1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,000 And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense. 2 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:19,000 Tonight, the story of two people and the terror that roamed with them in the city. 3 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,000 We call it Backseat Driver. 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:28,000 So now, starring Miss Vivi Janis and Mr. Parley Bear, here is tonight's suspense play, Backseat Driver. 5 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:38,000 It can't happen to you. You read about stuff like that in the papers. Girls murdered and mutilated. 6 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,000 Drunks left dying in the gutter for the handful of change they had in their pockets. 7 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:49,000 Lonesome old men tortured because some hoodlum gets the idea they're misers with a pot of gold hidden under the floorboards of the shack. 8 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:55,000 Sure, you know it's real, but it can't happen to you. Oh, you get your fair share of trouble. 9 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:02,000 I've been a professional man here in Los Angeles for 20 years. I've met up with bums and grifters and petty sharpers. 10 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:09,000 They're around in any business. But the viciousness, the real deep down dirt, that's for somebody else. 11 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:17,000 You do your work and you go home to your family and for a real bang-up evening to break the monotony, you take your wife out to a movie. 12 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:19,000 That's what I did that Saturday night. 13 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:26,000 We'd driven all the way in from San Fernando Valley to Beverly Hills for a picture Ellie specially wanted to see. 14 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:33,000 Wasn't that a good movie, Joe? Just the kind I like. Songs and dancing and girls in pretty clothes. 15 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:39,000 I get so tired of cops and robbers. What's wrong with cops and robbers? 16 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:47,000 Oh, you know what I mean. Murder movies, honestly. All the policemen stupid and all the crooks sneering out of the corners of their mouths. 17 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:56,000 The stuff those Hollywood boys dream of. You'd think the streets were knee deep in blood and you couldn't hear yourself think for machine guns. 18 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,000 Well, you get in first, honey. 19 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:00,000 Okay. 20 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,000 I don't think your door is closed tight, honey. 21 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:11,000 Oh. Oh, don't forget about the gas. 22 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:15,000 Oh, I got plenty to take us out to the valley. I'll fill up the bills. 23 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:17,000 Oh, I'll do that. 24 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Remember how that song goes, Joe? 25 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,000 What song? 26 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,000 In the picture. You know, Two on the Moon. The one the boys sang to the girl. 27 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,000 Oh, that one. Let's see. 28 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:36,000 Oh, heck, I don't know. 29 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,000 Well, we'll hear it again on the radio. 30 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000 How about turning it on? 31 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:46,000 Set it at KNX. We ought to get some news in a few minutes. I'd like to hear where they caught that fella. 32 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:47,000 That murderer? 33 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,000 Mm-hmm. They spotted him in LA this afternoon, but he got away. 34 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:55,000 I know. You told us he suffered. Makes you shiver. 35 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,000 Oh, don't worry. He won't get away with it. 36 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:03,000 We left the lights of Beverly Hills behind us and I turned into Coldwater Canyon. 37 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,000 It's as quick away as any to get us across the Hollywood Hills to the valley. 38 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:12,000 It's dark in the canyon, quiet, with mighty little traffic at night. 39 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:16,000 I flipped my lights up full and we swept up the side of the ridge. 40 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:19,000 The news program came on, but I didn't pay much attention. 41 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,000 The fella was talking about brush fires. 42 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,000 They'd already been out there. 43 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:28,000 The news program came on, but I didn't pay much attention. The fella was talking about brush fires. 44 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,000 They'd already put out the one near my place, though they were still patrolling it. 45 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:37,000 We were over the ridge and sliding down to the valley before the program got to the part I wanted to hear. 46 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:39,000 The latest news on the New Hampshire murderer. 47 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:40,000 Oh, there it is. 48 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,000 Yeah, we put the pyro. 49 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:44,000 Wiped out an entire family in Greenlee, New Hampshire. 50 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,000 Today he was spotted 3,000 miles from the scene of his crime. 51 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:52,000 At 5.30 this afternoon, the patrolman saw and definitely identified Matric in downtown Los Angeles. 52 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:57,000 However, by darting through heavy traffic at the risk of his life, the killer was again able to make his escape. 