Speaker 1: Novel.
Speaker 2: Hey Girlfriends, Anna here, I just wanted to give you
Speaker 2: a quick heads up about what you're here in this
Speaker 2: season of The Girlfriends. The series touches on themes of
Speaker 2: coercive control, and they'll obviously be a little bit of
Speaker 2: swearing here and there too. But the women at the
Speaker 2: heart of this series are so funny and powerful and vivacious,
Speaker 2: and there's a great payoff at the end. For the
Speaker 2: full story, listen all the way through. If any of
Speaker 2: the themes feel difficult, you'll find links to mental health
Speaker 2: and support organizations. In the episode description, Wendy is sitting
Speaker 2: Paul's side in a luxury hotel resort, listening to the
Speaker 2: sounds of waves crashing against the nearby beach. It's twenty thirteen,
Speaker 2: around the end of August, and Wendy the Lucky Devil
Speaker 2: is in Hawaii. Wendy's in her early forties, a single
Speaker 2: mom with a busy job. By the time she arrives,
Speaker 2: the sun has set over the Pacific and it's dark
Speaker 2: except for the glow of the tiki torches. Wendy's expectations
Speaker 2: for the evening had been pretty low. She's wearing yoga
Speaker 2: pants and it was too warm to bother with makeup.
Speaker 2: But now the balmy night air is alive with the
Speaker 2: buzz of possibility because Wendy is on a date and
Speaker 2: it's going well. Sitting across from Wendy is a successful businessman, Derek.
Speaker 1: There was something about him. He was very charming, very attentive,
Speaker 1: very very smart, and very engaging.
Speaker 2: He's explaining that he's on Maui for a little while
Speaker 2: to look at investment properties. He comes over regularly from
Speaker 2: San Francisco, hence the dating.
Speaker 1: He's in finance and he's a scuba diver and he
Speaker 1: loves to travel. He sounds like the perfect match for me.
Speaker 2: Wendy hasn't got the total hots for Derek. Looks wise,
Speaker 2: he kind of blends into the washer faces that appear
Speaker 2: on dating apps. Short brown hair, slightly balding. Through absolutely
Speaker 2: no fault of Derek's. He is an entirely average, middle
Speaker 2: aged white guy. But the conversation is flowing.
Speaker 1: He was talking about going scuba diving and he saw
Speaker 1: a weal shark.
Speaker 2: A whale shark sighting is rare on Maui. Derek is
Speaker 2: a lucky man. Taking his cue from Wendy's absorbed expression,
Speaker 2: he continues his story. There he is just off the coast,
Speaker 2: flapping his flippers on yet another unremarkable dive, when suddenly
Speaker 2: this gentle speckled, flat headed sea giant glides past him.
Speaker 2: It was amazing, amazing. As the tiki torches flicker around them,
Speaker 2: Wendy is gripped.
Speaker 3: I would die to see a wheel show.
Speaker 2: That is, until Derek ruins it. He tells Wendy that
Speaker 2: he was scuba diving that day with a particular whale
Speaker 2: conservation group, a local not.
Speaker 1: For profit Pacific Will Foundation. He didn't know this, but
Speaker 1: my daughter's best friend parents owned Pacific Will Foundation. And
Speaker 1: I said, I'm sure you didn't go on Pacific Will
Speaker 1: Foundation because they only do well watching and snarkling.
Speaker 3: They don't have scuba diving boats.
Speaker 2: It's such a small detail.
Speaker 1: And had he said, oh, you know what, I must
Speaker 1: be confused. It must have just had Pacific in the name.
Speaker 1: I would not have thought a second thing about it.
Speaker 2: But he would not let it go.
Speaker 1: No, it was Pacific Whale Foundation. He was adamant. So
Speaker 1: then he said he kept swimming down to try to
Speaker 1: spend more time with the whale shark and didn't do
Speaker 1: a safety stop.
Speaker 2: A safety stop to release all the nitrogen his body
Speaker 2: had stored up while diving. Derek, our experienced diver, forgot.
Speaker 1: He ended up getting the bins and he had to
Speaker 1: go to a decompression chamber. The only decompression chamber in
Speaker 1: Hawaii at the time was on o Wahu. They don't
Speaker 1: have one on Maui, or they didn't at the time.
