Speaker 1: Novel Last time on the Girlfriends Trust me babe.
Speaker 2: Hi, Wendy. You don't know me, but my name's Cindy
Speaker 2: and we both dated Derek.
Speaker 1: Wendy gets a surprise phone call and I was like,
Speaker 1: I was so excited to talk to her. After weeks
Speaker 1: of DIY investigations, Wendy had finally given up on finding
Speaker 1: out the truth about who Derek alread slash all Dread
Speaker 1: really was. But now standing on the busy shopping strip
Speaker 1: of Front Street Leahina, the Pacific Ocean stretching out by
Speaker 1: her side, she might finally be on the cusp of
Speaker 1: real answers.
Speaker 3: I remember ducking around kind of an alleyway so I
Speaker 3: could try to hear her a little better. I'm passing
Speaker 3: all these people. I'm sure I looked a little crazy.
Speaker 1: The woman on the other end of the line introduces
Speaker 1: herself as Cindy.
Speaker 2: She was a little bit frantic.
Speaker 3: She was in the middle of finding out how much
Speaker 3: money he had stolen from her.
Speaker 1: Derek really was a con artist.
Speaker 3: He took her computer and looked up all of her finances,
Speaker 3: changed the passwords, ordered credit cards in his name. So
Speaker 3: he's taking her out to dinner and paying for it,
Speaker 3: and she had no idea it.
Speaker 2: Was actually on her account. He stole a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Unlike Derek, Cindy has an actual successful career. When they
Speaker 1: meet in twenty thirteen, she's working in tech in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: but he spins her a good yarn too. He tells
Speaker 1: her he's a luxury hotel developer, and over the course
Speaker 1: of about a month not quite two, she alleges that
Speaker 1: he stole one hundred and seventy eight dollars, spent twenty
Speaker 1: six thousand on her credit card, and stole six hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty thousand airline miles. When Cindy goes through her
Speaker 1: finances in more detail, she finds some interesting charges.
Speaker 3: The flowers Sherry's berries and the candy and the giant Teddy.
Speaker 1: Bear dinners drinks, four thousand dollar earrings, prescription glasses, all
Speaker 1: the stuff Derek had been buying for Wendy.
Speaker 3: I saw all the evidence that he was using her
Speaker 3: credit card to do that.
Speaker 1: And that's not all. Remember the video Derek sent to
Speaker 1: Wendy to prove where he lived.
Speaker 2: He was in her house.
Speaker 1: And Maxwell, Derek's beloved dog sadly taken from this world
Speaker 1: too soon.
Speaker 3: The dog was not his. He took a picture of
Speaker 3: her dog and took a picture of that dog's bed,
Speaker 3: and that dog had not died.
Speaker 1: Once she discovers the truth, Cindy goes straight to the police.
Speaker 3: They just wanted to brush it off, like, oh, it's
Speaker 3: just a domestic squabble.
Speaker 1: Wendy believes the police didn't investigate the claim seriously because
Speaker 1: Cindy couldn't prove that she didn't authorize the card herself.
Speaker 3: She's finding out this guy is a serious common artist,
Speaker 3: and nobody is listening to me.
Speaker 1: The police don't seem to be prioritizing Cindy's case, so
Speaker 1: she's hoping Wendy can help.
Speaker 2: I had a file, Derek Aldred.
Speaker 1: Wendy was writing a book. Of course, she's kept her research.
Speaker 3: I had printed out some of the emails that were crazy,
Speaker 3: all in this filefolder. I was so happy I had
Speaker 3: kept so much of this information. She asked if I
Speaker 3: would please call this Fan Francisco detective that was assigned
Speaker 3: to her case, and I did.
Speaker 2: I called multiple times.
Speaker 1: As far as we can tell, Cindy's hopes that the
Speaker 1: San Francisco police would do their job would ultimately go nowhere.
Speaker 1: Even with Wendy in her corner.
Speaker 3: It was very apparent they were not taking any of
Speaker 3: it seriously.
Speaker 2: She felt very alone, and.
Speaker 1: While the San Francisco police are twiddling their thumbs, Derek
Speaker 1: just disappears. But Cindy doesn't plan to fade quietly into submission.
Speaker 2: She was relentless. He is not going to get away
Speaker 2: with this.
Speaker 3: I Am going to find him and bring him to justice.
