WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:10.000 And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense. 00:10.000 --> 00:19.000 Tonight, the story of two people and the terror that roamed with them in the city. 00:19.000 --> 00:21.000 We call it Backseat Driver. 00:21.000 --> 00:28.000 So now, starring Miss Vivi Janis and Mr. Parley Bear, here is tonight's suspense play, Backseat Driver. 00:28.000 --> 00:38.000 It can't happen to you. You read about stuff like that in the papers. Girls murdered and mutilated. 00:38.000 --> 00:42.000 Drunks left dying in the gutter for the handful of change they had in their pockets. 00:42.000 --> 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. 00:49.000 --> 00:55.000 Sure, you know it's real, but it can't happen to you. Oh, you get your fair share of trouble. 00:55.000 --> 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. 01:02.000 --> 01:09.000 They're around in any business. But the viciousness, the real deep down dirt, that's for somebody else. 01:09.000 --> 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. 01:17.000 --> 01:19.000 That's what I did that Saturday night. 01:19.000 --> 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. 01:26.000 --> 01:33.000 Wasn't that a good movie, Joe? Just the kind I like. Songs and dancing and girls in pretty clothes. 01:33.000 --> 01:39.000 I get so tired of cops and robbers. What's wrong with cops and robbers? 01:39.000 --> 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. 01:47.000 --> 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. 01:56.000 --> 01:58.000 Well, you get in first, honey. 01:58.000 --> 02:00.000 Okay. 02:05.000 --> 02:07.000 I don't think your door is closed tight, honey. 02:07.000 --> 02:11.000 Oh. Oh, don't forget about the gas. 02:11.000 --> 02:15.000 Oh, I got plenty to take us out to the valley. I'll fill up the bills. 02:15.000 --> 02:17.000 Oh, I'll do that. 02:22.000 --> 02:24.000 Remember how that song goes, Joe? 02:24.000 --> 02:25.000 What song? 02:25.000 --> 02:29.000 In the picture. You know, Two on the Moon. The one the boys sang to the girl. 02:29.000 --> 02:32.000 Oh, that one. Let's see. 02:32.000 --> 02:36.000 Oh, heck, I don't know. 02:36.000 --> 02:38.000 Well, we'll hear it again on the radio. 02:38.000 --> 02:40.000 How about turning it on? 02:40.000 --> 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. 02:46.000 --> 02:47.000 That murderer? 02:47.000 --> 02:51.000 Mm-hmm. They spotted him in LA this afternoon, but he got away. 02:51.000 --> 02:55.000 I know. You told us he suffered. Makes you shiver. 02:55.000 --> 02:58.000 Oh, don't worry. He won't get away with it. 02:58.000 --> 03:03.000 We left the lights of Beverly Hills behind us and I turned into Coldwater Canyon. 03:03.000 --> 03:07.000 It's as quick away as any to get us across the Hollywood Hills to the valley. 03:07.000 --> 03:12.000 It's dark in the canyon, quiet, with mighty little traffic at night. 03:12.000 --> 03:16.000 I flipped my lights up full and we swept up the side of the ridge. 03:16.000 --> 03:19.000 The news program came on, but I didn't pay much attention. 03:19.000 --> 03:21.000 The fella was talking about brush fires. 03:21.000 --> 03:23.000 They'd already been out there. 03:23.000 --> 03:28.000 The news program came on, but I didn't pay much attention. The fella was talking about brush fires. 03:28.000 --> 03:32.000 They'd already put out the one near my place, though they were still patrolling it. 03:32.000 --> 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. 03:37.000 --> 03:39.000 The latest news on the New Hampshire murderer. 03:39.000 --> 03:40.000 Oh, there it is. 03:40.000 --> 03:42.000 Yeah, we put the pyro. 03:42.000 --> 03:44.000 Wiped out an entire family in Greenlee, New Hampshire. 