what they wouldn't do | DAREDEVIL

chapter six: faith

THE WORKDAY PASSED AS SLOWLY and unpleasantly as the last. About an hour before the end of Sarah's shift, Ronan's shadow fell over her desk and she looked up in time to see him drop a large cardboard box of assorted objects onto her desk. She looked at him blankly, waiting for an explanation.

"Yates' belongings," he said in a bored tone. "No need for them anymore. I'd say just get rid of them, but apparently we have to keep it for forty-eight hours to give his family a chance to pick it up."

Sarah glanced down at the box. There wasn't much in it. A couple of folders, a few knick knacks, a water bottle, some loose papers.

"Will they be coming by soon?" she asked him.

Ronan shrugged. "No clue. Who knows if he even has a family? Who cares? Just keep it behind your desk for the next two days and then toss it."

She nodded, but he didn't leave her desk. Instead he lingered, staring from his watch to her with a smirk on his face, until she raised her eyebrows at him.

"Just wondering if they teach you to tell time in secretary school," he said.

"I...don't know if secretary school is a thing anymore," she responded.

"Well, wherever you learned your definition of 'lunch break' then."

Her face flushed. "Oh. I—I didn't feel well yesterday."

"Upset about your dead boyfriend?" he asked mockingly.

"My...what?"

"Well I can't think of any other reason you'd get that upset and rush out of here after the news spread. Unless you two were, uh, engaging in some off-the-clock teamwork," he said, baring his yellow teeth in a leer. She narrowed her eyes when she caught what he was suggesting.

He leaned a little closer and said lowly, "You know, if you were going to give it up to someone in the office, you probably should have shot a bit higher than Yates. You didn't even get a promotion out of him before he kicked the bucket."

Sarah stared at him, gritting her teeth in an effort not to respond. She knew he was just trying to get a rise out of her, but something in his expression disturbed her deeply, more so than usual, and she had no desire to push farther. Ronan kept his beady eyes glued on her for a long, unsettling moment before returning to his office.

After he was gone, Sarah took a few deep breaths and stared down at the box. If someone at the company did kill Yates, maybe there would be some clue in there. She doubted that they would have left anything incriminating in there, but there might be something they missed. But the lobby during the middle of the business day wasn't the best place to be rummaging around in a dead man's things. She supposed she could figure out a plan with her frequent nightly visitor—who she was positive would be dropping by tonight, seeing as she hadn't been there the night before. And she was sure he would not be in a good mood.

➳

As she had expected, a knock came at her window around 11:30 that night. Her stomach flipped in anxiety; just how pissed would he be that she had disappeared for a night after basically accusing him of murder? On top of that, how much angrier would he get when she wouldn't tell him where she had been?

She heaved the window up and squinted out into the darkness. Even by his outline she could tell he was tense. Matt slipped in silently while she returned to where she had been sitting at her small kitchen table. He remained standing by the window, just outside of the glow cast by her kitchen light.