Speaker 1: I have not known a single person that ever got
Speaker 1: the bins or that ever had to go to a
Speaker 1: decompression chamber. I didn't call him out on that, but
Speaker 1: I thought, this is kind of weird, and I've been
Speaker 1: scuba diving all over the world. Not to say it
Speaker 1: couldn't happen, but it really sounded a bit fantastical.
Speaker 2: Ever, get that feeling in your gut, like you're being
Speaker 2: lied to. Wendy has that feeling right now.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people. I just can't let it go.
Speaker 2: Whale sharks, the bens, there's such inconsequential things.
Speaker 3: Why would you lie about that?
Speaker 2: It'll be five years, many more first dates, a federal
Speaker 2: investigation spanning states and decades, and a determined group of
Speaker 2: pissed off girlfriends raising hell before Wendy gets a satisfying
Speaker 2: answer to that question.
Speaker 1: My name is Wendy and I dated a carn artist
Speaker 1: named Derek and it completely changed my life.
Speaker 2: I'm Annisonfield and from the teams at Novel and iHeart podcasts.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the girlfriends Trust Me Babe, Episode one,
Speaker 2: Shark Bait. When Wendy was young, her mum Sherry, would
Speaker 2: share stories with her, tales from her youth about her
Speaker 2: own dating experiences. Is a Friday night in nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: four on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Sherry and her
Speaker 2: two housemates are at home in their first floor apartment.
Speaker 2: The smell of citrus blossom from the surrounding groves floats
Speaker 2: in the air. They're no older than twenty two recent
Speaker 2: college grads, and tonight one of them has a date.
Speaker 2: He's here on date nights. These three friends have a
Speaker 2: bit of a routine. One of them, tonight at Sherry
Speaker 2: lets the suitor in distracts him with aimless conversation while
Speaker 2: his date pretends to put the finishing touches to her hair.
Speaker 2: The third friend, with a bag full of trash from
Speaker 2: the kitchen, sneaks out the door and notes down the make,
Speaker 2: model and license plate of their guests car safety protocol complete,
Speaker 2: the friend on the date leaves Glamder to the nines.
Speaker 2: Her two friends watch her cruise into the sunset with
Speaker 2: a stranger, safe in the knowledge that while they're probably
Speaker 2: just going to Shakey's for some dark beer and warm pizza,
Speaker 2: if God forbid something bad were to happen, they're prepared.
Speaker 3: That was a thing, even back in the sixties, to
Speaker 3: keep each other safe just in case.
Speaker 2: That's Laurie. She heard this story growing up too.
Speaker 3: We couldn't stand each other because, you know, sisters.
Speaker 2: Laurie is Wendy's older sister.
Speaker 3: Our dad told us one of these days, you girls
Speaker 3: are gonna be best friends, and we would jag and
Speaker 3: it bros. He was right, He was so right. Wendy
Speaker 3: always called me her safety net, and I love that.
Speaker 3: I loved being her safety net.
Speaker 2: Wendy got married young to her college sweetheart, and they
Speaker 2: did the whole nights, had a kid, got the white
Speaker 2: picket fence, and it was a great marriage, but it
Speaker 2: ran its course. By thirty five, Wendy is newly single
Speaker 2: and making a home for herself on Maui with her daughter.
Speaker 2: Everything feels new, especially dating.
Speaker 1: I'd never even been to a bar to have a
Speaker 1: guy buy me a drink. I didn't know about online dating.
Speaker 1: I didn't know about match dot com.
Speaker 2: Will you regale me with one of your dating stories?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: I have so many Broke Bone Bobbie and Jilbird Ryan
Speaker 1: and the cuticle Picker, and I've just have so.
Speaker 3: Many right, like, it's insane.
Speaker 2: As Wendy dives into the dating game headfirst, she tells
Speaker 2: her big sister Laurie all about it over long phone
Speaker 2: calls Wendy and Hawaii. Laurie in Texas.
Speaker 1: He did not look like his photos at all. He
Speaker 1: was trying to take pictures of the sunset, and he
Speaker 1: kept using his flash. I get a letter from the
Speaker 1: county jail asking me to come visit him. I never
Speaker 1: told anyone that I was remotely interested in seeing a
Speaker 1: dick pic. Hordes of them, so many of them.
Speaker 3: That's when I started realizing she needs a little backup.
Speaker 2: So in steps big sister Laurie.
