323 - September 20, 1967

[bunniefuu]

[Maggie narrating] - The great house on the Collins' estate is dark,

and a stillness pervades the night.

But not far away,

the stillness will soon be shattered

and, for one man, the night will end in violence.

[ticking]

[crickets chirping]

- Did you hear something?

- Yeah.

- Look! Over there.

There's a man moving in the shadows.

- [c*ck g*n] - Quiet.

Don't make a sound.

Let's see if he goes near the house.

[distant clattering]

♪♪

[thud]

- [shrieks] - [man] Halt!

- Pop! Pop!

- Halt or I'll sh**t! - Pop!

[g*nshots]

- Maggie! - Maggie!

- What's happening? - He was here!

- Did you see him? - No!

- It's all right. It's all right now, darling.

- Pop!

Pop!

- It's all right. - No!

- Now, don't give yourself a headache now.

- It's safe now, Mr. Evans.

- Did you get him? - We sure did.

- Is he dead?

- Well, if he isn't it's a miracle.

He's got about five b*ll*ts in his back.

- [whimpering]

- No, no, no, no. It's all right.

- [sobbing]

♪♪

[waves crashing] ♪♪

- Come on, darling. Let's get out of the room.

Sit right down here on the sofa.

I'll put a pot of coffee on, huh?

[door opens]

Who was it?

- Willie Loomis.

- Willie Loomis?!

That's incredible!

- I know, but he's the one. - [Sam] It's over now.

He's dead.

We can go back to leading a normal life.

- Well, she can resume a normal life all right,

but the man isn't dead yet.

Sam, I'd like to use the phone.

- It's right over there.

George, you mean to tell me that that man's got

a back full of b*ll*ts and he's still alive?

- That's what I mean.

Fred, get on the car radio.

Tell headquarters to get an ambulance out here

right away.

- He's alive?

[sheriff] - It's all right, Maggie. He's no longer a threat to you.

Hello?

Yes, this is Sheriff Patterson.

Get me Doctor Woodard, please.

- Look, Sam, maybe Maggie ought to try and get some sleep, huh?

- Yeah, yeah. That's a good idea.

- I couldn't sleep.

Not if he's still out there.

- Oh, come on. Now, you heard what George said.

He's not gonna hurt you or anyone else ever again.

- Sam, I would like you all to stay here

for the time being anyway.

- What for?

- I have some questions I have to ask you.

Hello? Dave?

Yes, I'm still up here at the Evans' cottage.

Yeah, we got the kidnapper.

The trap worked perfectly.

Willie Loomis.

[chuckles] That's what I said.

No. No, he tried to escape, and my men gunned him down.

But he's still breathing.

You better get up here as fast as you can.

Right. [hangs up phone]

- Willie Loomis!

It's hard to believe.

He seemed like such a harmless person.

- Yeah, it is -- it is kind of a shocker.

He's the last person that I would have suspected.

- Why?

- Oh, I don't know.

I guess we kind of expected to see

a big, overpowering man.

Willie's small, quiet type.

- Well, I guess you can never tell about people.

Well, how well did you all know him?

- Actually, we hadn't seen him.

Uh, we'd seen him hardly at all

since he went to work for Barnabas Collins.

But he wasn't always the quiet type.

Let's not forget that, Sam.

[sheriff] - Well, what do you mean by that?

- Well, when Willie first came to town with Jason McGuire,

he was surly, arrogant.

He was mean as could be!

- And he had ideas about Maggie then.

Even made a pass at her one night in The Blue Whale.

- Well, did you ever see him again after that, Maggie?

- Only once.

And then that was after he'd gone to work for Barnabas.

But by then he was almost mild and timid

compared to the old Willie.

And he did apologize for what had happened at The Blue Whale.

- Well, what was this sudden change that came over him

after he started working for Barnabas Collins?

- I don't know. It seemed to happen overnight.

All of a sudden he was a completely different man.

- None of you ever wondered why?

- Well, I guess everybody was so happy

to see the old Willie gone

that they never bothered to ask.

- I see.

Well, we've got our man,

and at the moment that's all that matters.

- You couldn't have made a mistake?

- A mistake?

- Well, suppose that Willie was out there

for some other reason.

- Oh, Maggie, what other reason could there possibly be

for him to be out there?

- I don't know, Joe.

I just want to eliminate all doubt.

- Maggie, I don't think there's any doubt about it.

