Forgotten Past by Mary Alford
Chapter Sixteen
JTcouldn’t believe no one had noticed it before. Ben Jennings had fooled everyone, including Rachel and Carl for a long time.
“He’s one very disturbed individual.” Will called the second there was a break in the interview. “Now the mask is off and it’s easy to see he’s capable of murder. He admitted everything. He was right there on Hope Island all along, keeping track of Rachel’s every move. He was the one who shot at you. He planted the truck at Rachel’s house, hoping to get her to come outside. At that point, he’d made up his mind he had to kill her because she’d talked to you. He confessed he’d been watching her since she moved to Hope Island. He knew everything about you and what you did for a living and he panicked. He attacked you outside your house as well. He was calculating enough to use Phillip Masters’ stalking of Rachel to his benefit. Unbelievable.” Will filled JT in on everything they’d uncovered so far.
As it turned out, Phillip had been struggling with schizophrenia for years. As long as he was on his meds he could function normally, but Ben had convinced him it was the medication that Rachel found repulsive, not him. It had been at Ben’s suggestion that Phillip prescribed the drugs that helped to keep Rachel from remembering what really happened. Once JT came onboard, Ben got scared and realized he had to kill Rachel before she remembered what he did to her father and Faith. He planned to blame everything on Phillip. There was no evidence Phillip took part in any of the murders, but he had been stalking her for years and had continued to take part in her stalking along with Ben and at Ben’s command. And Phillip did threaten Rachel with a knife so he would have to face attempted murder charges for what he did. The DA was hoping to gain his cooperation once he was back on his meds and more coherent. If he cooperated and testified against Ben, then he might get a lighter sentence.
“How’s Faith—I mean Rachel—holding up? That’s going to take some getting used to.”
“Yeah I know. She’s confused.” JT couldn’t imagine how hard it must be finding out you weren’t who you thought you were for the past two years.
“Take care of her. She needs you, JT. We’ve briefed the Austin police. Once flights are able to land again, Detective Riley will come to Whaler’s Point to interview Ben. We’re holding him for the attempted murder of Rachel, but chances are the DA will approve his extradition back to Austin to face charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of Carl Jennings and Faith Davenport. Later on, the Hope Island DA will file murder charges against him for killing the two police officers.”
JT shook his head. He couldn’t believe everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
“Oh, and get this, we found a pickup truck parked down the road from Mason’s place registered to Ben Jennings. He had shoved the assault rifle under the front seat. We’ll wait for the ballistics report, but I’m willing to bet it’s a match for the one used on my officers as well as the attempt on you.” Will took a breath. “We were able to get his phone records as well. The calls he made to me all came through a tower in Maine. He’s been here for a while. Tracking Rachel since she moved here. For that matter, since she left Austin, thanks to that handy tracking device he planted in Ollie’s collar. That was pretty ingenious for a madman. Anyway, if we can match the weapon with the shell casings, we’ve got Ben Jennings on first-degree murder charges for the deaths of my two officers. He will be going away for a long time.”
JT pressed his lips into a grim line. “I still can’t grasp what this lunatic was willing to do to keep Rachel quiet.”
“Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like this one. When you and I talked to Ben on the phone, I had no idea he was our suspect. He was certainly good at hiding his dark side. He changed the story to Faith being the one Phillip had kidnapped that night. If you hadn’t had the forethought to get her fingerprints, we still might not know the truth.”
“It’s amazing. He has all the makings of a serial killer. Who knows how far he might have gone to protect himself?”
“I’m just glad we caught him before he carried out his plan. I wish we could keep her out of it, considering what she’s been through already, but we’ll have to get Rachel’s statement on the events of tonight and the Austin police will definitely want to talk to her now that she’s remembered details from the Jennings and Davenport murders.”
JT had expected as much. “I know. Can you give her some time first? She’s been through a lot tonight, not least discovering she’s not the person she thought she was for the past two years.”
“I’ll do my best. Take care of her.”
Outside, clear skies made it impossible to believe anything bad had taken place there that day. Upstairs, he could hear Rachel moving around. He knew what was bothering her. It would be almost impossible to convince her his feelings hadn’t changed, no matter what name she bore.
He found her fully dressed, staring out the window in her bedroom.
“Is he going to be all right?” She didn’t look at him when she asked the question.
“Yes.”
“He’s sick. It wasn’t his fault. My father knew something bad was going to happen. He tried to get Ben help, but by the time he reached out to him, it was too late.”
JT came and stood close to her. She still hadn’t looked at him. He could see her reflection in the window. She looked so lost.
“It’s over, Rachel. You won’t ever have to be afraid again.” He tried to take her in his arms but she pulled away.
“It isn’t. It isn’t over, JT. It will never be over. Not fully.”
“I know this is hard for you. It must be terrifying to find out what you thought you knew about yourself isn’t the truth. But you’re not alone. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
She shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying I love you. I’m saying whatever happened in your past is just that. The past.”
“You don’t love me.” She forced herself to face him at last. “You fell in love with Faith McKenzie. Not me. I’m not Faith. Nothing about her is who I am. I’m not the woman you think you fell in love with, JT.” She turned away.
“You’re wrong,” he said quietly. “You are the woman I fell in love with, Rachel Jennings.” He turned her to face him once more and this time he didn’t let her go.
“I fell in love with the woman who ran from me the first night we met. Who fought me every step of the way. The woman who taught me how to have faith again. And how to love again. The woman who changed my world for the better.” He cradled her face in his hands and gazed tenderly into her eyes. “I fell in love with your strength, your courage, your overwhelming desire to survive. I fell in love with you. Not Faith McKenzie. Not Rachel Jennings. The woman you are right now. And I’m willing to do anything, whatever you need me to do, to prove it to you.”
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“JT.” She desperately wanted to believe him. She needed to believe she wasn’t her past or the lies she’d been told. She was simply herself.
“I won’t let you go, Rachel. I won’t let you run away from the future I know we can build together. I won’t let you do that.” The sincerity in his eyes melted away all her doubts. He drew her into his arms and there at last she stopped running.
“I don’t want to anymore. I’m so tired of running. I want to stay with you.”
“Then do. God brought us together, Rachel. That in itself is something special. We’ll go back to Austin if you like. We can discover the person you were there, or we can let that woman stay in the past and begin our life together from this moment on. We can do whatever you want to do as long as we do it together. And as long as you love me.”
Rachel pulled away a little so he could see the love she couldn’t hold back any longer. “I do love you, JT. I love you, I love you, I love you—” His lips claimed hers, smothering her words. But it didn’t matter. She planned to spend the rest of her life loving him, living the life she’d almost given up hope on having, and discovering who this new Rachel Jennings might be.