Chapter 10 – Undercover, Part Six

Matt

"What the fuck? Barrett?" Owlsley scoffed. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Just hear me out," Matt replied. "Barrett's been peddling iron in the Kitchen for as long as I can remember. He had a lock on the gun trade until you moved in. I'm betting he wasn't happy to have competition. And he always has his ear to the ground, looking for ways to make a buck. The Fisk bitch would pay well for this kind of information."

"Makes sense, boss," Callahan commented.

"But no one knew about 44th Street, no one," Greco insisted.

"You sure about that?" Matt asked. "You have customers, right?"

Greco nodded, then remembered who he was talking to and said, "Uh, yes."

"One unhappy customer, that's all it would take. Someone who went back to Barrett and blabbed."

"Damn, boss," Greco said, "He might be right."

"Take him out," Owlsley ordered.

"How d'you want me to do it?" Matt asked.

Owlsley laughed, a short, sharp bark. "Not you." He turned to Callahan. "Get Harris and Rivera." Callahan nodded. Then Owlsley turned back to Matt. "Set it up with them. Where to find Barrett, when, that kind of thing. And make sure he disappears. This can't come back to us."

Matt nodded. "Understood."

"Let me know when it's done."

It was a dismissal. Matt got to his feet, unfolded his cane, and walked out of Owlsley's office.

An hour later, Matt was in a vacant apartment in Hell's Kitchen, meeting with Owlsley's enforcers, Ed Rivera and Carl Harris, to discuss how they were going to take out Barrett. He was relieved Owlsley hadn't ordered him to kill Barrett himself, but it still stung that Owlsley had laughed at the idea. He could've done a better job than the two knuckleheads sitting across from him. He didn't have to meet them to know who he was dealing with. On his way up the stairs, he heard one of them griping that he wasn't "gonna take orders from no blind guy." Where did Owlsley find these guys, for chrissake?

Not bothering to hide his impatience, Matt frowned and repeated, "Like I said, you gotta make him disappear. No body, no way it comes back to the boss. Got it?"

"Yeah," Rivera grunted. "We got it."

"So where do we find this asshole?" Harris asked.

Matt thought for a minute, then gave them two locations where he'd found Barrett in the past. Just not the recent past. He doubted Barrett would be at either one. He thought he knew where to find Barrett tonight. He only hoped he was right.

Harris had to challenge him, of course. "How d'you know where he'll be? You ever actually, like, see him at these places you're giving us?"

"Shut up, Carl," Rivera snapped.

Matt lowered his voice to "Daredevil" range to answer. "I've lived in Hell's Kitchen my whole life. I know assholes like Barrett. I know their hideouts. You think you know better, be my guest."

"OK," Rivera said irritably. "Let's get going." He stood up and started to walk away.

"Not now," Matt ordered, adding a muttered "Jesus" under his breath. These guys definitely weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. "What part of 'make him disappear' did you not understand? You need to do it tonight, late. Got it?"

Rivera sat down. "Yeah, we got it," he said, sounding resentful.

"Barrett's a night owl, anyway," Matt explained. "He'll be holed up somewhere during the day."

"If you say so," Harris said doubtfully. He stood up and walked away, followed by Rivera.

"Report to me here in the morning," Matt called after them.

"Yeah, yeah, we got it," Rivera said, waving his hand.

Matt slumped down in his chair. Shit. This could be a real clusterfuck, unless Daredevil got to Barrett first.

That night, Matt put on his Daredevil gear and slipped out of his apartment as soon as the 8th floor was quiet. Barrett wasn't at the first place he looked, a vacant tenement on 49th, or the second, the boarded-up storefront where Matt had found him four days earlier. He finally located the gun dealer at an abandoned warehouse a block from the river.

"Shit," Barrett said when he saw Matt entering the building. "You again?"

"Nice to see you, too, Turk."

Barrett gave a heavy sigh. "Now what?"

"You need to listen to me very carefully," Matt told him. "We may not have much time. Owlsley's coming for you."

"For me?"

"Yeah. He thinks you're the one who tipped off Vanessa Fisk about the location of his gun stash."