Speaker 1: And before long, Cindy will learn that it wasn't just
Speaker 1: her or Wendy that Derek fucked over, because it turns
Speaker 1: out who's been wrecking women's lives all over the United States.
Speaker 1: And soon he'll be thousands of miles away in the
Speaker 1: land of ten thousand Blakes, Minnesota, reeling in his latest target.
Speaker 4: Something's off a but this whole thing, something's fishy.
Speaker 1: I'm Anna Sinfield and from the teams at Novel and
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. You're listening to the Girlfriends Trust Me.
Speaker 5: Babe, episode two, The Busted Nut.
Speaker 1: You in a huge stadium in downtown Saint Paul. The
Speaker 1: Minnesota Wild hockey team are gliding into an ice rink
Speaker 1: lit up by neon lights.
Speaker 6: I believe we're playing Chicago.
Speaker 1: It's October twenty fifteen. The energy is high in the stadium.
Speaker 1: I can't be certain, but I just like know in
Speaker 1: my bones that let's get it started. By the Black
Speaker 1: Eyed Peas was playing, Commentators crooning are we ready? As
Speaker 1: the two teams squeak their skates onto the rink, the lights,
Speaker 1: the sounds. They're loud and rowdy, and so are the fans.
Speaker 1: Among them, sitting in the upper levels is Lisa.
Speaker 6: You know it's dangerous to be around me when we're
Speaker 6: a plane.
Speaker 1: Lisa a die hard Minnesota Wild fan. She's a divorced
Speaker 1: mum of two and a nurse at a children's hospital.
Speaker 1: Sitting next to Lisa at the hockey game are two
Speaker 1: of her closest friends, Tammy and Michelle. We just speak
Speaker 1: girls that love hockey, yelling, having fun. But all through
Speaker 1: the game, Lisa's phone is buzzing texts from her boyfriend.
Speaker 1: They've only been dating for a short time and they've
Speaker 1: really clicked except tonight. Lisa's trying to enjoy watching an
Speaker 1: ice hockey game with her girls, only her suddenly whiny
Speaker 1: boyfriend is not reading the room.
Speaker 6: You don't have time for me, you know, why are
Speaker 6: you with them?
Speaker 1: This evening? He's being a little controlling, but Lisa's having
Speaker 1: none of it.
Speaker 6: I love hockey and I wanted to be with my friends.
Speaker 1: Game finishes, Minnesota beat Chicago five to four, but the
Speaker 1: girls aren't done.
Speaker 4: Let's go to McGovern's. We'd get popcorn and wind down
Speaker 4: the night.
Speaker 1: That's Michelle Lisa's besty. They're talking about a local bar
Speaker 1: they sometimes go to.
Speaker 4: Mcgoverns is more of an older, deep rich wood bar
Speaker 4: with great home cooking food, big outdoor patio in the back.
Speaker 1: As Lisa moves through the crowd to grab a drink,
Speaker 1: she stops in her tracks.
Speaker 6: I'll say, look at the bar, and he's sitting at
Speaker 6: the bar, and I was like, WHOA.
Speaker 1: Lisa's boyfriend has made a surprise appearance.
Speaker 6: One friend goes, oh, that's kind of creepy. So I
Speaker 6: kind of go up to me. He's like, oh, babe,
Speaker 6: I just wanted to surprise you.
Speaker 1: Lisa's friends have heard a lot about her boyfriend. His
Speaker 1: name is Steele Aldridge. He's kind outdoorsy, very family orientated.
Speaker 1: He told Lisa about his sister who's married to a pilot,
Speaker 1: and also about his twin brother who's a bit wayward.
Speaker 1: He's got his own business, running a surf shop, Steel
Speaker 1: Finn's in Hawaii. He's studying at the local university. He
Speaker 1: even volunteers at a homeless shelter.
Speaker 6: Knowing that someone's taking turn out to do that just
Speaker 6: really made me feel, you know, just like God, this
Speaker 6: guy is.
Speaker 1: Great despite his behavior during the game. Steele and Lisa
Speaker 1: have been getting on great, but now he's turned up
Speaker 1: at the bar out for Blue.
Speaker 4: He was kind of a thinner, smaller guy than I pictured.
Speaker 1: It surprised me that that's what he looked like. Lisa's bestI,
Speaker 1: Michelle watches from afar. This is the first time she's
Speaker 1: Matt Steele in person.
Speaker 4: He was carrying up backpack, a pretty full backpack, and
Speaker 4: I just thought that was so.
