363 - November 15, 1967

[bunniefuu]

[Julia Hoffman narrating] - Collinwood is dark and lonely this night

and there are those among us

who live in fear within the walls of the great house.

For the nights there have become a time of deceit

and intrigue.

Nearby, in a lawyer's office in the town of Collinsport,

young Carolyn Stoddard will attempt to serve the force

of evil that has been in our midst for so long.

[thinking] - It isn't here.

He must have placed it somewhere else.

- I guess, I could have saved you a lot of trouble

if I had told you.

I only kept that book in my safe for one day

and then I moved it to a much safer place.

No, you don't!

You're not going anywhere, Miss Stoddard,

not until you've answered a few questions.

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪

- Would you please let go of my arm.

I told you, I want some answers.

- You've got to believe me.

- I wouldn't believe any other thief I caught red-handed.

Why should I believe you?

- Well, because there is a reason.

- Yeah, they're always is.

- Yes,

but I'm not at all sure how to tell you what it is.

- I don't think you have any choice.

- Well then, turn me over to the police

and file charges against me.

Maybe that's better than...

than telling you why I had to come here.

- You can let me be the judge of that.

- No.

I don't want you or anyone else to be in a position

to judge the Collins family.

- You're assuming I'm going to believe

whatever you're going to tell me.

- Whether or not you believe me

is beside the point.

If I tell you,

you'll know something about the family

that I would rather no one knew.

So, you see my problem, Tony.

- You'll have to tell it to the police eventually.

- I'd lie to them.

- Then why wouldn't you lie to me?

- I would if I could.

But I have a feeling that you understand the family too well

for me to lie to you.

Well, the jury appears to be deadlocked.

We may have to be here all night.

- You don't have to be afraid to tell me anything.

I do have to maintain certain ethics as a lawyer.

- Oh yes, you are a lawyer.

- So anything you tell me will be strictly in confidence.

Really, I am a very honorable guy.

- Yes and I'm a very decent girl.

But, there I was, going through your safe.

- Yes, you were. Why?

- All right.

It probably won't seem like a very special story to you,

but it's special to me because it involves my mother and me.

- What do you mean?

- When my mother was first married,

my father treated her very badly,

and in her desperation, she turned, finally,

to a young man who worked for the family.

They became friends, more than friends.

Tony, this isn't easy for me.

- What happened to the young man?

- He, he left before I was born.

- So for all these years, my mother has thought

that was the end of the story,

and then Julia Hoffman came on the scene.

- What did she have to do with it?

- She came to us pretending to be a genealogist,

but the only history of the family she was interested in

was recent history, about my mother and me.

- You mean she knew about the incident?

- Sometime before she came to us

she met a man who told her about a love affair

he had had with a very prominent married woman.

He found out that she had a child

and he said that he could prove that I...

that it was his child.

He intended to come here and blackmail the woman.

- I still don't see how Julia Hoffman fits into the picture.

- It's very simple, really.

The man died

but before he did he gave Julia Hoffman

his personal diary.

So, although he didn't live to blackmail my mother,

Julia did.

- And it's all in that book?

- Yes.

And that's why I wanted it badly enough to steal it if I have to.

- Your family has plenty of money.

Why not just buy Hoffman off?

- Did you ever hear of a blackmailer who got paid,

went away, and then never came back?

- No.

- And under the circumstances, we can hardly go to the police.

So I decided to fight Julia with her own tactics.

Tony, it wasn't easy for me to come here and do this.

- No, I guess it wasn't.

- Or to tell you these things about my family and me.

So, take me to the police if you don't believe me.

Or take me home if you do.

But, either way, take me someplace away from here.

- I must confess your story does have a certain appeal.

I like the thought of a member of the Collins family

being as...as human as the rest of us.

I like it very much.

I'd like to believe you.

- Do you?

- Come on. I'll take you home.

♪♪

- Thank you for bringing me home, Tony.

- You look tired.

Why don't you go upstairs and get some rest.

- And thank you for believing me, too.

- That's all right.

- I'll see you to the door.

- That's okay. I can let myself out.

- Well, it seems awfully rude to just leave you here.

Would you like a drink or something?

- I want you to go upstairs and get some sleep.

- All right.

Good night.

- Good night, Miss Hoffman.

- Sleep well.

She's a pretty child, isn't she?

- She's hardly a child.

- True, but she is very pretty.

- She's been through a lot.

So has her mother, but, of course,

you know all about that, don't you?

- No, what do you mean?

- Do me a favor, Miss Hoffman, don't play dumb with me.

- I'm not playing anything.

I'm merely trying to find out what you're talking about.

- All right. I'll make it plain and simple.

- I'm talking about blackmail.

- Blackmail? - Yes, a major crime

and one that I don't want to be an accessory to.

That's why I want you to take back that notebook of yours

as soon as possible.

- Come in here.

Mr. Peterson, let me assure you that what's in my notebook

is not there for blackmailing anyone.

- Then why is it there at all?

- It's an important record of something very unusual.

- You don't have to try to impress me, Miss Hoffman,

I happen to know what's in that book,

and I realize why it's so valuable to you.

- You do? - Yes.

But it's not valuable to me or to anybody else.

Only to you and to Elizabeth Stoddard.

Me and Elizabeth Stoddard?

What did Carolyn tell you was in that book?

I don't have to tell you that. You already know.

You ran across some information

that you knew Elizabeth Stoddard would be willing to pay for...

providing it be kept quiet.

- What are you talking about?

- I can't help wondering how you managed to get that book

away from him before he died.

What kind of pressure did you use on him?

- Mr. Peterson!

- Never mind. I don't want to know.

I don't want to know anything more about this situation.