"Shit," Barrett swore. "I never told that bitch nothing. I only told you." Realization dawned as he grasped the implications of what he'd just said. He launched himself at Matt, yelling "You son of a bitch!" and swinging wildly.

Matt dodged the blow and used Barrett's momentum to flip him onto his back. "It wasn't me," he said when the gun dealer was lying at his feet. "Owlsley must've figured it out."

"Bullshit. You told the bitch, then ratted me out to The Owl."

That was exactly what Matt did, but Barrett was never going to know it. "I swear, it wasn't me," he repeated. "But that's beside the point. Two of Owlsley's goons are in the Kitchen right now, looking for you. It's only a matter of time before they find you. You want to live, you need to run."

Barrett pushed himself to his feet, groaning. "Shit," he complained. "I got things to do, places to be."

"The only place you need to be is out of this city. Tonight."

"God damn you, D."

"Just go. And don't come back until it's safe."

"When will that be?"

"You'll know," Matt assured him. "Go on, go."

"I'm going, I'm going," Barrett said as he left the building. Matt stayed where he was until Barrett's footsteps faded away.

In the morning, Matt was waiting for Rivera and Harris in the vacant apartment where they'd met the day before. He was drinking the last of his coffee when he heard their footsteps ascending the stairs. Rivera sat down heavily in a chair across from him. Harris remained standing.

"He wasn't there," Rivera said, "not at either place."

"Yeah, and he wasn't anywhere else, neither," Harris added.

"Damn," Matt swore. "Barrett always was a slippery son of a bitch."

"Coupla people we talked to said he left the city," Rivera said.

"Could be," Matt agreed. "Barrett's not stupid. If he heard about what happened, he had to know the boss would come looking for him."

"So what do we do now?" Rivera asked.

Matt gave his best impression of thinking, then said, "If Barrett is really gone – and, yeah, he is, like I said, he's not stupid – he's no longer a problem. We don't do anything."

"Yeah, but what do we tell the boss?" Harris asked.

"We don't tell him anything," Matt replied pointedly. "I'll tell him Barrett's been taken care of. And you keep your mouths shut."

"I don't know – " Rivera began.

Matt interrupted him. "I do. You really want me to go to the boss and tell him you couldn't find the asshole?"

That finally seemed to sink in. Matt guessed there was some kind of non-verbal communication between the two men, that he couldn't pick up. Then they nodded to each other, as if cementing an agreement.

"I'll handle the boss. And you two probably should make yourselves scarce, as in get the hell out of the city."

He didn't have to tell them twice. Rivera got to his feet and followed Harris out of the apartment.

When he got to the office, Matt went straight to Owlsley's corner suite. Callahan was at his desk in the outer office.

"Boss in?" Matt asked, standing next to the desk and gripping his cane tightly.

"No," Callahan told him, "out of town. You got something for him?"

"Yeah."

"What?" Callahan sounded impatient.

"Barrett's been taken care of."

Callahan didn't look up from his computer. "Good. I'll let him know. Anything else?"

"No, that's it." Matt turned and left before it occurred to Callahan to ask him for the details. Once back at his desk, he fell into his chair and let out his breath all at once. That was easy, too easy. He only hoped Barrett would stay away, along with Rivera and Harris. And that Owlsley wouldn't ask too many questions when he returned.

Two days later, when Owlsley returned from wherever he'd been, Matt spent the day waiting to be summoned to his office to be interrogated about Barrett. The summons never came. Apparently Owlsley had moved on to other things. Matt needed to know what they were. And he was becoming increasingly antsy. His cover had lasted far longer than he had any right to expect. He knew the reason: no one suspected the blind guy. Vanessa had called it, from the beginning. Owlsley had underestimated him. If Matt had his way, Owlsley would pay for that mistake, big time. But he knew it was only a matter of time before Owlsley saw through his "blind guy" act, and he was burned. He had to find a way to bring down Owlsley before that happened.

