Episode 294, scene 2. 17:45 Courtroom of Judge Irwin A. Chester. Present are Elliot Carson, Dr. Michael Rossi, Betty Anderson, Norman Harrington, Rodney Harrington, Leslie Harrington, and Martin Peyton. The Bailiff, court clerk, and stenographer are also present. JC: Mr. Cord, you may proceed with your interrogation. SC: You saw Ann on the bluff? HC: Yes. SC: Did you speak with her? HC: Yes. SC: What was your purpose in coming to the bluff that afternoon, Mrs. Cord? HC: I had to see Ann again. I had to talk to her. SC: Why? HC: Because when she left the house she was so upset, I was afraid she might do something foolish SC: So the compassionate mother went after her, to be by her side. Weren't you a little late? JF: Objection, your honor. JC: Sustained. Mr. Cord. SC: Where did you find Ann when you went to the bluff? HC: She was standing out near the edge looking down at the sea. She seemed to be in sort of a trace. She kept moving closer and closer to the edge. Then some ground gave way under her feet and I was afraid she was going to fall. SC: Or jump? HC: Yes. JF: Objection. Counselor is leading the witness. SC: What happened after you thought she was going to fall. HC: Well, I called out to her. it seemed to startle her. HC: Oh, Steven, I know what you are thinking, but she didn't fall then. SC: She didn't fall then? HC: She didn't fall at all. She was pushed [Hannah stands and points at Lee Webber.] HC: He pushed her. [Points at Lee Webber] LW: That's a lie. I didn't push anybody. [Gavel many times.] JC: Sit down, Mr. Webber. [Gavel twice.] HC: Lee Webber pushed Ann off the bluff. I saw him do it. JC: Mr. Cord. Mr. Cord. Do you care to continue? SC: In view of this provocative testimony, your honor, I'd like to ask permission for a greater latitude in the phrasing of my questions. JF: Your honor, I would like to point out that the court has bent over backwards to be lenient already. SC: I appreciate the understanding the court has shown so far, but I feel this witness has conveniently invented this last bit of testimony as an effort to conceal the truth about her daughter's death. JC: Mr. Cord, I am going to grant your plea. But I have not forgotten it was necessary to find you in contempt, once, during these proceedings. SC: Yes, sir. JC: Proceed, gentlemen. SC: Thank you, your honor. SC: You said you saw Lee Webber push Ann Howard off the bluff? HC: I did, Steven. I swear. SC: Oaths aren't necessary. You've already taken one. When did you see Lee push Ann? HC: After I had finished talking with her, I started to leave. And then I heard the sound of his motorcycle coming. SC: How did you know it was Lee Webber's? HC: Well, I didn't until I saw him on it. SC: Where were you when you saw him approaching? HC: I was on the road a little way past the house. SC: Where was Ann? HC: She was still on the bluff. SC: And what did you do when you saw Mr. Webber approaching? HC: Well, I stepped off the road and hid behind some trees. SC: To your knowledge, did the defendant see you? HC: I don't think so. At least he kept right on coming. SC: What did you do? HC: I didn't know what to do. I was frightened. SC: Frightened of what? HC: The sound of that motorcycle bearing down on me on that lonely road and that look on his face. I just waited until I heard the motor stop and then I started back toward the house. I started running and then I saw them. They were out near the bluff. He was moving toward her making wild threatening gestures. And she was moving away from him pleading with him but he kept coming. And he forced her nearer and nearer the edge. He pushed her. There was a scream. She was gone. SC: That's all very interesting, Mrs. Cord. You say Lee Webber stalked Ann Howard? That he was making wild and threatening gestures? And she was backing up and pleading? What were you doing all this time, Mrs. Cord? HC: Oh, Steven I was paralyzed. I wanted to move but I couldn't. I just stood and watched. SC: You just watched? Well, that's very odd. You testified that you came back to see Ann a second time because you were afraid for her safety. And now you tell me you just watched as your own daughter was pushed off the cliff? HC: It's true. SC: Well that's very interesting and very remeniscent. The defendant's brother Christopher Webber testified that he was in the vicinity of the bluff also. And he said that he just stood by and listened. Very interesting. Especially since his testimony was run on the front page of the Clarion. Now it doesn't take much to change the verb from "I heard" to "I saw," does it? Did you read Christopher Webber's testimony on the front page of the Clarion? HC: Yes. SC: Thank you. SC: Now there are some other things