The Forgotten Child by Melissa Erin Jackson

Author:Melissa Erin Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, mystery, paranormal, amateur sleuth, ghosts
ISBN: 9781732413405
Publisher: Melissa Erin Jackson

1980-1983

Orin couldn’t pinpoint what it was about Hank Gerber that drew him to the thirteen-year-old boy, but there was an immediate kinship. Orin had never gotten along well with his little sister Beverly and never connected with his classmates. The moment Bev was old enough to leave home, she did so without looking back. Not even after their mother died. Orin thought it might be connected to the time he’d tied her to a tree, but he couldn’t be sure.

Perhaps Hank was the brother he never had, or the son he assumed he’d never create. Women complicated things too much. He couldn’t possibly bring a woman into his life when his devotion to anatomy was sure to make her jealous. Besides, they were such fragile things. He couldn’t have a woman around who fainted at the merest sight of blood.

He knew his methods for procuring specimens were unorthodox. He didn’t need the stress of a woman focusing on the how of his studies rather than the why and alerting authorities.

No, when he became a renowned surgeon, and the general public learned the brilliance of his methods, then he’d be able to devote his time to finding a proper wife.

John Hunter had married, but Orin thought the surgeon’s brother, William, came closer to the truth: the lives they led, ones devoted to anatomy and the exploration of biological sciences, were wholly incompatible with marriage.

When Orin needed his carnal itch scratched, he’d drive into town and pay for a prostitute. They didn’t care who he was or what occupied his time. They both got what they wanted and then Orin could go back to his house alone with only his patients. Just as he preferred it.

So it was a surprise to even himself when he found Hank—not because he fancied the boy as a patient, but because he thought he might be the start of his team of recruiters. He had admired this too about John Hunter. His idol had his Resurrectionist crew bring him corpses, so why shouldn’t Orin enlist the assistance of someone like-minded to assist in his own endeavors?

Orin knew he wasn’t the most handsome of men. He couldn’t be bothered to keep up his appearance and this got no better as he aged. Young girls skirted around him when he was in public. Women in general gave him a wide berth. How could he procure patients if they were too leery to give him a chance? He’d never really known how to interact with young girls—his failed relationship with Bev was proof enough of that.

Gabriella, the girl in his house now, had made quite the fuss when he’d snagged her. He had followed her down a deserted, dark street—finally alone, for once, rather than surrounded by her fellow homeless deviants—and when he cornered her down the dead-end street he’d chased her into, she screamed and thrashed. The eye she’d managed to land a blow to just before he finally knocked her out had purpled in minutes.

It was the almost-escape of the girl that made Orin consider an assistant.

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