by Ashley Papa
Victoria arrived just after 11 a.m. To my surprise, she was rather chipper for someone who was about to go through an epic divorce. Maybe she was just excited to finally hear that everything she suspected of her husband, was true. Or, maybe it was the idea that she was about to start a new life without him. I gave her a welcome hug and escorted her to the couch. Adam brought us both a bottle of water. I positioned myself in front of the television screen.
“Victoria, before we start, I just want to let you know that you can tell me to stop whenever you need to. Some of what you’re about to see and hear may be very upsetting.”
She nodded and motioned to me to begin with the evidence.
I started with slide one, which detailed my efforts since she first came to me in January. Slide after slide revealed a new fact. I elaborated on the various press conferences I attended as a freelance reporter and pointed out Lucy, who was always in the crowd standing with Comptroller Brownstein. She instantly recognized her as the family’s old babysitter. I explained to her that Brownstein was actually gay, but always appeared to be a straight and taken man in front of the press.
Next were some pictures of my trips to Dallas, where Walter was with the Roche brothers, the Roche wives, and Lucy. When I got into explaining how the three sorority sisters used the website Rags to Riches to find their sugar daddies, Victoria sank back into the couch and put her hand over her head in shame and embarrassment.
It’s okay, Victoria. No logical wife would suspect their husband of doing these sorts of things.
I continued moving on to the pictures of the Lord Max’s party and some additional snaps taken of Lucy and Walter out on the streets of New York.
“This was all my fault,” I heard her mumble. “This…” Victoria pointed to the TV screen almost trancelike, “THIS is all my fault. I drove my own husband to seek sex elsewhere! And then he brings her back into our home and pretends to hire her as our nanny!” She lashed out.
“Victoria. This isn’t your fault. You’re the strong one, remember,” I encouraged before continuing. “There is more. Walter had help hiding her. All his friends are in on this,” I said and flipped to the next slide. “You couldn’t figure out why he needed three phones, right? Well, one is the one you talk to him on, one is for his staff, and then the third…that’s to communicate with Lucy.”
Victoria closed her eyes and covered them with her hands.
“The money transfers…all going to an account set up for…”
“Lucy…of course,” Victoria finished, as if now knowing where all the clues pointed.
I explained how Walter kept Lucy hidden in the Hamptons most of the time, but he’d occasionally bring her into the city and on trips to Texas.
“Is the entire administration in on this?” she asked.
I wanted to answer “yes,” but it was too soon and I had no hard evidence of that just yet. I told her that I still needed to figure that out. If so, it takes this scandal to a whole other level.
I wouldn’t let Victoria leave until I knew she was settled down. It didn’t take much convincing to have her also agree to help me break into Walter’s desk after explaining that I needed to see what was inside of it. She knew where he kept the key to the file cabinets. So, without a hint of hesitation, the three of us hopped into the Jeep and made our way to her home in record time. Victoria led us through the building’s back entrance to avoid the lobby security.
Walter was still at City Hall, which gave us under and hour to complete “Operation: Seize Files.” Adam followed behind me as I followed Victoria into Walter’s office. The key to the filing cabinet was taped to the inside of the old circuit breaker box that was disguised to look like part of the wall behind the oak bookshelves. The rage Victoria was hiding inside had given her Wonder Woman strength, as she didn’t even need my help moving the heavy shelves. She handed me the key and with a shaky hand, I excitedly opened the file drawer.
“PING…PING…” I heard the noise but ignored what it was or whose phone it might be.
“Oh, shit. Walter’s on his way home,” Victoria voiced.
“What? Shit! I thought you said he’d be home at five?! Try and delay him,” I ordered loudly. “Adam, go downstairs and make sure to alert us if you see him. Try to stop him.”
He did as told. I continued to pull out the individual files, each one containing pages of invoices. For “services rendered” all it said was, “Operation: Kryptonite Tiger.”
It’s a code name for something. Why does that sound so familiar?
“This is some sort of project. It’s an undercover project,” I realized and said aloud.
Wait a minute; the first text I ever received from that mystery caller was “Kryptonite Tiger”!
“Vic! What is kryptonite tiger? Does that ring any bells to you?” The urgency in my voice made her dart right back over to the office.
“Kryptonite Tiger? Oh my God. I haven’t heard that in decades. It was the pet name Walter gave me back in college. He used to call me his kryptonite tiger. Why?”
It looked like all the staffers apparently involved in this operation were paid the same amount every month: $6,500. I snapped as many pictures as I could of the documents.
He was paying them for something. What was this operation all about?
Adam began blowing up my phone with texts to alert me that Walter was entering the building. My body shook in anticipation as I could feel the blood pumping even harder. I needed to get out of here. I dropped the files back in the drawer. But, before handing the key back to Victoria, I noticed one more file shoved in the back. The folder was rather thick. Thick like the file I saw being handed to Walter on the street!
It was the same file. It had to be!
The tab read, “Steve Benson.”
Steve Benson?
With no time to spare and without even a hesitation, I grabbed the file and shoved it in my bag.