Speaker 3: She allowed me to have her location on Google.
Speaker 2: At first, it doesn't all run as smoothly as their
Speaker 2: mother's trash run reconnaissance strategy.
Speaker 3: I had to call her one time and say, your
Speaker 3: w is out in a lake.
Speaker 2: Wendy's Google map icon is surrounded by water.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I forget to tell you it's a houseboat.
Speaker 2: The more Wendy dates, the more the sisters fall into
Speaker 2: a kind of rhythm.
Speaker 3: Every guy that she went out with, I'm going to
Speaker 3: see what I can find out about him.
Speaker 1: I told him, I said, I'm okay to come to
Speaker 1: your but I'm having my sister look you up. And
Speaker 1: he goes, oh, try it. She's not going to find anything.
Speaker 3: Challenge accepted. Here's the picture of his house.
Speaker 1: He's got these two kids, and it looks like he
Speaker 1: flies back and forth for these two cities.
Speaker 2: My god, my god. Eight years and hundreds of first
Speaker 2: days later, Wendy has perfected her own strategies and is
Speaker 2: even planning to turn her bizarre dating stories into a book.
Speaker 2: It's the end of summer twenty thirteen and it's been
Speaker 2: just two days since her first date with Derek the
Speaker 2: whale shark guy. And while she's still none the wiser
Speaker 2: as to why he'd lie about scuba diving, she's also
Speaker 2: kind of into him. He's successful, adventurous, and attentive, perhaps
Speaker 2: too attentive. He's been a prolific texter and emailer. Just
Speaker 2: two days after their first date, Derek offers to fly
Speaker 2: Wendy to San Francisco to meet his mother. He signs
Speaker 2: off his message love you more than this morning with
Speaker 2: two exclamation marks.
Speaker 1: I said you couldn't even name ten facts about me,
Speaker 1: and he then sent me an email one hundred.
Speaker 3: Reasons why I love you.
Speaker 1: Hearts of it were I love that you have to
Speaker 1: have a coffee first thing in the morning. I don't
Speaker 1: drink coffee. He literally didn't even read it. He just
Speaker 1: googled a hundred reasons to love someone and then just
Speaker 1: send it to me.
Speaker 2: Derek is a little carried away with his feelings, sure,
Speaker 2: but Wendy thinks maybe he's just kind of clumsy with it.
Speaker 2: We've all been a little cringey when we've had a crush.
Speaker 1: I was excited to meet someone that was very interested
Speaker 1: in me and was very open to me.
Speaker 3: That was very refreshing.
Speaker 1: Something just didn't feel completely right, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: like him.
Speaker 2: And so Wendy picks up the phone and makes a
Speaker 2: call to her sister in Texas.
Speaker 1: Can you check out Derek?
Speaker 2: Wendy and Laurie have been in the game for a while.
Speaker 1: Now I had so many details. His name, how old he.
Speaker 3: Was, She said, Oh, he has a daughter, same age's
Speaker 3: my daughter? How long he said he'd been divorced. The
Speaker 3: college that he went to, what year he graduated. She
Speaker 3: did get the name of the company he was working for.
Speaker 1: I don't even know that much information about some of
Speaker 1: my close friends.
Speaker 2: While Laura gets to work online sleuthing, Wendy and Derek
Speaker 2: keep seeing each other, and one of those dates is
Speaker 2: in an upscale neighborhood where Derek is viewing a luxury condo.
Speaker 1: He had told me he's on Maui because he's looking
Speaker 1: for investments.
Speaker 2: It's been less than two weeks since they met.
Speaker 1: He said, do you want to go with me to
Speaker 1: look at some of these properties? So I'm like, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2: They're walking through a place Derek is considering investing in.
Speaker 2: It's a three bed property with all the amenities, ocean views,
Speaker 2: built in lighting fixtures for hanging your own art collection.
Speaker 2: It's classy. Wendy's realta friend is showing them around.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, he seems like such a great, successful, nice guy.
Speaker 2: But before long, Derek fumbles into weird o behavior again.
Speaker 1: He started acting like, oh, this could be our home,
Speaker 1: ah home, And I'm like, I thought this was a
Speaker 1: real estate investment thing. He started saying, you know, I
Speaker 1: really see this as our house. He's like, let's put
Speaker 1: both our names on it. I'm like what he goes,
Speaker 1: I want to make sure you and your daughter are
Speaker 1: taking care of him, Like, well, then put me in
Speaker 1: your will.
