—He will want to know everything that happened. He is trained to detect when he is being lied to. He is certain that the official version of events is a lie. Which of course it is. There is no question in his mind that there has been a conspiracy. You must decide for yourselves what you tell him. I place no limits on what you may talk to him about. Maybe you, Elena, are afraid of telling him the truth. But in his current state of mind, I would be more afraid of telling him a lie.

Moscow

Novye Cheremushki - Khrushchev’s Slums

Apartment 1312 - Same Day

The elevator was still broken, and forced to walk up thirteen flights of stairs, Elena began to feel weak, her legs trembling. Coming up the final flight she could see their door. She stopped, unable to go any further, panicking at the thought of the man inside the apartment. How had Leo changed? She sat on the step.

—I can’t do it.

Leo had never hurt them, never raised his hand in anger or even shouted at them. Yet she was scared. There had always been something about him that had unsettled her. From time to time she would catch him sitting on his own, looking down at his hands as if wondering if they belonged to him. She would catch him staring out of the window, his mind elsewhere, and even though everyone drifted into daydreams with him it wasn’t idle thoughts. Darkness collected around him like clumps of static dust. If he realized he was being watched he would force a smile but it would be brittle, on the surface only, and the darkness remained. The thought of Leo without Raisa frightened Elena.

Zoya whispered:

—He loves you. Remember that.

—Maybe he only loved us because of Raisa?

—That’s not true.

—Maybe he only wanted children because of her? What if everything we love about him was because of her?

—You know that’s not true.

Zoya did not sound entirely convinced. Frol Panin crouched down.

—I’m going to be with you. There’s nothing to worry about. They reached the landing. Frol Panin knocked on the door.

Despite neither trusting Panin nor knowing anything about him, Elena was glad he was here. He was calm and measured. Physically he was no match for Leo; however, she couldn’t imagine it would be easy for anyone to ignore his instructions – they were spoken with such authority. The three of them waited. Footsteps could be heard. The door opened.

The man standing before them was unrecognizable as their father. His eyes were swollen with grief and appeared to be inhumanly large. His cheeks were sallow, sucked inwards. There was insanity in his movements. His hands w>