could norman gotten away with it

Sure, if Sam didn't come to in time. Norman as Mother would've been able to kill Lila and probably ambush Sam as he came to rescue Lila. He may have trouble disposing Sam's truck and their bodies and the swamp may be getting full.

I envision this as the story that could continue as a modern day slasher flick.

Then there is supposed to be a Psycho II novel by Robert Bloch. For some reason, Universal made their own version.

Yes, its worth thinking about how maybe, just maybe, Norman could have gotten away with it.

He SURELY could have gotten away with it if his victim had not been a woman who stole money...and thus brought a shrewd and smart private eye on her trail to the Bates Motel.

But even with the arrival of the detective, Norman COULD have perhaps added himself to the "non leads" of the the boarding house managers we saw Arbogast talking to earlier in the day..if he just kept his cool.

Its all carefully written, but here are Norman's mistakes:

ONE: He talks too much and won't do as Arbogast asks ("Look at the picture, PLEASE").

TWO: He keeps Arbogast from looking in his guest register("Oh, I hardly bother with registering guests anymore.")

THREE: He tells Arbogast that "nobody has been here for a couple of weeks" but later notes that an old couple came by a week ago.

Those three things are enough to push Arbogast to push HARDER..and Norman says Marion was there and...its really all over for him.

But maybe if , on very first talking with Arbogast, Norman had said this, and done this, it would have worked out:

Arbogast hands Norman the photo. Norman looks right at it, says "I don't recognize her." Arbogast asks if a woman has stayed at the motel recently. Norman says: "No woman, but I did have an old couple here, about a week ago."

And..Norman lets Arbogast look at the register, immediately.

You know, that register is probably bad news anyway you cut it. If guests are "dated" when they check in, that register shows Arbogast that a woman WAS here, about a week ago, named Marie Samuels(her boyfriend's name was Sam.)

In short, Norman would have had to discuss Marion's being there pretty damn right off the bat - he should have known she was in the registry. Then Norman could have had the talk he has with the detective anyway: yes, she was here, but she left. I never saw her again.

There's two points where Norman could have gotten away with it, had he played it right.

1) When Arbogast first comes to talk to him. Norman's lack of social skills from being so isolated for so long made it impossible for him to outwit a skilled detective like Arbogast. The more Norman talked, the more he contradicted himself, and then not wanting to look at the picture or letting Arbogast look at his log just made it more clear that something was up. Part of me wonders if Norman had been cooperative from the start, and admitted that she had been there, would it have been better for him. Just say, she came in very late and was obviously very tired. She took a room and she declined me making her a sandwich. I was in the office for about an hour after she got here, and when I walked back to house, I saw that the light was already out. I came down early the next morning, hoping to catch her and offer breakfast, but she was already gone. I didn't see which way she went, or came from the night before.

2) If he had killed Lila and Sam, he would have had to quickly dump the bodies into the swamp. Maybe dump the car somewhere in the desert, since as others have the said, the swamp was getting full. Then just deny that they were ever there. Remember they checked in under a different name, so there's no record of them being there. And the small town sheriff, who had known Norman his whole life would probably just believe him, and not do much of an investigation. At that point there's no one left. The only people who knew Marion or Arbogast were there are gone, and as long as there's never a drought that causes the water level of the swamp to drop, then no one would find the bodies for a long time.

Frankly, I don't think so. Even if Sam and Lila hadn't come to the Bates Motel at the end, I think the same sort of incident where a young woman by herself happens to stumble upon the Bates Motel arousing the Norman Bates part of the mind with the mother personality taking over and killing her. Then eventually enough people would be disappearing there and show up in the registry that people would get suspicious. Also don't mention the book cause I do plan to read it. I avoided a post in this topic that talks about it.

Probably, if he hadn't been PSYCHO!