53 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:02,000 According to neighbors of the slaughtered family, Matric first appeared in Greenlee about a year ago. 54 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:08,000 From fingerprints in the Noland home, Lewis Matric has been identified as Lloyd Matthews, ex-convict. 55 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,000 He was wanted for questioning in the robbery and murder of a New York storekeeper a year ago, 56 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:15,000 a crime that netted the killer less than $20. 57 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:21,000 Matric, or Matthews, is 32 years old, height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 155 pounds. 58 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:25,000 He has blue eyes, light brown hair, nose slanted to the left. 59 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,000 When seen this afternoon, he was wearing a blue suit and gray pork pie hat. 60 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:32,000 It's awful, just awful. 61 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,000 Not pretty, no. 62 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,000 Somewhere around L.A. this minute. 63 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:38,000 Joe. 64 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:39,000 Hmm? 65 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:43,000 You think it's right us leaving Annie and Bud all alone while we... 66 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,000 Oh, now, Ellen, Annie's grown up and Bud can take care of himself. 67 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,000 You can't wrap those kids in cotton wool. 68 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,000 I know. I'm silly, I guess. 69 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000 Neighbors close all around, all they'd have to do is yell. 70 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Joe, what would make a young man do a dreadful thing like that? 71 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,000 Could be a lot of things. Maybe he's got a screw loose. Maybe he went nuts over a girl. 72 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,000 Maybe he gets a kick out of killing like some of them do. 73 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:08,000 You know all the answers, Joe. 74 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:09,000 Hey, Joe! 75 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:13,000 Keep going. Go on, keep going. I've got a gun here. I'll use it. 76 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:18,000 Now, you just keep going like this and no tricks. 77 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,000 Otherwise, I'm going to blow a hole right through your wife's head. 78 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,000 I've had experience in these things. 79 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,000 You are going to be a good man. 80 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:50,000 You are listening to Backseat Driver, tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense. 81 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:04,000 Remember that phrase, Thursday night hang on to your chair 82 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:09,000 and bring in the whole family to keep you company because you'll want some people near you when the whistler comes around. 83 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:16,000 You'll hear his mysterious whistle open the door to another mystery on most of these same CBS radio stations. 84 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:25,000 And now we bring back to our Hollywood sound stage, Miss Vivi Janis and Mr. Parley Bear, starring in tonight's production, Backseat Driver. 85 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:30,000 A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. 86 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:40,000 I drove that car like we were skirting the rim of the Grand Canyon with nothing between us and the bottom but a mile of country air. 87 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:46,000 This was it. The thing that happens to other people, to the ones that end up on slabs in the morgue. 88 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,000 But not to me. Not to Ellie. 89 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,000 The first car we'd seen since we left traffic swooped down behind us. 90 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:00,000 It passed, but not before the headlights caught our passenger clean in my rear-view mirror. 91 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:06,000 He was hunched forward, sitting on the edge of the backseat so as he could keep the gun rammed into the nape of Ellie's neck. 92 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:12,000 He had light brown hair, pale eyes, and a nose that slanted. 93 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:15,000 His mouth twitched, jittery. 94 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:20,000 As the car went by, his eyes caught mine in the mirror and flickered. 95 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:24,000 Keep your eyes on the road. Sure, sure. 96 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,000 Lose your hat? Right, boy. 97 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:31,000 Like I said, you know all the answers. 98 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,000 No, I didn't lose it. I stuffed it down a drain. 99 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,000 Still wearing the blue suit, though. 100 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,000 I figure it changed pretty quick now. 101 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:42,000 Think yours will fit me? You can have the suit and the car. 102 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:45,000 Just let us... Ellen, shut up. 103 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:50,000 Let's see if you can both be bright enough to keep your trap shut. 104 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:53,000 Turn left on Ventura. Take the slow lane. 105 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:57,000 Don't try playing old tricks. I've been here before. 106 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,000 Okay by me. That's real wide, Evan. 107 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,000 Straight out to open country, Mac. 108 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,000 Then I'll take the missus up on that offer, the suit and the car. 109 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,000 What happens to us? 110 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:13,000 Well, you just walk home. What else? 111 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:17,000 Play it safe and you ain't got a thing to worry about. 