“Play dumb if he asks where this file went…and act normal,” I ordered Victoria before slipping out the back.
Operation: Kryptonite Tiger?
“What do you think that it means?” Adam asked, as I uploaded the photos to my laptop. I had him drive us downtown to Battery Park, where it was generally quiet at this time of the day. There were some vacant tables and chairs near the marina where we could sit and regroup.
How clever of him to mask his secrets under such an innocent and unassuming name.
“The way the mayor spends his money, you’d think he were a billionaire,” Adam observed.
He was right, between the transfers and what he was paying his cronies, in addition to funding his real family.
“I’m going to find a bathroom. B-R-B,” Adam said and hurried off.
I Googled “Kryptonite Tiger.” Nothing relevant came up. The breeze coming off the Hudson River felt good in the summer sun. My phone rang in my bag just as I was about to run to the bodega nearby for something to quench my thirst. It was April.
“What’s up?” I asked and walked closer to the water for a better signal.
“Here’s an interesting factoid,” April began. “Last night, me, Piper, and two of her other girlfriends were out for drinks at The Jimmy. They started talking about a girl named Lucy…”
“What about her?” I snapped.
“Piper’s friend said she heard that Lucy had a 4-year-old and she wanted to visit her to see the child, but Lucy just ignores Piper now. It sounded like the two had still been in touch after she was fired, but not so much lately…you there?”
A child? A 4-year-old?
“Oh my God,” I blurted. “I’ve got to go.”
Where the hell is Adam?
I hurried to gather my things. Again, my phone started ringing. “Unavailable,” the caller ID said. I picked up without saying a word.
“Paige...” That voice. That insane, robotic voice. “Nice da
y,
isn’t it?”
I didn’t know how to respond. All I could get out was, “Who is this?”
“Don’t worry about who this is. Just worry about finishing the job,” the voice said.
Finishing the job?
“How do you know about MY JOB?” I demanded.
“No need to get all defensive. I’m helping YOU out…remember? I know you were with Mrs. Mayor today. Hopefully she knows what is going on with her husband. The dumb woman couldn’t figure it out after all this time?”
“What’s your point?” I challenged.
“I know you’re getting close to solving this puzzle. Don’t forget to ask him about his new boat in your interview.”
New boat? Interview? How did they know about that?
Before I could follow up, the mystery caller hung up. It was the longest conversation I had to date with the unknown caller. My breathing got heavier and that eerie feeling that I was being watched revisited me.
“You okay?” Adam calmly asked, yet making me jump. “Geez, Paige, you look like you saw a ghost.”
“Where did you go? You startled me,” I snapped. “I need to go see something. Do me a favor and go through the photos filed under “press conference” and pull any pictures that have a child with the group, specifically around the age of four.”
I left Adam at the bench with my purse and the computer and went over to the marina.
Ask about his new boat?
The boats knocked into each other with every gust of wind. I took a walk around the dock. On the opposite side from where Adam and I were stationed was a sailboat that caught my attention. At first, I thought I was seeing things. There was nothing very special or elaborate about this boat, but something was pulling me to it. As I got closer, the wording on the starboard side became clearer. Kryptonite Tiger, it said. The boat’s name was Kryptonite Tiger! I took out my phone to grab a picture of the registration sticker on the bow. It didn’t look like anyone was in or on it.
I briefly mulled over whether I could make the leap from deck to the stern without falling into the mucky Hudson. I had no choice but to try. I pepped myself up, took off my shoes and waited until the next wake brought the boat close to the deck. Then, I jumped, making it, but nearly losing my balance and my phone on the way. I ducked so nobody would see me and climbed down into the spotless cabin. My phone rang again.
“Hello,” I whispered.
“Paige, where the hell did you go? I’m walking around the pier.” Adam sounded panicky. “You need to take a look at this Steve Benson file, F-Y-I.”
“I’m on the boat named Kryptonite Tiger. Would you believe there is a boat here named that?”
I was obviously excited…and a little bit anxious. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into; I rarely did.
“What? Where is the boat?”
“The opposite side from where we were sitting. You’ll see my flats by the dock. You stand guard.”
I hung up and continued to rummage. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I opened the drawers below the bunk beds. My heart raced at the sight. The drawer was strewn with a variety of items. There were sandwich bags, bed sheets, stuffed animals, and some sex toys. One vibrator looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. It nearly made me vomit. I took some pictures of the suspected infidelity scene. There was nothing yet that indicated whom the boat belonged to. My phone vibrated signaling another incoming call.
“Yeah, what?” I sharply asked.
“Looks like a large group of people coming this way,” Adam warned.
“Crap! Does it look like anyone we know?”
“I can’t tell. They look like Spanish or Middle Eastern. There’s like ten of them.”
“Okay, text me if it looks like they’re coming onboard.”
I hung up, grabbed one of the folded washcloths to pick up the crusty vibrator and put it in a plastic zip-lock bag. As disgusting as it was, I figured if I had to, I could use the serial number to trace it back to the place and time of purchase. There was a stack of folders, a stuffed animal, and a DVD of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I grabbed everything and shoved the items in a garbage bag.
