Page 49 of Betraying Bexley

“Shit.” Alé sat back in his chair. “Why do I feel like this is about to get worse?”

"Because it is?" Bronx shrugged. "The second kid is fifteen. A colleague before Mr. Haygood became mayor after the person reported the incident to H.R. and within a couple of weeks, the woman was labeled a homewrecker and a liar." Bronx pulled up old news footage from when the now-mayor was first running for office. When no one would come forward to corroborate what she said and when Mr. Haygood showed a fake paternity test, the media and voters turned on her, ala John Edwards, minus the whole apology and admitting it after the story broke."

“Son of a bitch.”

"There's more here, but I think we should get Asher, Noah, AJ, and Scotty on a video conference, so I don't have to go over it more than once." She picked up her phone and dialed Asher's number. When he answered, she asked for a meeting. "It's important. I started my digging today and well, it's not pretty."

“Be ready in fifteen,” Asher replied before hanging up.

They piled into the room Jamie turned into an office for them and when they were set, Bronx hit the conference call button. When the video came up, Asher was surrounded by familiar faces. AJ and Scotty were there along with Mateo, Noah, and Thomas. Bronx started with the amounts of money sent by Opus to Valerie and Marybeth then went in-depth into Valerie first. She explained the accusations against the mayor, showed the photos and videos from Valerie’s social media, then picked up where she left off with Alé.

"There is a third child, a six-year-old. This one is a bit more complicated. The victim is or was the housekeeper for the Haygood's." She showed a picture of the housekeeper embracing Marshall's wife and two kids from an article written six years prior. "It seems in this photo she was already several months pregnant and did her best to hide it. When Sinclair Haygood, Marshall's wife, found out, she fired their housekeeper. Every time the woman has tried to say her piece, she receives cease and desist letters along with letters from lawyers threatening defamation suits."

“So, how does this relate to our case?” Asher sat forward. “It appears you went down a very long, very heinous rabbit hole, but I’m not seeing a link here.”

"Getting there, boss." Bronx's fingers flew across the keyboard and another set of documents and money transfers appeared on screen. "This is a letter from the law office of BHBF—Burke, Helaman, Bradshaw, and Franco. It is also the law firm that represented Anderson Gunther during the whole SNAP fiasco and the abuse cases. Marybeth's grandfather also keeps them on retainer just in case. Quinton Bradshaw is also Valerie Bradshaw's father."

“Shit.” Asher blew out a breath. “Good work.”

“Wait, I’m not done.” Bronx held up her hand. “Check out where the money is coming from. OPUS. The off-shore bank account no one can trace. We keep hitting shell companies, or well, Alex and Eito do.”

“It’s the same people paying the girls that have also been giving loans to Anderson.” Noah scrubbed his face. “Do we know who is behind OPUS?”

“If I had to guess,” Alé said, “I think it’s part of the Cartel. Which one, however, I’m not sure. It could be Los Trios or Pueblo.”

“Son of a bitch, Asher.” Thomas scowled. “You have these kids going deeper than they should. They’re putting their lives at risk.”

“I’m pretty sure they can handle themselves.” Asher smirked. “This is the life they were born into and have been a part of until Jamie gave them a new purpose. I trust them. I also trust the work product.”

Pride filled Bronx, but she wasn’t finished yet. She hadn’t shown the video with the Mayor and Valerie yet. “I have something to show you. It’s disturbing and, well, I haven’t shown the guys either.” Shit hit enter on her laptop and the video began playing. “This is Valerie and the Mayor. It seems Mr. Haygood, has a littles fetish. Now, I have nothing against kink. But, my question is this, shouldn’t the little be of consenting age and understand what she or he is getting into with their partner?”

Thomas muttered a curse under his breath. “How much of this is captured on video or in images?”

“More than half of it, I’d assume. Of course, she has a Snapchat account so finding anything in those is difficult. But I can digitally footprint her and see if I can get dates at least to see if they coincide. Plus, she has an Onlyfans account.”

“A what?” Asher cocked a brow.

“Adults.” Bronx chuckled. “It’s a social media platform with a twist. You charge people to see your content and it ranges from the benign to the risqué.”

“Let me guess,” Thomas said, “Valerie’s is risqué?”

"It's like you read my mind. From the bits I can gather, since the servers are overseas and I don't have clearance, or do I?" She waved off the question. "Anyway, she's charging people a grand for top tier stuff and she has over two-hundred-thousand followers. One date in particular coincides with the video I found as well. So, I went back through her financials and found a deposit the following month for a quarter of a million dollars from a restricted direct deposit. When I looked up who it came from, it's from the Onlyfans site."

“Let’s say for argument’s sake it was a video of her and the mayor, wouldn’t there have been an expose on it?” Thomas questioned.

“No.” Bronx grinned. “They have restrictions on the site. You can look but you can’t screenshot, save, download or record what happens on the site. Anyone who does so, automatically forfeits their account.”

“Where are the servers located, exactly?” Asher folded his hands on the table.

“The UK, more specifically, London.”

“I’ll see what I can do to secure a pinpoint warrant for only Valerie’s account. If child porn is happening on their site, not only does the company deserve to know, so does the state of Virginia, and the people of Virginia Beach. One more thing; what about Sasha?”

“She’s a mystery,” Eito said. “She has zero digital footprint besides a bank account. She doesn’t use social media. She doesn’t use Venmo, Cash app, Paypal, or money apps. Of all three of them, she has less reason to be friends with Valerie and Sasha, than someone like Bexley.”

Alé raised his hand. “I did find one thing about Sasha, by accident when I read the paper online, so I did some digging, nothing like Bronx or the guys can do.”

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense. Spit it out,” Noah grumbled.

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