Tagline: In this hospital people are dying—to get out!
Back tagline: Quiet—hospital!
Summary: Sshh. There are a lot of things they want to keep quiet at Shadyside Hospital. In fact, just about every private room holds a private secret of its own.
Poor Laurie Masters. The student volunteer innocently happened to stumble onto the hospital’s sickest secret of all.
Laurie has seen too much—and now the doctors and nurses are taking a close look at Laurie.
What they come up with is a deadly diagnosis. Laurie may not be sick, but she’s getting a prescription anyway—a prescription for horror!
First impressions: I’m confused about the title, because it doesn’t really sound like a knife has anything to do with this story. Why didn’t Stine call it The Hospital? Oh well, it’s still got my interest – I like the reversal that’s going on, where the very people we rely on to save our lives are actually the ones we should be most afraid of. I wonder what this huge secret is?!
Now on to the cover… I’m assuming this is Laurie, and that smile is fucking terrifying. Is she just ecstatically happy to see this guy, or is she aware there’s a knife behind his back and she’s failing to act natural? Her face reminds of me two print ads from years ago that are now memes – they’re all blonde, so I think it’s reasonable to assume they’re both depictions of Laurie at different stages of her life:
Anyway, let’s read!
Recap
Roll call:
Laurie – Our heroine who stumbles upon something fishy at the hospital.
Skye – The best friend who has the hots for Andy.
Andy – Laurie’s boyfriend who she’s not really fond of.
Nurse Edith Wilton – The crabby old nurse who isn’t fond of Laurie.
Toby – A cute little three-year-old that Laurie obsesses over.
Rick – A volunteer at the hospital who’s awfully suspicious.
Mrs. Deane – Toby’s mother who’s a total bitch.
Dr. Price – Andy’s stepfather and the head of Shadyside Hospital.
We open with a prologue, and our honey-blonde heroine, Laurie Masters, is slipping through a forbidden door in the Shadyside Hospital, where she volunteers. This wing of the hospital is forbidden because it’s still under construction, so there’s loose wires and debris everywhere, but Laure’s taking her chances because someone is chasing her [!!!!!]. Even though she surely knows who the man is, we’re not privy to that information yet, so he’s only referred to as ‘the voice’ when he enters the darkened room himself, insisting he just wants to talk and won’t hurt her [It’s reminiscent of every movie where the director is keeping the antagonist’s identity a secret through clever lighting and shots, but wants to reel us in with a suspenseful opening scene. We are 100% flashing back in time in the next chapter] Laurie wonders if that’s what he said ‘to her too—just before he stabbed her’ [And who is this mysterious her, Laurie? Is she dead? Injured? Missing?!] as she inches against a far wall, trying to keep quiet:
Suddenly, in one great burst of motion, he was upon her. His hands seized her shoulders and pulled her back roughly.
Laurie tried to scream, but he clapped a hand over her mouth. She felt his hot breath on her cheek.
Now her only thought was, Where is the knife?
[OK, maybe a knife will be more relevant than it first seemed…] We jump back to a week earlier [Called it!], when Laurie’s first been assigned to the Children’s Floor. Her best friend, the short, dark-haired Skye Keely, volunteers on the ninth floor too, and it was actually Laurie who convinced her to do it for the summer [So they’re wasting their whole summers working without any pay? No thank you]. They’re both wearing the ‘drab tan tunics’ worn by all student volunteers, even though the tunic on the cover is definitely pink [Coverboy’s jacket is tan, though, which is weird]. They make plans to meet in the cafeteria for lunch before a nurse comes over to scold them for just standing around chatting when there’s work to be done. It’s Nurse Edith Wilton, the resident ball-buster who Skye heard was actually seen smiling once! Skye warns Laurie to stay out of Nurse Wilton’s way and heads off to deliver balloons to one of the rooms on the floor.
Laurie continues down the hall and stops by the heavy door that blocks off the new, under-construction wing, to listen to the noises on the other side [Ah, so peaceful]. The Franklin Fear Wing’s construction was made possible by a $10 million donation from its namesake [I wonder if Franklin Fear’s in any other books? His name isn’t familiar to me, or Google apparently], although Laurie has some reservations about the ‘Fear’ part of the title [Yeah, Fear Wing isn’t great, especially on a children’s floor].
Suddenly, Laurie hears the dulcet tones of a crying child coming from Room 903, and lets herself in to find a little boy sobbing in the hospital bed. He basically ignores her as she checks his medical chart learns the boy is three-year-old Toby Deane. He’s suffering from pneumonia, but his normal temperatures over the past few days suggest he’ll be going home soon, so Laurie can’t imagine why he’s so upset. Toby stops crying when Laurie continues to try befriend him, but he contributes nothing to the conversation besides a sniffle here and there.
Nurse Wilton barges in and tells Laurie that she’s wasting her time, since Toby doesn’t talk to anyone [Does he not know how, or is he traumatised? Where are his parents?]. She then practically tells Laurie to fuck off, but Laurie doesn’t take it personally because she’s well aware ‘that most nursers were terribly overworked’ and any grouchiness is understandable [Laurie is so sweet! Bless her cotton socks]. Laurie remembers that the mother of her school friend, Mayra Barnes [Heroine of The Sleepwalker!] is also a nurse, and Mayra had previously said she’s ‘always tired and cranky.’ [Same, but I’m not a nurse]. Laurie glances back at Toby as she’s leaving the room, surprised to see his ‘tear-filled eyes staring at her,’ which gives her the feeling that he’s silently pleading with her [This poor boy, what’s going on?! My mind goes straight to some kind of abuse, but Stine usually saves that for his teen characters].
In the cafeteria later, Laurie tells Skye about Toby before conversation turns to the raffle the hospital’s having to raise funds for the Franklin Fear Wing [What, $10 million wasn’t enough?!]. The prize is a red Mercedes that’s currently displayed in the hospital’s lobby [How’d it get in there? Surely the front entrance of a hospital isn’t big enough to fit a car lol], and Skye’s overly confident that the single ticket she’s purchased is the winner. Laurie’s got a ticket too, but has mostly been selling them to others because people find it hard to refuse her [She does seem awfully charming!].