Speaker 1: Weird, as I wouldn't be caught dead in a pub
Speaker 1: without a well packed, ready to hike backpack. But that's
Speaker 1: by the bye.
Speaker 4: He just looked dishoveled.
Speaker 1: As far as first impressions go, it's not a great start.
Speaker 4: I got a bad vibe about him. I don't like him.
Speaker 1: Michelle and Tammy approach the bar where Steele and Lisa
Speaker 1: are talking, and so commences that best friend write of
Speaker 1: passage the classic first meet interrogation.
Speaker 4: He was kind of like, well, what do you want
Speaker 4: to know? Tammy started right in right away, so what
Speaker 4: do you do for work? Where do you live? Kind
Speaker 4: of thing.
Speaker 6: She was starting to grill him.
Speaker 1: Lisa is standing a few paces away, watching her friends
Speaker 1: and her boyfriend go head to.
Speaker 6: Head questions I want to see your ladies, I want
Speaker 6: to see this, and then he's like, why would I
Speaker 6: have to show you it? Like, being very defensive with her.
Speaker 4: Everything that Lisa told us, he told us almost forward.
Speaker 4: It was almost like a rehearsed line. I'm going to
Speaker 4: use the word weasily. He just seemed weasley to me.
Speaker 4: There was just something bad about him, just being around
Speaker 4: the guy and looking at his manurisms. I couldn't even
Speaker 4: stand even talking to him. I had to walk away.
Speaker 1: Michelle retreats to a table, keeping an eye on things.
Speaker 1: She's known Lisa since they were teens, and she's very
Speaker 1: protective of her best friend. Michelle can see Lisa and
Speaker 1: Steele are having a tense conversation.
Speaker 6: He was drinking and he was just getting kind of
Speaker 6: really weird. He came up to me and says, I'm
Speaker 6: going to go home with you.
Speaker 1: Stele is annoyed about being grilled and he wants to leave.
Speaker 6: It's the first time I ever can say I got
Speaker 6: scared of him. He just had this look in his eyes.
Speaker 6: His demeanor was creepy.
Speaker 1: Lisa doesn't want to go home with Steel, so he
Speaker 1: stalks off alone. Soon after they all call it a night.
Speaker 6: I get to my car, you know, it's raining out,
Speaker 6: and I'm driving away and my friends you know, following
Speaker 6: me out, and we pull the parking lot and he's
Speaker 6: across the street and the point rain, just staring at me, like,
Speaker 6: oh my god, Like this is just not good.
Speaker 1: Arriving home from that night, Lisa's phone is blowing up again.
Speaker 6: It's him texting me. Then his sister's texting me, you know,
Speaker 6: then his friend's texting. They're saying, oh no, please forgive him.
Speaker 1: He has an excuse for the poor form.
Speaker 6: He claimed he took a pain pill and that he
Speaker 6: was drinking too much with a pain pill and he
Speaker 6: was just not him and to forgive him.
Speaker 1: She doesn't know what to think. Lisa was really falling
Speaker 1: for Steele. Their first day had been magical.
Speaker 6: I just felt at peace when I said, and.
Speaker 1: Their relationship had progressed quickly. Lisa was recently divorced, she
Speaker 1: had two kids, she was a busy nurse. She wasn't
Speaker 1: really looking to get married again, but she did want
Speaker 1: real companionship.
Speaker 6: He made you feel so at ease, He made you
Speaker 6: feel so comfortable.
Speaker 1: And in a few weeks they had been dating that
Speaker 1: even developed a routine together.
Speaker 6: He would come over to my townehouse, we'd make dinner.
Speaker 6: I'd sit down and love see if he'd sit down
Speaker 6: the chair. Periodically, his formwd ringer would be his sister
Speaker 6: or his daughter, and I'd listen to him talk to them.
Speaker 1: But it's not all being perfect. Steele's got a habit
Speaker 1: of going a wall, and when Lisa asked him, panicked,
Speaker 1: where he is if he's okay, his reactions escalate fast.
Speaker 6: He would text me like, Lisa, you need to calm down,
Speaker 6: or I'm going to get my lawyers after you for harassing.
Speaker 6: You know, I'd be like, what the hell.
Speaker 1: Lawyers is crazy? And the ridiculousness of it all was
Speaker 1: so confusing, so up and down. Then instead of making
Speaker 1: Lisa run, she starts to feel like maybe she's the
Speaker 1: one losing it. And besides, he always has an excuse.
