Part XVI

Matt got up in the morning slowly, feeling every ache and pain in his body dully, with a sharp pain in his head. He had a taste to his mouth, a metallic taste, not like iron or blood, but like steel. He was sick. The sharp pain in his throat felt like he has swallowed needles. He needed to get into the office but would have to get over his sickness quick. He gargled with lemon water mixed with salt and showered. The worst of the aches dissipated after he meditated for half an hour, cleansing his mind and lifting his soul to a higher plane, not thinking about the fire, the new bad guy, or the girl.

As he made his way down town to the office, he gathered and discarded several ends to discuss with Foggy. They would have to track whoever moved on the empty burned building, who might collect on insurance money, who might try to buy the property, and who might be offering it for sale. Everyone would be suspect while Wilson Fisk was in jail, either as one of his own cronies or a new boss moving in on empty territory. Even with Wilson imprisoned, he had tentacles reaching far around the city. Maybe the low level payoffs ended but there were long term plans to redo this city. His city.

He breathed in his city, smelling the fresh coffee, hearing the beeps of impatient trucks, and the guy yelling "Hey!" at a kid running off with a loaf of bread. The kid dodged down a side street, taking off on light feet, turning a corner and heading up some stairs. He heard a door slam. Mentally, Matt stored that away for later, kids' turning thief happened but the hunger behind it might need to be addressed if possible. Little things could lead to big trouble, threads unloosening creating a hole in the weave. Kids like Wilson Fisk.

With those thoughts in his head, he made his way up the stairs, approaching the door but stopped. He heard voices, and one of them was Foggy but the other was not Karen. It was Kylie. Shit. He could not go into the office with her there, she was bright enough to realized that he was Daredevil if she saw him in broad daylight, blind and just the same height. It was too much of a coincidence.

He retraced his steps, went down to a café and called Foggy.

"Hey, Foggy, I can't make it in today, I've…" He realized if he said he was sick, the girl might pick up on that. Damn, he didn't have time to waste before working on the current problem.

"What is it, Matt? You sick?" He could hear Kylie coughing in the background within close range of Foggy's conversation.

"No! No, I just have some things to look into and take care of, personal things. Listen, can you come over tonight? We have to talk about some things that I need to work on. I need it to be just you and me, you know?" Matt tried to keep it casual.

"Um, okay, but I have Kylie, she's going to be helping out in the office. That's okay, right? She was sent to me by, um, by our mutual friend." Foggy was not happy with what he did and it had to be awkward with her standing right there.

"Yeah, yeah, that's cool for now but we have work to do and we'll need to find a place for her, maybe with your friend Marci?" As soon as he said it, Matt knew that wouldn't work but he was stalling for time to think of something.

"Yeah, no, that won't work. Listen, she's got some information on an arson that happened last night, you want me to follow up on that?" Foggy knew that would be a priority, especially if there was a link to Wilson Fisk.

"Yes, please work on that, get all the information you can from her and bring it to me later, but be careful if you do any snooping, we never know who's behind any of these attacks." Matt didn't need more on his conscience.

"Okay, man, I'll see you later, uh, alone!"

Matt was now on his own all day. Maybe he could go down to the city planning office and do some snooping. Being a blind man sometimes had its advantages in that people tended to help you when you seemed helpless, that is if they bothered to notice him instead of pretending to be blind to him. Being told that he was handsome helped him to use what he had when dealing with bored city employees, especially the female kind.

Part XVII

"Here you go, sweetie! Can I help you with anything else?" She sounded about 50, overweight and favoring her right leg as she walked. While he might not know her face, he knew her smell, knew she was diabetic, and knew she was still a long way from retirement but already very tired.

"Actually, if I could get copies? I have to load this into my braille reader and need to take it home with me, my braille reader is too heavy to carry." While he hated lying (he had a portable scanning reader), he wanted to have proof and copies for Foggy and Karen, especially if they went to trial.

"Well, I'm not supposed to do that, but if you keep it between you and me, sweetie, I can do that. You need this for your boss?" She would help him, he could hear it in her tone, it was that easy.

"Yes, he's trying to locate the owner and his information is out of date, but the tax details will be helpful in tracking the owner down." Good thing his nose didn't grow when he lied.

He left the office loaded down with copies of files and plenty of information to reference for Foggy. He would also do some of his own research at home, and find out what he could.

He spent several hours working on his laptop, until he realized he had not eaten. After taking a break, he was ready for more, but then Foggy came early, he was banging on the door while Matt walked up.

"Matt! Come on, Matt! I know you're in there!" Foggy was banging pretty hard. Luckily for Matt, his closest neighbor was hard of hearing. At least it wasn't three in the morning this time.

"I'm right here, Foggy!" He quietly came up behind his partner.

"Damn, Matt! You've got to wear bells or something! I jumped out of my skin!" Foggy was on edge.