03:44.000 --> 03:47.000 Today he was spotted 3,000 miles from the scene of his crime. 03:47.000 --> 03:52.000 At 5.30 this afternoon, the patrolman saw and definitely identified Matric in downtown Los Angeles. 03:52.000 --> 03:57.000 However, by darting through heavy traffic at the risk of his life, the killer was again able to make his escape. 03:57.000 --> 04:02.000 According to neighbors of the slaughtered family, Matric first appeared in Greenlee about a year ago. 04:02.000 --> 04:08.000 From fingerprints in the Noland home, Lewis Matric has been identified as Lloyd Matthews, ex-convict. 04:08.000 --> 04:12.000 He was wanted for questioning in the robbery and murder of a New York storekeeper a year ago, 04:12.000 --> 04:15.000 a crime that netted the killer less than $20. 04:15.000 --> 04:21.000 Matric, or Matthews, is 32 years old, height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 155 pounds. 04:21.000 --> 04:25.000 He has blue eyes, light brown hair, nose slanted to the left. 04:25.000 --> 04:29.000 When seen this afternoon, he was wearing a blue suit and gray pork pie hat. 04:29.000 --> 04:32.000 It's awful, just awful. 04:32.000 --> 04:34.000 Not pretty, no. 04:34.000 --> 04:37.000 Somewhere around L.A. this minute. 04:37.000 --> 04:38.000 Joe. 04:38.000 --> 04:39.000 Hmm? 04:39.000 --> 04:43.000 You think it's right us leaving Annie and Bud all alone while we... 04:43.000 --> 04:46.000 Oh, now, Ellen, Annie's grown up and Bud can take care of himself. 04:46.000 --> 04:48.000 You can't wrap those kids in cotton wool. 04:48.000 --> 04:52.000 I know. I'm silly, I guess. 04:52.000 --> 04:56.000 Neighbors close all around, all they'd have to do is yell. 04:56.000 --> 05:00.000 Joe, what would make a young man do a dreadful thing like that? 05:00.000 --> 05:04.000 Could be a lot of things. Maybe he's got a screw loose. Maybe he went nuts over a girl. 05:04.000 --> 05:07.000 Maybe he gets a kick out of killing like some of them do. 05:07.000 --> 05:08.000 You know all the answers, Joe. 05:08.000 --> 05:09.000 Hey, Joe! 05:09.000 --> 05:13.000 Keep going. Go on, keep going. I've got a gun here. I'll use it. 05:13.000 --> 05:18.000 Now, you just keep going like this and no tricks. 05:18.000 --> 05:22.000 Otherwise, I'm going to blow a hole right through your wife's head. 05:22.000 --> 05:25.000 I've had experience in these things. 05:37.000 --> 05:40.000 You are going to be a good man. 05:40.000 --> 05:50.000 You are listening to Backseat Driver, tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense. 06:00.000 --> 06:04.000 Remember that phrase, Thursday night hang on to your chair 06:04.000 --> 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. 06:09.000 --> 06:16.000 You'll hear his mysterious whistle open the door to another mystery on most of these same CBS radio stations. 06:16.000 --> 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. 06:25.000 --> 06:30.000 A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. 06:30.000 --> 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. 06:40.000 --> 06:46.000 This was it. The thing that happens to other people, to the ones that end up on slabs in the morgue. 06:46.000 --> 06:49.000 But not to me. Not to Ellie. 06:49.000 --> 06:54.000 The first car we'd seen since we left traffic swooped down behind us. 06:54.000 --> 07:00.000 It passed, but not before the headlights caught our passenger clean in my rear-view mirror. 07:00.000 --> 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. 07:06.000 --> 07:12.000 He had light brown hair, pale eyes, and a nose that slanted. 07:12.000 --> 07:15.000 His mouth twitched, jittery. 