Matt thought he knew a way to find out what Owlsley was planning, but he couldn't do it himself. That evening, he asked his neighbors on the 8th floor to meet him in his apartment. When he'd filled their drink orders, and all four of them were sitting around his coffee table, he asked, "So which one of you looks like you could've gone to college with me?"

Mandy laughed and said, "Not me. What's this about, Mike?"

"I think Owlsley's working on something big, something we can use to take him down. I don't know what or when, but I think the answers may be in the safe in his office. We need to get a look at what's in that safe." Matt smiled wryly. "But I could use some help with the 'getting a look' part."

"Why someone from college?" Jay asked.

"I'm having a drink with an old friend from college after work. My friend comes to the office to meet me. That gets them into the building."

Mandy took a sip of her drink and nodded. "That should work."

"So who's my friend?" Matt asked.

"Jay and I are out, so it's gotta be Nick," Mandy replied, referring to the occupant of apartment 8C. "He's the only one of us who's the right age."

"Got that right," Jay muttered under his breath.

Matt turned toward Nick. "You OK with this?"

"Sure. But aren't you forgetting something?"

Matt raised his eyebrows quizzically. "What's that?"

"How're we gonna get into the safe?"

"I got that covered."

Mandy laughed. "Of course you do."

Matt smiled smugly. "I can't see a damn thing, but my hearing's fantastic."

"Somehow, I think there's a little more to it than that," Mandy observed.

"Not really."

Jay spoke up. "This is all very interesting, but why do you think Owlsley's planning something big?"

Matt picked up his glass and turned it around in his hands, then set it down without drinking. "It's hard to explain, just a feeling I have."

"You mean a hunch?"

"Not just a hunch. I've been hearing things, just bits and pieces but enough to tell me something's going on. And I know how Owlsley operates. This is different."

Jay sighed. "All right, but I gotta run it by Mrs. Fisk. It's not exactly what we signed up for."

"I said I'm OK with it," Nick protested.

"And I heard you," Jay replied. "But Mrs. Fisk is the boss. It's her decision. I'll let you know."

"OK," Matt said, "but don't take too long."

"Believe me, man," Jay told him, "you're not the only one who wants to get this over with."

On that note, the conversation ended. Vanessa's three associates finished their drinks and left.

A little before seven the next evening, the phone on Matt's desk rang. When he answered, one of the guards in the lobby told him Nick was there. "Send him up," Matt said. He scanned the floor with his senses as he walked to the elevator to meet Nick. No heartbeats other than his own. The floor was empty. The elevator doors opened, and Nick stepped out.

"Hey, Mike."

"Nick." Matt jerked his head in the direction of Owlsley's corner office. "This way." He led the way down the hall. Other than trailing a hand along the wall, he didn't bother with his blind act. If Nick noticed, so be it.

Just before they reached the boss's office suite, Matt stopped and held up a hand. Nick stopped behind him. Matt inclined his head toward Owlsley's office. "OK," he said as he moved forward. "No one's here." Nick followed him into the inner office, closing the door behind them.

"Uh, Mike," Nick said, "I don't see a safe."

"Of course you don't," Matt thought crossly. Making an effort to keep his voice even, he said, "It's hidden somewhere, probably in the wall. Look for a picture or something on the wall, big enough to have a safe behind it."

"OK."

While Nick did a visual search, Matt conducted a search of his own, tapping the walls at intervals and listening for the change in sound that would reveal the location of the safe. He found it first.

"Here," he said, pointing to the area where the sound changed.

"Yeah, there's a picture there," Nick confirmed.

"Check around the outside for a latch or something," Matt instructed him.

"Got it!" Nick exclaimed.

"Keep your voice down, for chrissake," Matt hissed.

"I thought you said no one was here."

"I did, but that could change."

"Oh. Right." Nick released the latch, and the painting swung away from the wall, exposing the safe behind it. Matt stepped past him and leaned in toward the safe, placing the fingertips of his left hand on the door next to the dial. Nick had the good sense to keep his mouth shut as he watched Matt move the dial, listening intently. A little more than two minutes passed before he heard the click that signaled the opening of the lock. Matt raised his head and pulled the door open.