Skye mentions having two dates for Saturday night, and Laurie disapproves of her best friend’s habit of accepting two dates for the same night, then breaking one of them [Does Skye have a reputation, or just Suki Thomas?!]. Laurie’s got a date with her boyfriend, Andy, the same night, but she really wants to break up with him [So break up with him?]. Skye is very open about the fact she’d love to take Andy off Laurie’s hands [What are best friends for, right?], but can’t understand why she would want to to axe him in the first place because he’s soOoo0o000Oo000OOO00O000O0o0o0O good-looking and super fun. His stepfather is also Dr. Raymond Price, ‘”just about the most prominent man in Shadyside,”‘ so Skye advises Laurie not to rock the boat while she’s here so as not to jeopardise her future hospital career [Sound advice from Skye! We all know how powerful men love to abuse their power and blacklist females from industries because of a personal vendetta…]. Anyway, Laurie’s lost interest in Andy because he’s such a goof and isn’t serious about anything, not to mention how ‘”clutchy”‘ he is [Do you mean clingy, Laurie?]:
“…I don’t like him trying to tie me down all the time. I have lots of interests, and sometimes I’d like to spend time with other guys.”
[Spend time as in go on dates, or just as friends? Maybe Laurie’s not so great after all…] Soon, Skye spots Tom Cruise entering the cafeteria, but Laurie quickly points out that Tom Cruise is older than this guy, and Tom Cruise also doesn’t have reddish hair. Surprisingly, this redheadedish hottie in a volunteer tunic, approaches the girls and asks to sit with them. He introduces himself as Rick Spencer, a volunteer on the Surgical Floor, and the girls follow with their own introductions and designated floors. Skye flirts by complimenting his shirt, which has ‘”Wrong way. Go back”‘ written on it in big black letters, and Rick explains that his claim to fame is having ‘”the world’s largest collection of T-shirts.”‘ [Could I be less turned on right now?].
Rick’s too focused on Laurie to pay much attention to Skye, which is pretty suss, unless he just thinks she’s hot. Laurie gushes about how much she loves working here, because working in a hospital is what she’s always wanted to do with her life [But she doesn’t say what she wants to work as within a hospital, so I guess she’s just happy doing literally anything?]. Rick reveals that he’s a second-year student at Southbank College and is thinking about going to medical school, and wanted to ‘”get some hospital experience”‘ before making any solid plans [Seems like a pretty big decision to not be that sure about. Could he be lying?].
Soon, an announcement blares over the speakers about a Code Blue in Room 903 [Toby’s room!], sending several doctors rushing from the cafeteria. Laurie explains to a confused Rick that a Code Blue means a patient has gone into cardiac arrest, ‘”or there’s some other terrible emergency,”‘ and he continues to make me suspicious:
“I guess I have a lot to learn. I didn’t hear or see anything,”‘ Rick’s expressions suggested that he hadn’t heard or seen anything except Laurie.
[Imagine wanting to go to medical school but lacking basic observation skills? Is Laurie just so incredibly amazing that he’s fallen head over heels for her at first sight, or is there an ulterior motive at play?] As the announcement repeats itself, Laurie realises that the Code Blue team was called to Toby’s room [Took her long enough!] and hauls ass out of the cafeteria without a word to Skye or Rick.
Arriving on the ninth floor, Laurie hears Toby’s terrified cries from Room 903 and bursts in on Nurse Wilton attacking him with a hypodermic needle. Laurie explains she heard a Code Blue called to this room, but Nurse Wilton impatiently tells her it was Room 503, not 903, and tells her to fuck off again because she’s trying to draw blood. Laurie offers to help, suggesting Toby might calm down a little if she holds his hand, but Wilton doesn’t want a bar of Laurie because ‘”You student volunteers are more trouble than help!”‘ [This woman is a fkn biiiiitch. Is she actually drawing blood or is she trying to inject Toby with something? She needs some damn compassion]
Laurie returns to the hall and spots Nurse Jenny Girard politely arguing with a woman she calls Mrs. Deane [It’s weird that the hospital isn’t letting his mother into the room, right?] over by the Nurses’ Station. Nurse Girard is explaining that Toby won’t be released until the doctors are sure he’s out of danger [Bruh, an agitated nurse is trying to stab him with a needle back there?], which could be as soon as tomorrow. Laurie would love to talk to either of the women for more information about Toby’s situation, but sneaks back into Room 903 instead when she sees Nurse Wilton leaving.
Toby’s quietly staring out the window, and Laurie shares the good news she’d just heard about him going home fairly soon. He turns toward her with a flicker of hope on his cute little face, but turns straight back around without a word when Laurie mentions his mother will come and get him [Very weird reaction… is he in hospital because of his mother?]. Laurie holds his hand as he falls asleep before tiptoeing from the room. Across the hall, she sees the door to the Fear Wing closing slowly, which is weird because the workmen leave during lunchtime [As in, they’re done for the day? Are they not coming back?]. She has ‘the distinct feeling that someone was hiding there,’ possibly watching Toby’s room, or even watching Laurie [I’m sure she’s right about one of those possibilities, which means she has a very good intuition. I feel like any normal person would just assume a workman had returned early? She really doesn’t have any reason to suspect something weird yet]. She glances back as she heads down the hall and catching a man starting to exit the door, but he ducks back inside when he sees Laurie:
It was only a flash, but Laurie thought she caught a glimpse of a tan tunic, of a black-and-white T-shirt.
It was Rick Spencer, the new student volunteer she and Skye had met in the cafeteria.
[I don’t know if I trust her because she doesn’t seem completely certain and she clearly didn’t see the guy’s face somehow. But Rick is definitely suss, so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt] Later that night, Laurie’s curled up on the couch in her home’s library with a good book, slightly nervous because it’s after 10pm and her Aunt Hillary isn’t home yet. Laurie’s parents died in a boating accident when she was young, and Hillary, her mother’s sister, has raised her ever since [Bless her!]. Hillary’s an extremely successful financial consultant [So successful they live in North Hills, the rich part of Shadyside!], and her work often takes her out of town or keeps her out late at night.
Laurie’s expecting it to be her aunt when the phone rings, but instead she only hears breathing [It’s been a while since we’ve had a breather on the phone!] and the faint sound of an ambulance siren through the phone before the line goes dead. A few minutes later, the phone rings again, and this time it’s Rick, who claims he got her number from Skye. He just wants to know if everything’s OK because she left the cafeteria so fast earlier, and Laurie tells him about cute little Toby in Room 903. He denies being on the ninth floor earlier when she asks, and admits he did call her a few minutes ago, but the line was busy. He asks if they can go out together on Saturday, but Laurie politely declines because of her current plans and she’s also believes Rick’s lying about being in the Fear Wing.
