Episode 10: Carolyn Stoddard in the Lion's Den

Friday, July 8, 1966

My name is Victoria Winters. I know I shouldn’t be afraid, and yet the great house of Widow’s Hill carries the dusty scent of fear. It moves through the paneled rooms. It seeps down from the walls and touches the heart of everyone who enters.

David returns home from wherever he has been. Liz answers the phone. It’s Roger looking for Miss Winters.

Liz and David have a heart-to-heart about the teacup. He says they did it. The cup moved by itself and broke. Liz tells him that things don’t happen that way. David says they do there.

Burke in his hotel room calls down and says he wants to be called in a half an hour exactly. (Who is answering him? There’s no one at the desk. Maybe a switchboard?) He answers Carolyn’s knock and invites her in. “How else can you tell what the monster is like? That’s what you came for, isn’t it?”

Carolyn admits it.

“Carolyn Stoddard in the lion’s den,” Burke says. He invites her to sit down. She is his first guest. Carolyn wants to know why her uncle Roger is so afraid of him. Burke is amused. He tells her there’s no reason for Roger to be afraid. Burke is interested in the future, not the past. He goes to get Carolyn a ginger ale, leaving papers on the couch for Carolyn to snoop through. She does not disappoint.

Carolyn admits to reading his papers, which prove he’s going to Venezuela in a day or two—not hanging around in Collinsport to seek revenge. He doesn’t want this to get out. They drink: “To the death of the monster.”

David is playing with his toy robot when he hears his father arrive home. He goes to hide. Roger fixes himself a drink. Liz notes that he’s been drinking a lot lately. Roger tells Liz that Vicki went to town to meet Burke. He wants to know what she knows about this girl. Why did she bring her there?

To take care of David. Roger says David would be best sent to an institution. David, of course, is eavesdropping. Liz says they made an agreement ten years ago that Roger wasn’t supposed to come back, but he is back, and he’s there because of David. 

Liz leaves. David’s robot walks out, and David and Roger have a confrontation. David says he used to hear Burke’s name when Roger and David’s mother argued.

Liz comes back in and breaks them up. David tells Roger he hopes Burke comes back there and gets even with him. As usual, he runs out.

Carolyn tells Burke she doesn’t remember him. He says she was pretty young then. Carolyn isn’t sure whether Burke is trying to fool her. He could have left those papers there for her to find. Burke gets his pre-planned phone call from “José.” Carolyn is gratified to think that maybe this is true, after all.

Burke says sure, maybe he’s plotting against her family, maybe he put that letter there for her to find, maybe he even arranged that phone call. Maybe she should call the switchboard to find out.

No, of course not. He’s playing her like a violin.

Liz is napping in a chair. “There are no ghosts here . . .”

She wakes to see David. He’s very dirty. He tells her she was talking about ghosts. “Where are they?”

“In your mind, David, only in your mind.”

She wants to see what he has in his hand. He tells her it’s only a seashell but runs upstairs without showing it to her.

Carolyn and Burke arrive for a lovely visit.

 

Cast, In Order of Appearance

Victoria Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexandra Moltke

David Collins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Henesy

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard . . . . . . . . . . .  Joan Bennett

Burke Devlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mitchell Ryan

Carolyn Stoddard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nancy Barrett

Roger Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Louis Edmonds

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by Lela Swift

Story created and written by Art Wallace