He came out here at : in the morning,

and my men were very careful.

They waited until the last possible moment,

until they were absolutely sure

that he was gonna break in here.

[door opens]

- Sheriff...

Doctor Woodard just arrived.

- Good. Tell him I'll be right out.

- Right.

- Another thing, Sam.

The night that you and I went to The Blue Whale

to set the trap,

Willie was there.

- That's right. He was.

- Maggie, I don't think I have any more questions

for you tonight.

Why don't you try to get some rest?

- Couldn't sleep if I tried.

[siren wailing]

- Well, that's the ambulance.

I'm gonna go out and talk to Woodard

before he takes Loomis to the hospital,

and then I'll be on my way out to Collinwood, I guess.

- Oh, Collinwood? What for?

- Well, to talk to Barnabas Collins.

I think he should be notified, don't you?

- Yeah, yeah, I guess he should.

- Poor Barnabas.

He tried so hard to be kind to Willie.

It's going to be a terrible shock when he finds out.

♪♪

- Why won't you appear for me, Sarah?

So many others have seen you.

Are you angry with me?

Why do you protect those who would destroy me?

If you would only come to me this once

and let me see you again.

[knocking at door]

What are you doing here at this hour, Doctor?

- For some reason I wasn't able to sleep.

I thought I'd come down here and do some work.

Well, I see you've been spending the evening

browsing through your family album.

- I haven't spent the evening browsing through anything.

- Are you upset about something, Barnabas?

What is it?

- Never mind.

- Barnabas, I do appreciate the trust

you showed in me tonight.

- Trust?

What are you talking about?

- Well, I told you it was a mistake to go after Maggie.

I think you showed excellent judgment in following my advice.

- Do you indeed? - Yes.

- Oh, Doctor, don't be absurd.

- What do you mean?

- Do you think that I really needed your advice

or cared for what you thought

or believed in any of that nonsense

you told me about the letter?

- Do you mean you did go after Maggie?

- Yes.

- Did-- Did you k*ll her?

- No, I didn't get past the front door.

I heard Sarah again,

and I've tried to find her ever since.

- Sarah stopped you again.

- I don't know what to do, Doctor.

How can I talk to her if she won't even let me see her?

[knocking at door]

Who could that be at this hour?

Sheriff Patterson.

- Mr. Collins, I'm, uh, sorry to disturb you.

May I come in?

- Yes, of course.

This is Ms. Hoffman.

She's gathering some research material

from some books in my library.

- How do you do? - Sheriff.

- What can I do for you, Sheriff?

- Mr. Collins, I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news for you.

- Oh?

- You have a man that works for you,

a Willie Loomis.

- Has something happened to Willie?

- About an hour ago

he was caught trying to break into Maggie Evans' bedroom.

He was shot on the spot.

- Willie has been shot?

- Yes, he's been taken to the hospital,

but he's in very critical condition.

- Well, I-- I don't understand.

- Mr. Collins, we have reason to believe

that Willie is the man who kidnapped Maggie

and the man responsible for the attacks

that have taken place in town.

- Sheriff, I... I don't know what to say.

I... I never dreamed

that Willie could have done

something so violent.

- Mr. Collins, I know this must come as a great shock to you,

and if you'd rather not answer any questions now,

I'll put it off,

but at your convenience I'm gonna have to ask you

some questions about Willie's behavior lately,

his daily and nightly habits.

- Oh, yes, yes, of course.

You say that Willie is still alive?

- Barely.

- I assume that you haven't yet been able

to obtain a statement from him.

- No, we don't think there's much chance of that.

- You mean you think he's not going to live?

- Well, Doc Woodard is going to do everything he can for him,

but I wouldn't hold out too much hope.

- Doctor Woodard is operating on him?

- Yes. If anyone can save him, Woodard can.

- Would it be possible to go to the hospital and see Willie?

- I'm afraid not.

- Well, I trust that Ms. Evans is all right.

Has any harm come to her?

- No. Willie was shot before he got into the room.

- The poor girl must have been-- must have been terrified.

I would like to see her

and let her know how badly I feel about all this.

I know it's small consolation after what she's gone through--

- Well, I have to go back out to the Evans' cottage now myself.

You can both come along with me if you'd like.

- Thank you, Sheriff. I would appreciate that.

We'll be right out.

- Take your time.

[no audio]

♪♪

- One of my men yelled for him to stop.