At this point, I didn’t care what went missing. I want it all!
Adam Mobile (6:03 p.m.):
GET OFF THE BOAT NOW!
Climbing back up the stairs, I could see the group of people standing on the pier. They were just a few feet away looking like they were about to board the neighboring yacht named, Grande Bolas.
Who names their boat that?
I tossed Adam the garbage bag. The wealthy-looking family turned to look at me. I gave them a casual wave. Then, I launched myself off Kryptonite Tiger and back onto the pier, making it with only three inches to spare.
“What’s in this bag?” Adam asked, observing its contents from the outside.
I grabbed my shoes and his arm and dragged him back to the car.
“A used dildo and a stuffed animal,” I said casually.
“You know, you could’ve warned me.”
“Oh, calm down. I think it may give us some more answers. Now, what about that folder?”
Utter disbelief. That’s how I felt when we got back to the apartment. As I studied the file folder with Steve Benson written on the tab, things started piecing together even more. It appeared that Walter paid Steve one million dollars to carry out a hit on the former attorney general. It was all in the file. Walter was stupid enough to keep such documentation around. Steve didn’t actually perform the brutal act, but oversaw the operation that took Henry Parker out. But why? What did the former AG know about Walter? Did he know about Operation: Kryptonite Tiger?
In my state of shock, I continued on. It was the excitement that kept me moving. Putting the file aside, I immediately started studying some of the items I had collected while Adam worked to track down the license number of the boat and whom it was registered to. I was neck-deep in scanning documents and carefully analyzing the pictures Adam pulled for me when he alerted me to his findings.
“Guess who the boat belongs to?” I took off my latex gloves and turned towards him sitting at his desk.
“Let me guess, Walter Wilcox,” I answered.
“Nope. Richard “Dick” Brownstein.”
“The comptroller? Where did “Dick” come from?”
Adam pointed to the screen of his laptop. Apparently “Dick” was his nickname or middle name.
Dick Brownstein? Richard Brownstein? RB? DB? DB?!
“That makes so much sense!” I blurted. “DB! Remember when Victoria first came to us? She kept saying Walter was texting with a DB about owing him money? Walter owed him $14,000!”
It must have been for Operation Kryptonite Tiger!
I started going through some of the files from the boat and assigned Adam another task: come up with a portrait of what a Walter and Lucy lovechild would look like.
In one of the files there were several Excel spreadsheets that detailed dates and payments. The second file contained paperwork that looked like a schedule of sorts with JD getting Mondays, TM getting Tuesdays, DB getting Wednesdays and Fridays, LO getting Thursdays, and WW getting Saturdays and Sundays. Those had to be the initials of the staffers, the only conclusion I could make.
When I got to the thickest file and saw the letterhead being from the NYC Department of Treasury, the hairs on my neck stood up. Carefully flipping through the pages, what I had in my hand was a copy of last years fiscal budget. Page after page listed the planned spending for the year for such things as roads, schools, and numerous pork projects. Then, deep within the text of page 189, was fiscal spending for “Operation: Kryptonite Tiger,” with $980,000 being allotted to fund the project. What I had just unearthed warranted a full-scale FBI investigation. At some point soon, I’d have to alert government officials.
“Here he is,” Adam said.
He brought over his laptop with the rendering.
“That’s him,” I blurted.
I immediately pulled out the pictures I had taken on my first trip to Dallas. There, standing next to Walter and holding onto Lucy’s hand, was a little boy whose face nearly matched the rendering.
“Same bone structure, same eyes and nose...” Adam listed.
“It might explain that swing set and trampoline in the backyard of the house in the Hamptons. Maybe even this matted stuffed animal,” I concluded while lightly squeezing its aged fur and cotton stuffing.
The wealth of information we suddenly seemed to have in our hands had left us in a state of silent excitement and anticipation. There was no longer a concept of time as the moon was now high in the sky. Monday was slowly turning into Tuesday, but neither of us was tired. Going through all the data, I had almost forgotten about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles DVD.
“I have this sinking feeling that it isn’t going to be Michelangelo, Donatello, Rafael, and Leonardo on that tape, Paige,” Adam said while popping the tape into the DVD player.
The grainy video started to play.
“That’s a naked man!” I declared.
This was no children’s video; it was a raunchy sex tape starring Leon Olson and Todd Mitchell and each were banging each other’s wives. Why they would have a wife-swapping orgy on the small sailboat rather than in their homes was beyond me. And, to mask it in a child’s video case was just as disturbing.
“Just when I thought this case couldn’t get more sordid,” Adam announced. “Are the people running this city really this dumb and corrupt?”
New York City has had its share of good and bad mayors. And, despite the bad ones, it still hasn’t stopped it from being the greatest city in the world. It’s the place dreamers flock to for a reason. If you sow your seeds just right, who knows what will grow in between the cracked sidewalks and dilapidated brownstones.
I had reached a new height with my business all because the city gave me a wonderful gift: an asinine mayor. With the swath of evidence I now had against him and his staff, I could just turn everything over to the feds and the media. However, I am the Vixen Investigator and I always see things through until the very end.