Just as Laurie’s hanging up, she again hears an ambulance siren wailing in the background through the phone, growing louder until the connection is cut – ‘it sounded as if Rick was still at the hospital, long after student volunteers had left for the day.’ Confused, she phones Skye to ask if she actually did give Rick her number, but Skye denies it, leaving Laurie more confused.
Something wasn’t right, but she didn’t understand what. Had Rick been on her line twice that night? Was he the silent caller? What had he been doing at the hospital so late? And wasn’t that Rick she had seen at the door of the Fear Wing?
Laurie didn’t understand much, but she knew one thing for sure—Rick Spencer was a liar!
The next morning before work, Laurie receives another phone call, this time from her boyfriend, Andy, who wants her to skip work and come play tennis instead. He complains about never getting to see her this summer, but she retorts that it’s his own fault for not volunteering as well, reminding him that ‘”There are guys who are student volunteers, you know,”‘ [Imagine your masculinity being this fragile lol. Andy sucks] but eventually agrees to meet him, Skye and a guy named Jim at Patsy’s Pizzeria after work [Excuse me, where the fuck is Pete’s Pizza?].
Laurie then drives to the hospital and heads straight for the gift shop to buy a teddy for Toby as part of her self-appointed mission ‘to bring a smile to that sad little face.’ [She’s becoming obsessed with this kid] She hurries to the ninth floor, but is stunned by what she finds in Room 903 and completely overreacts:
The room was empty. The bed had been stripped. All the equipment that had crowded the tables and chest top were gone. There was no sign of Toby!
“Oh, no!” Laurie cried. “He’s dead!!
[He’s probably just going home??? Why the hell does she immediately assume he’s dead when he’s shown absolutely no sign of any illness while she’s known him? The room is clearly being prepared for another patient or something. You’d think, as someone so passionate about hospitals, she’d be more level-headed] Laurie knows that patients aren’t checked out until after the doctors do their 11am rounds, so something bad must have happened [OK, I guess that reaction makes sense now. Why couldn’t we get that bit of info before my rant though? Stine must have a quote for cliffhanger chapter endings]. She bolts back out to the hall to find someone to give her more info and spots Toby safe and sound, standing at the Nurses’ Station with his mother [Did they teleport there? Laurie was only in the room for like five seconds lol]. Mrs. Deane is talking to Rick Spencer, who’s chosen a flaming Harley Davidson shirt from his Guinness World Record-holding T-shirt collection [The TikTok boys would absolutely love this one]. But why is Rick on on the Children’s Floor, when he works on the Surgical Floor? And why is he at the hospital so early?
Toby notices Laurie down the hall, so she holds the teddy out to him, beckoning him closer. With his mother and Rick too engrossed in their conversation to pay attention, Toby shuffles over to Laurie and takes the bear from her , hugging it tightly [He is so cute!]. Laurie asks him to think of her every time he hugs it, and the little cutie silently grabs her hand, as if ‘reluctant to leave her.’ [What does this poor boy’s mother do to him?!]:
“Okay, Toby. Be a good boy and be nice to Teddy.” She kissed his cheek and turned him toward his mother. “Better go now. Your mommy is waiting for you.”
Toby turned back to her.
“She’s not my mommy,” he whispered, and tears welled up in his eyes.
[Omg, what?! Who is she?! Is Toby the victim of a kidnapping?] Toby insists the woman isn’t his mother, but he can’t say who she is because ‘”She’ll be mad if I do.”‘ Then Rick and Mrs. Deane spot them, and the alleged mother orders her alleged son over to her right this instant. The poor boy is dragged off to the elevators by his mother, giving Laurie one last pleading look [😔 ].
Laurie hurries over to the Nurses’ Station to talk to Rick, who explains he was sent here on an errand before changing the subject to how nice it was for Laurie to get Toby a teddy. Undeterred, she brings up the woman, who Rick confirms is Toby’s mother, explaining they’re new to Shadyside and just moved into a house on Fear Street [Oop], and he was just telling her where the nearest pharmacy is. Laurie ever-so-casually asks why he was at the hospital last night, but he denies being here and changes the subject again by asking her on a date after work – as a stranger in town himself, he’d like her to show him around:
His dark blue eyes fixed on hers. He smiled, and Laurie had to remind herself that she couldn’t trust him any farther than she could throw him.
He was at the hospital the night before—she was sure of it. And how could he have directed Mrs. Deane to a pharmacy? He was new in Shadyside himself, he said.
He certainly was laying on the charm, though. And he certainly was sure of himself.
[Oh yeah, I forget he’s apparently new in town. Laurie is so smart. I love that she’s not buying a single second of his absolute bullshit! We rarely have a character like this] Laurie tells him she already has plans, but the phone at the Nurses’ Station rings, saving her from having to explain further. With no-one else around to answer it, Laurie leans over the high edge of desk and reaches for the phone, but pulls back her hand in alarm when she spots something on the desk – an open box with its ‘frightening contents’ of three long surgical knifes on display in a fitted case [A completely normal thing to see in a hospital. I don’t know why she’s being so dramatic].
Rick ends up answering the phone because Laurie just cannot stop staring at these knives. She has no idea why she’s so terrified of them [Me either, girl], especially because they’re tools designed ‘to help the sick, not cause pain or injury.’ [Depends who’s holding it!]. Deciding she’s just a little jumpy from Toby’s words, she returns to Room 903 to collect her bag, which she’d dropped in her panic upon discovering the empty room. When she returns to the hall, she watches Rick end the phone call before he picks up the box of surgical knives, closes it, and stuffs it into the pocket of his tunic while heading for the elevators.
‘Rick Stole those knives!’ Is Laurie’s first reaction, and I guess we’ll just have to deal with the fact that this girl will always jump to the worst possible conclusion [Don’t get me wrong, he’s clearly suss, but like, he did tell her he was here running an errand for one of the doctors, and he is assigned to the Surgical Floor, so his it makes complete sense that fetching the knives would be his errand]. Laurie’s kept busy working all day so doesn’t get a chance to tell anyone about the assumed theft, and it soon recedes to the back of her mind as she continues to be haunted by Toby’s words. By the end of her shift, she’s decided Toby’s in trouble and desperately needs her help.
While the nurses’ shift changeovers are happening, Laurie sneaks into the office behind the Nurses’ Station where patient records are kept, despite only nurses and doctors being allowed in there [Maybe it should be locked?]. It’s a big risk, but she’s determined to see little Toby, and she eventually locates the boy’s file. Rick was telling the truth about one thing, at least, because Toby does live on Fear Street! Making note of the address, Laurie decides she’ll head there under the pretence of selling Mrs. Deane a raffle ticket, but first she’s got to go to Patsy’s Pizzeria to meet her friends.