07:15.000 --> 07:20.000 As the car went by, his eyes caught mine in the mirror and flickered. 07:20.000 --> 07:24.000 Keep your eyes on the road. Sure, sure. 07:25.000 --> 07:28.000 Lose your hat? Right, boy. 07:28.000 --> 07:31.000 Like I said, you know all the answers. 07:31.000 --> 07:34.000 No, I didn't lose it. I stuffed it down a drain. 07:34.000 --> 07:36.000 Still wearing the blue suit, though. 07:36.000 --> 07:38.000 I figure it changed pretty quick now. 07:38.000 --> 07:42.000 Think yours will fit me? You can have the suit and the car. 07:42.000 --> 07:45.000 Just let us... Ellen, shut up. 07:45.000 --> 07:50.000 Let's see if you can both be bright enough to keep your trap shut. 07:50.000 --> 07:53.000 Turn left on Ventura. Take the slow lane. 07:53.000 --> 07:57.000 Don't try playing old tricks. I've been here before. 07:57.000 --> 08:00.000 Okay by me. That's real wide, Evan. 08:00.000 --> 08:03.000 Straight out to open country, Mac. 08:03.000 --> 08:07.000 Then I'll take the missus up on that offer, the suit and the car. 08:07.000 --> 08:09.000 What happens to us? 08:09.000 --> 08:13.000 Well, you just walk home. What else? 08:13.000 --> 08:17.000 Play it safe and you ain't got a thing to worry about. 08:21.000 --> 08:24.000 Nothing to worry about. 08:24.000 --> 08:29.000 Once we got out into open country, we didn't have a chance of walking away from that car. 08:29.000 --> 08:31.000 All a murderer can hope for is time. 08:31.000 --> 08:37.000 He doesn't leave witnesses around to get the law in his tail one second sooner than necessary. 08:37.000 --> 08:40.000 All I could do was stall and pray 08:40.000 --> 08:44.000 and make what feeble gestures I could at Lady Luck. 08:44.000 --> 08:48.000 The thing that came into my mind was so risky it brought my hair up on end, 08:48.000 --> 08:53.000 but there was a chance, provided that trigger finger didn't start jerking. 08:53.000 --> 08:56.000 In the bright lights of the boulevard, I didn't think he'd notice, 08:56.000 --> 08:59.000 but a traffic officer would. 08:59.000 --> 09:04.000 I turned into Ventura and took the far lane, obedient as a whip-pup. 09:04.000 --> 09:08.000 We must have made two or three miles before I heard what I was hoping for. 09:08.000 --> 09:10.000 What's that? 09:10.000 --> 09:13.000 An ambulance, I guess. We hear a lot of them here in Nevada. 09:13.000 --> 09:15.000 There ain't no ambulance. It's a motorcycle cop. 09:15.000 --> 09:17.000 Joe, it's young Mike Kennedy. He patrols this place. 09:17.000 --> 09:19.000 Look, what are you up to? What are you trying to pull? 09:19.000 --> 09:21.000 Nothing. The kid's a friend of ours. 09:21.000 --> 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. 09:24.000 --> 09:27.000 Listen, will you? The kid lives near us, practically grew up under our feet. 09:27.000 --> 09:31.000 All he wants is to pass the time of day or maybe send a message to our Annie. 09:31.000 --> 09:32.000 Yeah? 09:32.000 --> 09:34.000 Yeah. You start popping on, we'll all be dead. 09:34.000 --> 09:36.000 Keep your shirt on and I'll get rid of him. 09:36.000 --> 09:40.000 Okay. But Buddy had better be good. 09:47.000 --> 09:51.000 I pulled over to the curb and Mike came up alongside. 09:51.000 --> 09:57.000 He sat balancing the bike between his knees and the grin on his face was a mile wide. 09:57.000 --> 09:59.000 It had worked. 09:59.000 --> 10:03.000 At least we were still alive and Mike wasn't two feet away. 10:03.000 --> 10:05.000 But where'd we go from here? 10:05.000 --> 10:11.000 I had to think but my brain was wet wool and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. 