In the summer of 1944, Leslie Atwater -- feeling abandoned by his lover Edward -- rushes to London to enlist in the armed services. After failing the physical, he retreats to the sanctuary of St. Michael’s rectory and to the love and support of his brother Robert.<br><br>When a bomb explodes near St. Andrew’s Home for Boys, it unearths a skeleton of an adolescent. As Leslie, Edward, and Robert set about identifying the remains, the shocking discovery stirs up an old antagonism between the two brothers and brings to light a string of repressed memories for Leslie.<br><br>With the truth obscured by the passage of years, can Leslie and Edward sift through the lies and subterfuge to track down the coldhearted killer of a kindred spirit?

Kindred Spirit

“Bertie. Yes, of course. He had a name.” She went on then, in an almost trancelike state, as if she were reliving that night, telling him in an almost matter of fact manner how she had asked Bertie to follow her along the stone pathway to the back of the orphanage so as not to wake the others or disturb Father in his nightly prayers. “I picked up something on the way. A gardening tool. I can’t say what it was, but it felt hard and heavy in my hand. I led him up to the back door.” She paused and looked out the window. “This doesn’t seem the right way.”


“You crushed his skull with a single blow and…the life went out of him.”


“Yes, that’s right. I bent down and gave him a good look. I could tell he wasn’t breathing. It’s something you know when you’ve seen it before. Death, I mean. I picked him up and carried him to the orphans’ garden. He wasn’t heavy. Light, like a bag of feathers he was.


Chapter 32