Back To Her Roots (Book 2 of Fell in Love with the Devil series)

Sin-Eater [4]

"I'm sorry, Detectives. I looked into the two videos in question and unfortunately, there was no overlap,"

"Doesn't make any sense, we'll need a list of everyone who saw the videos," Chloe said.

"Sadly, we don't track people. Just IP addresses,"

"Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way," Maya noted. "Can you take me through how your video process works?"

"Well, our users can upload anything they want. And if we find that the content's inappropriate, anything from animal cruelty to beheadings, it gets taken down,"

"By who?"

"Our content moderators. Most of 'em only last a few months. Frankly, most people can't stomach something so dark or upsetting,"

"Right," Chloe sighed.

Maya heard Lucifer's familiar laugh and left Chloe with the worker.

"Got, that has got to be smart. Can I see that again?"

Maya leaned over the desk divider "Lucifer,"

"Oh, Winchester, you're here. Did you know that this room collects all the best parts of the Internet?"

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Yeah, yeah, but you gotta see this. A naked man thinks he can jump on the back of a rhino." Lucifer chuckled "And you'll never guess what he lands on. Actually, you probably will. What? You've seen it already?"

Maya grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the computer "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to catch our killer, duh,"

"I thought you didn't care whether this sicko was brought to justice,"

"Oh, I don't. But then I realized that our killer may have the answer to a question that I'm, you know, struggling with. Why does he punish?"

Maya raised an eyebrow "That's it? First, you want to teach this vigilante a lesson, and now you wanna have a talk with him?"

"Yes, and lucky for me I found out where you were headed. And these videos are enthralling,"

"I've seen worse." Maya shrugged as she watched one of the screens "But never so many collected in one single room,"

"You know, if I ever go back to Hell, I am getting one of these," Lucifer noted.

Maya froze at the reminder of who Lucifer was.

"Selfish bastards get to see everything,"

"Yeah," Maya said. "They do." she looked at Lucifer "I know where the overlap is,"

***

"All right thanks." Chloe got off the fun "Dan's working with Wobble to trace what moderator may've pulled both videos. Hopefully, we'll have an answer soon,"

Lucifer looked at Maya "Why are you so sure the killer's one of these misanthropes?"

"Well, serial killers usually start with someone they know. If the killer worked here, they knew Nick, saw how much the prank hurt Tommy," Maya explained.

"Do you think seeing someone they recognized in one of these twisted videos finally made them snap?"

Maya shrugged "Maybe it awakened something in them. Something that was always there just fighting to get out,"

"But they were just trying to do a job," Lucifer laughed.

"A job no one else wanted,"

"Well, maybe they chose that for a reason," Chloe pointed out.

"No one chooses to be a sin-eater, Detective," Lucifer argued. "No one wants to be the custodian of the world's filth. Why would they? Absorbing the worst humanity has to offer, day in and day out, it changes you,"

"So you think it's the job's fault that they started to punish?"

"People don't arrive broken." Maya said "They start with passion and yearning until something comes along that disabuses them of those notions,"

Lucifer grabbed Maya's hand and rubbed his thumb against her hand. "Which means that none of these people did it,"

"Okay. I'm not following," Chloe admitted.

"Well, look at Tim there, with the photos of his ugly children. Ivan and his flowerpots. Poor Andrea's still hoping Destiny's Child gets back together. Don't you see? These people still have hope,"

"Excuse me," Chloe called out to a passing employee.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Who's had this job the longest?"

"Um, maybe me. I've been at it two whole months,"

"Anyone else?"

"No. Other than Leila, of course,"

"Leila, your boss?" Maya asked.

"Yeah,"

"She started as a moderator before the company blew up. She was the first of us,"

"Thanks," Chloe said.

"Leila knew Nick." Maya noted "She had access to the videos. If she's behind this..."

"She's known what we've been doing every step of the way," Chloe finished. She picked up her phone "Dan, I need you to see if you can trace the videos to one person in particular now. We're looking at Leila Simms,"

***

Maya and Chloe looked at the empty office.

"I can't believe we had the killer right under our nose," Chloe muttered.

"And she's gone," Maya hissed.

"Touché, Leila. Touché," Lucifer said.