Unfortunately for Laurie, that bitch, Nurse Wilton, is at the Nurses’ Station, and she’s the absolute worst person to potentially catch Laurie in here. She waits for a chance to escape, then sprints down the hall when Nurse Wilton bends down to pick up some dropped paper from the floor. Laurie’s not invisible, so Nurse Wilton comes barrelling down the hall after her. Laurie reaches the service elevator, which is strictly for transporting heavy equipment and patients on gurneys, but Laurie jumps in anyway because anything is better than a confrontation with the nurse.
There’s an orderly transferring a patient on a gurney in here, and he accosts Laurie for being in the elevator and forces her to get off at a random floor after he presses the button. This floor is restricted for authorised personnel only, according to some signs, and it looks dark and deserted. Laurie has no idea where she is but goes searching for another exit when she notices the elevator going back up to the ninth floor, worried Nurse Wilton is coming after her. Each door she passes is locked, until she comes to the last one, where there’s a bucket and a mop [For this wet ass bussy] sitting in front of it.
The door is unlocked but there’s no-one in sight, so she slips inside and met with ‘an overpowering chemical odor.’ She’s able to make out several high metal tables in the darkness [Oooh, an embalming room? Or where they do autopsies, or drain blood, or whatever they do to corpses?]. She slips on a puddle of water as she feels her way around the room and as she reaches out steady herself, she grasps something round, freezing, and familiar – ‘the cold, clammy shoulder of a corpse!’ [Ooky spooky!]
Laurie stumbles back, gagging as she realises she’s in the anatomy lab of the medical school, ‘where students dissect and study the human body.’ It’s so dark and desolate because classes are done for the day and that acrid stench is formaldehyde, used to preserve and disinfect corpses. As her eyes continue to adapt to the darkness, she spots more dissected corpses and body parts all over the tables.
There’s footsteps outside the room now and she hears keys jangling before someone locks the door and heads back down the hall. Panicking, Laurie bumps into a skeleton, then jumps back and accidentally touches a severed hand. Spinning around, she finds herself face to face with a severed head on a shelf, eyes closed, mouth open, and a partially peeled back scalp [Lol why is it just chilling on a shelf?].
She hurls herself at the door and starts smashing her fists into the wood, not even caring if Nurse Wilton finds her now because she just wants out of here [Just unlock the door? You’re on the inside, idiot]! The poor girl is so frightened that she convinces herself there’s something moving around the room behind her before she realises she can just unlock the door herself.
Escaping down the hall, Laurie rounds a corner and spots Nurse Wilton and Dr. Raymond Price, Andy’s stepfather [But he’s pretty much only referred to as Andy’s father except for his first mention, so I guess I’ll do that too], talking in front of the service elevators. Ducking back behind the corner, Laurie can’t make out what they’re discussing, but Nurse Wilton sounds very upset. Laurie doesn’t think Nurse Wilton is crazy enough to call the head of the Shadyside Hospital to help her search for a student volunteer, so she thinks she’s mistaken about the man’s identity. As soon as they’re in the service elevator, Laurie finds the normal elevators and flees the hospital.
At Patsy’s Pizzeria, which is somewhat of a hospital staff hangout because it’s so close [Ohhh, so that’s why they’re not at Pete’s Pizza], Laurie tells Andy, Skye, and Skye’s date Jim about being locked in the anatomy lab, but lies that she simply got off the elevator on the wrong floor when they ask why she was there in the first place. She then ropes them into coming to ooky spooky Fear Street with her so she can visit Toby, explaining that he looked so sad and lonely she wanted to check up on him.
The foursome head to where the address should be, but there’s no number or name or anything to identify the occupants. It’s the same situation with next door’s house, so they split the raffle tickets, and the boys take the neighbouring house while Laurie and Skye try the first one [Isn’t that a stupid plan, though? What if the boys are at the Deanes’ house? Then Laurie wouldn’t see Toby at all?]. No need to worry, though, because Laurie’s at the right house, and Mrs. Deane answers the door, all irritated and frumpy looking. She doesn’t seem to recognise Laurie, but Laurie explains that she’s a student volunteer anyway, and they’re selling raffle tickets to raise funds for the hospital.
Mrs. Deane heads back into the house to fetch her purse, closing the door in Laurie’s face when she tries to follow after her [Hahaha]. While the girls wait, they hear a child sobbing from within the house, so Laurie pushes open the door and waltzes right in. The house is cold and barely furnished, and it’s also eerily quiet now because the crying has stopped. After getting a glimpse of the, dirty kitchen and Laurie determines that ‘Mrs. Deane is a slob, in person and in practice.’ [She also seems like a bitch].
Startled by a noise behind her, Laurie whirls around to see Toby standing on the bottom stair, and he looks much paler thinner than when she saw last saw him [Maybe a twin?]. Laurie approaches him, but he takes a step back up the stairs, not seeming to recognise her. The poor little dude looks terrified of her, and soon Mrs. Deane comes clomping down the stairs:
She grabbed Toby’s arm and shook him roughly, yelling at him, “You—I told you to stay in your room! Get up there!”
She gave Toby a push. He slid past her, whimpering. His small legs pumped as he fled up the steep staircase and out of sight.
Laurie’s jaw dropped, but she didn’t get the chance to say anything.
Mrs. Deane reckons Laurie’s got a lot of nerve coming in here, angrily exchanging a dollar for a raffle ticket and shoving the teen out the door. As Laurie and Skye rush back to the car, Laurie explains how scared Toby looked – ‘”The way that woman pushed him around, and yells at him! Something is not right!” On the ride home, Laurie wonders why Toby seemed so scared of her and why he didn’t recognise her [Must be a twin! But then where’s Toby?]
The next morning, Laurie is called to the office of Nurse Doris Shneider, Supervisor of Nurses, who explains that starting this morning, Laurie will be transferred to the 11th floor, the X-ray Department, after a serious complaint was made against her. Apparently, Laurie is rude, has been bothering patients, spying on nurses, hasn’t been helpful enough and was caught going through patient records [Hey! Only one of those is true! 😡 ].
Nurse Shneider doesn’t necessarily believe all this, especially since Laurie’s had rave reviews from everyone else while working here, but that’s why she’s being transferred instead of getting fired [Can a volunteer be fired? Is it called something else?]. The supervisor is very understanding of Laurie’s intentions, but Nurse Wilton wants Laurie off her floor, and that old cow is extremely valuable to Nurse Shneider so her request can’t be ignored.