Speaker 6: He would apologize like, I'm sorry. You know, I shouldn't
Speaker 6: have done that. You know, was stressed at school, stressed
Speaker 6: about the business. He always made me feel bad. I,
Speaker 6: you know, misunderstood things or I took things out of context.
Speaker 6: He would always bring me something that anyway. I loved
Speaker 6: purple roses, he'd bring me a purple roses. He'd bring
Speaker 6: me back to chocolates.
Speaker 1: After that night at the bar meeting Lisa's friends, it's
Speaker 1: just the same. She's angry about Steele's creepy behavior. I
Speaker 1: didn't talk to him for a day or two, but
Speaker 1: then sympathy begins to creep its way in. She feels bad.
Speaker 6: I guess the sad thing about me, or I think,
Speaker 6: like healthcare people in general. Sometimes you have such a
Speaker 6: big heart that you believe people, and you're very forgiving
Speaker 6: and very caring. I would listen to my gut. I
Speaker 6: listened to my heart. So you forgive them.
Speaker 1: Lisa's friends, though they aren't convinced, in the couple of
Speaker 1: weeks that pass after that disastrous performance at McGovern's, Steele
Speaker 1: is making every effort to prove that he is someone
Speaker 1: Lisa can rely on. One evening, they're sitting in Lisa's
Speaker 1: townhouse straight back in the same cozy routine they had
Speaker 1: before the McGovern's incident. When Steele reveals a secret he's
Speaker 1: been keeping.
Speaker 6: He says, well, I don't like telling women i'm dating
Speaker 6: or scene that I have a lot of money, because
Speaker 6: I want them to like me for who I am.
Speaker 6: He said he had won a lottery and he'd invested
Speaker 6: really well, it was like two million dollars. I think
Speaker 6: at least it was like a stock page. This guy's
Speaker 6: got this kind of money. He's down to earth, he's sweet,
Speaker 6: he's got a stuff together.
Speaker 1: And not only that, he wants to show her in
Speaker 1: a real way that he has committed to her. He
Speaker 1: tells Lisa he wants to spend his astronomical wealth on
Speaker 1: setting up a home in Saint Paul, somewhere they can
Speaker 1: one day live together, somewhere their families can become one.
Speaker 6: It was going to be ours, but he was going
Speaker 6: to pay for it.
Speaker 1: She even attends some of the viewings and then they
Speaker 1: find the perfect one.
Speaker 6: It was three levels. It was just beautiful. He walked in.
Speaker 6: In The kitchen was just of steel, appliances, cherrywood inside
Speaker 6: for other cabinets, It had a two car garage. You know,
Speaker 6: this could be your son's room, this could be your
Speaker 6: daughter's room, this could be our room.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: He's like, oh, I could put my books here for school.
Speaker 6: It was beautiful. I mean it was just that colors
Speaker 6: are gorgeous. It was very elegant. I remember they had
Speaker 6: a candle in there. I think it was like a
Speaker 6: vanilla flavor. It was just beautifully staged.
Speaker 1: Walking around the property, the realtor makes him a sigh
Speaker 1: to Lisa.
Speaker 6: Oh, your husband's, you know, really less, and like, no,
Speaker 6: he's my boyfriend. He's looking at bit for us. It's
Speaker 6: not me, it's just him.
Speaker 1: Steele starts filling out the paperwork there and then he
Speaker 1: couldn't be more ready to commit.
Speaker 6: I really at that point felt like I was fine
Speaker 6: for him, and I just thought, wow, I really hit
Speaker 6: the checkpat down this guy.
Speaker 1: Because Steele had another surprise in store for Lisa. Once
Speaker 1: she can't wait to tell her friends about. Less than
Speaker 1: two weeks after the McGovern's disaster, the girls are back.
Speaker 1: No hockey this time.
Speaker 4: We are eating at a little police in Hastings called
Speaker 4: the Busted Nut.
Speaker 1: That's Michelle. Lisa is there too, and so's Tammy.
Speaker 4: It is a little bar in a little old fashioned town.
Speaker 4: Old pictures, tin ceilings.
Speaker 1: There are photos on the wall from that era. Horses
Speaker 1: carriages hooked up to posts outside old brick buildings.
Speaker 4: They have a barrel full of nuts, these roasted peanuts
Speaker 4: that you can scoop out and bring them back to
Speaker 4: your table, and you just crack them and drop them
Speaker 4: on the floor.