112 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:24,000 Nothing to worry about. 113 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:29,000 Once we got out into open country, we didn't have a chance of walking away from that car. 114 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:31,000 All a murderer can hope for is time. 115 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:37,000 He doesn't leave witnesses around to get the law in his tail one second sooner than necessary. 116 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,000 All I could do was stall and pray 117 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:44,000 and make what feeble gestures I could at Lady Luck. 118 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:48,000 The thing that came into my mind was so risky it brought my hair up on end, 119 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:53,000 but there was a chance, provided that trigger finger didn't start jerking. 120 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,000 In the bright lights of the boulevard, I didn't think he'd notice, 121 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,000 but a traffic officer would. 122 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:04,000 I turned into Ventura and took the far lane, obedient as a whip-pup. 123 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:08,000 We must have made two or three miles before I heard what I was hoping for. 124 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:10,000 What's that? 125 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,000 An ambulance, I guess. We hear a lot of them here in Nevada. 126 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:15,000 There ain't no ambulance. It's a motorcycle cop. 127 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:17,000 Joe, it's young Mike Kennedy. He patrols this place. 128 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:19,000 Look, what are you up to? What are you trying to pull? 129 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,000 Nothing. The kid's a friend of ours. 130 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,000 You think you can get me easy, huh? I want you. I ain't going to law and you ask for lessons. 131 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,000 Listen, will you? The kid lives near us, practically grew up under our feet. 132 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:31,000 All he wants is to pass the time of day or maybe send a message to our Annie. 133 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:32,000 Yeah? 134 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,000 Yeah. You start popping on, we'll all be dead. 135 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:36,000 Keep your shirt on and I'll get rid of him. 136 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:40,000 Okay. But Buddy had better be good. 137 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:51,000 I pulled over to the curb and Mike came up alongside. 138 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:57,000 He sat balancing the bike between his knees and the grin on his face was a mile wide. 139 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,000 It had worked. 140 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:03,000 At least we were still alive and Mike wasn't two feet away. 141 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,000 But where'd we go from here? 142 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:11,000 I had to think but my brain was wet wool and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. 143 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:16,000 Good evening sir. Well, what do you know if it isn't Uncle Joe? 144 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:19,000 Something funny, kid? 145 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Well, after all the times you've read us the riot act about observing the letter of the law. 146 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:26,000 Oh brother, wait till I tell Annie. 147 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,000 What's the matter with you, Mike? I didn't notice anything wrong. 148 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,000 Hi Aunt Ellie. Oh, nothing much the matter. 149 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:35,000 Just Uncle Joe here proceeding sedately out the boulevard with his headlights up full. 150 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:40,000 Headlights? My golly, that's right. I must have forgotten to dim them. 151 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,000 Now we oughtn't to forget these things. 152 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:45,000 Someday a big bad cop might come along and haul you off to the sta... 153 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:47,000 Oh, hello. 154 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,000 This is our new neighbor, Mike. Mr. Anderson. 155 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,000 That's right. Glad to meet you, sir. 156 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,000 I didn't know there were any vacancies out our way. 157 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,000 Well, there weren't until recently. 158 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:01,000 Mr. Anderson has taken the Charles place. 159 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:03,000 The Charles place? You kidding? 160 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:08,000 No. At last it looks like things got too much for old man Charles. 161 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,000 He's clearing out for good. 162 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:12,000 Kind of sudden, wasn't it? 163 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:15,000 Yeah, I guess so. 164 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:17,000 Oh, that's too bad. For old man Charles, I mean. 165 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:21,000 Mighty nice for Mr. Anderson, though. Good places are hard to find these days. 166 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,000 All right, Uncle Joe, I'll let you off this time. 167 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,000 Give my love to Annie. Mike! 168 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:28,000 Yes, sir? Watch it. 169 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,000 Nothing. 