I just want you to take back that book

and leave me out of it.

- Mr. Peterson!

You're, you're the only person that can help me.

- I'm not going to help you blackmail the Collins family.

- I don't know what lie she told you

but I'm not a blackmailer.

- Carolyn told me that

her mother had had an affair long, long ago

and that a man wrote it all down in his diary

and he was going to come back here and blackmail her,

but he died.

You got the book away from him and came here with it.

- That's not true.

- Why couldn't it be?

- Because what's in that book is far more important

than any ordinary scandal.

It is more serious and more dangerous.

- Why would Carolyn lie about it?

Why would she deliberately smear the family name?

- To enlist your sympathy.

She knows what is in that book that's so dangerous.

- Dangerous?

- Yes, dangerous and devastating.

- And it's all in that book?

- Every word!

Mr. Peterson,

my...my life is at stake if that book should get

into the wrong hands.

I...I will write a letter, letting you read that book

it anything happens to me.

Now, if I were a blackmailer, I,

I wouldn't be willing to do that, would I?

- No, I suppose not.

- You really believe you're in some kind of danger,

don't you?

- I'll only be safe if you're on my side.

Are you?

- All right, I'll keep the book.

- I'll write the letter tonight.

- Good night, Miss Hoffman.

- Good night and thank you.

♪♪

- Hello.

Hello!

- David, you're back.

- Yes.

We got back about a half an hour ago.

Didn't you hear the taxi pull up?

- No, no...I didn't hear it. I was in my room.

- Are you all right?

- Of course, I'm all right. Where is Vicki?

- She is in the study with Aunt Elizabeth.

Aunt Elizabeth said she wanted to talk to her right away.

- About what?

- I don't know.

Have you ever been to Boston?

Have you ever been to Boston?

- Oh, yes, yes I've been there.

- Oh. Did you like it?

- Yes, yes I liked it.

- I did too but,

you know, I didn't like it as much as Collinwood.

I'm glad to be back.

Are you sure you're all right?

- Why, why do you keep asking me that?

- Because you look sort of...sort of far away,

very far away.

- Do I?

- But it's almost as if you're going to cry.

- No, David, I assure you, I'm not going to cry.

I've...got to go down to the old house for a few minutes.

I'm glad you came back

and I'm glad Vicki came back

and I'm very glad you liked Boston so much.

[door closes]

- Welcome home, David.

- Sarah!

Gee, am I glad to see you!

- I'm glad to see you, too.

But I'm not glad that you went away.

- Well, I had to go away.

- Why?

- You see, my Aunt Elizabeth thought

that a change would be good for me.

- Was it?

- I don't know. I guess so.

- Where did you go?

- China.

- Oh.

- You mean you're not impressed?

- No.

My father's friends always went to China on their ships.

- Well, I really didn't go to China.

I went to Boston.

- Boston! That's wonderful!

- Even better than China?

- Yes.

I went to Boston once

and it was so big and there were so many people

and so many houses.

- It is big.

- And it took us two days to get there.

- Two days? Don't be silly.

It only took us five hours.

- Well, I say it took two days

and we stopped at night

and I had Indian pudding at the end.

- We went almost everywhere.

We ate at fancy restaurants

and Vicki took me to some museums.

- Sarah, did you hear what I said?

Sarah, I don't understand this.

Doesn't anybody listen to me when I talk anymore?

- I have to go.

- Wait a minute.

- No! I have to go!

- Well, don't be mad at me, Sarah.

I'm sorry I didn't believe you about,

about going to Boston and everything,

but...well...come on, don't be mad.

I missed you a lot.

You know, I was going to send you a letter,

but I didn't know where to send it.

- David, I have to go to the old house.

Something happened. Something bad.

- What?

Something bad? - Yes.

- What is it?

- I don't know yet but someone their needs me.

I've got to go.

♪♪

[knocking on door]

- Good evening, Julia.

- Good evening.

I hope you don't mind some company.

I know it's late. May I come in?

- If you'd like.

- Oh, this isn't really a social call.

- Then, why are you here?

- Let's just say out of my sense of fair play.

- Fair play? - Yes.

It's something you don't know anything about.

- Spare me the moral lecture, please.

- I won't spare you anything, Barnabas,

just as you don't spare me anything.

- I don't quite know what you're talking about.

- Your...

what shall I call your, your little helper...

tried to get my notebook from Tony Peterson.

Her plan didn't work.

He still has the notebook and he is going to keep it.

- I see.

Apparently, Carolyn isn't the experienced criminal

that you are.

- I am not a criminal.

- You mean m*rder is no longer a crime?

- I am not a m*rder*r.

Dave Woodard was my friend.

It was, was, was the circumstances.

- Oh yes. It's always the circumstances.

- Not with you.

Your kind kills for the sake of k*lling.

- Have you finished what you came here to tell me about?

- Yes.

- May we say goodnight?

- Well, I haven't quite given you all the news.

There is one more thing.

- Oh?

- Yes, I, I spoke to someone the other day,

someone that you might be interested in.

- I don't think so. - I do.

- Very well, with whom did you speak?

- Sarah Collins.

- You spoke to...

- Your sister, Sarah. Yes, I saw her.

- Where?

- At the mausoleum.

But bother going there, Barnabas.

She won't appear to you.

- You didn't talk to her, you're lying!

- No, I'm not lying.

- Why should she want to talk to you?

- She's lonely, very lonely.

She'll talk to anyone -- anyone but you.

- Don't you talk to me that way!

- Anyone but you!

- No more words, Doctor! - Oh, No!

- You have done too much --

[choking]

[wind howling]

[chandelier tinkling]

♪♪

[eerie music] ♪♪