Speaker 6: We're having a good.
Speaker 1: Time, eventually bolstered by a few handfuls of pre COVID
Speaker 1: communal barrel peanuts. Lisa says she has some news.
Speaker 6: She was back dating Steel.
Speaker 1: After that disastrous first meeting. Lisa had stopped mentioning Steel
Speaker 1: to her friends.
Speaker 4: Because wasn't talking about him. We thought that she wasn't
Speaker 4: seeing him anymore, but she was.
Speaker 1: And Steele's made a big romantic gesture that Lisa wants
Speaker 1: to tell her friends about, not the house, something else.
Speaker 6: He wanted to take me on a trip to Hawaii.
Speaker 6: What do you guys think about that?
Speaker 1: It turns out Steele needs to go check in on
Speaker 1: his surf business, and he knows Lisa's always wanted to
Speaker 1: go to Hawaii, so he's brought the two of them
Speaker 1: flights on him for a romantic holiday.
Speaker 6: She's like, peck your bags, babe, We're going. I am
Speaker 6: so excited, but she.
Speaker 1: Knows she can't fly so far without asking the advice
Speaker 1: of her friends.
Speaker 6: We said, Lisa, what are you doing.
Speaker 1: They're still reeling from the news that Lisa and Steele
Speaker 1: are even together, and now they're going on holiday.
Speaker 4: The group said no, oh, and she looked at me
Speaker 4: and I thought, oh, my gosh. But I thought, you know,
Speaker 4: maybe there's something about him that I don't know that
Speaker 4: she knows that she really likes about him.
Speaker 1: It's hard when you're outside the bubble of someone's relationship
Speaker 1: looking in to ever really see what they see.
Speaker 4: You know, give it a shot. It's a vacation. You know,
Speaker 4: it's Hawaii. She was, I think going through a lot
Speaker 4: of stress and she kind of did need a break,
Speaker 4: and I thought, you know, just go, let.
Speaker 6: Us know how it goes.
Speaker 4: Check out this business that he says he has over
Speaker 4: in Hawaii.
Speaker 1: Lisa's friends weren't going to wave her off without first
Speaker 1: putting in place some safety checks.
Speaker 4: You need to let your friends know where you're staying,
Speaker 4: what kind of car you do. We asked her to
Speaker 4: take a picture of the car, the license plate, just
Speaker 4: to make sure everything was on the up and up.
Speaker 1: With her friend's cautious blessing, Lisa touches down in Hawaii
Speaker 1: and it's just like she imagined.
Speaker 6: We drove around the island a little bit. You can
Speaker 6: see the ocean. I was in awe, like, oh my god,
Speaker 6: I can see why he loves this place. It's beautiful,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, I can see why he loves to
Speaker 6: come out here now multiple times a year.
Speaker 1: They hire a jeep which Lisa drives through the streets
Speaker 1: of Maui to their hotel.
Speaker 6: The pool was gorgeous, palm cheese and just the beautiful,
Speaker 6: you know, Hawaiian flowers. I remember taking pictures of us.
Speaker 6: I send in her to my friends and they're like,
Speaker 6: oh my god, I'm so jealous.
Speaker 1: Un beknows to Lisa. Back home, her friends are actually
Speaker 1: feeling a little concerned, especially Michelle.
Speaker 6: He was getting a little angry about like why does
Speaker 6: she keep calling you? Like why does she keep bothering us?
Speaker 6: And doesn't she know your vacation, and like she's just
Speaker 6: checking in and she's not asking if I'm having fun.
Speaker 1: While Lisa is blissfully gallivanting around Maui and a jeep.
Speaker 1: Another friend, Steph, is on shift at the children's hospital
Speaker 1: back in Saint Paul. Stephan Lisa work together. They car
Speaker 1: pool together.
Speaker 7: We leave for work every day at six point twenty.
Speaker 1: They're good colleagues, but even better friends.
Speaker 7: Dinner, winery tours, girls' trips. We have had some really
Speaker 7: fun times on some of these girls trips.
Speaker 1: Sometimes Steele is in the back of Lisa's car in
Speaker 1: the morning, getting a lift to the homeless shelter he
Speaker 1: volunteers at. So Steph's met him a few times, and
Speaker 1: just like Michelle, she's got a bad vibe about him.
Speaker 1: She's been searching his name online, but it's showing up
Speaker 1: nothing and it's starting to gnaw at her. Looking around
Speaker 1: at her now sing colleagues propping up the nurses station,
Speaker 1: Steph pipes up.