170 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:34,000 Come see us soon, boy. Always glad to have you. 171 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:36,000 Oh, thanks. I'll be around my next night off. 172 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,000 Got a date with Annie. Well, hello. 173 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,000 That was that. 174 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:55,000 Mike turned his bike and headed back down the boulevard. 175 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:58,000 The chance had come and gone. 176 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:03,000 But it felt to me like half my mind went off of that boy yelling at him. 177 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:08,000 Must have been half a minute before I could pull myself together and ease back into traffic. 178 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:12,000 Nobody said anything. I didn't dare to, neither did Ellie. 179 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:16,000 I couldn't see her, but I could feel her holding herself stiff as a ramrod, 180 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,000 scared even to turn her head. 181 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,000 When two people have lived together as long as we have, 182 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,000 each one knows what the other one's thinking. 183 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:27,000 I went back to driving and praying. 184 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:34,000 That and cutting my eyes up to the mirror just in case there might be a white motorcycle eye following us. 185 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,000 There wasn't, of course. 186 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:39,000 In the back I knew he was watching too, 187 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:45,000 those flickering eyes darting like lightning between us and the rear window. 188 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:52,000 The way I'd figured it, we'd started out with just about enough gas to get us back to Bill's station. 189 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,000 When we hit that, the meter ought to show empty. 190 00:12:55,000 --> 00:13:00,000 The gas gauge was hidden from me by the rim of the steering wheel, but I was pretty sure I was right. 191 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:04,000 I waited until I saw the red and green lights above Bill's pumps a block and a half away, 192 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:09,000 and then very slow and easy I slumped over for a peek at the gauge. 193 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:12,000 I leaned just a little too far. 194 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:13,000 Sit up. 195 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,000 Sure. 196 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:16,000 What now? 197 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:17,000 What were you looking at? 198 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,000 I was just easing the crick out of my neck. 199 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,000 Yes, you was. You was looking at the dash. 200 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:27,000 So that's it, fresh out of gas. 201 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:28,000 Now look, I just remembered it. 202 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,000 Don't gimme that. You know it all along. 203 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:36,000 From now on you keep your hands on the wheel, Mac, but let me do the driving. 204 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:40,000 Send in that filling station, get high test gas and fill it up. 205 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:45,000 Hi, Joe. Evening, Ellie. 206 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:46,000 Hi, Bill. 207 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:47,000 Oh, evening, sir. 208 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:48,000 Up to the top? 209 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,000 Yeah. Ethel. 210 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,000 Ethel it is. Here you've been to the pictures. 211 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,000 Yeah. 212 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:58,000 You people know everybody in the whole valley. 213 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,000 Well, we've lived here 20 years. 214 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,000 Back when this was farmland, of course we know lots of people. 215 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:06,000 I don't like it. Just get five and get out of here. 216 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,000 Make it five, Bill. 217 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:09,000 Okay. 218 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,000 Say I was up to Miranda's for supper. 219 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:13,000 Oh, is that right? 220 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:15,000 Boy, her chili gets better every time. 221 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:17,000 Don't see how it can, but it does. 222 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:19,000 She's saving some for you, you know. 223 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:21,000 Said you'd be around after the show. 224 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:25,000 Oh, my. I saw Miranda this afternoon, told her we'd be by for sure, Joe. 225 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,000 Well, that'll be a dollar fifty on the nose. 226 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,000 A dollar and a half. Here, thanks, Bill. 227 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,000 Well, same to you. 228 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:42,000 What was all that about, that Miranda stuff? 229 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:43,000 Nothing much. 230 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:45,000 Come on, come on, I gotta ask you everything twice. 231 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,000 Miranda runs a drive-in up the road a ways. 232 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,000 On show nights, we usually drop in for a carton of chili to take home. 233 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:55,000 I just hope she won't call home when we don't show up and get Annie all worried. 234 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:56,000 Wait a minute. 