Jaws of Death

Chapter 11

Matthew Murdock sat in his office at Nelson & Murdock. It felt nothing like the office of a law firm. He had been to Landman and Zack, and a couple more of Law firms but they all smelled of paper, Room fresheners and Male Cologne. This one smelled of pizzas, sandwiches, apple pies and bananas.

Yet, his mind was too accommodated to obsess over such trivial details. The past fortnight of his life had been the worst ever in recent memory. He had lost Elektra two years ago in a building crash that, sadly enough for him, failed to take his life. At times, he could still feel her presence. The way she hugged him, the way she smelled and the way her lips felt against his... Those are some memories that stand the test of time. She was the first woman who was determined to get to know him completely and his first true love. But he had lost her.

She was gone.

It had taken him tremendous will to recover from the loss of his father. The same could be said for Elektra as well. The pain eased because of new found love in Karen Page. She was everything that Elektra wasn't and, as it seemed to him, she was the right woman for him. Non-judgemental and empathetic, she had a sense of courage in her that Matt had come to adore. He thought, admittedly in a childish manner, that having her would complete his life, once and for all.

Two weeks ago, he had to reveal his identity to her. Something he had kept from her for a long time. The revelation had pushed her away.

Matt smiled to himself. If there was something he could do really well, it was at pushing people away. Yet, Karen wasn't intentional. He had revealed and opened up only to pull her closer. But somehow, it had manifested in the opposite direction. Maybe some secrets are best left unopened. Like Father Lantom had once told him, secrets are akin to a double edged sword. Revealing them is bound to hurt someone, either the speaker or the listener or both of them. Hence, caution and patience is necessary. As Karen walked out of his apartment that night, Matt remembered, he had collapsed into a fit of crying. It was followed by a severe bout of depression that demolished his appetite and even planted in him, a hatred to stay awake and talk to people. Matt had done only one thing regularly everyday all through the past two weeks: reading The Bible.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, he recited randomly to himself.

Matt didn't know if he was pure in heart. He certainly didn't see God, if he was. All he saw was an endless abyss that he had been thrown into, right from birth. Everyone he ever got close to, ended up walking out of his life, either intentionally or unintentionally. The difference between his dad, Elektra and Karen Page was that the latter knew Matt completely. She had even seen the real side of him and yet, she chose to walk out. And God was cruel enough to send him on some path towards saving the same woman, when he wasn't even sure if he wanted to live anymore.

His phone rang and Matt was pulled out of his reverie. He answered it "Hello?"

"Matt!" It was Foggy. He sounded irritated and excited at the same time. "I just realised...God, I was so stupid. The initials I read out to you on Karen's note. They were names of people. The 'M.E' in 'Mail to M.E' refers to Mitchell Ellison, her boss. I have no idea why she chose to call him M.E instead of bos-"

Matt interrupted his tirade. "What had she mailed him Foggy?"

"She had mailed it on Monday afternoon. I'll read the body of the mail out to you over phone. Just listen to me. Please don't make me read twice, buddy. Please."

Matt rubbed his weary face and listened.

"Like I said, it is all about sex trafficking. My source, Juan Rodriguez , who works at the Docks says that he sees a lot of women being brought to the Warehouse near the Docks. Men who happen to witness this are either killed, if they're unimportant, or paid off otherwise. But he's afraid of what God would do to him if he kept silent about this.

He says the women are about to be shipped off to the Middle East and sold as sexual slaves. Now, from the previous evidence that I collected, I believe that this whole thing is run by the Kitchen Irish who transport women to the Middle Eastern Countries in exchange for money. The money helps them proceed with their Drug peddling business. This interaction, I believe, was mediated by Wilson Fisk as the Daily Bugle photojournalist had unearthed. Fisk takes care of the political, economic and infrastructural aspects of this and earns a good share of profit from the Irish and the Middle Eastern Countries.

I'll mail you the detailed report as soon I reach my home tonight, so that we can print this tomorrow morning on the paper. We need to do it soon because they're planning to ship the women off on Thursday!"

Suddenly, it all began making sense to Matt. Mrs. Parker had been right. Peter Parker was innocent. A lot of New York women are currently about to be shipped off to a distant country as sexual slaves. Fisk was doing this and he was making sure anyone who stood in his way was eliminated.

Matt's heart was racing. "Foggy! If Karen has stumbled upon so much, then it really boils down to this. Someone knew she was working on this. Someone knew of her progress and decided to remove her out of the equation before it was too late. Someone was a mole. Who was that?"

"Calm down, mate! Just open the door, I've reached our front door. Unlock it for me please."

Matt got up, navigated his way to the door and pulled it open with agitated hands.

Foggy trotted inside, his footfalls heavy. "As you were saying, I tried to find who had ratted out about Karen. But, the mail she had sent Ellison, was C.C'd to three more members of the Editing Council of the New York Bulletin. Any one of them could have acted on her. Except for Ellison, because he was the one who called me in to tell me about Karen's disappearance. It couldn't have been him. He was her good friend and he knew Karen personally enough to not wish ill upon her."

There was a moment of silence. Matt's brain was working feverishly, as if it was determined to work as fast as it could even with two weeks' worth of emotional baggage. So, that meant Peter Parker and Karen Page had been working on the same story. Those involved in this had tried to silence both of them. They must have falsified Peter's evidence, like his old Aunt had suggested. But as for Karen, since she was a woman...

He felt Foggy's hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Matt exhaled and reached for the door. "I need some fresh air. I'll beback!"