I'd like to know. Like what the concerned mother did after her daughter fell over a hundred feet to her death. SC: Did you run to the base of the cliff and see if there was still some life left in her? Did you take your daughter in your arms and weep over her. Did you inform anyone what you had witnessed? Did you make any immediate effort to see that this man that you now accuse of murder was brought to justice for what you say you saw him do? HC: No. SC: Why didn't you come forward then? Why now? HC: I don't know. I don't know. SC: You're lying, aren't you? HC: No. SC: Your whole life has been a lie. HC: No. No. MP: That will be all. I can not allow this to continue. [Gavel] MP: The attorney for the defense has just demeaned not only the witness but the very existence of the Peyton family. JC: Mr. Peyton, you will take your seat. MP: There is no law. No due process of law that permits character assassination in the guise of interrogation. MP: The name of this county if Peyton. Then name of this town is Peyton. The name of the mill that supports this town is Peyton. This is a Peyton world. JC: Mr. Peyton. MP: I have been patient. Remarkably patient. But I could not hold my tongue. JC: Bailiff, will you excort Mr. Peyton out of the courtroom, please. [Bailiff walks over to Peyton.] B: Mr. Peyton. MP: I realize that I am out of order, your honor. But Mrs. Cord and I have been together many, many years. She is an old and trusted employee. She is an old and trusted friend. [Peyton returns to his seat.] JC: Bailiff, you may step aside. [Bailiff steps.] JC: Mr. Cord, you may continue. SC: I asked you why you didn't bring this story forward. Lee Webber didn't push Ann off, did he? HC: Oh, Steven, I . . . SC: She threw herself off the bluff and you drove her to it. HC: Ann didn't kill herself. I didn't drive her to do anything like that. SC: Really, when you went to the bluff and saw Ann standing at the edge. HC: Steven, I told you. SC: Did she jump? HC: No. SC: Did you push her? HC: No. SC: Why did you go after her? HC: Because I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to tell her. I had to tell her because I thought then whe would understand and she would help me so I wouldn't have to lose you. I had to tell her, I wasn't her mother. [Dramatic music.] I never had any children. [Dramatic music.] SC: You never? HC: I'm not your mother. [Dramatic music.] SC: Who is Ann's mother? Who is my mother? HC: Catherine Peyton. [Dramatic music.] [Gavel five times.] [Gavel eleven more times.] [Break for Commercial] 9:11 SC: Catherine Peyton . . . HC: Yes. SC: . . . was Ann's mother, and mine? HC: Yes, Steven. [Dramatic music.] SC: How could you tell her this? How could you justify this fantastic masquerade? HC: I couldn't. When she asked me why I had left her father, I told her it was over an affair. "An affair, you said. You left your husband over a simple affair?" As if it were my fault, not Brian's, but mine. SC: And then you told her? HC: Not all of it. Just enough to try to make her understand what it was like to watch a husband destroy a marriage over an infatuation with a spoiled willful school girl with a pretty face. SC: Were they in love? HC: [Laughing] In love? Catherine Peyton in love? I don't think she was ever in love in her life. She never loved anyone but herself. SC: Then, what was the nature of their relationship? HC: The nature of their relationship was that Catherine Peyton always took what she wanted. She wanted my husband. And when the time came for her to pay for it, there was her father and his checkbook. HC: Steven, what do you think Brian Cord lived on all those years? SC: Are you telling me that he received financial help from Martin Peyton? HC: Call it what it was. Blackmail. SC: Did you tell Ann that her father had been a blackmailer? HC: She insisted on knowing the truth. I couldn't hide it. So Brian Cord got his price for keeping silent, a regular check, and a good one. And Catherine married Leslie Harrington and spent the rest of her life queening it over Peyton Place as though none of this had ever happened. SC: So her father was a blackmailer who had been involved with Catherine Peyton. But you let her leave the house still believing you were her mother? HC: Yes. SC: Why? HC: Because I realized I had already gone too far. SC: You had gone just as far as you had wanted to. HC: I was afraid Mr. Peyton might hear me. SC: He might have overheard you at any time, from the beginning. You did this as coldly and deliberately as anything you have done in your entire life. JF: Objection, your honor. Counsel is not here to pass judgment on the witness, but to defend his own client against a charge of murder. JF: