Episode 27: And Nine-Year-Old Monsters

Tuesday, August 2, 1966

My name is Victoria Winters. The men who founded the Collins fortune were pioneers, and great house on the crest of Widow's Hill is a symbol of their strength. But it’s difficult now, for the portraits that look down from the paneled walls see only the horrors of unreasoning hatred.

Vicki is looking for David. Carolyn comes home. She says if she’d seen David, she’d have crossed to the other side of the road. Although Carolyn was just joking about what a monster David is, she’s shaken when Vicki tells her that he tried to commit murder. Vicki backtracks that maybe that’s too strong a word (it really isn't).

Carolyn wants to know what’s going on. She tells Vicki about her visit with Burke and the sheriff. Then she realizes Vicki thinks David tried to kill Roger.

Vicki says that is what she thinks happened, and that David left the wrench on the front seat of the car where Burke found it.

For some reason Vicki will never understand, David didn't throw the valve away. (Probably because he was going to use it to frame Vicki.)

“These walls shouldn't be paneled; they should be padded,” Carolyn says.

Vicki asks her to help look for David.

Burke arrives at the Bangor Pine Hotel to see his man Bronson, who’s missing a play he didn't want to see anyway. Bronson doesn't seem to get that he’s not supposed to be seen with Burke, and that’s why they’re meeting in Bangor in the first place, despite having been told this all before. Burke is just as bad. He is bothered there isn't more information, despite having cut the time short for Bronson to get it. This is all explained a few times.

The information is about the Collins family finances.

Vicki and Carolyn go upstairs. Vicki wonders how David got the valve out of her locked drawer. She hears something in the closed wing. It’s not the first time. The door was even open the other day.

And it opens now. It’s Liz. She was in there looking for David. She and Vicki go to Vicki’s room to talk while Carolyn goes to get something.

Liz wonders if the object in David’s drawer could have been something else, something David just picked up and saved, the way boys do.

But Vicki saw the drawing of it. And David was so frantic when he saw she had it, attacking her.

Is Vicki sure she put it in the drawer? Yes, she’s sure.

Carolyn enters with a key, announcing, “Sherlock Holmes to the rescue.” She tries it in the lock of Vicki’s drawer. It works. The dresser in Carolyn’s room has a matching lock, and David used her key. When Carolyn opens Vicki’s drawer, she finds a magazine that contains well-thumbed info on brakes. Vicki notes that David was anxious to give it to her as a present.

Burke is still going on about how Bronson should have more info. He wants to hit the Collins family so hard they’ll wish they’d never heard of him. (I think you’re already there, dude.)

Bronson’s secretary may have accidentally sent one of the papers to Burke. Oh, no. What will happen if somebody at the hotel sees mail with Bronson’s name on it? (Because anybody at the hotel in Collinsport has the slightest idea who he is?)

Liz and Carolyn argue about David. Liz can’t believe he did this.

Burke receives a call back from the hotel that no mail has arrived for him today, but that the sheriff arrived with a search warrant. Also, a little boy tried to sneak into his room.

        Cast, In Order of Appearance

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

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

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

Stuart Bronson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barnard Hughes

Joe Haskell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joel Crothers

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

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by Lela Swift

Story created and written by Art Wallace