10:11.000 --> 10:16.000 Good evening sir. Well, what do you know if it isn't Uncle Joe? 10:17.000 --> 10:19.000 Something funny, kid? 10:19.000 --> 10:24.000 Well, after all the times you've read us the riot act about observing the letter of the law. 10:24.000 --> 10:26.000 Oh brother, wait till I tell Annie. 10:26.000 --> 10:29.000 What's the matter with you, Mike? I didn't notice anything wrong. 10:29.000 --> 10:31.000 Hi Aunt Ellie. Oh, nothing much the matter. 10:31.000 --> 10:35.000 Just Uncle Joe here proceeding sedately out the boulevard with his headlights up full. 10:35.000 --> 10:40.000 Headlights? My golly, that's right. I must have forgotten to dim them. 10:40.000 --> 10:42.000 Now we oughtn't to forget these things. 10:42.000 --> 10:45.000 Someday a big bad cop might come along and haul you off to the sta... 10:45.000 --> 10:47.000 Oh, hello. 10:47.000 --> 10:50.000 This is our new neighbor, Mike. Mr. Anderson. 10:50.000 --> 10:52.000 That's right. Glad to meet you, sir. 10:52.000 --> 10:54.000 I didn't know there were any vacancies out our way. 10:54.000 --> 10:57.000 Well, there weren't until recently. 10:57.000 --> 11:01.000 Mr. Anderson has taken the Charles place. 11:01.000 --> 11:03.000 The Charles place? You kidding? 11:03.000 --> 11:08.000 No. At last it looks like things got too much for old man Charles. 11:08.000 --> 11:10.000 He's clearing out for good. 11:10.000 --> 11:12.000 Kind of sudden, wasn't it? 11:12.000 --> 11:15.000 Yeah, I guess so. 11:15.000 --> 11:17.000 Oh, that's too bad. For old man Charles, I mean. 11:17.000 --> 11:21.000 Mighty nice for Mr. Anderson, though. Good places are hard to find these days. 11:21.000 --> 11:24.000 All right, Uncle Joe, I'll let you off this time. 11:24.000 --> 11:26.000 Give my love to Annie. Mike! 11:26.000 --> 11:28.000 Yes, sir? Watch it. 11:28.000 --> 11:30.000 Nothing. 11:31.000 --> 11:34.000 Come see us soon, boy. Always glad to have you. 11:34.000 --> 11:36.000 Oh, thanks. I'll be around my next night off. 11:36.000 --> 11:39.000 Got a date with Annie. Well, hello. 11:49.000 --> 11:51.000 That was that. 11:51.000 --> 11:55.000 Mike turned his bike and headed back down the boulevard. 11:55.000 --> 11:58.000 The chance had come and gone. 11:58.000 --> 12:03.000 But it felt to me like half my mind went off of that boy yelling at him. 12:03.000 --> 12:08.000 Must have been half a minute before I could pull myself together and ease back into traffic. 12:08.000 --> 12:12.000 Nobody said anything. I didn't dare to, neither did Ellie. 12:12.000 --> 12:16.000 I couldn't see her, but I could feel her holding herself stiff as a ramrod, 12:16.000 --> 12:18.000 scared even to turn her head. 12:18.000 --> 12:21.000 When two people have lived together as long as we have, 12:21.000 --> 12:24.000 each one knows what the other one's thinking. 12:24.000 --> 12:27.000 I went back to driving and praying. 12:27.000 --> 12:34.000 That and cutting my eyes up to the mirror just in case there might be a white motorcycle eye following us. 12:34.000 --> 12:36.000 There wasn't, of course. 12:36.000 --> 12:39.000 In the back I knew he was watching too, 12:39.000 --> 12:45.000 those flickering eyes darting like lightning between us and the rear window. 12:45.000 --> 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. 12:52.000 --> 12:55.000 When we hit that, the meter ought to show empty. 12:55.000 --> 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. 13:00.000 --> 13:04.000 I waited until I saw the red and green lights above Bill's pumps a block and a half away, 13:04.000 --> 13:09.000 and then very slow and easy I slumped over for a peek at the gauge. 