Amy and Ellen discuss their combined birthday party over dinner with Aunt Clare. The party will be a secret from Louann so Amy can have a party that’s truly for her. Amy asks Aunt Clare if Grandma and Grandpa Treloar died in a car crash, and Aunt Clare dodges the question. Wanting to know what happened without upsetting her aunt, Amy decides to “play detective and find out for myself” (47).

Amy and Ellen visit the library and look through obituaries from the year Grandma and Grandpa Treloar died. They see an article with the headline “Prominent Couple Murdered in Their Home” (49), and Amy recognizes the boy in the picture as her father. Grandma and Grandpa Treloar were murdered.

Ellen has to go home, but Amy continues the search for information. Amy learns that Aunt Clare discovered Grandma and Grandpa Treloar’s bodies. Aunt Clare’s fiancé died in a car crash a few days after the murders, and the murders were never solved. Back at Aunt Clare’s house, Amy tells Ellen about the unsolved murders over the phone, and Aunt Clare overhears. Amy apologizes, but Aunt Clare is furious, saying “The past is dead, and it would help a lot if you’d leave it that way” (56).