The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Bel meets Ash at her Grandpa’s house and apologizes. She reflects that she doesn’t think her dad is who she believed him to be. She tells Ash about The Memory Thief, which she thinks is somehow connected to the mystery. She finds Grandpa’s copy on the shelf. Leafing through it, she sees that some letters are bolded. She connects the bolded letters and discovers that the secret message reads, “Help. My name is Rachel Price. I am being kept by Patrick Price in a red truck at Price logging yard. Call police” (295).

With amazement, Bel realizes just how close Rachel had been for the last 16 years. Grandpa had always warned Bel and Carter to stay away from the old trucks whenever they played at the abandoned logging yard, and Bel now realizes that his warnings were a way to prevent them from finding the imprisoned Rachel. Bel checks other books on the shelf and finds that they are also inscribed with the same message, although one states that “we” are being imprisoned (not “I”), and Bel and Ash wonder who else was there. Bel tells Ash that she has to go to the red truck.