235 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:57,000 Drive-in, you said? 236 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:58,000 Yeah. 237 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,000 And this Miranda could start checking on you? 238 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,000 Oh, no, I didn't mean that. It's just that... 239 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,000 She could call your Annie and between the two of them, 240 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,000 they'd have the cops on the lookout for you before midnight? 241 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:09,000 Oh, you're crazy. Yeah, like a fox. 242 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,000 I ain't kept ahead of the buttons all this time by taking chances. 243 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,000 We'll just pick up that chili, Mac. 244 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:17,000 You want me to go to Miranda's? 245 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:20,000 Why not? Leave Annie get a beauty sleep. 246 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,000 I can cover a lot of ground before tomorrow morning. 247 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,000 I ain't eaten so good lately, I could use the food, too. 248 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:31,000 With you and a Mrs. DeFront for me, what's to worry about? 249 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,000 He was right about that. 250 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:43,000 I went back to driving and praying. 251 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:45,000 Miranda's place is one of those goldfish bowls, 252 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:50,000 mostly glass, with light pouring out across the space marked for outside service. 253 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:52,000 She saw us pulling up, 254 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:56,000 grabbed a quart carton off the back shelf and hustled to the door. 255 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:58,000 Here you are, Ellie. 256 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,000 I was just saying to Betsy, better fix up that chili, Betsy. 257 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,000 It's about time Ellie and Joe were showing up, 258 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,000 figuring the distance from Beverly Hills. 259 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,000 Oh, who's that in the back seat? 260 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,000 I don't seem to recollect your face, young man. 261 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,000 Though anybody will tell you I never forget a face. 262 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,000 Oh, this is Mr. Anderson, Miranda. 263 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:17,000 He just came out from the East. 264 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:18,000 Oh, is that a fact? 265 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,000 Say, Joe, you planning to go straight up Ventura Home? 266 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:23,000 You, why, sure. 267 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,000 Well, don't you do it. 268 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,000 Go the back way, even if it does take longer. 269 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:29,000 Of course, that brush fire between here and your place is out, 270 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,000 but there are still 50, 60 men patrolling it. 271 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:32,000 What's that? 272 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,000 But that ain't nothing to what's going on further out the valley. 273 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:39,000 That new fire's clean, out of control, licking up hundreds of acres. 274 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:43,000 They've been sending truckloads of firefighters past here all evening. 275 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,000 Road's blocked for miles, they tell me. 276 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:46,000 The road is blocked? 277 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,000 For miles, they tell me. 278 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:52,000 All them poor ranchers losing their homes. 279 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,000 Being from the East, mister, you wouldn't understand, 280 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000 but brush fires is awful things once they get out of control. 281 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,000 Yeah, yeah, thanks. 282 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Joe, suppose we start moving, huh? 283 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,000 Let's take the back way to your house. 284 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:06,000 To our house? 285 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,000 What say, you stay in with Ellie and Joe? 286 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:12,000 Yeah, until I can get into my own place. 287 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:15,000 What are we waiting for, Joe? 288 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,000 Good night, Miranda. 289 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:18,000 Good night. 290 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:19,000 Well, goodbye. 291 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:23,000 Be sure you come see me, Mr. Anderson, I'll be looking for you. 292 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,000 So there it was. 293 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,000 We weren't going to the country. 294 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,000 We weren't going to be left to rot at the foot of a cliff 295 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:37,000 or buried deep in brush. 296 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:39,000 No, we were going home. 297 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:41,000 Home to the kids. 298 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,000 And taking a murderer with us. 299 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,000 I still couldn't see Ellie, but I could feel her tensing up, 300 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,000 tight as a pole drawstring. 