13:09.000 --> 13:12.000 I leaned just a little too far. 13:12.000 --> 13:13.000 Sit up. 13:13.000 --> 13:15.000 Sure. 13:15.000 --> 13:16.000 What now? 13:16.000 --> 13:17.000 What were you looking at? 13:17.000 --> 13:20.000 I was just easing the crick out of my neck. 13:20.000 --> 13:24.000 Yes, you was. You was looking at the dash. 13:24.000 --> 13:27.000 So that's it, fresh out of gas. 13:27.000 --> 13:28.000 Now look, I just remembered it. 13:28.000 --> 13:31.000 Don't gimme that. You know it all along. 13:31.000 --> 13:36.000 From now on you keep your hands on the wheel, Mac, but let me do the driving. 13:36.000 --> 13:40.000 Send in that filling station, get high test gas and fill it up. 13:43.000 --> 13:45.000 Hi, Joe. Evening, Ellie. 13:45.000 --> 13:46.000 Hi, Bill. 13:46.000 --> 13:47.000 Oh, evening, sir. 13:47.000 --> 13:48.000 Up to the top? 13:48.000 --> 13:50.000 Yeah. Ethel. 13:50.000 --> 13:53.000 Ethel it is. Here you've been to the pictures. 13:53.000 --> 13:56.000 Yeah. 13:56.000 --> 13:58.000 You people know everybody in the whole valley. 13:58.000 --> 14:00.000 Well, we've lived here 20 years. 14:00.000 --> 14:03.000 Back when this was farmland, of course we know lots of people. 14:03.000 --> 14:06.000 I don't like it. Just get five and get out of here. 14:06.000 --> 14:08.000 Make it five, Bill. 14:08.000 --> 14:09.000 Okay. 14:09.000 --> 14:11.000 Say I was up to Miranda's for supper. 14:11.000 --> 14:13.000 Oh, is that right? 14:13.000 --> 14:15.000 Boy, her chili gets better every time. 14:15.000 --> 14:17.000 Don't see how it can, but it does. 14:17.000 --> 14:19.000 She's saving some for you, you know. 14:19.000 --> 14:21.000 Said you'd be around after the show. 14:21.000 --> 14:25.000 Oh, my. I saw Miranda this afternoon, told her we'd be by for sure, Joe. 14:25.000 --> 14:28.000 Well, that'll be a dollar fifty on the nose. 14:28.000 --> 14:31.000 A dollar and a half. Here, thanks, Bill. 14:31.000 --> 14:33.000 Well, same to you. 14:39.000 --> 14:42.000 What was all that about, that Miranda stuff? 14:42.000 --> 14:43.000 Nothing much. 14:43.000 --> 14:45.000 Come on, come on, I gotta ask you everything twice. 14:45.000 --> 14:48.000 Miranda runs a drive-in up the road a ways. 14:48.000 --> 14:51.000 On show nights, we usually drop in for a carton of chili to take home. 14:51.000 --> 14:55.000 I just hope she won't call home when we don't show up and get Annie all worried. 14:55.000 --> 14:56.000 Wait a minute. 14:56.000 --> 14:57.000 Drive-in, you said? 14:57.000 --> 14:58.000 Yeah. 14:58.000 --> 15:00.000 And this Miranda could start checking on you? 15:00.000 --> 15:02.000 Oh, no, I didn't mean that. It's just that... 15:02.000 --> 15:04.000 She could call your Annie and between the two of them, 15:04.000 --> 15:07.000 they'd have the cops on the lookout for you before midnight? 15:07.000 --> 15:09.000 Oh, you're crazy. Yeah, like a fox. 15:09.000 --> 15:13.000 I ain't kept ahead of the buttons all this time by taking chances. 15:13.000 --> 15:15.000 We'll just pick up that chili, Mac. 15:15.000 --> 15:17.000 You want me to go to Miranda's? 15:17.000 --> 15:20.000 Why not? Leave Annie get a beauty sleep. 15:20.000 --> 15:23.000 I can cover a lot of ground before tomorrow morning. 15:23.000 --> 15:26.000 I ain't eaten so good lately, I could use the food, too. 15:26.000 --> 15:31.000 With you and a Mrs. DeFront for me, what's to worry about? 15:37.000 --> 15:39.000 He was right about that. 15:39.000 --> 15:43.000 I went back to driving and praying. 15:43.000 --> 15:45.000 Miranda's place is one of those goldfish bowls, 15:45.000 --> 15:50.000 mostly glass, with light pouring out across the space marked for outside service. 15:50.000 --> 15:52.000 She saw us pulling up, 15:52.000 --> 15:56.000 grabbed a quart carton off the back shelf and hustled to the door. 15:56.000 --> 15:58.000 Here you are, Ellie. 