Speaker 3: I'm never signing anything with you.
Speaker 2: This is the moment at which Wendy's interest in Derek
Speaker 2: as a possible boyfriend really takes a turn. Whatever his charms,
Speaker 2: he is coming on too strong. It's not just the
Speaker 2: real estate business. He's sending shared calendar invites for upcoming
Speaker 2: family visits.
Speaker 1: Now they call it love bombing, but I didn't know
Speaker 1: the term back then.
Speaker 2: Wendy's big sister Laurie is starting to question Derek too.
Speaker 2: In a small, narrow room off her bedroom, Laurie is
Speaker 2: at a cluttered desk. She's sitting on one of those
Speaker 2: ergonomic backlass chairs where you rest your weight on your knees.
Speaker 2: She's looking at the website for Derek Already's real estate
Speaker 2: investment come the one who sent Wendy scrolling to the
Speaker 2: bottom of the page. She notices the site was only
Speaker 2: created that year. Could be something, could be nothing.
Speaker 3: I started noticing things that were static. They weren't clickable.
Speaker 2: It's full of testimonials, generic stock images, but the links
Speaker 2: are dead. Are these real people? For that matter? Is
Speaker 2: a business reel? Luri finds the company's address on the website.
Speaker 3: I went to Google Earth and I went down to
Speaker 3: street level, and in that building you could see the
Speaker 3: directory of what companies were in that building.
Speaker 2: Derek's supposed company wasn't there. Other than the stuff Derek's
Speaker 2: provided to Wendy himself. Lauri can't find any detail whatsoever
Speaker 2: on the guy.
Speaker 3: This puzzle with missing a lot of pieces. I just
Speaker 3: was not finding the normal things that I could find.
Speaker 3: Why am I stuck? Why can't I find more on
Speaker 3: this guy?
Speaker 2: As she sits alone at her desk, a new thought
Speaker 2: occurs to Laurie. Maybe the lack of information, the very
Speaker 2: existence of so many strange gaps, is the enormous, frantically
Speaker 2: waving red flag she's been looking for. Laurie decides it's
Speaker 2: time to call in a little backup of her own.
Speaker 2: She looks up a name and number that she hasn't
Speaker 2: thought about for years. Gives him a call.
Speaker 3: I recognize that voice immediately.
Speaker 2: Laurie's old college power Pat is now a private investigator,
Speaker 2: Private investigation Pat.
Speaker 3: He said, of course I will do this. Of course
Speaker 3: I will do this for you.
Speaker 2: PI Pat gets to work right away, pulling off his
Speaker 2: own research tools while the two old friends sit on
Speaker 2: the phone, and in almost no time at all, the
Speaker 2: computer spits back some results.
Speaker 3: He said, just from looking at this report, Tell your
Speaker 3: sister to run. Tell her to run.
Speaker 2: Laurie's just got off the phone with PI Pat, who
Speaker 2: has told her, in no uncertain terms, to get her
Speaker 2: sister the hell out of her weird dance with Derek Allread.
Speaker 2: With Pat's reports sitting in her inbox, Laurie reaches for
Speaker 2: the phone again in her panic to tell Wendy the news.
Speaker 2: She nearly falls off her chair.
Speaker 1: It was really disappointed that there wasn't more information about this.
Speaker 1: There wasn't anything really big, and I kind of my
Speaker 1: shoulders dropped.
Speaker 2: You see the report pipat sent over didn't really answer
Speaker 2: Wendy's questions, just gave her more. Firstly, Derek had been
Speaker 2: lying to Wendy about the spelling of his name. Derek
Speaker 2: Allread was Derek Alldred. That's how Pipat had found him. Secondly,
Speaker 2: Derek Aldred had a long list of previous addresses, oddly
Speaker 2: long and across states. As well as that, a larger
Speaker 2: than average number of evictions. And that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1: I thought, for sure, we're going to find out there's
Speaker 1: something going on here.
Speaker 2: For Wendy. It doesn't seem like much for Pi Pat
Speaker 2: and Laurie. Reading between the lines, it says a law
Speaker 2: there were no felonies, but PI Pat can explain that.
