Chapter Text
When Nancy walked into the office the following morning, she found Ned already sitting in her extra chair.
“Morning, Drew,” he said cheerfully, handing her a large paper cup of coffee. “Thought you could use this.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, taking the coffee from Ned without looking at him. Setting her briefcase onto her desk chair, she pulled out her laptop and plugged it in. “By the way, you need to stop making a habit of showing up and plopping yourself down in my chair uninvited.”
Ned ignored her complaint. “How’d you sleep?”
At that, Nancy whipped her head around to face him. “Did you seriously just ask me that?”
He grinned. “From that tone, I’m guessing that the answer is ‘Not well, Ned’.”
“Do you enjoy doing this to me? I really want to know.” Nancy slammed down the coffee cup and punched the on button for her computer.
“Doing what, Drew? It was an innocent question.”
“Yeah, right.” She dumped her bag onto the floor and sat in her chair while she waited for the laptop to power up.
“Well, I know you’re irritated with me for some reason, but I came by because I thought you might be interested to know that no one at the Cadillac Motel – super-classy place, by the way - remembers Janie.”
“Really? Maybe someone else on another shift would’ve known her? When did you check?” Nancy felt herself get sucked back into the Rabbi Rob case, despite her irritation with Ned.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I went by after you left last night.”
“You went without me?” she asked in disbelief.
“Well, if you had stayed like I’d asked you to, we would’ve been able to go together,” he told her in a low voice, the hint of a smirk on his lips. She rolled her eyes but didn’t take the bait.
“Anyway, I happened to catch the manager, who told me that he had taken over the place six months ago. The rest of his employees have all been there less than a year, so they wouldn’t have been around when Janie was frequenting the joint, either. I showed him and the other employee he had working last night a picture of her, and neither of them recognized her. Unfortunately, it seems to be a dead end.”
Nancy agreed with him, disappointed that the lead hadn’t panned out. “Okay, so what’s next?” She took a sip of her coffee.
“I thought you’d ask that. How about we go back to the rabbi’s neighborhood and see if we can track down some more of the neighbors. Someone has to know something. Maybe we’ll go a little later in the day than we did last time to maybe catch them coming home from work?”
“Sure. Three o’clock or so?”
“Great,” Ned said, sounding relieved that she’d agreed to come along. “Oh, and I can take you back to my place when we’re done so that you can get your car.”
“Cool, thanks,” she told him. “And you know that nothing will happen tonight, correct?”
“We’ll see,” he replied teasingly.
“Nothing will happen tonight, Nickerson,” she repeated, more forcefully this time. “I’ll just get my car and go.”
“Can’t I at least take you for dinner first? You never told me whether or not you like Chinese food, but what about Thai or Japanese or Tex-Mex or Indian-“
“You just don’t give up, do you, Nickerson?” Nancy cut him off, irritated. “We cannot date or get together socially. It’s inappropriate.”
“Dinner between two co-workers collaborating on a story is not inappropriate, Drew. Two co-workers fucking in the backseat of a cab? Now that’s inappropriate.”
She glared at him before taking another sip of coffee. “I’m not going out to dinner with you. End of story.”
“We’ll see,” he repeated before getting up and walking away.
Nancy shook her head as she watched him leave. The temptation to say yes was incredibly strong, but she knew that it would be incredibly stupid. Especially when she had already made some stupid, foolish choices when it came to Ned. There was no use making things worse.
--
After canvassing the neighborhood for a while without learning anything new, Ned pulled up in front of Rob and Bailey’s neighbor’s house, both of them hoping they’d find her at home. Melinda Jenkins was the one who had told police that she’d seen a suspicious looking car in their driveway on the night of the murder, but the police hadn’t been able to track it down.
They got out of the car and rang the bell, waiting for someone to answer. A pretty, petite woman in her early thirties answered the door, her brunette hair cropped in a pixie cut.
“Yes, can I help you?” she asked pleasantly.
“Excuse me, are you Melinda Jenkins?” Ned’s tone was formal and polite.
