Child Thief by Dan Smith

room without looking at any of us.
    â€˜Is there something she’s not telling us?’ Natalia said in a quiet voice. ‘Do you think she knows where Dariya is?’
    â€˜No, why wouldn’t she tell us?’ I said. ‘She can see how upset your sister is.’
    â€˜Because she’s nine years old?’ Natalia said. ‘And because children sometimes have secrets.’

    â€˜She’s probably just worried about her cousin.’
    â€˜Maybe.’
    â€˜I’ll talk to her,’ Petro stood up. ‘Sometimes she talks to me.’
    I looked at him. ‘Really? About what?’
    Petro shrugged and there was the trace of a smile in his eyes. A small victory for him. A moment of subdued pride. ‘Nothing much,’ he said. ‘Sometimes we talk, that’s all.’
    â€˜Fine. Talk to her.’
    Outside I could hear voices.
    â€˜It’s Dimitri,’ Natalia said, going to the window. ‘He’s with some of the other men.’
    â€˜Coming here?’
    â€˜Looks like it.’
    Viktor went to stand beside his mother, but I remained where I was, wondering what else could happen today.
    â€˜No,’ Viktor said. ‘They’re going round the back. Where Lara said they were playing.’ He looked at me. ‘Maybe we should help.’
    The sound of voices outside grew quiet again as the group of searchers moved away.
    â€˜They’ll find her,’ I said. ‘They don’t need us.’
    â€˜You mean they don’t deserve your help?’ Natalia said. ‘That’s what you mean, isn’t it?’
    I picked up the photograph on the table and studied the family burned onto it. A trick of light that captured an image and stored it as if it would exist for ever. A family that had no inkling of what the future held for it. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘That’s exactly what I mean.’
    â€˜She’s your niece .’
    I could feel their eyes on me as I stared at the photograph. ‘They don’t need my help.’
    â€˜Of course not,’ Natalia said. ‘There are enough of them.’
    â€˜Right.’
    â€˜And they’re good men.’
    â€˜Are they?’
    â€˜Mostly, yes, I think they are, Luka. You’ve said yourself thatthey’re afraid, and people do bad things when they’re afraid. Rash things.’
    â€˜ We didn’t.’ I looked at her.
    â€˜No, but I know you too well, Luka Mikhailovich. I know what’s in your heart, even when you try to hide it from me.’
    â€˜What are you talking about?’
    â€˜I can see it,’ she said. ‘You think you should’ve done more to stop them. You feel like it’s your fault too.’
    â€˜It isn’t.’
    â€˜No, it isn’t. And that’s what makes you even more angry – they put you in that position.’
    I opened my mouth to reply, but caught my words when Petro came out from the other room, holding the door wide. ‘I think they’ve found something.’
    â€˜Found what?’ Natalia asked after a moment of silence. ‘What have they found?’
    â€˜Come and look.’
    Standing at the back window, my knees against the bed, I could see much of the area behind the house. To the left, the side of our barn. There was a small yard, the snow trampled and kicked into furrows and tracks that came from everywhere and went nowhere. So many times had the ground outside been trodden over the past two days. The sled, the animals, the mob that had lynched a man from a naked tree, and now this.
    The group of men, I counted seven of them, had gone through the yard, looking for the place where Lara and Dariya had been playing. Beyond, there was an open field, white, glistening in the orange light from the falling sun. There was a patch of disturbed snow just on the other side of the fence where Lara must have been because I could see how the snow had been built up into balls, and I