Mr. Cord. SC: Your honor, this witness claims to have seen an alleged attack on the bluff. I believe this is an alibi for her own actions. By her own admission, Mrs. Cord's first conversation with the deceased left this already unstable girl in a state of great emotional turmoil. Now it is my purpose to show that Mrs. Cord went after her not as she testified because she couldn't bear to watch Ann suffer any more. But to finish what she had begun. To avenge herself on Brian Cord and Catherine Peyton by destroying their daughter. JC: You may proceed, Mr. Cord. SC: When you saw Ann again, for the last time, did you tell her you were not her mother? HC: Yes. SC: Did you give her a full history of her illustrious beginning. HC: I told her that Catherine Peyton was her mother. SC: Under what circumstances did Catherine Peyton meet your husband? HC: My husband was a painter. Nor a very successful one. But he got a job teaching painting in a girls' finishing school where Catherine went. I was the one who told him to take the job. You see, I realized that there he would meet the kind of people who would be able to afford to have him do their portrait. SC: And one of those people was Catherine Peyton. HC: She was just 17, so beautiful. You see, Catherine Peyton always took whatever she wanted. And when she saw Brian, she wanted him, too. Oh she was very clever. She knew how to go about it. She commissioned him to paint her portrait as s Christmas present for her father. And the week after Martin Peyton hung that portrait proudly over his mantle, Catherine convinced him she was carrying Brian's child. SC: Did you know Mr. Peyton at the time? HC: That was the occasion of our meeting. Martin Peyton called me to come to his home. And he asked me questions. He wanted to know how I had allowed this to happpen. What sort of man was my husband. Would he make any sort of suitable husband for his Catherine. He actually asked me that, about the man I was married to. SC: And what did you tell him? HC: I said under the circumstances it seemed to me it wasn't a question of suitability but of necessity. And that if Brian wanted Catherine, then he could have her. I wouldn't stand in the way. SC: Did Mr. Peyton decide against the marriage? HC: Mr. Peyton was willing. Brian was not. He already had his fill of miss Catherine and her tantrums. He wasn't about to marry her. SC: Who thought of the other solution? HC: Mr. Peyton. He told me that if I was going to divorce Brian then I would have to think about my future. I didn't have any money or any training. I didn't know how to support myself. So Mr. Peyton told me that if I would allow my name to be put on the birth record instead of Catherine, he would provide a good home for me and a job taking care of the child. Then there were two of you and Brian decided that he wanted the son. But I wouldn't let him have you. I made him take the girl. SC: Let is be shown in the record that the son refers to me, Steven Cord. SC: So you raised the boy purely to spite your former husband? HC: In the beginning, maybe. But, Steven, I learned to love you. SC: Let's say you remained faithful to your end of the bargain. You kept Catherine's secret. You took care of her child's physical needs. You supervised his schooling. HC: I loved you. Brian did it for the money but you became mine. My son. SC: Did you tell Ann? HC: Yes, I begged her to make you understand. SC: Did you tell Ann that her father raised her purely as the price of his regular check? Did you say that to her? HC: He did in the beginning but later . . . SC: Later you told her more. Perhaps you even reminded her that her real mother was playing golf at the country club the day she was accused of blinding Christopher Webber? HC: Don't tell me about Catherine Peyton. Didn't I have to listen to her whispering, laughing on the back stairs with my husband. Locked into the studio with him. I wasn't allowed to enter. And then the next year, watching her sweep down the grand staircase all dressed in white all dewey innocenct radiance smiling at you. While sleeping in my bedroom. SC: Mrs. Cord, please confine yourself to what is relevant. HC: Relevant. Is it relevant that I would have been Mrs. Martin Peyton if it hadn't been for Catherine. She decided I wasn't fit to marry into her family. SC: I only want to know what you said to the deceased girl. HC: I said to Ann. I said forgive me. Please, forgive me. SC: And having said it you walked away and left her to die. HC: Oh, God. Forgive me. Forgive me. [Martin Peyton gets up and exits the courtroom.] SC: Mrs. Cord. [Camera zooms in for an extreme closeup of Steven.] SC: No--further--questions. Episode 294, scene 2 HOME