“I am. Can I help you with something?”
He gave her a winning smile. “I hope so, Ms. Jenkins. My name is Ned Nickerson and this is my partner Nancy Drew. We’re with the Chicago Advance and we’re working on a story about the unsolved murder of Bailey Stern. Would you have a few minutes to talk to us?
They both held their collective breath as the woman pondered Ned’s question, feeling relieved when she nodded, somewhat reluctantly. “Come on in,” she said, holding the door open wider and beckoning them inside.
They followed her to a bright, comfortable family room in shades of browns, the toys and dolls scattered all over the floor providing evidence that there were children in the house.
“Sorry about the mess,” Melinda said apologetically, hastily snatching up some wayward Legos and a half-dressed Raggedy Ann doll from the couch before motioning for them to take a seat. “My kids are at a neighbor’s for a play date and should be back in about a half hour or so.” She draped the doll across her lap.
“It’s fine,” Ned told her. “We just appreciate your time.”
“Can I get you some water, or coffee, or cookies?” When Nancy and Ned both shook their heads, Melinda settled onto the loveseat across from where they sat on the sofa. “So, what do you want to know?”
Ned started the interview. “First of all, we understand that you were friends with Bailey – from what we’ve heard, she was friendly with everyone on the block, but you were her closest friend.”
Melinda nodded. “I still miss her every day, and I can’t believe what happened to her,” she whispered sadly. “Bailey was so sweet and kind, and she definitely didn’t deserve for some animal to stab her to death. That’s why I’m talking to you – I want someone to catch the person who did that to her.”
“Did Bailey give you any indication that her marriage to Rob was in jeopardy? Or that they were going through a hard time?” Nancy inquired.
Melinda looked like she was going to say something but closed her mouth.
“I know that it seems like we’re prying, but any kind of information you can give us, however insignificant it may seem, may help us to find out who killed Bailey,” Nancy told her, her tone softer this time.
The other woman took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, still appearing reticent to talk.
“Everyone else has told us that Rob and Bailey had the perfect marriage and that they were deliriously happy. Maybe that was true. But if it wasn’t…” Ned let his sentence go unfinished.
“I heard the rumors, just like everyone else – that the police suspected that Rob was the one who killed her but couldn’t prove it. I also know that things weren’t as perfect as they seemed between them.
“Now, I’m not saying that means anything,” Melinda added hastily, “but I just think that a lot of people saw what they wanted to see when it came to Bailey and Rob. After all, it would be kind of disheartening to find out that a rabbi and his wife were having marital issues, right?”
Nancy and Ned exchanged glances before Nancy spoke again. “What kind of issues were they having, Melinda?”
Melinda looked away before replying. “Rob…Well, let’s just say that Rob liked to be adventurous when it came to…marital relations,” she finished euphemistically. “And Bailey was raised as a nice Jewish girl, somewhat sheltered in her upbringing. So it definitely caused friction when she didn’t want to go along with what he suggested.”
“And what kind of stuff did he suggest?” Ned asked.
“Well…” Melinda toyed with the doll’s stringy red hair. “You have to understand – as close as she and I were, Bailey only confided in me once about this. And even then, it was when she’d had too much wine to drink – she had come over here one night and I could sense that she was holding something in, something that she needed to get off of her chest.
“So, we had some wine and the story just spilled out of her. It seemed that Rob kept asking her to try all of this crazy stuff in the bedroom. Different toys, different positions, you know…She was very hesitant about everything because, again, she was raised in a fairly religious family and had been taught that sex was sacred. But, she was sort of willing to try some of it, because he was her husband and she wanted to make him happy.
“But apparently he wasn’t very happy, because he told her that she was boring in bed and he didn’t like that she didn’t know what she was doing. That’s when he tried to coax her into going further.”
“What do you mean?” Nancy queried.
“Well - God, I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but I know that it could help – his next proposal was that they go to a swingers’ club.”
Nancy and Ned both sat up straighter at Melinda’s words. “So what happened then?” Ned pressed.
