Chapter 28
Thursday rolled around and they were no closer to getting any solid proof that the DA was involved. Matt and Foggy were scheduled to meet up with Agent Boyd at the field office in Federal Plaza on the south side of the island at 2:00 in the afternoon.
After going through the metal detector and being thoroughly searched, they were given visitor badges and escorted to the agent's cubical. Agent Michael Boyd was about as average as a person could get, average height, average build, his suit not too cheap or too expensive, his hair not too long or too short. His face was open and honest and his handshake firm.
"Nate had a lot of good things to say about you two," he smiled at them before motioning them to take a seat in the cramped space. "Sorry about the accommodations, but not everyone can have an office like they show on TV."
"This is fine, Agent Boyd," Matt said, allowing Foggy to guide him to a chair.
"Call me Mike," he told them, taking his seat on the other side of a cluttered desk.
Once they were all seated, he turned his warm brown eyes to Foggy. "What can I do for you? Nate didn't have a lot of details but said something about human trafficking."
Foggy quickly told him about Mrs. Vitalidi and her daughter, the lack of cooperation they were getting from the police, and the threats made to Nyah by detective Maroney. When he was through, Boyd leaned back in his chair with a slight frown.
"I don't see the link between the disappearance of one woman and trafficking."
Matt leaned forward, "we started doing some digging and discovered several other missing women in Hell's Kitchen that were young and lived high risk lifestyles."
"And," Foggy interjected, pulling a sheaf of papers from his briefcase and putting them on the desk in front of the agent, "almost all of the women were seen by the director of the Women's Center in Hell's Kitchen."
Boyd leaned forward and leafed through the files that Nyah had stolen from the center before she was fired, his frown growing as he did so.
"This is compelling, but I still don't see the link. Williams might be a serial killer." He closed the file. "But this does warrant a closer look, I agree."
"Do you know that warehouse found last week with the cages set up?" Matt asked.
"No," he shook his head and looked confused.
"Exactly!" Foggy said throwing his hands in the air. "How could you not know about that?"
"Look," Matt lowered his voice, "we followed a lead to that warehouse and another one where people had obviously been kept locked up. When we got to that warehouse, there were five women locked up in cages. They said they had been auctioned off to people through the internet," Boyd sat up when he heard that. "We set them free and then called 911 and got the hell out of there. We kept waiting to hear something about it, but there was NOTHING. We are telling you the police are in on this."
"When was this?"
"Just last week."
"Where are these women now?" the agent asked.
"We can put you into contact with one of them, she said she would testify, as would most of the others," Matt assured him.
"Why did you wait so long to come forward?"
"We didn't know who to talk to. We just knew we couldn't trust the police, not after what happened to our friend. Foggy just remembered Nate on Monday."
Agent Boyd leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll need to talk to this woman and the others to verify your story, but I still don't see any hard evidence that points towards the police being involved."
Foggy's shoulders slumped at his statement and Matt started to rise from his chair to leave, but the agent made a calming motion with his hands and Foggy reached up and tugged Matt back down into his chair.
"I'm not saying they aren't involved. What I am saying is that we need to be very careful how we proceed. I think I need to get Jim Everett from Trafficking involved. He might have some intel on the ring you are looking at."
Matt perked up at the name. There were a lot of people named Jim, but it was too big of a coincidence for him to ignore. "Jim? Do you know him?"
"Not well, but I've seen him around and heard a lot about him. Why?"
"Show him the recording," Matt told Foggy. They hadn't planned on using the recording yet, but they couldn't take any chances. Every cue that Matt had gotten from Agent Boyd had bespoke his integrity and honesty. He had given no indication of nervousness that would indicate he was anything other than what he professed to be; an honest agent.
Foggy fumbled around in his case again and pulled out his cell phone. Pulling up the recording, he handed his phone to the agent. As the clip progressed, his face flushed, and he ground his teeth.
Handing the phone back to Foggy, he said, "send that to me, please." It wasn't really a request, but Foggy gladly complied.
"That was Everett, I take it?" Matt asked but he already knew the answer.
He breathed out through his mouth and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That is going to make this difficult, but I can work around it."
"Now do you see what we have been up against?" Matt asked him angrily. "Are all the law enforcement officials in this damn city crooked? Now do you see why Hell's Kitchen embraces their vigilante?"
Foggy looked at him in alarm, but Boyd missed the look, instead he was looking down at his desk, his shoulders drawn forward.
