Episode 39: Captain Ahab Rides Again

Thursday, August 18, 1966

My name is Victoria Winters. The strands of fear seem to bind Collinwood to much of the outside world. Fear I don’t quite understand. Fear that reaches down to others and holds them in its grip—a grip that holds more tightly every minute.

Roger comes to visit Sam, and they have their usual round about Burke’s portrait. He says he can’t dissuade Burke. Roger says he doesn’t want Burke connecting the two of them. Sam says Burke’s car just pulled in the driveway.

Roger says he walked there, so Burke won’t see his car. He hides in the bedroom.

Sam lets Burke in. He tells Burke he has a headache and his hand is unsteady. Maybe they could put it off till next week?

“But what if your hand is still shaky next week? Then you’ll put it off again. And again. No dice.” He doesn’t know where he’ll be next week. Or where Sam will be. If there’s nothing going on with him and Roger, why doesn’t he want to earn the $1500 Burke wants to pay him?

Sam gives in.

Bill is telling Liz about a new canning machine. She wants to know how many people it will put out of work. None, he assures her. He also tells her about Burke’s investigation of her business interests. He is like Captain Ahab going after Moby Dick.

Liz says Captain Ahab was a madman.

“Single-minded,” Bill says. He has been having trouble sleeping, worrying about Liz.

The phone rings. It’s Ned Calder. Liz wants him to come back to work for her.

Bill thinks this means she wants extra help to fight Burke. Bill plans to stop Burke cold, and to do it today.

Sam works on the sketches for the portrait. Burke talks about Collinwood and the Collins family. “Them against the world. They don’t care who gets hurt.”

Sam says he always thought Liz was a pretty nice woman.

What about Roger?

Sam says he doesn’t know him that well.

Roger listens.

Burke says Roger played an important part in his life, even helped him into prison.

Sam pours himself a drink. Burke asks if that’s wise, with his headache. Sam starts to say he hasn’t had a headache in years.

Burke wants to wash up. Sam stops him from going to the bathroom, saying Maggie has stockings hanging up in there. He can wash up in the kitchen.

The phone rings. It’s Bill Malloy for Burke. He wants to meet him in the hotel restaurant in ten minutes. Burke leaves, and Roger tells Sam he could quite easily kill him.

They go another round on Burke’s portrait.

Roger wants Sam to leave town. Sam has thought about that, but he’s come to the conclusion that it’s no good. Roger says he’ll give him money. Sam says he won’t take money from Roger. Roger says he wasn’t so picky ten years ago. Sam tells him that part is over now. He wants to know whether he should pack up his conscience along with his paints and easel.

Bill and Burke meet. Burke says maybe when his portrait is finished, he’ll give it to Liz Stoddard. Wouldn’t he look good hanging in Collinwood?

Bill wants to make a deal with Burke. If Burke will leave town, Bill will do his level best to clear Burke, to prove he never committed that crime ten years ago. He just has to promise to stay away from Liz and Carolyn and David.

Burke notices that he omitted Roger.

Bill allows that’s so.

Sam would like Roger to leave his house. Roger says his freedom and future are at stake, and he will take every action to protect himself.

Sam tells him he wrote a letter telling about everything, and if anything happens to him, the letter will be read. It’s his insurance.

Roger wants to know who has the letter.

“That would be like not paying the premium.”

Roger demands to know who has the letter.

Sam says to ask his sister or Bill Malloy or that new woman up on the hill—

Bill Malloy arrives. “Did I hear my name?”

        Cast, In Order of Appearance

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

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

Sam Evans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Ford

Bill Malloy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Schofield

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

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

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by John Sedwick

Story created and written by Art Wallace

Episode 38: The Count of Monte Cristo

Wednesday, August 17, 1966

My name is Victoria Winters. The grey light of morning has come again to Collinwood, and the strange sounds of the night should seem thousands of miles away. Yet I can still hear it in my mind, the helpless crying that filled the shadows of the great house on Widow’s Hill, crying that had drawn me down musty stairs to a strange and forbidding door.

Matthew (recast) finds Vicki in the basement. She says she’s looking for books for David. He assures her they aren’t in the locked storeroom and points out where the books are.

He tries to get her to come back up with him. She says she’ll come after she finds what she’s looking for, some Rover Boys books David told her about. He says he doesn’t think Mrs. Stoddard would like her being down there by herself.

Vicki asks him if he believes in ghosts, if he’s ever heard any sobbing in the night.

“Josette Collins. That’s who you’re talkin’ about, isn’t it?”

Vicki asks if he really believes that.

He’s never been there late enough at night, but Josette is there. She cries.

Vicki tells him she heard it the first night she was there.

He says she should stay in her room when she hears that sobbing. He accuses her of snooping. She says she’s just looking for books.

Liz calls down, asking if Matthew is there. She wants him to come up so she can talk with him.

Carolyn arrives at the restaurant and sees Burke. She wonders if he’s going to ask her to join him.

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

“It was safe enough last night for Vicki Winters, wasn’t it?”

She sees he’s reading The Count of Monte Cristo, the story of a man seeking revenge.

She brings up Vicki again.

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned Miss Winters.”

“Miss Winters!” She had dinner in his hotel room last night and he still doesn’t call her Vicki?

“I’ll get around to it. Give me time.”

“I don’t think I will.”

“What?”

“Give you time.”

Liz gives Matthew a list of supplies to get. Matthew doesn’t like Burke. Liz tells Matthew he didn’t do anything to Roger. She tells him he was responsible for the accident. Or at least that’s the story she wants him to tell.

He doesn’t understand. It’ll make him out to be a fool. But he’ll do as she asks.

Then he tells her about Vicki in the basement.

Liz goes down to confront Vicki.

Vicki tells her she heard crying last night, and she doesn’t believe in ghosts.

Liz says she’s heard the wind, the floors creak, the shutters bang—occasionally crying.

That room is only a storeroom. No one is in there crying in the night.

Liz shows her where the Rover Boys books are.

Burke questions Carolyn about Sam Evans, but she doesn’t know anything. He asks her if she’s nervous about something. She says she’s not. They have more coffee. She offers to be his tour guide for things that have been added to the Collinsport area since he’s been away.

He can’t. He has an appointment to get his portrait painted. He wants to know if she always makes friends with her family’s enemies.

She says he’s no one’s enemy. She asks to go along with him to Bangor for his business appointment. They could have lunch. She tells him she’s not a little girl.

“Maybe not. But you don’t have to make a point of proving it.”

She thinks that’s nasty and uncalled for. She still expects him to call her, though.
And she leaves her ring on the table.

Vicki tells Liz about the phone call for Ned Calder at about 2 a.m. 
Liz calls him back.

Matthew comes to the restaurant. Burke recognizes him. Matthew remembers Burke too. He warns Burke that if he brings any trouble to Mrs. Stoddard, he will kill him.

Even if they ask for trouble? Burke wants to know.

Nobody at Collinwood is asking for trouble, Matthew tells him.

Carolyn comes home. She lends Vicki a pen.

She tells Vicki she left her ring somewhere and is hoping to get a phone call from someone returning it, and that she may be taking a trip to Bangor.

Vicki asks her about the sobbing. 

Carolyn admits that, yes, she’s heard the ghost lady, on and off for most of her life.

Carolyn goes to change. 
Liz gives Vicki the key to the storeroom and tells her to check for herself. 

Vicki says it won’t be necessary.

        Cast, In Order of Appearance

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

Matthew Morgan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thayer David

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

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

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

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by Lela Swift

Story created and written by Art Wallace