Speaker 3: He said, I can't see certain reports because states don't
Speaker 3: share the information. But it was enough to know he's
Speaker 3: not a good guy.
Speaker 2: But Wendy's moved beyond wanting to date Derek. She has
Speaker 2: other ambitions.
Speaker 3: She has this thing. She considers herself a karma warrior, okay,
Speaker 3: meaning in her mind, this is a guy that needs
Speaker 3: to be put in his place. The toxic masculinity. Guys
Speaker 3: go for it. Wendy say what she needs to say,
Speaker 3: do what you need to do. This guy was totally different, tractive, friendly, helpful,
Speaker 3: all these things. Those are the ones that you know
Speaker 3: scare me. And I think she thought, eh, I'm just
Speaker 3: gonna play with them. All a bit just because she could.
Speaker 2: Wendy, with a ponchon for poking the bear and the
Speaker 2: final chapter of a book about online dating to write,
Speaker 2: sets out to find the truth. Wendy meets up with Derek,
Speaker 2: armed with evidence from Pipat and Deputy PI Laurie, but
Speaker 2: it doesn't really go according to plan because Derek cops
Speaker 2: to none of it. The long list of previous addresses.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm in real estate investment. Those are properties I've
Speaker 1: owned and printed the eviction notices I've had the evict
Speaker 1: other people.
Speaker 2: Derek even calls Maui Memorial Hospital while Wendy is on
Speaker 2: speakerphone beside him, to prove he really was in hospital
Speaker 2: around the time of his story about getting the bend.
Speaker 1: He did not own up to anything that was remotely off.
Speaker 1: He had an answer for everything.
Speaker 2: Without cold, hard proof. All she has is gut instinct,
Speaker 2: and in the face of Derek's confidence, self assuredness, it's
Speaker 2: not the satisfying confrontation she had hoped for. Wendy just
Speaker 2: has more questions.
Speaker 1: Why is he coming after me? I kept thinking maybe
Speaker 1: there's something to do with buying a house, but I
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of extra cash sitting around. It's
Speaker 1: not like I was super wealthy or anything.
Speaker 2: It's only been a couple of weeks. But Wendy is
Speaker 2: clear on one thing. Derek is not investing in the
Speaker 2: Maui property market.
Speaker 1: That whole deal fell through because he didn't have money.
Speaker 1: My friend was the realtor. She's like, there's no money
Speaker 1: in that account. I'm a super cureious person. So I
Speaker 1: kept agreeing to meet with him now and then I
Speaker 1: would go with them to look at condos, and he
Speaker 1: would talk about how much money he had. One time
Speaker 1: he said, I know you don't believe me, and he
Speaker 1: had pulled up an investment account like one point two million.
Speaker 1: First of all, it looks like a PDF. And then
Speaker 1: I also noticed that there was a typo in the
Speaker 1: word checking, the most basic word.
Speaker 2: And yet all the while he's lavishing her with attention
Speaker 2: and more.
Speaker 1: One two, three dozen roses, Sherry's berries, Tiffany jewelry, prescription sunglasses,
Speaker 1: a giant Teddy Bear.
Speaker 2: To give you a sense of scale. I'm four for
Speaker 2: eleven and I'd call this bad daddy.
Speaker 1: If he would have been just any other person, I
Speaker 1: would have stopped. But because I had already started writing
Speaker 1: a book about online dating.
Speaker 3: I kept going with it.
Speaker 2: She doesn't just want Derek to admit that he's a liar.
Speaker 2: She wants him to explain why he's lying.
Speaker 1: Who in the right mind would spend so much time
Speaker 1: and effort trying to cont someone It just didn't make
Speaker 1: any sense to me.
Speaker 2: Wendy is starting to doubt whether anything Derek says is true.
Speaker 2: Does he really have a dog named Max? Is he
Speaker 2: even from San Francisco? And if so, where does he
Speaker 2: actually live? In response to Wendy's questions, Derek sends Wendy
Speaker 2: a video tour pading around the inside of a home.
Speaker 2: We start off in a living room and there's some
Speaker 2: red walls. He walks through a doorway into a kitchen,
Speaker 2: lots of pictures, a nicely made up bed. There's a
Speaker 2: dogbed in the living room, and the name on the
Speaker 2: back says Maxwell. But what does a random video really
Speaker 2: tell you? It's like if someone said to me, Anna,
Speaker 2: you're not really a vegan, and to prove to them
Speaker 2: that I am, I send them a video of a salad.