Speaker 7: You guys, I'm worried about Lisa. She's in Hawaii with
Speaker 7: this guy who I don't even know who he is.
Speaker 1: And then one of her colleagues interjects, Oh.
Speaker 7: My god, the same thing happened to my friend. It
Speaker 7: sounds so familiar. She kept saying she had a friend
Speaker 7: that she met online. He took her to Hawaii too,
Speaker 7: and he was scamming her.
Speaker 1: This friend had met a man who sounded exactly like
Speaker 1: Lisa's current boyfriend, and he it turned out to be
Speaker 1: a total con man.
Speaker 7: And I said, can you text her and see if
Speaker 7: you can get a picture of him?
Speaker 6: And she did.
Speaker 7: She texted her friend right away.
Speaker 1: An answer comes back before the shift is done.
Speaker 7: She brought her phone over to me and showed me
Speaker 7: the picture of the person, and I remember vividly his image.
Speaker 7: My heart sunk. Oh my god, this is the same man.
Speaker 7: I remember saying, I knew it. I knew it. That's him.
Speaker 7: I knew it.
Speaker 1: All steps fruitless googling makes sense now. The reason she
Speaker 1: can't find anything about Steel Aldridge is because that's not
Speaker 1: his real name. His real name was Derek Aldred.
Speaker 7: He was on probation for this scam of the Saint
Speaker 7: Paul Hotel.
Speaker 1: Now they have Derek's real name, the details of who
Speaker 1: this guy really is are easy to find. Just the
Speaker 1: year before, Derek Aldred had attempted to swindle the Saint
Speaker 1: Paul Hotel, a swanky, historic hotel right in the heart
Speaker 1: of the city, just a couple of blocks down the
Speaker 1: road from the hospital he falsely claim to be a doctor,
Speaker 1: skipped out on an almost one thousand dollar bill and
Speaker 1: the woman he was with once the police caught up
Speaker 1: with him. He had been convicted in prison for eight
Speaker 1: months on top of the time he'd served a waiting trial,
Speaker 1: and then he was released on probation within a fortnight
Speaker 1: he'd met Lisa, and that means he shouldn't have left
Speaker 1: Minnesota at all. If he gets discovered, it's straight back
Speaker 1: to prison. And now Lisa is off in Hawaii alone
Speaker 1: with this guy and none the wiser. The news spreads
Speaker 1: like germs in a nostalgic Pioneer peanut barrel. A rescue
Speaker 1: mission plan is drawn up and the emergency services team
Speaker 1: in charge.
Speaker 7: I'm sure I wasn't very productive at work the rest
Speaker 7: of the day.
Speaker 1: A group of hockey loving nurses.
Speaker 4: Of course, we need to get our friend home safe.
Speaker 1: Back in Hawaii, things are going swimmingly. Lisa and Steele
Speaker 1: slash Derek Aldridge slash or Red Slash Aldred are blissfully
Speaker 1: unaware of the storm brewing back home in Minnesota. After
Speaker 1: two nights at the first hotel, they moved to a
Speaker 1: different resort. Their room is on the top floor with
Speaker 1: ocean views, but Steele's bank card seems to be on
Speaker 1: the fritz. He tries to book them a sunset cruise,
Speaker 1: but the payment won't go through. Same sitch when he
Speaker 1: takes her out for a fancy breakfast, and when he
Speaker 1: needs to visit a local doctor for his eye pain.
Speaker 1: Steele is supposed to be paying for everything, so Lisa
Speaker 1: is feeling pretty salty about having to hand over her
Speaker 1: own AMEX.
Speaker 6: So he's like writing down how much he owes me,
Speaker 6: like on a piece of paper, like, don't worry, babe,
Speaker 6: I'll pay you back.
Speaker 1: I got everything written down reassuringly. She hears him on
Speaker 1: the phone with Wells Fargo arguing about his card.
Speaker 6: He shows me on his phone like I'm calling Rose
Speaker 6: hardgirl gives him my name, my data Birsea. He's like, see,
Speaker 6: I told you i'd pay you and kind of got
Speaker 6: a little snatty with me, like how dare you question me?
Speaker 6: So I'm thinking fine.
Speaker 1: In that new hotel, there is not one, but two
Speaker 1: pools with bars to get pool side cocktails with umbrellas
Speaker 1: in them, so it's kind of easy not to worry
Speaker 1: too much.
