The Child Thief by Dan Smith Page A

him.’ He turned to look at me. ‘He had belongings?
Something that might tell us who he was?’
    ‘Or maybe we should just let him go when he’s well enough. Make him leave,’ Leonid offered.
    ‘So he can kill again?’ Dimitri said, looking around at us. ‘What are you talking about? Have you lost your minds? This man kills children and you’re talking about making
him better and setting him free.’
    ‘What would you do?’ I asked.
    ‘I’d string him up.’
    ‘I bet you would,’ I said.
    ‘Damn right.’
    ‘I vote we keep it to ourselves for now.’ Ivan held up his hand, the stem of his pipe pointing to the sky. ‘Bury them and don’t speak of it until we’ve decided
what’s for the best.’
    I put up my hand in agreement. Leonid and Josif did the same.
    ‘This is bullshit.’ Dimitri spat his words. ‘Bullshit.’
    Now they all looked to Viktor and Petro.
    ‘Since when do they get a vote?’ Dimitri asked.
    ‘They’re men now,’ Ivan answered. ‘And they’re here. That gives them a vote.’
    ‘Men?’ Dimitri scoffed. ‘Boys who are seventeen. One of them a brute like his father, and the other . . . I don’t even know what the other is.’
    Petro raised his hand. Viktor looked at me.
    ‘Don’t look at him,’ Josif said. ‘This is your decision now.’
    But Viktor wasn’t asking for my direction regarding the vote. He wanted to punish Dimitri for his actions and his words, and he wanted me to sanction it, but the look in my eyes told him
this was not the place for it.
    Viktor nodded and slowly raised his hand.
    ‘Then it’s settled,’ Ivan said.
    ‘It’s bullshit, that’s what it is.’ Dimitri turned to walk away. ‘There’s nothing settled here at all.’
    I took the back of Dimitri’s coat in my fist and stopped him. ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘Home,’ he said, looking me in the eye, pushing my hand away. For a moment we stood close, faces level, searching one another’s thoughts. I could feel Dimitri’s breath on
my skin, see the air whiten and cloud between us, sense the heightened tension in my brother-in-law.
    ‘What are you going to do?’ Dimitri said. ‘Hit me?’
    I considered it. I thought about doing what Viktor had wanted to do, and I fought the urge to ball my fist and slam it into Dimitri’s nose. Instead, I held up my hands. ‘Go home,
Dimitri. Go home and annoy your poor wife.’
    The six of us watched him leave, and then finished burying the children.

6
    We walked in silence, coming back from the cemetery. The crunching of our boots in the snow, and our heavy breathing, and the cackle of the magpies. Leaving the church behind,
though, I could hear raised voices from the heart of the village, and I shared glances with the others as we quickened our pace.
    We all suspected. We all knew. As soon as we heard the commotion, we knew what it was, and when we came within sight of the centre of the community, we saw it for ourselves.
    There was a group of people there, close to the oak that stood within its low circular wall. A dense nucleus of fifteen or twenty people, with as many again standing around the edges, undecided
if they were a part of what was happening or if they were just spectators. Those in the centre were nodding their heads, gesticulating, raising their hands in the air. They were shouting agreement,
being whipped up by the man at the centre of it. Dimitri.
    ‘What the hell does he think he’s doing?’ I said to no one in particular, catching sight of Natalia coming in our direction. She was without her coat, as if she’d come in
a hurry.
    ‘He’s been knocking on doors,’ she said. ‘Shouting and ranting about our children not being safe. Is it true? Are they not safe?’
    I stopped to speak with her, Viktor and Petro staying with me. The other men went to where the villagers were standing.
    ‘Where’s Lara?’ I asked.
    ‘She went out after she helped me with the chickens. Said she was going to play with