Speaker 2: Everyone eats salads. Who's to say it's even my salad?
Speaker 2: Who's to say I even took the video, But whenever
Speaker 2: Wendy pushes too hard with questions or challenges about Derek's
Speaker 2: metaphorical salad, he seems to find ways to derail things
Speaker 2: in his favor.
Speaker 1: There was always some tragic thing that was happening. When
Speaker 1: time he told me his dog died, he would have
Speaker 1: drama in his life. He just wouldn't let it go.
Speaker 3: He still kept trying.
Speaker 2: Wow, he just would not quit. Right, Did he like it?
Speaker 2: You know? The rejection?
Speaker 1: I don't know, Wendy. I've been nothing but transparent with you,
Speaker 1: and I love you, and it really is so hurtful
Speaker 1: that you're saying these things about me. Once I knew
Speaker 1: he was a pathological liar, I really just wanted to
Speaker 1: catch him in a way that he couldn't get out
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 2: It isn't until mid October that Wendy gets her next
Speaker 2: opportunity to try and figure out what Derek's really up to,
Speaker 2: and this time it's on his home turf. Wendy has
Speaker 2: to travel to San Francisco for a biopsy following a
Speaker 2: breast cancer scare. When Derek hears about it, in classic
Speaker 2: Derek's style, he makes a big fuss, offering to buy
Speaker 2: Wendy's plane ticket and then sending details for a flight
Speaker 2: that doesn't exist. Didn't he think you'd find out about
Speaker 2: the flight?
Speaker 1: You would think so. I have no idea why he
Speaker 1: would do some things and not others.
Speaker 2: She gets there anyway under her own steam. Results come
Speaker 2: back negative within a couple of days, and Wendy's feeling good.
Speaker 2: Then Derek pops up again. He invites her to dinner.
Speaker 2: Wendy can't resist the opportunity to do a bit slew
Speaker 2: thing on Derek's patch. They go for the dinner, and
Speaker 2: not only does he rock up in a BMW, he
Speaker 2: actually pays for everything. He even takes Wendy to a
Speaker 2: Brian Adams concert, merch drinks, all paid for by this
Speaker 2: strange man.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there going well, he looks like what he
Speaker 1: told me he was. I was trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: like where did he come into money.
Speaker 2: Wendy looks at the man beside her and asks herself,
Speaker 2: for maybe the hundredth time, what kind of con is this.
Speaker 2: It's a Tuesday evening in the very middle of October.
Speaker 2: Wendy's back on Maui and the prosecco is flowing. A
Speaker 2: medley of dance pop albums play in the background. Brittany
Speaker 2: the Donna, Lady Gaga. There are potluck snacks on Wendy's
Speaker 2: living room table. It's been a month and a half
Speaker 2: since Wendy's first date with Derek, and it's girls' night.
Speaker 2: There are eight women crammed into Wendy's small living room,
Speaker 2: gaping at the giant TV on the wall the show
Speaker 2: Wendy's love Life. She's hook the TV up to her
Speaker 2: phone and is doing a full class report of her
Speaker 2: latest dates with supplementary screenshots and selfies.
Speaker 1: All my girlfriends were getting the reports about what was
Speaker 1: going on, and they were all invested.
Speaker 2: There's nothing quite as intoxicating as being the headline act
Speaker 2: at girls' Night. In the last few weeks have given
Speaker 2: Wendy a lot of material to work with as she
Speaker 2: regales them with her latest tales. The girls speculate about
Speaker 2: Derek's motives.
Speaker 1: What is this guy's deal? What is he after?
Speaker 2: Until finally, one of Wendy's girlfriends says the thing we've.
Speaker 1: All been thinking, Wendy. He does sound like he is
Speaker 1: a psychopath. And what if he physically hurts you? What
Speaker 1: if he hits you? What if he kidnapped you. Up
Speaker 1: until she said that, it had never crossed my mind.
Speaker 2: It's the same worry Wendy's sister had quietly all those
Speaker 2: weeks earlier.
Speaker 3: It really made me open my eyes.
Speaker 2: It's been two months of exchanges with Derek, and despite
Speaker 2: all the evidence, all the difficult questions, Wendy is no
Speaker 2: closer to learning the truth about who this man actually is.