Speaker 6: He would always go up and get him, so then
Speaker 6: he'd bring him to me, and I remember being down
Speaker 6: at the pool, and then I also remember waking up
Speaker 6: and I'm in the kind of room. I'm like, how
Speaker 6: the hell did I get here? Like I don't remember
Speaker 6: going from the pool all way up, and he's like, oh,
Speaker 6: you're fine. Maybe you just had one too many to drink.
Speaker 6: And I thought, well, maybe I had more than I thought.
Speaker 6: I was outside in the sun.
Speaker 1: Li is now a blacked out like that before, but
Speaker 1: I trusted him.
Speaker 6: I didn't think nothing of.
Speaker 7: I would check her Facebook endlessly to see if she
Speaker 7: have any postings on there.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, Lisa's friends are worried. They want
Speaker 1: Lisa to send them details they can use to track
Speaker 1: her exact location, but they need to do it subtly.
Speaker 4: He posted a picture versit by the pool on her
Speaker 4: Facebook page and we thought, oh, he knows her passcord
Speaker 4: on her phone and he has access to her phone.
Speaker 1: They can't risk tipping Steels Slash Derek off to the
Speaker 1: fact that they're onto him.
Speaker 7: I kept it very social, like I was doing things
Speaker 7: like how's Hawaii? I see you really ten, where are
Speaker 7: you staying?
Speaker 1: But none of the messages they're getting back from Lisa,
Speaker 1: are helping them pin down a precise location.
Speaker 7: We're going, and said, what's that cruise? Tonay, we rented
Speaker 7: a convertible.
Speaker 4: We kept on saying, oh, take a picture of the car,
Speaker 4: take a picture of the license plate, and she wasn't
Speaker 4: doing it.
Speaker 1: Lisa's been gone five days now. Her girlfriends know she's
Speaker 1: coming back soon because she's got a shift coming up.
Speaker 1: But when is her flight? What time will she be landing?
Speaker 1: None of them seem to know.
Speaker 4: She didn't see what the urgency was.
Speaker 1: Lisa has no idea what her friends have just discovered.
Speaker 1: Steph has been away for days, searching Derek Aaldred online endlessly.
Speaker 1: She tries contacting the police. She contacts a probation officer
Speaker 1: she knows.
Speaker 7: I was advised by them to just keep in touch
Speaker 7: with her and try to find out what flight she
Speaker 7: was coming back then, So.
Speaker 4: At one point I called her just to see what
Speaker 4: was going on.
Speaker 1: Michelle's name flashes across Lisa's phone.
Speaker 4: I said, we're steel, and she says, always right next
Speaker 4: to me. I couldn't see anything to him that would
Speaker 4: lead him to know that we knew stuff was going
Speaker 4: on behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: None of the friends know what Steel is capable of
Speaker 1: what he might do if he realizes people back in
Speaker 1: Minnesota are onto him. Michelle has to think fast.
Speaker 4: And he said, well, I got some really good news.
Speaker 4: She said, you got engaged. I can't tell you. She says, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, I gotta know, but I got to know
Speaker 4: when you're coming home. Lisa, When are you going to
Speaker 4: come home? Because I got something to show you.
Speaker 1: This is an ingenious move, but it doesn't work. Not
Speaker 1: because Lisa is evading her. It's because Lisa doesn't know
Speaker 1: when her flight home is because he kept on changing it.
Speaker 1: Steele is supposed to have organized their return flights.
Speaker 7: But she me a flight that I looked up which
Speaker 7: didn't exist.
Speaker 1: He claims. They keep getting canceled because of a storm
Speaker 1: in Colorado.
Speaker 6: You'll need to find a fricking way for us to
Speaker 6: get home. I need to be hump.
Speaker 7: She was supposed to be at work the next morning.
Speaker 7: I'm like, Lisa, are you coming to work tomorrow?
Speaker 1: After the storm, the delays to the non existent flight. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Lisa finally boards a real plane. A few hours later.
Speaker 1: She wakes up to an announcement.
Speaker 6: Welcome to lax it's five a and I'm like, coy crep.
Speaker 1: Five am in La.
Speaker 6: It's seven o'clock in Minnesota. I'm like, I'm supposed to
Speaker 6: be at work.
