The Girl Who Dared

A group of battling relatives and acquaintances is invited to a mysterious "ghost hunt" at the home of Beau and Chattie Richmond on the island of Heron Point, Georgia. On the way to the small island, which legend states was the hiding place for treasure-laden pirates, brother and sister Josh and Ann Carroll have car trouble and are forced to accept a ride across the causeway from mechanic Rufus Blair. Beau and Chattie, who did not send the party invitations, are mystified by the arrival of Josh and Ann, as well as that of their other cousins, twins Sylvia Scott and Cynthia Harrison, Sylvia's ex-husband, David Scott, and a friend, Homer Norton. David accuses Josh of sending out the invitations as a trick to see Sylvia, with whom he had an affair, but Josh denies it, and Beau insists that everyone stay and have a good time. While milling about the living room, they hear a radio report about the search for Dr. Paul Dexter of Atlanta, who disappeared with $100,000 worth of radium from his hospital. When David questions her, Sylvia admits to knowing Dexter, but the conversation is interrupted by the return of Blair, who states that he could not leave because his own car is broken. While the group prepares to go on their ghost hunt, Sylvia sneaks into the cellar to search for a mysterious man she has seen, but when the man grabs her, she screams. The others come to her rescue, and David, who cuts himself, leaves a blood stain on one of Sylvia's shoes. Sylvia dismisses the incident by saying that she saw a rat, but soon after, while the party is distracted by Beau's projected "ghost" image Sylvia is stabbed to death in the woods. After covering Sylvia's body with a coat and leaving it as evidence, the distraught family members try to contact the police but discover that the phone lines have been cut and all the cars have been disabled. They decide to wait until morning before walking across the causeway for help, and when Ann later tries to check on Cynthia's shoes, she cannot find them in Cynthia's closet, even though she had put them there after helping the distraught twin to undress. Sylvia's body is also gone, but another body appears when Woodrow, the servant, finds a dead man in the cellar. Blair identifies the man as Dr. Dexter, the missing thief, then leaves in the morning to summon the police. While Blair is gone, the others realize that he must not be a simple mechanic, and later that night, Ann is again walking the woods when she finds Blair searching the area with a radium detector. Blair assures Ann that he summoned the police, then explains that he is an insurance investigator seeking the stolen radium, and that he sent out the invitations to Beau and Chattie's house in an attempt to trap Dexter and Sylvia. He further notes that Dexter stole the radium in an attempt to make money and impress Sylvia, but a third accomplice must have killed them both. While searching, the pair find a secret cave containing the bodies of the doctor and Sylvia, and while examining the shoes of the woman's corpse, neither of which have blood on them, they realize that the dead woman is Cynthia, not Sylvia. Blair deduces that Sylvia must have changed clothes, but not shoes, with the unwitting Cynthia after encountering Dexter in the cellar. Blair and Ann then chase after a man who was following them, and their pursuit leads them through a tunnel back to the house, where they discover that Sylvia has been murdered. Blair calls everyone together, and with Ann's help, tricks them into thinking that the killer, who must have trace elements of the still-missing radium on his body, will cause static when he passes by a radio. Their ruse succeeds in compeling Homer to confess his guilt, and after the culprit is taken away, Ann and Blair indulge in a little flirtation.