Speaker 2: But now she realized, really realizes.
Speaker 1: This is clearly an unhinged person and maybe I'm not safe.
Speaker 1: I'm just never going to figure this out. I need
Speaker 1: to get him out of my life before he does
Speaker 1: do something really crazy to me.
Speaker 2: It's only been a couple of days since Wendy's girls
Speaker 2: told her gently to leave Derek well alone. When he
Speaker 2: reaches out again wanting to meet up, Wendy does decide
Speaker 2: to go. Maybe this is her chance to end it
Speaker 2: in person.
Speaker 1: He asked me to come meet him because he wanted
Speaker 1: to get his mother a birthday gift.
Speaker 2: Wendy meets Derek at the jewelry store in a busy
Speaker 2: shopping center, and at first she browses solo well. Derek
Speaker 2: does his own thing.
Speaker 1: And then he's like, oh, hey, I think I found
Speaker 1: the gift for my mom.
Speaker 2: Derek shows her a pair of diamond stud earrings four
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, and.
Speaker 1: He goes, would you try him on? They're just diamond studs.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows what they look like on ears. But I
Speaker 1: put them on, and then he goes, well, let's look
Speaker 1: out in the light. And he was trying to pull
Speaker 1: me outside of the store.
Speaker 2: Wendy looks over at the salesperson for help, but they
Speaker 2: just not. I imagine with the patients of all underpaid retail
Speaker 2: workers who are unwillingly roped into romantic gestures outside the
Speaker 2: jewelry store under the bright lights of the shopping mall.
Speaker 2: Derek makes his reveal.
Speaker 1: I've already paid for them. They're for you, not my mother.
Speaker 1: To do it to show you that I'm committed to
Speaker 1: this relationship.
Speaker 2: She comes in here to end it, and now he's
Speaker 2: throwing earrings at.
Speaker 1: Her, and I'm thinking, where is this coming from. I
Speaker 1: gave him back those earrings. I said, I do think
Speaker 1: that you are a con artist, and even though I
Speaker 1: can't put it all together, I don't ever want you
Speaker 1: to contact me again.
Speaker 2: A few weeks later, Wendy gets a text.
Speaker 1: Hi Wendy, I'm on island. My dad doesn't want me
Speaker 1: to contact you.
Speaker 3: Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: It's from an unknown number, and the text claims to
Speaker 2: be not Derek, but Derek's daughter.
Speaker 3: I started laughing.
Speaker 1: I knew right away it wasn't her, because it's texting
Speaker 1: like adults think teenager's text.
Speaker 3: No word is written out.
Speaker 2: Wendy even shows them to her own daughter.
Speaker 1: Do you think this is actually from a teenager? Oh gosh, no,
Speaker 1: we don't really text like that.
Speaker 2: The unknown number sends a follow up.
Speaker 1: Oh, my dad would be upset if he knew I
Speaker 1: was reaching out to you. But he's in the hospital.
Speaker 2: Wendy resolutely broke up with Derek, but this is too
Speaker 2: good of an opportunity to pass up.
Speaker 1: I call the hospital. He is registered as a patient.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what.
Speaker 2: Wendy's own daughter wants answers now too.
Speaker 1: She goes, You've got to go down there. You can
Speaker 1: catch him, because you know his daughter's not there. I
Speaker 1: drive to the hospital, I go in the room and
Speaker 1: I see him and I'm thinking.
Speaker 3: Where's your daughter.
Speaker 1: Oh, my friend on island took her. They went to Starbucks,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, Starbucks closes in like twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: It's MAUI. Everything closes by nine pm, if not earlier.
Speaker 2: Derek has taken off to get a scam. Wendy sits
Speaker 2: in his room waiting. Twenty minutes go by.
Speaker 3: Starbucks has closed. Where's your daughter?
Speaker 1: He just kept saying, oh, well, they must be doing
Speaker 1: this or that or whatever, and she just didn't come.
Speaker 1: And so I'm like, okay, you know what, whatever, I
Speaker 1: got to go home.
Speaker 2: Wendy doesn't go home because it's time for a good
Speaker 2: old fashioned steak out.
Speaker 1: I went and I parked my car across the street.