Speaker 1: Lisa was so relieved to finally be on a flight
Speaker 1: that she hadn't done the maths on what time they'd
Speaker 1: be landing. By the time she finally lands in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: she'll get to work hours late, well past the time
Speaker 1: her shift was supposed to start. Hustling into the lax arrivals,
Speaker 1: Stele marches off to the airline desk to see if
Speaker 1: he can get them onto an earlier flight, and while
Speaker 1: he does that, Lisa sits by the gate and calls
Speaker 1: her friend and colleague, Steph, who'll be waiting for her
Speaker 1: on the ward by now.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I can't make any
Speaker 6: work today, I said, but I can work evening shift
Speaker 6: and like I can come in out will be homer time.
Speaker 6: She goes to, No, if that works out, that's fine.
Speaker 6: She's like, well, we're steel. She goes, is he with
Speaker 6: you right now? I said no, he's up at the desk.
Speaker 1: This is the first time Lisa's been alone pretty much
Speaker 1: all holiday.
Speaker 6: She goes, how are you I said, oh, I'm fine.
Speaker 6: She goes, are you O kiss? I'm good. I'm just upset.
Speaker 6: You know, I don't want to miss work.
Speaker 7: I took care of her not being at work.
Speaker 6: She goes, Yep, don't worry about it. We got your
Speaker 6: shift covered. Everything's good.
Speaker 7: At that point I stopped worrying about him. Seeing what
Speaker 7: I was saying.
Speaker 6: She says, do me two things before you get on
Speaker 6: the plane. I said, why. She goes, send me your
Speaker 6: flight information and where you're sitting. Because she goes, I
Speaker 6: just want to make sure you're home safe.
Speaker 1: When Steel returns from the ticket desk with newer sooner flights,
Speaker 1: Lisa takes them with her into the bathroom. She snaps
Speaker 1: a picture and sends it to Steph.
Speaker 7: And that's what I gave to the authorities.
Speaker 1: Steph follows up with one quick, almost stern text.
Speaker 7: You need to text me when you land. I don't
Speaker 7: think I said much more than that.
Speaker 1: It's Saturday. When Lisa finally finally touches down in Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: it's not the same airport they took off from, so
Speaker 1: home is still a shuttle bus and then a car
Speaker 1: drive away. But they've made it and both of them
Speaker 1: are in for a surprise.
Speaker 6: They're still have PTSD when I walk down that kind
Speaker 6: of course because of what happened.
Speaker 1: As Lisa and Steel disembark the plane, they're stopped in
Speaker 1: their tracks by two cops riding in hot on segways.
Speaker 1: One of the cops looks them up and down before
Speaker 1: reaching for his walkie talkie.
Speaker 6: I have them, What the hell is going on? He's
Speaker 6: going on like they have them, and the one guy goes,
Speaker 6: are you Lisa? I goes yes, and the other cop goes,
Speaker 6: are you Derek Aldridge? And I look at him like
Speaker 6: what the hell and he goes yes.
Speaker 1: Coming up next on the Girlfriends Trust Me Babe.
Speaker 6: She's like, I need to talk to you. I'll be
Speaker 6: at your townhouse once you get home after work, And.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, hell no, Lisa fights back. The Girlfriends
Speaker 1: Trust Me Babe is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio. The series
Speaker 1: is hosted by me Annasinfield is produced by Leona Hamid.
Speaker 1: Our assistant producer is Valeria Rocker. Our editor is Joe Wheeler.
Speaker 1: Production management from Sharie Houston, Joe Savage and Charlotte Wolfe.
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Dania Suleman, sound design, mixing and scoring
Speaker 1: by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. The Girlfriend's theme was
Speaker 1: composed by Daniel Kempson and Louisa Gerstein and performed by
Speaker 1: Daniel Kempson with vocals by Luisa Gerstein. Music supervision from
Speaker 1: Daniel Kempson and Annasinfield. The series artwork was designed by
Speaker 1: Christina Lemcol. Story development by Susie Baker and Olivia Smart.
Speaker 1: Novel's director of development is Selena Metta. Max O'Brien is
Speaker 1: the executive producer for novel. Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etoor
Speaker 1: are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts, and the marketing
Speaker 1: lead is Alison Cantor. Special thanks to Carrie Lieberman and
Speaker 1: Will Pierson at iHeart Podcasts, Julie Sansulo and Langston, Carolyn
Speaker 1: sher Levin, Katie Gillis, Kelly Hunt, Rachel Munroe, Tom Oldag,
Speaker 1: and Tad Besner.