“Well, she freaked out, of course. I mean, she was shy when she did it with him in the dark in their privacy of their bedroom – imagine what she would have thought of having sex with him in public, while others watched, or having sex with other partners. I couldn’t blame her – if my husband asked me to do something like that, I’d tell him to go to hell, and I’m not even a little bit religious.”
“What happened when she told him no?” Nancy asked, leaning forward.
“They had a huge fight. He told her that she was frigid and cold and actually walked out on her. She had been so upset, but she still hadn’t confided in me at that point. Rob came back the next morning and apologized, but only for leaving – he continued to pressure her non-stop about going to a club. First he told her that she wouldn’t have to make love with anyone else while they were there, then he said that she didn’t have to watch while he had sex with another woman.
“Rob wouldn’t give up on the idea – he kept asking her, begging her to go. He told Bailey that it was part of her duties as his wife to keep him satisfied and that it was cruel of her to deny him what he wanted. He just wouldn’t let up on the poor woman. Finally, she relented.”
Ned raised his eyebrows. “They went to a swingers’ club? How did a rabbi pull off something like that without worrying about someone from his congregation seeing them?”
“Ah, Rob had already thought of that. He picked out a place in Indiana, somewhere where no one would know them - I think it was in Fort Wayne. It was an actual club where couples could get together to…you know.”
“Do you remember the name of the club?” he asked. Melinda shook her head.
“So, what happened when they went?” Nancy wanted to know. “Did Bailey have sex with him in front of other people?”
Again, Melinda shook her head. “Nope. They got there and Bailey tried to get into it, but she just couldn’t. Rob was pissed at her and accused her of not even trying. She said that the other people at the club were actually very nice and told him to back off from trying to pressure her. Suddenly, he became all apologetic and caring and left her alone. However, he then begged her to let him get a hand job from some random woman – it upset her, but Bailey let him do it.”
“And when they came home?” Ned asked.
“You’d think that a decent man would’ve taken the hint and dropped it. But no. Rob just kept on pushing her. He told her that she’d feel more comfortable if they went again, because now she’d know what to expect. Bailey really stood her ground and told him to forget it, and she thought that she had finally gotten him to stop. Until he tricked her into going back.”
Again, Nancy and Ned looked at each other. “How’d he do that?” Nancy inquired.
“He told her that he had booked a weekend getaway for them in Indianapolis to make up for how he’d acted. Rob had booked a getaway, but it was another trip to Fort Wayne. Bailey was furious. I mean, she was always so sweet and even-tempered, but this just made her incredibly angry.
“She went with Rob to the swingers’club, but only because she wanted to keep an eye on him. Bailey didn’t trust him not to have sex with another woman. Sure enough, that was exactly what he wanted to do. Only Bailey was so infuriated that she threatened to expose him to his congregation if he did.”
“Wow,” Ned breathed. “And did that stop Rob?”
“It did, but of course he tried to put the blame back on Bailey. If she had been better in bed, more willing to experiment, he wouldn’t need to look for other women to satisfy his needs. Sh…stuff like that,” Melinda amended.
“How soon after Bailey told you this was she killed?” Nancy wanted to know.
“About six months or so? But of course, that wasn’t the end of it. The thing that really set Bailey off was that she thought Rob was having an affair.”
Ned nudged Nancy ever-so-subtly with his foot. “Why did she think that, Melinda?”
“Well, all of those tutoring sessions he was doing. I mean, he used to do them before, of course, but it seemed that they had gotten more frequent. Then a woman called the house a few times – not terribly surprising, considering that Rob was a rabbi, but it still seemed suspicious to Bailey.”
Nancy nudged Ned back. “Did she confront him about it?”
Melinda nodded. “She did. And, of course, he told her she was paranoid and crazy and if he were having an affair, it would be all her fault. That’s when she lost it and came to my house to vent. I don’t even know if she meant to spill her guts, but she was just so upset that it all came out once she had a few glasses of wine. Bailey had no one else to confide in, really – she wasn’t at all close with her sister, and she was a rabbi’s wife, remember?. She couldn’t let it get around that she was having problems with her husband.
