what I was reading, turning my head, finding the eye of Charlotte Richard's herself. Oh, how lovely.

" I couldn't help but listen in on your mindless self soothing words, that weren't so quiet not to be straight forward on the mention of it or overstep a boundary that I shouldn't, Miss decker. Or should I call you Ellie?" She sighed, troubled is her breathing while doing so, and her eyes seem in deep distress. She handed me the papers in her hand. " It's come to my understanding you're finding yourself at a cross road with this case. It didn't take me long to find a connection, as I did a little digging myself for this one, and found.. I found this. Here." She expanded on her sentence. " I hope this will be of help, Miss decker."

I peaked a quick second of the folder given to me. What is inside made me rethink the entire thing I originally had in mind. It's a contract agreement. Between Kim and Mack Slater.

" This is..." I can't find the source believable for a second but here it is. Written and printed. " I can't believe it. Slater said he hadn't met her, Met Kim, until.."

" A two year contract written up in total secrecy. Yes. They knew each other, Kim hired Mr. Slater. It's right here in the writing."

Ella had specified, at the start of the investigation to Kim's death, TopMeet's encryption is quite the impossibility to break itself. No one could access it. But Kim mysteriously could? Expect for the one person who could have built the website or its contents. Unless that means.. Kim is the one to have built TopMeet. She is the owner. Then it leaves the question of who Mack slater is? What is his relationship with Kim? What is he doing?

" Thank you, Charlotte. I appreciate this. It can help us with the investigation."

I say, genuinely, going to walk off. But before I could Charlotte is the one to stop me, blocking my path from going off in the opposing direction. She cleared her own throat, clearly wanting to say something to me, as my arms crossed waiting for her to get whatever is on her chest she wanted to tell me. It still feels like yesterday Charlotte, or Goddess, was successful in almost poisoning and responsible for my death if it wasn't for lucifer in flying down to hell to get the antidote off of that crazed asshole she collected his smarts from. The silence is louder than the actual murmur of cops.

" Can we talk? After you are done dealing with.. after you done with today's duties? I.. feel, like, I am in desperate need to give you apologies. For the last few months. That I've been made aware of. If you don't mind me being blunt? Detective."

It couldn't hurt to have a good conversation with Charlotte. To hear her out. After all she didn't get to technically be in control of her own life, when it was all goddess taking the reins pretending to be Charlotte herself, and I lowered my guard as I nodded. " Sure. We can talk, Miss Richard's. I'll.. like that." I admit, now, it'd be nice to finally get to know the real her and not a murderous Entity.

" Please, Ellie. Call me Charlotte."

" I think I will stick to Ms. Richard's, for now."

~•~

Mack slater turned out to be our killer.

Like it's not enough for a man to kill a woman, for how she wanted to make a dating app accessible for those wanting to find love, which isn't a surprise. Aunt Chloe had made the connection, I had gone to Mack's with Lucifer, and I made the arrest for the murder of Kim he is responsible for. Tonight I had decided to invite Charlotte to my place for that talk we planned to have. Which would have been a bad idea if she was still the goddess but in reality she isn't her no longer and I've kept it as a reminder. Locked in my subconscious.

I open the front door, allowing Charlotte inside of my home, and her first thing to say is " You have an adorable apartment." I wish I was kidding. My hands randomly form into an intertwined cross, a move I made out of the conscious choice to have a shield of some sorts over my body, on my chest. We sat down on my couch. I kicked my legs up on the seat and softly sighed. " So, to start off..."

" It's not your fault."

" What.. I.." She said, taken aback. " What isn't.. my fault?"

" It's not your fault, you know. 'Bout all of those things you did in the past. That you can't bring.. you can't bring yourself to remember. Because it quite literally wasn't you who did all of them and I forgive you. Despite your lack of recollection for what it's worth, Charlotte."

I gave her an acceptable amount of time, which is appropriate for this kind of conversation, with a hug I am willing to admit might sound weird to give a complete stranger but with situations like mine nothing is ever weird to me no more. This is a hug that is well overall deserved for the both of us. She didn't question the weirdness of the hug and gave it back to me instead.

Luka is sleeping, head laid upon his matured grown paws, in one of his many corners he chose to rest himself into.

Charlotte 'huh'd' reaching for the photograph of me with Aidan, Amelia and Ana. My smile soften. I missed having those three around, always I do find myself finding my mind drifting off what all of my kids are doing this day in the future itself. What it is Rory is also doing. I caught what looked to be recognition in her eyes. But it goes away, quickly.

" Who are these lovely kids? Are they your siblings? You four have such a striking resemblance to one another. I actually would believe you to be their Mother but the age of them doesn't quite add up to make sense for it to be the truth. How ridiculous of me to think.."

'If only she knew how right she is'.

JASMINE SPEAKS;

Another episode is done and gone.

How about we just sit back and think about just exactly how much I have written so far? Like I've accomplished something I never thought I would do. And that is to write so many chapters for one book itself. But I did it. I actually have come this far into writing for Lucifer and Ellie's story.

What did you think of Ellie in this chapter? With Lucifer and Charlotte? The mention of her kids?