Crushed, Laurie spends the day bored out of her mind filing X-rays, and she’s determined to apologise to Nurse Wilton and beg for another chance on the Children’s Floor [Why not just ask to be transferred to a different floor that’s not the Children’s? Why does it have to be the Nurse Wilton’s floor?]. She heads to the ninth floor after work and spots Nurse Wilton heading into the empty Fear Wing, which is strange. while Laurie waits at the Nurses’ Station for her to come back out, she sees Rick Spencer sneak into the Fear Wing too – is he following the nurse, or did they have a planned meeting?
After 25 minutes of waiting [She’s more patient than me lol], Laurie enters the Fear Wing after them. The big, dimly lit room is devoid of life, which confuses her because there doesn’t seem to be any other exit and the stairs connecting the wing to other floors haven’t been built yet. Still, she walks along the perimeter, her hand sliding along the wall for support, and nearly steps through a gaping hole in the wall, with no floor on the other side! It’s undoubtedly the elevator shaft for when the Fear Wing is completed [Will this elevator be stopping at other floors too? It sounds like it’s specifically for the Fear Wing lol], and Laurie can’t believe how close she was to plummeting to her death as she backs away:
Her foot touched something soft. She turned and looked down.
At her feet, reaching forward, was an outstretched hand.
Laurie jumped back, gasping in horror.
A body was lying there half-hidden in the construction mess!
It was Nurse Wilton, her mouth open, her eyes bulging.
A long surgical knife protruded from her throat.
[She had it coming! I wonder if it’s one of the knives Rick stole 👀] Laurie rushes out to the hall, where Skye is now chatting with Nurse Girard. She alerts them to what she’s found, and although they’re both dubious at first, Nurse Girard calls for the resident doctor and two security guards [Do hospitals usually have security guards?]. Laurie leads Skye and Nurse Girard, back down the hall, almost crashing into an orderly in a surgical mask transporting a patient under a sheet on a gurney [Clumsy ox!]. They’re met by Dr. Sherman and the guards in the Fear Wing, but of course the body is missing now. The security guards check the whole room, including down the elevator shaft, but there’s not a corpse to be found.
Skye privately scolds Laurie for playing such a cruel prank, especially since she’s in enough trouble at the hospital as is, but Laurie insists the nurse really was murdered and Rick Spencer is responsible! Skye isn’t buying it and encourages Laurie to admit to everyone she was just mistaken about what she saw so they don’t get into trouble. Before either girl can say anything to the adults, Dr. Sherman deduces that this all must be part of the constant ‘Gotcha’ pranks he and another doctor have been pulling on each other [How professional]. Skye immediately agrees, which Laurie isn’t happy about, and Dr. Sherman asks them to pretend nothing happened because it’ll drive the other guy crazy if he thinks his prank didn’t work.
Laurie is sure Rick murdered Nurse Wilton but can’t figure out how he was able to move the body, since there’s only one entrance to the wing [There has to be another one Laurie’s unaware of, right?]. Laurie’s also sure that Toby, Rick and Nurse Wilton are all connected somehow, but can’t work out what the connection is, and sneaks into the back office once more to check Toby’s file again, hoping there’ll be some kind of clue. But guess what? There’s no file for Toby Deane anywhere – it’s as if he had never been at Shadyside Hospital, and ‘had never existed at all!’ [I am soooo confused about what is actually going on and why it’s happening, but I like it!]
The next day, no-one in the hospital seems alarmed that Nurse Wilton isn’t around. Everyone assumes she either took the day off or she’s working the night shift – apparently it’s hard to keep up with schedules since nurses trade shifts all the time [Shouldn’t there be some sort of system in place to keep track of that? What’s to stop people taking advantage of the confusion and raking in some extra money?], so Laurie resigns herself to the fact that no-one’s going to believe her.
After work, Laurie heads home to change into her best burglar outfit and drives over to Fear Street, having decided that she can find some answers at Toby’s house. She parks her car further down and the street and hides in a large bush outside the kitchen of the Deane residence. Peeking through the window, she spots Toby sitting at the kitchen table, sadly shaking his head back and forth as a strange woman tries to talk to him. Toby’s fully dressed and there’s a small suitcase in the doorway, which makes Laurie think Toby’s going on some sort of trip. A strange man enters the room with Mrs. Deane, and the trio take Toby out to a car where he’s driven away by the strangers [Is this child trafficking?!]. Mrs. Deane heads back inside, and Laurie’s just about to abandon her hiding spot when she hears a child ‘shrieking, sobbing hysterically’ within the house [!!!].
Laurie’s more confused than ever and realises her search for clues must start at the hospital, where this whole baffling nightmare began. Dr. Raymond Price, the head of the hospital, should be able to give her answers. Laurie’s tailed by a banged-up blue Honda as she walks back to her car, and it stops nearby as she frantically tries to get the engine going. A man steps out of the car and approaches, but Laurie finally manages to get the engine going and speeds of just as she realises the man is Rick Spencer in an old Batman T-shirt [It’s called fashion, sweaty xx].
Laurie’s on edge the whole way home and is even more tense when she sees that Hillary isn’t home [Does a finance consultant really work this late this often?]. She phones Andy and lies about needing to interview his father for ‘”an independent summer work project,”‘ not wanting to go through the motions of the last few days with her boyfriend. Andy invites her to come over early tomorrow to speak to his dad, since Dr. Price is out tonight, and asks Laurie to hang out tonight anyway.
Laurie gives him another excuse [Just break up with him, Laurie, and stop wasting the guy’s time!] and hangs up, but immediately feels all alone even though she just had an invitation to hang out, she calls Skye to enquire about a sleepover. Skye tells Laurie to come on over, but Laurie hears a noise downstairs and bails on the sleepover idea, assuming Hillary is home [So rude, Laurie].
Laurie calls out to her aunt, but starts to worry when there’s no answer and she hears the stairs creaking [!!!!!]. Trapped in her room with some unknown terror coming for her, Laurie’s relieved when a car pulls up in the driveway and Aunt Hillary enters the house. Whoever the intruder is, they’re down the stairs and out the back door before Laurie can even call out to her aunt [Ooky spooky!].