“The next morning, she came over again and begged me to forget about it – she said that she had had too much to drink and shouldn’t have talked about it. She also asked me not to say anything to anyone else. I told her that she could trust me, that I would help her in any way I could. Bailey again asked me to drop it, and we never spoke about it again.”
Ned was the first to speak. “And she never told you whether she had ever had found proof of Rob’s affair?”
Melinda shook her head vigorously. “No – as I said, we never talked about it after that night.”
“Did she ever tell you who she suspected who he might be cheating with?” Nancy interjected. “Or if she was afraid for her safety, now that she’d confronted him?
“She wasn’t scared of him – just really angry. As to whom it could have been….all she said was that she thought it could be someone from the congregation, but she wasn’t sure who.”
Another glance passed between Nancy and Ned. “Why did she think that?” Ned asked carefully.
“Because of all of the time he seemed to be spending at his office at the synagogue. She thought that he could be fooling around with someone he was tutoring or counseling.”
Ned got to the follow-up question before Nancy could. “Did you ever mention this to the police when they interviewed you?”
“I told them that Rob and Bailey may’ve been having problems and gave them some generic information, but I didn’t really have any details, so there wasn’t a lot for them to track down. I mean, like I told you, Bailey didn’t give me a name of anyone that Rob could’ve been having an affair with, so there was nothing for me to pass on to the police.”
This time, Nancy was quicker. “What about the name of the swingers’ club?”
“I didn’t have that, either. But just because he pushed her into something like that, it didn’t prove that he was responsible for her murder. That’s what the cops said – I don’t even know if they investigated it. I know that they asked around at the synagogue to find out who Rob could’ve been seeing, but nothing ever came of it.”
“What about the car you saw in front of the house that night? The police report mentioned that you were the only one to see anything.” Ned asked.
“Well, it was more like one of those car/truck thing – you know, the ones with the extended cab? It was white and had some kind of lettering on the side, but it was dark out and I couldn’t read it. The only reason I noticed it at all was because I had just spoken with Bailey earlier that day and she hadn’t said anything to me about having any work done at the house. It was kind of late for her to have company, too – I was just coming back from a visit at my mom’s house and that’s when I saw the car.”
“The report mentioned that the cops couldn’t track down the car,” Ned said.
“Right, because I couldn’t identify the writing and I didn’t take down the license plate. There was nothing for me to suspect that something would’ve happened that night, but I still feel guilty.” Melinda rotated the rag doll’s soft leg back and forth in a nervous manner.
“There is nothing for you to feel guilty about,” Nancy told her gently. “Like you said, you had no idea that Bailey would be killed just because a truck was parked in her driveway.”
Melinda nodded, but the look on her face indicated that Nancy’s words hadn’t convinced her. “I just…I can’t help but feel a little responsible. Maybe if I had called her, maybe if I had gone over there…”
“And if you had?” Ned replied. “Then maybe the murderer would’ve hurt you, or worse. Then your kids would be without a mom, too.”
The woman nodded again sadly. “I know. But maybe I could’ve done something to save Bailey. Now it’s two years later and her girls still want to know when Mommy’s coming back. And I still miss her terribly.
“I really hope that you can find out who did this to her. It’s just not right that someone as sweet and kind and generous as her was taken away from her family like that. I mean, she was the kind of woman would give you the shirt off of her back – literally. Even though most of us on the block weren’t Jewish, she would still invite all of us to their holiday dinners and celebrations, and she would participate in our food and toy drives for our churches, too. She said that it didn’t matter what religion you were – we all had to help each other because that’s what God would want us to do.” Melinda’s eyes filled with tears as she remembered her friend.
“We’ll do our best, Melinda,” Ned told her softly as he rose from the sofa. “Bailey sounds like she was an amazing woman, and we’ll do our best to find her killer.”
Nancy also got to her feet. “Thank you so much for your time. We know this wasn’t easy for you.”