15:58.000 --> 16:00.000 I was just saying to Betsy, better fix up that chili, Betsy. 16:00.000 --> 16:02.000 It's about time Ellie and Joe were showing up, 16:02.000 --> 16:05.000 figuring the distance from Beverly Hills. 16:05.000 --> 16:07.000 Oh, who's that in the back seat? 16:07.000 --> 16:10.000 I don't seem to recollect your face, young man. 16:10.000 --> 16:13.000 Though anybody will tell you I never forget a face. 16:13.000 --> 16:15.000 Oh, this is Mr. Anderson, Miranda. 16:15.000 --> 16:17.000 He just came out from the East. 16:17.000 --> 16:18.000 Oh, is that a fact? 16:18.000 --> 16:21.000 Say, Joe, you planning to go straight up Ventura Home? 16:21.000 --> 16:23.000 You, why, sure. 16:23.000 --> 16:24.000 Well, don't you do it. 16:24.000 --> 16:26.000 Go the back way, even if it does take longer. 16:26.000 --> 16:29.000 Of course, that brush fire between here and your place is out, 16:29.000 --> 16:31.000 but there are still 50, 60 men patrolling it. 16:31.000 --> 16:32.000 What's that? 16:32.000 --> 16:35.000 But that ain't nothing to what's going on further out the valley. 16:35.000 --> 16:39.000 That new fire's clean, out of control, licking up hundreds of acres. 16:39.000 --> 16:43.000 They've been sending truckloads of firefighters past here all evening. 16:43.000 --> 16:45.000 Road's blocked for miles, they tell me. 16:45.000 --> 16:46.000 The road is blocked? 16:46.000 --> 16:48.000 For miles, they tell me. 16:48.000 --> 16:52.000 All them poor ranchers losing their homes. 16:52.000 --> 16:54.000 Being from the East, mister, you wouldn't understand, 16:54.000 --> 16:57.000 but brush fires is awful things once they get out of control. 16:57.000 --> 16:59.000 Yeah, yeah, thanks. 16:59.000 --> 17:02.000 Joe, suppose we start moving, huh? 17:02.000 --> 17:05.000 Let's take the back way to your house. 17:05.000 --> 17:06.000 To our house? 17:06.000 --> 17:08.000 What say, you stay in with Ellie and Joe? 17:08.000 --> 17:12.000 Yeah, until I can get into my own place. 17:12.000 --> 17:15.000 What are we waiting for, Joe? 17:15.000 --> 17:17.000 Good night, Miranda. 17:17.000 --> 17:18.000 Good night. 17:18.000 --> 17:19.000 Well, goodbye. 17:19.000 --> 17:23.000 Be sure you come see me, Mr. Anderson, I'll be looking for you. 17:28.000 --> 17:30.000 So there it was. 17:30.000 --> 17:32.000 We weren't going to the country. 17:32.000 --> 17:35.000 We weren't going to be left to rot at the foot of a cliff 17:35.000 --> 17:37.000 or buried deep in brush. 17:37.000 --> 17:39.000 No, we were going home. 17:39.000 --> 17:41.000 Home to the kids. 17:41.000 --> 17:43.000 And taking a murderer with us. 17:43.000 --> 17:46.000 I still couldn't see Ellie, but I could feel her tensing up, 17:46.000 --> 17:49.000 tight as a pole drawstring. 17:50.000 --> 17:53.000 Mr. Matrick, you didn't mean what you said, did you, 17:53.000 --> 17:55.000 about coming home with us? 17:55.000 --> 17:58.000 You know a better place I can hide out until the road's open? 17:58.000 --> 18:01.000 It wouldn't be safe, we've got neighbors close all around, 18:01.000 --> 18:02.000 if somebody'd see you. 18:02.000 --> 18:04.000 Nobody's going to see me. 18:04.000 --> 18:06.000 Nobody better. 18:06.000 --> 18:08.000 Joe, couldn't we go round the fire? 18:08.000 --> 18:10.000 Yeah, yeah, we could, that'd be better. 18:10.000 --> 18:13.000 We could try, there are other roads through the valley. 18:13.000 --> 18:15.000 Now, listen, Matrick, we'll nose around 18:15.000 --> 18:16.000 and find a way through somehow. 