Downstairs, Hillary asks why Andy left so suddenly because she’s sure that was his car she just saw outside [Or was it Dr. Price in Andy’s car? Dr. Price isn’t home, after all!]. Laurie suspects it was actually Rick in the blue Honda, but Hillary is adamant that it was Andy’s Volvo. Laurie explains what just happened but asks her aunt not to call the police, telling her about Nurse Wilton’s body yesterday – everyone already thinks Laurie was lying about that so she doesn’t want to make matters worse for herself, sure the police ‘”have heard about the body that wasn’t there.”‘ [Why would they have heard about it when it was explained away as a joke?] Laurie also tells Hillary about Toby, reiterating her belief that everything is connected and she’s caught in the middle of whatever terrible thing is going on. Aunt Hillary is sympathetic and suggests it might be best for Laurie to visit her grandparents for the rest of the summer, which Laurie takes offence to:
“You think I made it up, don’t you? Just like everyone else. You think that was Andy sneaking out of the house just now, right? Well, it wasn’t. And everything else I told you is true, whether you believe me or not.”
Hillary does believe her though, and is just trying to look out for her niece – if the situation is this scary and dangerous and there’s no way to fix it, ‘”the only thing to do is to get away from it, leave it alone.”‘ She’s got a point, but Laurie reckons she can fix it when she speaks to Dr. Price tomorrow. Hillary reveals she’s in the middle of a job for the Board of Trustees as the hospital and has actually been there everyday [Is Hillary in on whatever conspiracy is going on?!], but didn’t tell Laurie because she didn’t want to crowd her. She claims the job is just a routine audit, nothing suspicious [Which is exactly how you’d describe something suspicious to throw someone off the scent!], and offers to talk to Dr. Price herself, but Laurie rudely declines the offer and tells her to stay out of it, wishing she’d never told her anything in the first place [Calm down, Laurie].
Laurie’s woken by the phone ringing later that night and is surprised to hear Rick on the other end. He apologises for calling so late, but he just has to speak to her, demanding to know why she ran away form him on Fear Street [Because you were stalking her?]. Laurie can’t believe this guy’s nerve [Same] and launches into an attack, first accusing him of stealing those surgical knives the other day. He admits to taking them, but explains that collecting the knives was the errand he’d been sent on, even even giving her the doctor’s name who requested the knives. He might be telling the truth, but there’s still something unmistakably phony about this guy, so Laurie demands to know why he followed Nurse Wilton into the Fear Wing yesterday, but doesn’t mention the murder. She also wants to know what he was doing on Fear Street tonight and why he was following her:
There was a long pause.
Then in a grim voice Rick said, “Laurie, I’m warning you. Stay away from Fear Street. You’re going to get yourself in a lot of trouble.”
[As if Nosy Nelly is going to stay away, Rick] The next morning, Saturday, Laurie heads over to Andy’s house and is greeted at the door by Dr. Price, who’s glad to do an interview for such an important member of staff [Hahaha shut up]. He wishes he could pay the student volunteers because they’re so helpful, but the hospital’s budget problems don’t allow it [Is the hospital selling children to help with budget cuts or something?].
In Dr. Price’s home library, Laurie admits the real reason she wanted to talk and explains what she saw in the Fear Wing yesterday. Dr. Price is alarmed that he wasn’t notified, even if it was just a joke. Laurie suggests Dr. Price already knows the victim, Nurse Wilton, because she’s sure she saw them talking on the Medical School Floor, but the name isn’t familiar to Dr. Price, who makes a point to talk to any member of staff he sees in the halls [I don’t know why Laurie isn’t suspicious of this guy. He’s the head of the hospital, does she really think he’s not somehow involved in whatever shady things are going on?].
Dr. Price calls the Supervisor of Nurses, Doris Shneider, to find out if Nurse Wilton is on shift today, and after a brief conversation, he explains to Laurie that Nurse Wilton went on a three-week vacation as of Thursday night, which was scheduled over two months ago [Is Shneider in on this whole thing too, or did Dr. Price only pretend to call her?]. It’s clear he doesn’t believe her about what she saw, so she changes the subject to Toby Deane, explaining why she’s been so worried about him and how she saw him being driven away by that mysterious couple.
Dr. Price assures her that all child patients who live in Shadyside are automatically scheduled for a follow-up appointment, so Toby should be returning to the hospital for a check-up fairly soon. When Laurie reveals that Toby’s records are missing, but Dr. Price doesn’t seem bothered by at all [He’s completely unfazed that the files are missing and that a student volunteer was going through confidential files] and tells her he’ll have someone check on Toby asap. He’s also going to try get her transferred back to the Children’s Floor as per her request, and Laurie’s relieved that he’s at least going to do something.
Andy appears in the doorway as Dr. Price heads off, and he saunters on over for some sexy time. Laurie silently wonders if he’d been eavesdropping, telling him she’s not in the mood and has to go meet Skye at the mall, but will see him tonight for their date. Andy’s noticed that she’s been pushing him away lately and accuses her of cheating, which leads to a huge fight between the pair since Laurie’s sick of his jealousy and clinginess. She storms out of the house, ordering him to leave her alone, ‘”Permanently!”‘
As she’s getting out of her car at the mall, Laurie spots Mrs. Deane unlocking her own car with Toby at her side, clutching the teddy bear Laurie had given him. Laurie calls out to him and he excitedly shouts back her name as he tries to approach her, but Mrs. Deane jerks him back and throws him into the car, then jumps in after him and speeds off [Does the poor boy have a car seat or something? The way it’s written makes it seem like she just flings him in there like a rag doll and speeds off hahaha]
Laurie’s too busy thinking about little Toby to shop for herself, so she’s basically just there to keep Skye company as she searches for the perfect outfit for her date tonight. Laurie tells Skye about her fight with Andy earlier, and although Skye tries to play it cool, she’s 100% jumping for joy inside at the thought of Andy being single again [Should we normalise lusting over and going after your best friend’s ex?].
When Laurie arrives home, she turns every light on in the house and checks that all the doors and windows are locked to help calm her nerves [God thinking]. She settles down in front of the TV after dinner, but of course, as usual, there’s one particular little boy on her mind – why was he back with Mrs. Deane so soon when the suitcase she saw implied he would be gone for a while? [Because you saw his twin be taken away] Who was crying in the house after Toby left? [Toby was, you saw his twin leaving] What’s the connection between Toby and Nurse Wilton [Maybe Nurse Wilton got cold feet about the child trafficking ring or whatever the hell is going on and threatened to blow the whistle on the covert operation!]. And why is Mrs. Dean always so rough with sweet, loveable Toby? [A tough exterior probably helps avoid getting attached to the children she’s trafficking]
Laurie decides to call Toby’s house, having memorised his number from his file, and the phone rings for a long time before grouchy Mrs. Deane picks up. Laurie introduces herself and lies that she just wanted to make sure she actually gave a raffle ticket to her the other day [Oh my god, Laurie, you can do better than that]. Mrs. Deane is absolutely fed up with Laurie’s nonsense and doesn’t care whether she’s got a ticket or not, telling the pesky girl to stop snooping around and stay away from her and Toby:
Before the angry woman could hang up, Laurie heard a shrill cry in the background, a child’s cry: “Laurie! Laurie!”