"I wonder that myself at times," he muttered. Then he sighed. "Give me a few days on this, guy. Then I'll contact you. We'll probably have to meet again because I know I'm going to have a lot of questions once I get my head around all this. You guys have don't a great job so far, but don't do anything else to put yourselves in danger, okay. Keep a low profile and let us handle it from here."
He stood and shook their hands and gave them a few more assurances, then had them escorted back downstairs.
Out on the street, Matt turned to his friend, "Well, at least one person believes us."
"I take it we are going to ignore his advice about staying out of danger?"
"I am. I don't know about you," Matt quipped.
Another week passed without getting any additional information. Matt's nightly forays came up empty. It seemed like their villains were indeed keeping their heads down, waiting for everything to blow over. Agent Boyd hadn't contacted them either and they were beginning to worry that he was in on it despite Matt's instincts to the contrary.
To make matters worse, word had gotten out that Matt and Foggy were helping with missing persons cases that the police were ignoring. Two more distraught mothers had shown up at the office with stories of their missing daughters. All three friends were on edge and starting to take their frustrations out on each other. Thursday morning, a week after their meeting with the FBI agent, Matt and Foggy had a minor disagreement about a case concerning rent control that had ended with Matt throwing a coffee mug across the room and storming out. Shortly after his exit, Foggy had also left to "get some air", leaving Karen alone in the office.
Just before noon, the door opened and a man in his late forties wearing a cheap suit walked into the office. Karen checked the calendar, but she knew there were no appointments scheduled for the rest of the day.
"May I help you?" she smiled, looking up as he stopped in front of her desk.
He smiled back, more of a show of teeth than a real smile. "I'm looking for Murdock and Nelson."
"You're in the right place, but they aren't available right now. Can I schedule an appointment for you?"
"Not available, eh?" he asked with another toothy smile as he walked over to the door to Matt's office.
"Excuse me, but you can't…," Karen started to say, standing up.
The man didn't even look at her, he just pointed and said, "shut the fuck up and sit your ass down!"
Karen just gaped at his audacity as he opened the door and peered into Matt's office.
Determining that the office was empty, he crossed the room to the other door and opened it also. After looking around, he stepped back into the room where Karen was still standing by her desk.
"I told you to sit you ass down!" he snapped.
Karen picked up her cell phone and thumbed in her password. "I'm going to call the police if you don't leave right now!"
"Go ahead, Darling," he told her as he opened the jacket to his suit to show her his badge, "but I don't think that's going to help you. Now, SIT DOWN!"
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Karen sat down and set her phone on the desk. Before letting go of it, she let her finger tap one of the icons on the home page, then closed the screen.
The man went back to the main door and turned the lock before turning his attention back to her.
"Let me introduce myself, I am Detective Farley. Maroney was my partner."
When Karen's eyes widened at his name, he nodded and smiled again, "I see you know who I am. Good. That will make this easier." He walked around her desk and sat on the edge, close enough for her to smell the cheap scotch he drank and the cigarettes he smoked.
He leaned down to look her in the eye, his stale breath making her want to hold hers, "Do you want to tell me what you and your lawyer friends are doing? Are you still snooping around where you have no business?"
"We haven't done anything," she protested. "After Maroney's talk with Nyah, we backed off."
"You're lying," he growled, crowding her and forcing her to lean away from him. "You were just at the police station last week."
"Yes, I was. I filed a missing person's report on Nyay. I had to," she hurriedly explained, thinking quickly. "If she shows up dead or something, we will look like suspects for not reporting her missing. We represent the law, so we have to abide by it."
Farley blew out a foul breath in her face then leaned back. "Fair enough," he allowed, standing up.
He went over to the file cabinets and pulled open the top drawer. When Karen started to stand back up, he snarled at her to stay sitting. He thumbed through the files, pulling several out and paging through them before dropping them on the floor. When he finished with that drawer, he did the same with the other three, until there was a fair stack of papers on the floor of the office.
Turning back to her, he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "This is how it's going to work, Blondie. None of you are going to go anywhere near the police station."
"But they're lawyers! They have clients!" Karen protested.
"I don't give a fuck!" he replied. "If we see any of you down there, I will be back and this time I won't come alone. Do you understand?"
At Karen's nod, he looked down at the papers at his feet, "I hope you have backups on the computer."
Farley dropped his lit cigarette onto the pile of papers and stood there until a flame appeared. Once the pile was burning, he smiled at Karen's horrified expression.
"I'll keep in touch."
After he left the office, Karen jumped up and grabbed the fire extinguisher. By that time the fire alarm had went off and the occupants of the building were beginning to evacuate.