"Usually blind people don't have to warn people they are coming." Matt smiled.

"Sorry, I just need to talk to you." Now Foggy sounded very serious. There wasn't going to be time to collect their breath with bad guys around, this had been a short peace.

"Yeah, hold on, let me get my key." Once inside the apartment with the door closed, Foggy let it all out.

"I think there's a connection between Wilson Fisk and this fire, I just have to dig through all these dummy corporations. It's got me worried, Matt, I mean we have the guy behind bars for now, but the trial's going to take a long time and things are still happening. What are we gonna do?" Foggy was always worried except when he was drunk. Right now he was on edge, like a hellfire preacher.

"I've got files for you to review. I have them uploaded and saved, but I want you to review the tax records." Matt handed over the files to Foggy.

"Wow, how did you get these? Did you break in at night and steal them? This is crazy!" Foggy was impressed.

"No, Foggy, believe it or not I don't bend the law with breaking and entering. The nice lady at the records department thought I was cute. She gave me copies to be nice so don't let them out of your sight, she's got a long way to go before retirement. Now how about Kylie?" It would take them weeks to work out the details of ownership and track down corporations but getting a place for Kylie wasn't turning out any easier.

"Yeah, she's pretty smart and she helped me out a bit today but can we afford to keep her in the office, too? We already have Karen, we can't keep giving jobs to all the pretty girls we save, not that I mind them! I'd love to have an office of pretty girls! But I have to eat and pay rent, too." Foggy had a point but there were few options coming to mind.

"Look, I know, believe me, I know. First her apartment is bulldozed and then her squatting basement is burned down. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty or anything, I just need time to come up with a solution. I'm not going to be coming to the office if she's there, so I'll be working from home until we come up with a solution." He regretted having to do that but she was bright enough to figure out he was blind, he couldn't risk her knowing more.

"What's the problem? She smells better, even if she still has that terrible cough." Foggy was multi-tasking, Matt could hear him turning pages.

"She knows I'm blind, she might put two and two together and figure out I'm Daredevil. I can't risk more people knowing." Matt already risked Foggy but Foggy knew when he became a lawyer for the voiceless that he would be in dangerous situations.

"What about your senses? You couldn't hide it from her? Geez, Matt, what if all the bad guys know it, too?" Foggy worried about everything, he was becoming an old grandmother. Maybe a drink would be a good idea about now.

"She has senses, too, some kind of extra sensory perception of people, like an enhanced empathy. Plus she showed me a picture on her cellphone of the guy who's probably the arsonist and I couldn't pretend fast enough I could see it." Matt knew she had some kind of perceptual gift that maybe Stick would understand more.

"Oh, yeah, speaking of the arsonist, he's dead."

Part XVIII

"What?" Matt knew this was bad. While most of the bad cops had been either killed or arrested, suspended without pay pending investigation, there had to be someone still on a payroll. Who's payroll?

"Yeah, it would appear he was poisoned, hard to say, he had a heart attack in his cell after eating but the food didn't have any traces of poisons and the cook is old, been there a while, though anybody could be in the kitchens. He was only 32 so it's not like old age and cholesterol were setting in, know what I mean?" Foggy knew this was bad as well.

"So really anybody could have gotten the food to the guy, not just the cops. But they'd have to know which plate would be his. Wasn't he in the general population?" Matt was confused how they knew it was poison.

"Well, apparently he was on suicide watch and acting paranoid, like someone was out to get him and he threatened self harm, you know they have to take that more seriously." Foggy was disgruntled, it was more than they wanted to deal with right now, having one less lead to follow.

"So they know he was poisoned? Who did you talk to, the desk sergeant?" Foggy's friend was risking so much by helping them.

"Not yet, but he was foaming at the mouth with food on the floor, unless he had some secret disease. It still doesn't look good, he had information we needed. I was there to talk to him when I found out." Foggy was being thorough, that was good, just too late.

"Well, keep a low profile on that, people already know we're working on the Wilson Fisk case, we don't need to bring more attention until we know who's behind this. It could be anybody, it could even be an owner trying to cash in on insurance." Although Matt doubted that and Foggy probably did, too.

"Listen, about Kylie, do we have any connections that could give her a job? Or at least a place to stay? She said she's on disability, and I know she wants to help but I don't know what kind of office skills she has." Matt didn't know anybody at any job agency.

"She's bright, but she doesn't have anything, Matt, no clothes, no shoes. She's borrowing some stuff from Karen tonight. Look, it's getting late, I'll have to catch up tomorrow night, maybe we'll figure out more." Foggy gathered up the files.

"Good, I'll think of something. I have copied these files but keep that information safe. Make copies and keep it electronically, now that our arsonist is dead, it's really all we've got." Matt walked Foggy to the door and then went to change. Hopefully he'd find his Night Angel and come up with a plan.