Then came the sound of a slap, a howl of pain, and the receiver came crashing down in her ear.
Toby! She hit him!
Laurie grabbed her car keys and flew out of the house.
[Mrs. Deane needs to die asap! Poor little Toby 😢 ] It’s raining now, because of course it is, and lightning flashes and thunder booms as Laurie speeds on over to Fear Street. The Deane house is dark when she arrives, but she’s sure she sees a face in the upstairs window as a bolt of lightning illuminates the sky [I feel like lightning in books and movies and stuff always lights up the whole vicinity of the character, but surely that’s not realistic? I’ve only ever seen lightning in the distance]. She finds the kitchen window open and lets herself in, but she doesn’t get very far before she’s struck on the back of the neck and dragged down to the cellar in a daze.
Laurie blacks out for a few minutes, but comes to to find her arms and legs bound to a chair and Mrs. Deane standing angrily over her. She tells Laurie to scream all she wants because no-one will hear her [I feel like people are just bluffing when they say that], and then plods back up the stairs to the kitchen. As Laurie helplessly struggles against the ropes, she overhears Mrs. Deane on a phone call:
“…She showed up here, snooping around. She broke into the house, but I’ve got her…. No, she can’t get away. She’s tied up in the cellar, good and tight. But you’ll have to deal with her yourself. This is more than I signed on for…. Okay, take care of her aunt first. Then come finish off the girl. And hurry!“
Laurie’s confused why Hillary’s in danger when she has nothing to do with any of this [I’m sure she does and just doesn’t know it], but knows she needs to escape these ropes to save both their lives. She spots a pair of scissors conveniently on a nearby worktable and starts scooting the chair towards it, but just as she’s turned herself around and is about to grab them, the cellar door begins to open [!!!!]. It’s just Toby, who’s able to pass Laurie the scissors. As she saws into the ropes binding her to the chair, she asks why he didn’t say hello when she was here the other day, and where he went the night he was driven away but the man and woman. Toby looks super puzzled at first, but eventually tells Laurie that it was his brother Terry she’d seen [Knew it!], not him. Realising Toby has an identical twin who really is missing now, Laurie promises to help find Terry, and as quietly as they can, the teenager and toddler sneak up to the kitchen and out the back door.
Laurie spots Mrs. Deane watching them from an upstairs window as she drives away, but she doesn’t chase after them for some reason. Instead of going straight to the police, Laurie stops by a payphone and calls home to warn her aunt, but there’s no answer. She calls the hospital next, and the operator informs her that Hillary’s been trying to reach her. She was having car troubles and needs Laurie to pick her up, and is waiting for her at the Nurses’ Station on the ninth floor [Why that floor lol? Why not in the lobby?].
As Laurie climbs back in the car, there’s a news bulletin over the radio about a car found at the bottom of a ravine in the Fear Street Woods. The crash claimed the life of the sole female occupant, whose badly mangled body was found inside. The accident appears to have happened several days ago, and ‘papers found on the body identify the woman as Edith Wilton, a nurse at Shadyside Hospital….’ [Ooooh, spicy]. Laurie knows Nurse Wilton’s death was no accident and plans to phone Dr. Price as soon as she reaches Hillary, because he’ll have to believe her now!
Laurie spots a beat-up blue Honda following her car and wonders if Rick’s been tailing her since Fear Street. She’s managed to lose him by the time she parks at the hospital and scrambles inside with Toby. Visiting hours have just finished, so there’s a crowd of people flowing out of the elevators. Laurie leaves Toby with a friendly nurse and heads for elevators just as Rick is entering the building [!!!]. He heads straight for the elevators, but it closes with Laurie inside before he can step in, and she’s not sure if he even saw her.
Nurse Girard is the only person at the Nurses’ Station when Laurie arrives, and she hasn’t seen anyone else around here for the past hour [Uh oh]. Laurie spots Rick getting off an elevator down the hall and sneaks away from the Nurses’ Station. He’s briefly distracted by Nurse Girard, allowing Laurie to she slip inside the Fear Wing and into the prologue. This time around, though, we get a lot more information than what was present back then, which I think is pretty dumb. Laurie knows there has to be another exit in here since ‘Rick had gotten out and then come back’ to hide Nurse Wilton’s body the other night, and she eventually notices a trapdoor in the floor that the workmen use to go between floors [Which she would have seen during the prologue too, but it was never mentioned… See how dumb it is?]. Rick enters the Fear Wing before she can reach it, and she backs up against the wall to prevent being seen.
Laurie movies along the wall in the dark as Rick calls out that he just wants to explain things and won’t hurt her, and Laurie wonders if he said that ‘to Nurse Wilton too—just before he stabbed her?’ [I get that Stine didn’t want to reveal Nurse Wilton’s death in the prologue, but by repeating the whole chapter again but with different information kind of makes it pointless, doesn’t it? Like, in the prologue, Laurie wonders if he said it to ‘the girl’… why would she think that specifically when she means Nurse Wilton? It’s just kind of dumb. The prologue should have been removed] Rick somehow figures out where she is and grabs her, and we’re finally up to date with where the prologue left off as Laurie’s only thought is, ‘Where is the knife?’
Rick yells at her for being so stupid, spinning her around to show her where she’d just been standing – one more step backward and she would have plummeted down the empty elevator shaft to her death! [She’s been here before, how did she not recognise that she was at the elevator shaft?] Laurie’s too scared of Rick to understand the gravity of the situation, begging him to let her go despite his insistence that he won’t hurt her. The hall door opens again, and the distraction is enough for Laurie to pull away from Rick and hide behind a nearby ladder covered with canvas . Through the darkness, she sees two dim figures struggling before one of them drops to the floor with ‘an explosive cry.’