“As long as you find that animal and bring him to justice, it’ll have been worth it.”
--
Ned was the first to speak as he drove back to his apartment building. “You’re kind of quiet, Drew. What’s on your mind?”
“Just…I just couldn’t imagine what it would be like if I lost one of my best friends. Bess and George – the girls who were with me at the bar the night that you and I met – are like sisters to me, and I’d be devastated if something like that happened to one of them.”
“I know what you mean. It would be horrible to have someone you care about get killed.”
“I also can’t stop thinking about Bailey’s kids. I mean, I lost my mom when I was really young, and I still think about her all the time – I have to rely on other people’s memories of her because I don’t have any of my own. Now the same thing’s going to happen to Bailey’s children.”
Ned took his eyes off the road long enough to give her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago, and she died from an illness, but still. I’m really close to my dad and my stepmom is great, but I wish that I could’ve known my mom.”
“How long has your dad been remarried?”
“He married Avery when I was twenty, so almost eight years now? He was devastated by my mom’s death and didn’t even start dating again until I was a teenager – I think he was worried about upsetting me. It was weird for me at first, but I was just glad that he found someone to make him happy.”
“That’s nice.” He smiled at her.
“Well, like I said, she’s actually pretty cool, so it makes things easier.”
“And I don’t know about you, but everything that Melinda just told us makes me even more determined to find out who killed Bailey. “
“Definitely,” Nancy replied firmly.
“So, does that mean that you’re willing to hit up the swingers’ club with me?” Ned asked teasingly.
“You’re kidding, right?” She turned in her seat to give him a look of disbelief.
“I’m not. Look, Drew, it makes sense. Melinda said that the people there told Rob to knock it off when he started pressuring Bailey to participate. So someone there might know something that could help our investigation. Think about it.”
“Nickerson, we don’t even know which swingers’ club they joined!” Nancy protested.
“I’m sure we can find it,” he told her confidently. “After all, we’re two investigative journalists, right? And how many wife-swapping clubs can there be in Indiana, anyway?”
She shuddered. “I really don’t want to know the answer to that question.”
Ned laughed. “Yeah, I’m really hoping that the answer is ‘not more than one’. But even if it’s not, we can still track down the right one.”
“Tell you what – you find it, we can go.”
“Well, that just made me want to work twice as hard to figure it out,” he teased her.
Nancy shook her head in annoyance, but secretly, she hoped that he would find it.
They continued the rest of the trip in near silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. When Ned parked in his parking space, he turned to face her.
“So, how about dinner? I’ll let you pick the place.”
She shook her head. “Nickerson, we’ve been over this already. I’m just going to get my car and go home. I have some stuff to work on for one of my stories.”
“And you can’t take an hour or so for dinner?” he asked.
“No, I can’t. I’m just going to swing through a drive-through so I can eat while I work.”
“Well, we could do that if you wanted to - I could make a McDonald’s run and we could both work at my place. I mean, you have your laptop with you already…”
“Why do you keep pushing this?” she asked almost wearily.
“It’s like I told you before, Drew – I think you’re cool and funny and smart and I like hanging out with you.” His expression was innocent enough, but Nancy wasn’t quite fooled.
“And you think that we’ll automatically wind up in bed again.”
He gave a casual shrug. “Not necessarily.”
Nancy rolled her eyes. “Come on, Nickerson. If we go up to your apartment, then we both know damn well that we’ll wind up fucking again.”
“Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?” Ned asked.
“Because it is a bad thing.” She bit off each word. “Now, today’s been real, but I need to go.” Reaching for the handle, she opened the door and got out of the car, standing by the trunk.
Ned took the hint and also got out, popping open the trunk so she could get her briefcase. “Sure I can’t change your mind?”
“I’m sure,” she told him. “Good night, Nickerson.”
“Good night, Drew,” he told her, sighing.
Nancy walked to her car, aware of his eyes on her as she crossed the parking lot. She opened the door to her Mustang and slid inside, driving away before she could convince herself to take Ned up on his dinner invitation.