The Reappearance of Rachel Price
by Holly Jackson
Contents
Chapter Two
Overview
Susan, Rachel’s mother, arrives early and turns Bel’s interview into a confrontation over Charlie’s suspected guilt. Bel fiercely defends Charlie with the details of his alibi, but Susan broadens the accusation by implying Charlie may also have had something to do with his own mother’s death.
Charlie’s arrival exposes how vulnerable the family is to the documentary crew’s cameras, and Ramsey uses the conflict to argue that the Prices must shape their own public narrative. Bel’s theft of the chess queen and refusal to sit in the truck’s backseat hint at private coping mechanisms and unresolved trauma beneath her loyalty to Charlie.
Summary
The woman who interrupts Bel’s documentary interview is not Rachel Price but Susan, Rachel’s mother and Bel’s grandmother. Susan greets Ramsey, then recognizes Bel and embraces her, immediately comparing Bel to Rachel and blaming Charlie for keeping Bel away from Rachel’s family. Susan also says Bel should have attended her grandfather’s funeral and claims her late husband wanted Charlie imprisoned for Rachel’s murder.
Bel pushes back, defending Charlie against Susan’s accusations. When Susan insists Charlie was only found “not guilty” and that everyone knows he killed Rachel, Bel recites the timeline of Charlie’s alibi: his hand injury at work, hospital security footage, the time he left the hospital, the drive home, his phone calls, and the impossibility of committing the crime in the available minutes. The argument makes clear that Bel has long memorized this defense and is determined not to let Susan shape the story on camera.
Charlie arrives because Bel’s phone is off and the interview has run far past its promised end time. He is angry to find Susan there and the crew still filming. Susan needles Charlie about his appearance, temper, and supposed danger to Bel, while Charlie tries to stay controlled because he knows anger can look like guilt. The conflict escalates when Susan suggests that women close to Charlie end up dead and brings up Charlie’s mother, who died in a stair accident when Charlie was sixteen.
Charlie is hurt and sarcastically says he is now being called both a wife-killer and a mother-killer. Bel realizes the camera could twist that moment against him, so Bel deliberately creates a more shocking distraction by swearing at Susan. The insult ends the confrontation, and Charlie tells Ramsey to speak with him outside while the crew tends awkwardly to Susan.
Once no one is watching, Bel steals the black queen from the chessboard and hides it in her sleeve, feeling temporary relief from the tension in Bel’s stomach. Outside, Charlie confronts Ramsey, who insists the overlap with Susan was accidental but admits the crew kept filming because it is their job. Ramsey persuades Charlie that Susan’s hostility is part of the story and that Charlie can still shape his own narrative, then promises no more surprises before filming at the Price house the next day.
As Charlie and Bel leave, Charlie laughs about Bel’s insult and checks whether the interview upset her. Bel downplays the experience. At the truck, Charlie suggests Bel sit in the back because the front seat is cluttered, but Bel quickly insists on staying in front despite the mess, then they head off for bacon sandwiches.
Who Appears
- Bel PriceDefends Charlie from Susan’s accusations, disrupts the filmed argument, and secretly steals a chess queen.
- SusanRachel’s mother and Bel’s grandmother; accuses Charlie and tries to undermine him on camera.
- Charlie PriceBel’s father; arrives worried, confronts Susan and Ramsey, and tries to stay controlled.
- RamseyDocumentary director; keeps filming the conflict and later promises Charlie no more surprises.
- JamesCamera operator who continues filming as Susan, Bel, and Charlie clash.
- AshCrew member who awkwardly assists Ramsey and is told to get Susan water.
- SabaBoom operator present during the confrontation, recording the tense exchange.