Then, to her surprise, it’s Dr. Price’s voice she hears telling her it’s safe to come out now [I bet it’s not!]. Laurie creeps out from her hiding spot and moves towards him, but stops when she notices Rick lying facedown on the floor, a ‘bloody knife stuck in his back.’ Dr. Price assures her he only tapped Rick with his flashlight and aims the beam at Rick’s unmoving body to prove it:
Now she could see Rick clearly. The knife in his back was just a design on his T-shirt, a grisly and stupid decoration, but very colorful and realistic looking. A black handle, silver blade, and red blood bubbling down a white shirt.
Just a dumb T-shirt!
[Really, Laurie? You can’t tell the difference between a fkn 3D knife and an image on a shirt?] Rick comes to as Laurie continues over to Dr. Price and warns her to stay away from him, insisting Dr. Price will kill her because he thinks she’s solved what’s been going on [I knew Dr. Price was behind this whole thing!]. Dr. Price plays dumb, prompting Rick to reveal the big mystery:
“He and Mrs. Deane—or whatever her name is—they’ve been kidnapping children from out of state and selling them, selling babies to the highest bidders! Nurse Wilton found out about it and she was blackmailing him. That’s why he killed her,” Rick explained to Laurie, studying her face, desperate for her to believe him.
“You’re crazy,” Dr. Price snarled. “Don’t believe him, Laurie. You’ve known me for years. Who is this kid? If anyone’s been killed, he’ll answer for it. I’m going to call the police. Give me your hand.”
[This is a much more serious issue than we usually see in Fear Street! Maybe the earlier ones were a lot less formulaic compared to the later ones] Rick then demands to know the whereabouts of his little sister, Beth, accusing Dr. Price of kidnapping her [So that explains all his lies, then. He didn’t want to blow his cover!], and this is enough for Laurie to believe him, stepping towards Rick. Dr. Price drops the flashlight and lunges for Laurie, pinning her in a chokehold from behind and pressing a gun to her temple [Where’d the gun come from?]. He starts backing away with Laurie, failing to notice that he’s ‘backing them both toward the opening in the floor!’
Rick rushes forward just as Dr. Price steps right into the opening and manages to grab Laurie with one hand while latching onto a beam with the other [How close is this beam? Wouldn’t it have been better to try grab her with both hands? I can’t picture how this works in my head hahaha surely his arm span isn’t that long]. Dr. Price, however, hurtles down the shaft and lands on the concrete eight floors below with a sickening thud [Ohhhh, I thought they were heading towards the trapdoor. An ‘opening in the floor’ doesn’t really suggest an elevator, does it? That would be an opening in the wall]. Rick manages to pull Laurie up to safety [Muscle man!], and I’m still confused about the layout of this wing because now it says the beam he was holding onto was fallen… Oh well.
A short while later, Laurie’s outside the Emergency Room with Rick after being questioned by the police, waiting for Aunt Hillary to arrive [What do you mean arrive, where has she been? She was supposed to be at the hospital waiting for Laurie]. Mrs. Deane is in custody and the police are rounding up all the missing children, including Terry and Rick’s sister. Rick explains that he didn’t tell Laurie why he was really here because he wasn’t sure he could trust her and didn’t want to risk the kidnappers finding out. He also explains that the night of Nurse Wilton’s murder, he’d followed Dr. Price down to the eighth floor before losing him, and Dr. Price must have doubled back to take the body out on a gurney he’d had hidden amongst the construction. After all, no-one in a hospital would question the sight of a patient under a sheet being wheel down the hall, and no-one would recognise Dr. Price if he was wearing a surgical mask [Surgical masks don’t really hide someone’s identity, but OK].
Laurie realises that it must have been Dr. Price wheeling Nurse Wilton on the gurney who she’d almost crashed into when leading the others to the Fear Wing [Oooh, clever], and she shivers as she recalls going to Dr. Price for help. Hillary arrives and is quickly filled in on everything by Laurie and Rick. She’d figured something was wrong when she found expenses for a project with a huge fund that the board didn’t know anything about in the books. Earlier this afternoon, the paper trail lead her to the source of the fund and Dr. Price’s involvement, and Rick points out to Laurie that this is why Dr. Price was after her aunt [Thanks for mansplaining that one for all the women out there, Rick. What I would really like to know is why Hillary wasn’t at the Nurses’ Station on the ninth floor when Laurie got there].
Hillary heads off to talk to a doctor about something, and Rick apologises for scaring Laurie the other night on Fear Street, explaining he was just trying to warn her away to keep her from getting hurt. Laurie ends up kissing him [Grossss] and he asks her on a date once more [Isn’t he going to move back to his own town after this though? What’s the point?], but Laurie tells him no way:
“Not unless you get rid of that T-shirt.”
He grabbed the front of the shirt, his face gilled with mock horror. “Get rid of my bleeding knife T-shirt? Are you crazy?”
“Get rid of it,” she insisted.
“But it’s so … so totally cutting edge!” he cried.
Hillary appeared at the door. “Ready to go home?” she asked Laurie.
“After that terrible joke, I certainly am!” Laurie declared, jumping to her feet.
And then the book ends as she glances back at Rick, asking him to call her later [I guess Andy’s all yours, Skye! I wonder how Andy’s gonna feel when he finds out his stepfather’s a murderer who was involved in an elaborate kidnapping ring]
Final thoughts
This was so different to the usual Fear Streets, which helped keep things interesting. I never got bored, and that’s always a plus, but it also wasn’t as exciting as a lot of other ones. It’s not really what I was expecting from the blurb, and Stine could have done more with the hospital setting, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Laurie was frustrating at times, but overall I liked her as a protagonist. That smile is still terrifying, though. Speaking of the cover, I wish it was a scene in the book so we could have had a bit more context for this image. I still think The Knife was a stupid name, too. The Scalpel would have been better, because that’s what the knives actually were, but The Hospital would make more sense – it’s generic enough, and had a lot more relevance to the story.
I’m still confused about a few things, though – was Rick the first caller that one night, who just breathed into the phone? If so, why? Or if it was Dr. Price, why did he do that? Also, how well did he know Shadyside? He was knew to town and wanted Laurie to give him a tour, but was able to direct Mrs. Deane to a pharmacy… but I guess he would know where some things are.
It’s safe to assume that Dr. Price was the one creeping up the stairs while Laurie was home alone, but what was he planning to do? Kill her? I also think it’s weird that Rick didn’t go to the police from the start… surely there was some kind of proof that kids were being kidnapped and sold that the police could have investigated? Why was he playing detective all by himself?
It’s definitely a good one to read if you want to mix things up from the usual stalker plots we see, so 84 illegal adoption rings out of 115.