Matt ran his hands over the safe's contents as Nick described them. "Top shelf is files. Bottom shelf is money and boxes."

Matt picked up a stack of files and handed them to Nick. "The files are what we're after. Get started."

Nick placed the files on Owlsley's desk, then took out a miniature camera and started photographing the papers in the files. They soon fell into a rhythm, with Matt taking each folder as Nick finished photographing its contents. He set the folders aside, careful to keep them in order. They had to go back into the safe exactly as they were originally.

About halfway through the stack, the clicking of the camera's shutter stopped. "Holy shit," Nick breathed, "I think this is what we're looking for."

"Keep going," Matt ordered him in a whisper. The clicking resumed.

They were nearing the bottom of the stack when Matt tilted his head, then hissed, "Stop. Someone's coming."

"We're almost done," Nick protested.

"No time," Matt replied. He grabbed the last few folders and added them to the stack, then returned them to the safe and closed it. He swung the painting into place and heard the latch click. His mind raced, trying to come up with a plausible cover story. He'd considered this possibility but failed to come up with one. Maybe he could say he was looking for something, like his phone? No. That wasn't gonna work. The last time he was in Owlsley's office was two days ago. Damn. He'd just have to bullshit his way out of it.

"What do we do?" Nick whispered.

"Follow my lead." It was hard to pick up footsteps on the carpeted floor, but they were coming closer. Matt grabbed Nick's arm and propelled him to the wall, behind the door. That would at least give them some cover if someone came in. The footsteps entered the outer office. He could hear the person's heartbeat: Callahan.

Drawers opened and closed, as if Callahan was looking for something in his desk. "God damn it!" he yelled, slamming a drawer closed. Then he left the room, his heartbeat and footsteps growing fainter.

"Wha – ?" Matt clapped his hand over Nick's mouth before he could finish the word.

"Quiet," Matt hissed. "He's still here."

Along the hallway to the elevator, office doors opened and closed, the sounds punctuated by Callahan's curses. When Callahan was about halfway to the elevator, Matt heard a door slam, accompanied by more curses. Then Callahan's footsteps headed toward the elevator.

After the elevator dinged to signal its arrival, followed by the doors opening and closing, Matt gave a sigh of relief. "He's gone."

They waited a little while longer, at Matt's insistence, then made their way carefully out of the corner office suite. They had almost made it to the elevator when Matt heard it ascending. He shoved Nick into the nearest office and shut the door. "Someone's coming."

It was Callahan, again. He went past them and back into Owlsley's suite. Matt turned to Nick. "Go, now. I'll distract him."

"But – " Nick protested.

"No 'buts.' You have to get those photos out of here. I can handle Callahan."

"If you say so."

"I do. Now go." Matt pushed Nick out of the office, toward the elevator. They were in luck. The car was still there. The doors closed, and the elevator descended.

Matt leaned against the office wall and weighed his options. Now that he thought about it, bullshitting Callahan wasn't a great idea. He didn't want anyone to know he'd been here, in case Owlsley suspected his safe had been broken into. He couldn't be entirely certain everything was put back exactly as it was. He would just have to wait and hope Callahan didn't start searching the offices again, especially this one, where he hadn't searched before.

No such luck. Callahan came back down the hall, stopping at an office a few doors away. He went in, then left, slamming the door and muttering curses under his breath, and went into the next office. Matt had to move. He slipped out of his hiding place, sprinted down the hall to the stairwell door, and made it into the stairwell. He reached out to catch the door before it closed, but he wasn't fast enough, and it clicked shut behind him. Callahan must have heard the click, because he called out, "Hello! Anyone here?"

Matt ran down the stairs. Before he reached the landing, he vaulted over the handrail onto the next set of stairs, bypassing the landing completely. He kept going until he was five floors below where he started. He paused for a moment, listening for a pursuer. No one was in the stairwell, but the door opened five floors above: Callahan. Matt flattened himself against the wall, hoping he was out of Callahan's line of sight. Footsteps descended, then stopped. Matt held his breath. The footsteps went back up, and the stairwell door closed above him. He let out his breath and made his way down the remaining flights to the lobby.