18:16.000 --> 18:17.000 Cut it out. 18:17.000 --> 18:19.000 You heard the old bitty hundreds of acres burning, 18:19.000 --> 18:22.000 firefighters, cops, get off the highway, we're going home. 18:22.000 --> 18:24.000 No, no, I won't have it. 18:24.000 --> 18:26.000 Joe, you stop the car right here. 18:26.000 --> 18:27.000 Shut up. 18:27.000 --> 18:29.000 I won't have him in my house, not with Annie and Buzz. 18:29.000 --> 18:30.000 I said shut up. 18:30.000 --> 18:32.000 Stop it, I tell you. 18:32.000 --> 18:34.000 It doesn't matter about us, it's the kids. 18:34.000 --> 18:35.000 I won't let him touch us. 18:35.000 --> 18:36.000 One more word out of you and I'm going to... 18:36.000 --> 18:37.000 Joe, stop. 18:37.000 --> 18:38.000 Dylan, shut up. 18:40.000 --> 18:42.000 Now, don't say another thing. 18:42.000 --> 18:43.000 I'm... 18:43.000 --> 18:46.000 I'm sorry, honey, but Matrick's the boss. 18:46.000 --> 18:48.000 We've got to do like he says. 18:48.000 --> 18:51.000 Yeah, that's telling her. 18:51.000 --> 18:54.000 Sure, you do like I say and everything's going to be rosy. 18:54.000 --> 18:57.000 You've got no call to worry about the kids. 18:57.000 --> 18:58.000 I like kids. 18:58.000 --> 19:01.000 As long as nobody gives me the brush off. 19:01.000 --> 19:04.000 We'll wake them up soon as we get home. 19:04.000 --> 19:07.000 You and this Annie can fix up a chili supper for us. 19:07.000 --> 19:09.000 We'll have a picnic. 19:09.000 --> 19:11.000 And as soon as the fire's out, 19:11.000 --> 19:14.000 we'll all take a trip to the country. 19:14.000 --> 19:24.000 Another picnic, huh? 19:24.000 --> 19:27.000 It took a long time, but it had to come to an end. 19:27.000 --> 19:29.000 I saw the bulk of the house looming up. 19:29.000 --> 19:32.000 There was light sneaking around the edges of the blinds 19:32.000 --> 19:33.000 up in Annie's room. 19:33.000 --> 19:35.000 She wasn't asleep after all. 19:35.000 --> 19:38.000 She'd been setting up in bed, maybe plastering red stuff 19:38.000 --> 19:41.000 on her fingers and dreaming about the date with Mike. 19:41.000 --> 19:42.000 Bud's room was dark. 19:42.000 --> 19:46.000 He'd be wrapped in covers like a cocoon and dreaming... 19:46.000 --> 19:47.000 whatever boy's dream. 19:47.000 --> 19:49.000 I couldn't remember. 19:49.000 --> 19:52.000 I pulled up to the concrete walk I'd poured with my own hands 19:52.000 --> 19:54.000 before there was any Annie or Bud, 19:54.000 --> 19:56.000 and then I cut the lights. 19:56.000 --> 19:59.000 In a second or two, my eyes got used to the dark. 19:59.000 --> 20:02.000 I could make out the high head jelly planted around the place 20:02.000 --> 20:05.000 and our roof rising up beyond it. 20:05.000 --> 20:07.000 Out, Mrs. 20:07.000 --> 20:12.000 Face the house. 20:12.000 --> 20:13.000 Now you, Mac. 20:13.000 --> 20:22.000 Slide out the same side, stand beside her. 20:22.000 --> 20:24.000 All right, walk to the door. 20:24.000 --> 20:26.000 Slow, no funny business. 20:26.000 --> 20:30.000 I'm right behind you. 20:30.000 --> 20:31.000 Look out! 20:31.000 --> 20:32.000 I'll kill you! 20:32.000 --> 20:35.000 Oh, shit! 20:35.000 --> 20:36.000 Hold it, boys! 20:36.000 --> 20:37.000 It's okay, Mike, I got him. 20:37.000 --> 20:38.000 You all right, Uncle Joe? 20:38.000 --> 20:39.000 Aunt Ellie? 20:39.000 --> 20:41.000 Ellie, you all right? 20:41.000 --> 20:43.000 All right, indeed. 20:43.000 --> 20:45.000 Smack flat on my face on a concrete walk, 20:45.000 --> 20:46.000 and you falling on me. 20:46.000 --> 20:47.000 There's nothing wrong with her. 20:47.000 --> 20:49.000 That's my girl. 20:49.000 --> 20:50.000 Just don't stand there. 