Hell is Other People
“Hey Brett, have you thought any more about my offer?” Matt asked quietly as Foggy led their client away from the interrogation room.
“I have,” Detective Brett Mahoney said, folding his arms across his chest, “My answer is still no. I’m still wondering why you want me, of all people, to go to an art showing with you.”
Matt sighed, “You didn’t let me explain fully last time. It’s not just an art showing.”
“Really?” Brett asked in disbelief in his voice evident, “What else is it? A drug trade? If it is, how the hell did you hear about it?”
Matt winced, “Well, it actually just is an art show.”
“Aha!”
“But there are some people doing sketchy things there!” Matt protested, “And they make all of their bids on the art in cash! And it is a large amount of cash! Isn’t that at least a little suspicious?”
Brett sighed, “I will admit that that is suspicious, but I can’t just go to the art gallery with you. That closing party is going to be insane and I don’t know how you got invited to it, but I definitely won’t be able to. The artist has blown up big time.”
Matt groaned under his breath, “I know he has. It’s fucking irritating.”
It really had gotten irritating. Because Vanessa had insisted that she include a picture of him with his work, Matt had gotten recognized on the street a few times. But Matt had quickly dismissed these claims because for the pictures, Mike Justice wore (what Matt was told were) Secret Service style sunglasses. One the people saw that Matt was wearing sunglasses because he was blind, they apologized and walked away. But it had been very awkward when one of these instances happened with a client Foggy and asked why this person had asked if he was Mike Justice.
“What?” Brett asked.
“Nothing, just please Brett.” Matt begged, “I promise I can get you in. With the things you hear you could get a dozen warrants for your or other departments. I can keep a recorder running and say it’s for posterity so that I can review it later since pictures are useless to me. Brett please, I can’t go alone again.”
Brett raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean you can’t go alone again? Murdock were you at the opening party for this show as well?
Matt sighed, “Yes I was, just please come with me.”
Brett groaned in defeat, “Fine, but only because I want to know how in the hell you got tickets to this thing.”
Several nights passed until it was time for the closing night party. Matt met Brett outside the police station and they took a taxi to the art gallery where there was a large crowd.
Brett stared at all of the people, “How are we supposed to get in there, Murdock?”
Matt sighed and led Brett to the employee entrance that Vanessa had warned him he might have to use for this very reason, “We can go through here.”
Brett gave Matt an odd look, “Are you sure?”
Matt nodded, “Just let me text Vanessa and she can let us in. It’s fine.”
Matt sent a quick voice-to-speech text to Vanessa and as they waited for the door to open, Matt could feel Brett’s mounting judgment.
The door finally swung open and Vanessa exclaimed, “Ah Matthew! I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t be able to make it through the crowd! And you brought a friend!”
Matt smiled as he shook her hand as they stepped into the building, “Yeah, this is one of my friends, Brett Mahoney, he’s really excited to see the art.”
Vanessa shook Brett's hand, “I’m so glad Matthew shared his art. This has been one of our most popular shows of new artists in a good long time. Matthew says he’s finished after this show. You must convince him to do more work!”
Vanessa had led them through the employee area to where the main art was and Matt could feel Brett’s eyes on him. Vanessa left them to their own devices because she saw some people as she needed to greet them, so Brett turned to Matt.
Matt sighed, “Please don’t start.”
Brett nodded, “So, Mike, you're an artist? How did that happen?”
Matt groaned, “I was drawing on paper with a red pen, next thing I have my rage messes of paint on display for a lot of money.”
Brett cackled quietly, “Your rage messes?”
Matt silently prayed for patience before asking, “Can we just get your recordings then leave?”
Brett was still chuckling, “Sure, but I hope you can cut me a piece of the profit you’re getting because from what I’ve heard, some of these are selling for big money.”
“I know.” Matt bemoaned, “I have no idea how that happened.”
Brett started laughing again, but he thankfully let it drop and they began mingling their way through the party. It was surprisingly easy to get the recordings of them admitting or alluding to white collar crimes of smuggling. They only once got caught with the recorder and they went with Matt’s story of recording the party for him since he couldn’t appreciate pictures. Matt knew that the police, not just Brett’s division, could get a good deal of warrants or pointers on where to direct their investigations with these recordings.
The next few weeks the headlines of the paper were not about the mysterious Mike Justice, but about the arrests that the police of Hell’s Kitchen were making. Matt was proud of this, but it also turned out to be a bit of a problem when he swung back around the art gallery to pick up money from the sales, which Vanessa had kindly began giving Matt in small payments so he wouldn’t be caught carrying large amounts of cash around Hell’s Kitchen. He was approaching the employee entrance where he typically met Vanessa when he sensed someone coming up behind him.
The hairs on the back of Matt’s neck raised and he knew he had to be careful. He had to stay alive, but he had to limit himself to what a normal blind person could do.
“Hello? Is there someone there?” Matt called out.
The person ran out and punched Matt in the gut. Matt sensed this coming miles away, but he knew that he couldn’t dodge it out of costume. But he did tense to protect his internal organs the way that he had been taught. The blows kept raining down and Matt cried out for help.
“Why are you doing this?” Matt asked, panting from the pain, even though it was low on the pain scale for him.
“This is for bringing a cop to the party and getting everyone arrested.” The person hissed in Matt’s ear.
Matt sighed as another punch hit him. He guessed that that would make some people angry. He was about to “accidentally” knock his person’s head into the wall, when the employee door flung open and Vanessa gasped, seeing Matt on the ground getting punched.
“I’m calling the police!” Vanessa yelled.
His assailant locked eyes with Vanessa and Matt could hear his heartbeat jump. Matt figured that was probably because anyone related to Fisk knew not to hurt her. The man jumped off of Matt and ran off. After that Matt was able to get up off the ground as Vanessa fussed over him. Matt was able to convince her that she didn’t need to call the police and that he didn’t need to go to hospital, but he would get his nurse friend to check him out.
Because the beating had been relatively light compared to what he had gotten as Daredevil, it didn’t really bother him. The only problem was that by the time he got to Nelson and Murdock was that the bruises had formed and he had a slight limp that Foggy definitely noticed.
When Matt left the firm for the evening, after giving Foggy yet another envelope filled with cash, Foggy sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“Karen, I’m staging an intervention.”