Page 27 of Into The Rabbit Hole

“You killed someone, Ben?” She couldn’t stop the tears from falling. She couldn’t stop the sick feeling that filled her as she thought about it all. Despicable was the word that came to mind when she thought of him. But no, he wasn’t despicable. That was too meagre a word to describehim.

Ben was evil. He wasevil.

“You killed that boy’smother?”

He looked at her and nodded slowly. “There are no excuses for what Idid.”

“How… How did it happen? Was it an accident?” She cried even more when he shook hishead.

“Rachel found evidence of various things I’d done. Bad things that could destroyme.”

“The oil rig incident. Likethat?”

“Yes, especially that,” he replied. “She was going to exposeme.”

“So, you killed her, forthat?”

“She made copies of various files I thought we’d gotten rid of and threatened to take it to the press. Jackson and I tracked her to a barn outside of L.A. She knew too much, and had seen too much, so I had Jackson killher.”

She covered her mouth as bile rose in her chest; again she felt likevomiting.

“She had achild.”

“Yes.”

“What happened to him? How do you know this person ishim?”

“It has to be. I’m going to ask Chance Patterson to take over Wade’s investigation, and then I’m going to turn myself in. It’s the only way to stop this. If he has me, maybe this will stop, Wade will be free, and the craziness willstop.”

At that moment, Ben’s phone rang. It rang a few times before he answered it. When he did, he actually looked paler, if that was possible. In the time that she’d spent here she’d seen the shade of his skin recede into this. But the blood actually looked like it had drained from hisbody.

She vaguely heard the person on the other end of the phone say, “Put me on speaker phone.” It was a cold, dark voice that sent a shiver down herspine.

Ben did as instructed and pressed the button on his phone to activate the speakerphone.

“Wow,” said thevoice.

She wondered who it could be. Regina stared at the phone waiting for the next words tofollow.

“Even I’m impressed that you’d confess to her. Benjamin Vanderville, the man of power. He thinks he’s God.” The personlaughed.

“Who is this?” Regina braved up herself toask.

“Dear Regina, I’ve been so many people that I actually don’t know who I am anymore. But for the purposes of this call and recent events, I’ve decided that it seems fitting to go with my birth name.Aaron.”

Her eyes widened at the declaration and she fixed her gaze onBen.

Aaron. That was the name of the boy. Rachel’sson.

Theirpsycho.

She heard him sigh before he continued. “Strong biblical name. Aaron was the brother of Moses. I didn’t have a brother. There was just me. Me, my mom, and my dad. My dad got killed in the Gulf War. He was a Lieutenant. Good man, I wished that I could have been half the person he was. Maybe if I didn’t watch my mother being killed I could have turned out likehim.”

Ben just stood there with the phone in his hands, gripping ontoit.

“What do you want, Aaron?” Regina asked weakly, keeping her voice surprisinglycalm.

He laughed. “Is that supposed to be a trick question? Really? You think you have to actually ask me what I want? Okay, let’s do this. Let’s dance. Put simply, I want to destroy you. All of you. Not just you, Ben, but all ofyou.”