20:50.000 --> 20:51.000 Help me up. 20:51.000 --> 20:52.000 Here. 20:52.000 --> 20:53.000 There we are. 20:53.000 --> 20:56.000 I've got to get in the house before the kids come busting out here. 20:56.000 --> 20:58.000 I won't have them mixed up in this. 20:58.000 --> 21:00.000 Well, how's he doing, boy? 21:00.000 --> 21:03.000 I got him through the gunhand in the right shoulder, see? 21:03.000 --> 21:05.000 Lucky shot, cop. 21:05.000 --> 21:07.000 If you weren't lucky, you'd all be cold and needy now. 21:07.000 --> 21:09.000 Maybe. 21:09.000 --> 21:10.000 Mattrick, isn't it, Uncle Joe? 21:10.000 --> 21:11.000 That's him. 21:11.000 --> 21:13.000 Miranda described him to you? 21:13.000 --> 21:15.000 The old girl doesn't miss a trick. 21:15.000 --> 21:17.000 She even knew you were taking the back way home. 21:17.000 --> 21:18.000 You left a clear trail, Uncle Joe. 21:18.000 --> 21:19.000 That's slick work. 21:19.000 --> 21:22.000 I had to get him out of the car before the fireworks started. 21:22.000 --> 21:23.000 Ellie didn't stand a chance. 21:23.000 --> 21:25.000 She helped, though. 21:25.000 --> 21:26.000 Ellie catches on quick. 21:26.000 --> 21:27.000 I'll bet. 21:27.000 --> 21:30.000 Mean guy like Mattrick, you make him think you don't want him to do something, 21:30.000 --> 21:32.000 and he'll break his neck doing it. 21:32.000 --> 21:34.000 I let on how I was trying to run out of gas, 21:34.000 --> 21:35.000 and that got us to bills. 21:35.000 --> 21:38.000 Then we both made out there was no sense going to Miranda's, 21:38.000 --> 21:40.000 so we get bowled into going to Miranda's. 21:40.000 --> 21:41.000 It was a thousand to one. 21:41.000 --> 21:43.000 She'd run off at the mouth about the brush fires, 21:43.000 --> 21:45.000 scare him into hiding out. 21:45.000 --> 21:48.000 After that, all Ellie had to do was turn on the hysterics, 21:48.000 --> 21:50.000 and he was dead set on coming here. 21:50.000 --> 21:52.000 Yeah, bright boy, like I said. 21:52.000 --> 21:53.000 Yeah, bright enough. 21:53.000 --> 21:54.000 You did all right, too, Mike. 21:54.000 --> 21:57.000 I was watching the rear view mirror all the time you were trailing us, 21:57.000 --> 21:58.000 but you never showed. 21:58.000 --> 21:59.000 You knew I was there, though. 21:59.000 --> 22:01.000 When one officer starts double-talking another officer, 22:01.000 --> 22:02.000 he wants to know why. 22:02.000 --> 22:04.000 Well, officer, why double-talk? 22:04.000 --> 22:06.000 You never said a thing to him except that I'd bought some place out here. 22:06.000 --> 22:08.000 Yeah, the Charles place. 22:08.000 --> 22:12.000 Poor old man Charles, in a tough spot, moving out for good. 22:12.000 --> 22:13.000 What's wrong with that? 22:13.000 --> 22:18.000 Matric, didn't anybody ever tell you it wasn't smart to take up with strangers? 22:18.000 --> 22:20.000 Maybe I'd better introduce myself. 22:20.000 --> 22:21.000 My name's Charles. 22:21.000 --> 22:24.000 Joe Charles, detective, homicide. 22:24.000 --> 22:46.000 Tonight, I was off duty just taking my wife to a movie. 22:46.000 --> 22:50.000 Suspense, in which Mr. Parley Bear and Miss Vivianna 22:50.000 --> 22:54.000 starred in tonight's presentation of Backseat Driver. 22:54.000 --> 22:57.000 Next week, the story of twin identities in crime. 22:57.000 --> 22:59.000 It is based upon fact. 22:59.000 --> 23:02.000 We call it The Greatest Thief in the World. 23:02.000 --> 23:19.000 That's next week on Suspense. 23:19.000 --> 23:22.000 Suspense is produced and directed by Anthony Ellis. 23:22.000 --> 23:25.000 Tonight's script was written by Miss Sally Thorson. 23:25.000 --> 23:29.000 The music was composed by Renny Garaghan and conducted by Wilbur Hatch. 23:29.000 --> 23:40.000 Featured in the cast were Larry Thor, Tony Barrett, Jack Edwards, Joe Pranston, and Helen Plead. 23:40.000 --> 24:07.000 The star's address is the CBS Radio Network. 24:07.000 --> 24:34.060 Ted batch isAreut yen many my 24:37.000 --> 24:39.000 Thank you.