301 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:53,000 Mr. Matrick, you didn't mean what you said, did you, 302 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,000 about coming home with us? 303 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,000 You know a better place I can hide out until the road's open? 304 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:01,000 It wouldn't be safe, we've got neighbors close all around, 305 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:02,000 if somebody'd see you. 306 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:04,000 Nobody's going to see me. 307 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,000 Nobody better. 308 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:08,000 Joe, couldn't we go round the fire? 309 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:10,000 Yeah, yeah, we could, that'd be better. 310 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:13,000 We could try, there are other roads through the valley. 311 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,000 Now, listen, Matrick, we'll nose around 312 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:16,000 and find a way through somehow. 313 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:17,000 Cut it out. 314 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,000 You heard the old bitty hundreds of acres burning, 315 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,000 firefighters, cops, get off the highway, we're going home. 316 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,000 No, no, I won't have it. 317 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,000 Joe, you stop the car right here. 318 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:27,000 Shut up. 319 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,000 I won't have him in my house, not with Annie and Buzz. 320 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:30,000 I said shut up. 321 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:32,000 Stop it, I tell you. 322 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:34,000 It doesn't matter about us, it's the kids. 323 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:35,000 I won't let him touch us. 324 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:36,000 One more word out of you and I'm going to... 325 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:37,000 Joe, stop. 326 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:38,000 Dylan, shut up. 327 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:42,000 Now, don't say another thing. 328 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:43,000 I'm... 329 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,000 I'm sorry, honey, but Matrick's the boss. 330 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,000 We've got to do like he says. 331 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,000 Yeah, that's telling her. 332 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,000 Sure, you do like I say and everything's going to be rosy. 333 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:57,000 You've got no call to worry about the kids. 334 00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:58,000 I like kids. 335 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:01,000 As long as nobody gives me the brush off. 336 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,000 We'll wake them up soon as we get home. 337 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:07,000 You and this Annie can fix up a chili supper for us. 338 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,000 We'll have a picnic. 339 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,000 And as soon as the fire's out, 340 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:14,000 we'll all take a trip to the country. 341 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:24,000 Another picnic, huh? 342 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,000 It took a long time, but it had to come to an end. 343 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:29,000 I saw the bulk of the house looming up. 344 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,000 There was light sneaking around the edges of the blinds 345 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:33,000 up in Annie's room. 346 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:35,000 She wasn't asleep after all. 347 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,000 She'd been setting up in bed, maybe plastering red stuff 348 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,000 on her fingers and dreaming about the date with Mike. 349 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:42,000 Bud's room was dark. 350 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:46,000 He'd be wrapped in covers like a cocoon and dreaming... 351 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:47,000 whatever boy's dream. 352 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,000 I couldn't remember. 353 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,000 I pulled up to the concrete walk I'd poured with my own hands 354 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,000 before there was any Annie or Bud, 355 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,000 and then I cut the lights. 356 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:59,000 In a second or two, my eyes got used to the dark. 357 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:02,000 I could make out the high head jelly planted around the place 358 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,000 and our roof rising up beyond it. 359 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,000 Out, Mrs. 360 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:12,000 Face the house. 361 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:13,000 Now you, Mac. 362 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:22,000 Slide out the same side, stand beside her. 363 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:24,000 All right, walk to the door. 364 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:26,000 Slow, no funny business. 365 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,000 I'm right behind you. 366 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:31,000 Look out! 367 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:32,000 I'll kill you! 368 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:35,000 Oh, shit! 369 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:36,000 Hold it, boys! 370 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:37,000 It's okay, Mike, I got him. 371 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:38,000 You all right, Uncle Joe? 372 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:39,000 Aunt Ellie? 373 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,000 Ellie, you all right? 374 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:43,000 All right, indeed. 