The Owl of Wall Street
Daredevil and related characters belong to Marvel Comics.
Other Marvel Re-Imagined titles can be found here.
Rating: T (just covering my bases)
It was a cold and rainy day when Lieber approached the small office of Nelson and Murdock. He took off his drenched hat and wrung it, squeezing the water into a bucket by the door before stepping inside. His first impression was that Nelson and Murdock were not, as he had been led to believe, cheap but effective lawyers. From the relic of a TV left over from the 90s and the plain, chipped walls Lieber’s impression was that Nelson and Murdock could hardly be as effective as the stories he’d been fed claimed. Effective lawyers would at the very least have found the funds to repaint their walls. Sighing, tossing his coat over the couch near the TV, Lieber sat himself down to wait patiently for his appointment.
“Mr Lieber?” asked a woman. He rubbed his hands, tugged on his jacket and turned to her. She was a young, pretty woman with blonde hair that did something. Lieber wasn’t sure what it was doing, if it was a ponytail or braided or if the woman’s hair just sat there. He nodded, breathing in deeply. “I’m sorry we don’t have a bell, we only just moved in here.”
“Ah,” was his reply. There was nothing more to be said. The woman, presumably the Page he’d spoken to over the phone, beckoned for him to follow. He stepped into a room with a polished bookcase stretching along the wall, books all old and leather-bound. Lieber could smell the paper and vaguely chalk, definitely something he hadn’t experienced in a very long time; perhaps too long.
“Good to meet you, Mr Lieber,” said a man in glasses, with neatly combed black hair and meat on his bones. “I’m Mr Nelson, my partner Mr Murdock isn’t in I’m afraid.”
“Mr Nelson,” Lieber repeated, holding out his hand. He noticed a desk tucked into the corner, just next to the bookshelf. “I didn’t expect someone called ‘Nelson’ to be…”
“My mother’s side,” Mr Nelson said quickly, “her parents moved here after the war. Could I interest you in coffee?”
There was a pause. Lieber said nothing, but Nelson nodded and walked into another room. Page stepped forward, forcing a smile much like an embarrassed mother. “Over the phone you mentioned something about being embezzled, Mr Lieber?”
He nodded as Page offered him Mr Nelson’s chair. Sitting down did feel more comfortable, but his back twinged. “Yes, we entered a deal and had Leland Owlsley oversee transactions. Money went missing and we think Owlsley’s the one who did the embezzling.”
Page nodded as Mr Nelson walked back in, holding two mugs of steaming coffee. Both mugs were a sickly green colour that perfectly matched with Nelson’s tie, but Lieber didn’t mentioned it as he took the mug in both hands and thanked him. The coffee was hot, which was good and more than could be said for the dismal weather pelting the windows, but Nelson had obviously never heard of sugar. He couldn’t deny that the drink was hot, so Lieber drank the bitter brew. Forcing on much the same smile as Page had, he listened as the woman recounted his situation to Mr Nelson. The lawyer put in a nod where it was relevant, held a thoughtful pose and turned back to Lieber as Page finished explaining the embezzlement case.
“You’re really going after Leland Owlsley?” Nelson asked, leaning forward with his eyes wide. Lieber noticed that the hold on the lawyer’s mug had loosened. “Mr Lieber, he’s the Owl of Wall Street. He has… connections and things!”
“I’ll have to add that to my list of Foggy Nelson insights,” said a person walking into the room. He had fair red hair and, like Lieber had been only a while ago, was wearing a thick coat that was drenched. Unlike Lieber, the man was also wearing dark sunglasses. He’d heard of the man through reputation, of course. It was the blind lawyer, Matthew Murdock; of that Lieber was certain. Whatever reputation the man had, however, still didn’t seem to be enough to pay for the walls to be repainted.
“Mr Murdock, this is Mr Lieber,” Page said, to which Murdock nodded. There was something to the way Murdock held himself, a confidence that was lacking in Nelson’s posture. Nelson was apprehensive, a little jittery even. Murdock simply stood there, calmly leaning on his walking cane.
“I know who Mr Lieber is, Karen,” he replied, stretching his hand out to Nelson. He took one last swig from his coffee mug before taking his partner’s hand and standing up. “Foggy, could we talk about Mr Lieber’s case in private?”
Log in to comment