Viki fainted at the sight of Tom Dennison, who was the spitting image of Joe Riley.

Now working as a reporter, Cassie Callison (whose marriage to Rob Coronal ended in divorce) began investigating Mitch�s operations. Learning of Cassie�s tantalizing million-dollar trust fund, meanwhile, Mitch attempted to woo her. Cassie, eager to get to the bottom of Mitch�s dirty empire, joined his cult and pretended to fall under his spell. Eventually, Mitch discovered Cassie�s charade. In a violent struggle, Cassie was knocked unconscious.

As Mitch prepared to rape Cassie, someone killed him! When Cassie came to, she worried if she had been the one who murdered him. Mitch�s chief disciple fingered Cassie as the killer. Cassie went to trial, but the charges were dropped when Dorian confessed to killing Mitch. Dorian was convicted of murder and sent to Statesville Prison. Lucky for Dorian, a hidden tape recorder had captured Mitch�s death on tape. When the telltale tape (lifted and hidden by one of Mitch�s robot-like disciples) eventually surfaced, Dorian was exonerated when it was proven that she had killed Mitch in defense of her daughter.

Viki passed out when she got her first look at newcomer Tom Dennison. Tom came to town at the behest of Cord�s mother, the devious Maria Roberts. Noting Tom�s uncanny resemblance to Joe Riley, Viki�s late husband, Maria hoped that Joe�s double could drive a wedge in Clint and Viki's marriage so she could have Clint for herself! After she found out that Tom could be Joe�s long-lost brother, Viki took him to her cabin in the mountains. While looking through Joe�s old papers, they found his birth certificate which confirmed that he was born a twin.

In a blinding storm, Tom raced Viki to the hospital, where she gave birth to a bouncing baby daughter, Jessica. Clint and Viki shared in the joy of their first natural child together. Before he died, Mitch Laurence had planted a posthypnotic suggestion in the brain of one of his faithful disciples, Allison Perkins. From beyond the grave, Mitch instructed Allison to steal Viki�s baby and make it look as if Niki Smith was the kidnapper.