375 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,000 Smack flat on my face on a concrete walk, 376 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,000 and you falling on me. 377 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:47,000 There's nothing wrong with her. 378 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,000 That's my girl. 379 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:50,000 Just don't stand there. 380 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:51,000 Help me up. 381 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:52,000 Here. 382 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:53,000 There we are. 383 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:56,000 I've got to get in the house before the kids come busting out here. 384 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:58,000 I won't have them mixed up in this. 385 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,000 Well, how's he doing, boy? 386 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,000 I got him through the gunhand in the right shoulder, see? 387 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,000 Lucky shot, cop. 388 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000 If you weren't lucky, you'd all be cold and needy now. 389 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,000 Maybe. 390 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:10,000 Mattrick, isn't it, Uncle Joe? 391 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:11,000 That's him. 392 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,000 Miranda described him to you? 393 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,000 The old girl doesn't miss a trick. 394 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:17,000 She even knew you were taking the back way home. 395 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:18,000 You left a clear trail, Uncle Joe. 396 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:19,000 That's slick work. 397 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,000 I had to get him out of the car before the fireworks started. 398 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:23,000 Ellie didn't stand a chance. 399 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,000 She helped, though. 400 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:26,000 Ellie catches on quick. 401 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:27,000 I'll bet. 402 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,000 Mean guy like Mattrick, you make him think you don't want him to do something, 403 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,000 and he'll break his neck doing it. 404 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,000 I let on how I was trying to run out of gas, 405 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,000 and that got us to bills. 406 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,000 Then we both made out there was no sense going to Miranda's, 407 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,000 so we get bowled into going to Miranda's. 408 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:41,000 It was a thousand to one. 409 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:43,000 She'd run off at the mouth about the brush fires, 410 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,000 scare him into hiding out. 411 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,000 After that, all Ellie had to do was turn on the hysterics, 412 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,000 and he was dead set on coming here. 413 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,000 Yeah, bright boy, like I said. 414 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:53,000 Yeah, bright enough. 415 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,000 You did all right, too, Mike. 416 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:57,000 I was watching the rear view mirror all the time you were trailing us, 417 00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:58,000 but you never showed. 418 00:21:58,000 --> 00:21:59,000 You knew I was there, though. 419 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,000 When one officer starts double-talking another officer, 420 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:02,000 he wants to know why. 421 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,000 Well, officer, why double-talk? 422 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,000 You never said a thing to him except that I'd bought some place out here. 423 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,000 Yeah, the Charles place. 424 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:12,000 Poor old man Charles, in a tough spot, moving out for good. 425 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:13,000 What's wrong with that? 426 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:18,000 Matric, didn't anybody ever tell you it wasn't smart to take up with strangers? 427 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,000 Maybe I'd better introduce myself. 428 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:21,000 My name's Charles. 429 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,000 Joe Charles, detective, homicide. 430 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:46,000 Tonight, I was off duty just taking my wife to a movie. 431 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:50,000 Suspense, in which Mr. Parley Bear and Miss Vivianna 432 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:54,000 starred in tonight's presentation of Backseat Driver. 433 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,000 Next week, the story of twin identities in crime. 434 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,000 It is based upon fact. 435 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,000 We call it The Greatest Thief in the World. 436 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:19,000 That's next week on Suspense. 437 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,000 Suspense is produced and directed by Anthony Ellis. 438 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,000 Tonight's script was written by Miss Sally Thorson. 439 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:29,000 The music was composed by Renny Garaghan and conducted by Wilbur Hatch. 440 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:40,000 Featured in the cast were Larry Thor, Tony Barrett, Jack Edwards, Joe Pranston, and Helen Plead. 441 00:23:40,000 --> 00:24:07,000 The star's address is the CBS Radio Network. 442 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:34,060 Ted batch isAreut yen many my 443 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,000 Thank you.