He must have realized that he was trapped

and panicked and started to run this way,

and this is the spot where he fell.

- Willie a kidnapper.

I just can't believe it.

- Well, would you like to go in and see Miss Evans now?

- Yes, please.

♪♪

- Maggie.

Feeling a little better now?

- Yes, a little.

- Ms. Evans, I hope you don't mind my coming around

so soon after this terrible experience,

but I had to let you know

how sorry I am for this happening.

- Thank you, Mr. Collins.

- I-- In a way, I feel partly responsible.

- You mustn't feel that way.

- Well, I don't mean directly,

but I realize now I made a serious error

in judging Willie's character.

I had so hoped to rehabilitate him.

- Well, in fact, it looked like you'd just about succeeded.

I'm sure you had no way of knowing what Willie was up to.

- You're both very kind.

[Maggie] - Well, would either of you like some coffee?

- [Hoffman] No, thanks.

- No. Thank you very much, but I must be getting home.

I just wanted to see for myself

that you're going to be all right.

- Oh, no, no, no, she's fine.

Oh, when we set up that trap,

we knew it would be a pretty close call, and it was,

but everything worked out the way we wanted it to.

- A trap, Mr. Evans?

- Well, I guess there's no harm in talking about it now.

The Sheriff and I decided to let it be known

that Maggie's memory was clearing up.

We thought it might bring him out into the open.

Well, it worked,

and we were ready for him when he got here.

- You mean, Maggie wasn't starting to remember?

- That's right.

- Well, what about now, Maggie,

now that the man's been caught?

- It's funny, but I still can't remember anything.

My mind is a complete blank.

- I should think everything should fall into place for you

now that the man's been identified.

- I would have thought so, too, but it hasn't.

I don't understand it.

- I'm sure you'll begin to remember now

as soon as the shock of this night has passed off.

- I hope so.

- Well, I'm going down to headquarters to file a report.

I just talked to Woodard.

He said he's been able to remove all but one of the b*ll*ts.

- Any change in Willie's condition?

- Well, he's in a coma,

and Woodard doesn't think there's much chance

that he'll come out of it.

- But there is a chance?

- Yes.

- And what will happen to Willie if he does?

- Well, he still isn't expected to live.

- But he-- he may talk.

- Well, that's a possibility,

and it certainly would be a help to us.

That's the one way we have of being absolutely certain

that we have the right man.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

[knocking at door]

- I was afraid you wouldn't get here before dawn.

- I got here as fast as I could.

- Were you able to see Willie?

- No. I couldn't get anywhere near him.

- Did you talk to Woodard?

- No. He was in the operating room with him.

- Nothing is going right. Nothing.

- I did see the medical report.

- And?

- It'll be a miracle if Willie comes out of this coma.

- But what if he does?

If he wakes up

and finds out that they think he kidnapped Maggie,

why, he'll talk his fool head off.

- Barnabas,

the medical report says he's almost dead.

- Almost isn't good enough, Doctor.

- But he'll be dead soon,

and then you'll be completely in the clear.

Everything will be blamed on him.

- How can I be completely clear?

You're forgetting Maggie Evans.

Suppose she remembers who really kidnapped her.

- She won't.

- She won't? After what's happened tonight?

- Barnabas, if the experience tonight didn't jar her memory,

nothing will.

- You'd better be right, Doctor.

This time you'd better be right.

♪♪

- Well, this will be the first good night's sleep

she's had in a long time.

- I know I'm pretty tired myself.

- Yeah, so am I.

Been the longest day of my life.

- Well, at least there's no reason

for us to stand guard anymore.

Tonight we can both get some sleep.

- No.

I'm not ready to sleep yet.

My nerves are too much on edge.

You know, Joe...

she had a pretty close call.

That guy got pretty close to the window, just opening it.

Another or seconds and he would have gotten to her.

- He didn't, Sam, so stop thinking about that.

- Yeah, I know. I guess I'd better.

- Let's leave her alone, let her get some sleep.

- All right.

[thinking] - Completely in the clear?

No, far from it.

Maggie Evans' memory is still a blank.

Hoffman assured me of that.

So, I needn't worry about Maggie for the time being.

Willie shot.

He might die any minute.

That would make matters much simpler.

It would remove a serious threat to me.

But it would still leave one other person

who could expose me--

little cousin David.

♪♪

Now, something must be done about him

to keep him from ever betraying me,

and it must be done very soon.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

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