Speaker 2: Wendy sits in her car in the dark, eyes trained
Speaker 2: on the bright fluorescent lights of the hospital main entrance,
Speaker 2: and waits.
Speaker 1: He got discharged and I saw him come out of
Speaker 1: the hospital in plane clothes and then just started walking
Speaker 1: down the street. He didn't have a vehicle, he didn't
Speaker 1: have anything. There was nobody to pick him up.
Speaker 2: Wendy was right Darro's door. Her is nowhere to be seen,
Speaker 2: but as she watches him retreat into the distance, she's
Speaker 2: no closer to finding out the truth.
Speaker 1: It really was a bummer because nothing made sense. It
Speaker 1: killed me to not have answers, and to just say
Speaker 1: that I'm never going to have correspondence with him again.
Speaker 2: Back in San Francisco, Derek takes a little longer to
Speaker 2: drop it. He keeps sending emails which Wendy doesn't reply to.
Speaker 2: He even tries one last sympathy play, telling her that
Speaker 2: he in fact has cancer, that she's the love of
Speaker 2: his life, that he loves her forever, attaching copies of
Speaker 2: his ultrasounds as proof.
Speaker 1: I did a Google image search. The ultrasound picture that
Speaker 1: he sent me was one of the first ones that
Speaker 1: came up.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, So he didn't even try hard.
Speaker 1: He wasn't trying hard, he wasn't putting in the effort
Speaker 1: like he used to. I just felt like that was
Speaker 1: his attempt to lure me back in, and I didn't
Speaker 1: take the bait.
Speaker 2: Instead, she resolves not to respond to Derek ever again.
Speaker 2: To close the chapter without answers, she sits down at
Speaker 2: her computer and changes her Wi Fi password to the immortal.
Speaker 1: Words Derek sucks my one ass.
Speaker 2: Wendy is done. Months later, Wendy is walking down Maui's
Speaker 2: busiest street when her phone rings.
Speaker 1: Hi, Wendy, you don't know me, but my name's Cindy
Speaker 1: and we both dated Derek.
Speaker 2: And I was like and just like that, Wendy's back in.
Speaker 3: Baby, I'm going to figure out what's going on.
Speaker 2: Coming up on the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.
Speaker 4: Something's off about this whole thing.
Speaker 2: Something's fishy.
Speaker 3: She was relentless. He is not going to get away with.
Speaker 2: This, but it sounds so familiar.
Speaker 3: She kept saying, can you text her and see if
Speaker 3: you can get a picture of him? And she did.
Speaker 3: I can tell you neither one of us had any
Speaker 3: idea what he really was.
Speaker 2: A terrible, middle aged, nearly bolding boyfriend pops up in Minnesota.
Speaker 3: Bad news.
Speaker 2: We don't like them.
Speaker 1: He kind of gave me creepy vibes.
Speaker 2: And runs into a group of no nonsense, pokey loving
Speaker 2: n uses.
Speaker 4: We still talk about it. We always say that trust
Speaker 4: your girlfriends.
Speaker 2: The Girlfriend's Trust Me, Babe is produced by Novel for
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio.
Speaker 2: The series is hosted by me Annasinfield is produced by
Speaker 2: Leona Hamid. Our assistant producer is Valeria Rocker. Our editor
Speaker 2: is Joe Wheeler. Production management from Sharie Houston, Joe Savage
Speaker 2: and Charlotte Wolfe, fact checking by Dania Suleman, sound design,
Speaker 2: mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. The
Speaker 2: Girlfriend's theme was composed by Daniel Kempson and Louisa Gerstein
Speaker 2: and performed by Daniel Kempson with vocals by Luisa Gerstein.
Speaker 2: Music supervision from Daniel Kempson and Anna Sinfield. The series
Speaker 2: artwork was designed by Christina Lemcol. Story development by Susie
Speaker 2: Baker and Olivia Smart. Novel's director of development is Selena mah.
Speaker 2: Max O'Brien is the executive producer for novel. Katrina Norvell
Speaker 2: and Nikki Etoor are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts,
Speaker 2: and the marketing lead is Alison Cantor. Special thanks to
Speaker 2: Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, Julie Sansulo
Speaker 2: and Langston, Carolyn sher Levin, Katie Gillis, Kelly Hunt, Rachel Munroe,
Speaker 2: Tom Oldag, and Tadvesner