The Reappearance of Rachel Price
by Holly Jackson
Contents
Chapter Thirty-three
Overview
Bel's visit to Grandpa Pat does not produce clear answers, but it yields a disturbing fragment about Rachel and a more useful revelation from Yordan: Rachel secretly searched Pat's living room near the fireplace. Bel turns that discovery into a trap by arranging for Pat and Yordan to leave the house the next day, then planting the information with Rachel. Rachel's interest in the timing confirms Bel's suspicions, even as Bel manipulates their growing mother-daughter intimacy to keep Rachel unsuspecting.
Summary
Bel visits Grandpa Pat at his overheated house, pushing past Yordan while Yordan prepares Pat's lunch. Alone with Pat, Bel tries to question him about Rachel, but Pat struggles to recognize Bel and repeatedly asks for Charlie. When Bel explains that Rachel disappeared and has returned, Pat seems briefly unsettled and mutters that it was an accident and that no one meant to kill Rachel, but he cannot explain further.
Bel concludes that Pat's memory may be too broken to help and grows frustrated, thinking Jeff may have misread Pat's earlier confusion. Yordan then admits he overheard Bel and offers information: Rachel came by the previous day for coffee, supposedly to check on Pat while Charlie is gone. Yordan left Rachel and Pat alone briefly, then returned to find Rachel missing from the kitchen.
Yordan says he found Rachel in the living room near the fireplace. Rachel claimed she was only looking to see whether anything had changed, then left without finishing her coffee. Bel connects this to Rachel's repeated questions about Pat's routine and realizes Rachel may be looking for something hidden in Pat's house.
Bel lies to Yordan that Charlie traditionally takes Pat to Moose Brook State Park for his birthday and suggests Yordan take Pat there the next day, with Jeff joining. Yordan reluctantly agrees to leave around eleven, giving Bel the empty house she believes Rachel wants.
Back home, Bel carefully tells Rachel that Yordan and Pat will be out the next day for a birthday trip, but Bel gives Rachel a false departure time of eleven-thirty. Rachel immediately asks when they are leaving and claims she may have a doctor's appointment at noon, confirming Bel's suspicion that Rachel has taken the bait. Bel texts Ash to ask for a smaller hidden camera.
Rachel returns and teases Bel about texting Ash, briefly softening the tension. Rachel then asks whether Bel might call her Mom instead of Rachel. Bel, wanting Rachel to trust her before the trap is sprung, agrees and suggests they make dinner together, calling Rachel Mom.
Who Appears
- Bel PriceInvestigates Grandpa Pat, deduces Rachel is searching the house, and sets a trap.
- Rachel PricePreviously searched Pat’s living room; takes Bel’s bait and asks to be called Mom.
- YordanPat’s caregiver; reveals Rachel’s suspicious visit and agrees to take Pat out.
- Grandpa PatConfused and memory-impaired; offers a troubling fragment about Rachel and an accident.
- AshBel texts him for a smaller hidden camera for the planned trap.
- JeffBel plans to involve him in Pat’s outing after deciding his lead was wrong.
- Charlie PriceStill missing; invoked by Pat and used by Bel to justify the planned outing.