05 The Oath by Frank Peretti

Author:Frank Peretti
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Christian
ISBN: 9781595541192
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc
Published: 2007-03-13T05:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

THE MEMORY

r----~ H E o A K S P R I N G S police had arrived at Evelyn's house to find the front screen door hanging crookedly to the side on its hinges. Inside the two-story white colonial, a trail of strewn clothing, dirt from houseplants, broken picture frames, overturned furniture, and a broken lamp showed a path of struggle from the bedroom, through the hall, and into the living room. After determining that Evelyn had not been seriously injured, the police moved carefully through the house, documenting the evidence and reconstructing what had happened. A photographer was en route to get shots of everything.

Evelyn sat on the couch in the living room, her son Travis by her side, as one officer, a mild-mannered and polite veteran on the force, sat in the stuffed chair opposite her, pen and pad in hand, getting her statement.

She was shaken, her blouse was torn, and some bruises were starting to show on her arms and face, but she was coherent and strong, and her eyes were steady.

The officer was carefully retracing the events. "And you came home about seven-"

"About seven," she confirmed.

She had come home with a load of groceries, driven into the garage, turned off the engine, closed the automatic garage door ... it was all routine, totally ordinary. It was only afterward that Travis went out and discovered that the back door to the garage had been left open, something the family never did because they didn't want the cat getting into the garage. The conclusion was that the attacker had entered that way.

"Where was Travis when you arrived home?" the officer asked.

"Upstairs in my room," he replied. "I had some music going, so I didn't hear anything at first." He looked a little sheepish.

"Then what happened?"

Evelyn recounted what had happened, and the officer took it down. "I brought all the groceries in and set them in the kitchen, and then I went into the bedroom to put my purse on the dresser ..."

She saw the whole terrifying scene passing before her eyes and began to describe it: The closet door bursting open like an explosion. A figure pouncing on her like a panther, knocking her to the floor. All the while he was trying to subdue her, she was delivering blows to his body, fighting like an animal ...

Dark. So dark. A massive weight, a monstrous presence. No voice, no sound but the crashing of tree limbs, the digging and scraping of stones and earth. The smell of blood ...

Evelyn stopped in her recounting and closed her eyes, her hand on her forehead.

"Mrs. Benson?" the officer asked. "Are you all right?"

"Give me a second," was all she said. Frantic, scrambled, mixedup images were swirling through her mind, the memories of two attacks now edited together. The horrible events of this night were bringing back in crystal clarity the events of that night, and it was all she could do to distinguish between them. With great resolve, she continued to describe what had happened tonight.

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