He would call Lila and Sam again in an hour. From a payphone, Arbogast calls Lila and Sam to tell them about his encounter with Norman, and that he intends to return to the motel to attempt to speak to Bates' mother. Norman's evasiveness and stammering arouse his suspicions when Norman mentions that Marion had met his mother, Arbogast demands to speak to her but Norman refuses. Arbogast eventually finds the Bates Motel. A private detective named Arbogast confirms Marion is suspected of having stolen $40,000 from her employer. He puts Marion's wrapped body in the trunk of her car, along with all her possessions and, unknowingly, the money, and sinks it in a nearby swamp.Ī week later, Marion's sister Lila arrives in Fairvale to confront Sam Loomis about Marion's whereabouts in his hardware store. Convinced that his mother had committed the crime, he wraps the body in the shower curtain and cleans up the bathroom. Norman comes into the cabin and "discovers" Marion's dead body. The figure then leaves the cabin with the shower still running with Marion laying on the floor dead. While showering, a shadowy figure of an elderly woman quietly enters the bathroom, shoves back the shower curtain, and proceeds to stab her repeatedly to death with a large kitchen knife. The burden now lifted from her conscience, she takes a relaxing shower. Marion subtracts the amount of money she spent from the stolen money, then tears up the paper and flushes it down the toilet. Upon returning to her cabin, Norman, looking through a hole he had made in the parlor wall long ago, sees her undress, and returns to his house behind the motel. During their conversation, Marion decides to return to Phoenix and return the stolen money. Norman talks about his daily life and his hobby, taxidermy and discloses that his mother Norma is mentally ill, but he becomes agitated when Marion suggests his mother be institutionalized. He ends up persuading her to have dinner with him in the motel parlor. Marion, alone in her cabin, overhears a heated argument between Norman and his mother about inviting her to the house. The youthful proprietor Norman Bates, nervous but friendly, invites her to a light dinner. After accidentally taking a wrong turn, she drives up to the Bates Motel, a remote lodge that has recently lost business due to a diversion realignment of the main highway. Driving up US 99 during the rainy night, she imagines conversations in her mind of her boss and the client discussing the stolen money, and becomes increasingly nervous. Upon arriving in Bakersfield, Marion pulls into a used car dealership to hastily exchange her car (a 1956 Ford Mainline), for another (a 1957 Ford Custom 300). On the road now in California, she pulls over at night to sleep but is awakened the following morning by a California Highway Patrolman he can tell something is wrong because of her furtive, anxious behavior. However, upon passing through downtown Phoenix on her way out of town, she is spotted by her boss as he crosses the street at a stopped traffic light, which unsettles her. She ultimately decides to steal it, leave Phoenix, and drive to (mythical) Fairvale, California, to give it to Sam. Back at her room, Marion starts packing to leave for an undetermined time while contemplating taking the money. Marion then asks her boss if she can take the rest of the afternoon off, and that she was not feeling well. Her boss instructs her to promptly deposit the money in the bank, and she puts the money envelope in her purse. A client comes in with $40,000 in cash to purchase a house as a wedding gift for his daughter. Marion returns to work at a realtor's office. They discuss how they can barely afford to get married due to Sam's debts. Marion Crane and her boyfriend Sam Loomis meet for a secret romantic assignation during a Friday lunch hour at a hotel in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.