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  I remembered the first time my mum had seen Mia and said:

  ‘At the summer grill, in May, you stripped down and went swimming, in front of all the guests.’

  ‘That was my way of telling Håkan I’d wear whatever I wanted and wasn’t about to cover up because the mayor was a disgusting bastard or because Håkan told me to. The principle’s good, right? But the mayor was too stupid to understand it. He thought I was flirting with him. Later that summer, I was reading at my desk, late at night, and I looked up to see the mayor standing at my door. Håkan had been playing cards with some friends and he was driving one of them home because they’d drunk too much. Håkan was never drunk. Never. But he encouraged other people to get drunk. Anyway, Elise was out. Somehow the mayor and I were alone in the house. I’ve never been afraid of that man before, he just struck me as pathetic, but that night I was scared. He was leaning on the doorframe. I forced a smile and told the mayor I’d make him some coffee. I wasn’t sure he was going to let me out of the room because he didn’t move so I took his hand, pretending to be playful, pulling him out of the room, because I knew on some level he thought I wanted him and it would only be when I made it clear that I didn’t that he’d become dangerous. I told him we could both have a drink, not coffee, something alcoholic, and he said that sounded nice. As soon as he put a foot on the stairs I turned and ran. The door to my room didn’t lock but the bathroom door did and I slammed it shut and bolted the door, shouting out that I didn’t feel well and I was going to take a bath, he could help himself to coffee or whatever he wanted. He didn’t say anything. But I could hear his footsteps come towards me – I could hear him on the landing. I wondered if he was going to kick the door down, it wasn’t a sturdy door and the lock was just a latch. I saw the handle turn, I saw him push against the latch. I waited, holding a pair of nail scissors. He must have stood there for five minutes. Then he walked away. But I didn’t leave the bathroom. I stayed in there until Håkan came home.’

  The mayor was the fourth name on my mum’s list of suspects.

  Anders took Mia’s hand, asking softly:

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

  ‘Because you would’ve tried to kill him.’

  I added:

  ‘Mia, when you talk to my mum, can you start with this?’

  My mum’s ward was entered through two secure doors, the severity of her condition expressed by the heavy clunk of locks opening and closing. My dad had persuaded the doctors to delay using the drip, holding out until I returned. It was agreed that Mia should go in alone since we didn’t want my mum feeling ambushed. Mia was happy with this arrangement, showing great strength, apparently unfazed by her surroundings or by the patients wandering the corridors. She was a remarkable young woman. Anders kissed her. A nurse escorted Mia into the visiting room.

  I took off my watch to stop myself counting the minutes. I was seated next to Mark, who was seated beside my dad, seated beside Anders, the four of us side by side, none of us able to read a newspaper, or check our phones, none of us able to pass the time except by staring at the floor or the walls. Every now and then the nurse would update us. She’d check through the viewing window in the door, reporting back that Mia and my mum were seated close together, holding hands, deep in conversation. They hadn’t moved from this position. When the nurse returned for the fifth time, she addressed us as though we were a single family:

  ‘Your mum wants a word.’

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge University in 2001 and lives in London. Born in 1979 to a Swedish mother and an English father, his bestselling novels in the Child 44 trilogy were international publishing sensations. Among its many honours, Child 44 won the International Thriller Writer Award for Best First Novel, the Galaxy Book Award for Best New Writer, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the inaugural Desmond Elliott Prize. The forthcoming film adaptation of Child 44 stars Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman and Vincent Cassel.

  Tom Rob Smith

  CHILD 44

  NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING TOM HARDY, NOOMI RAPACE, and GARY OLDMAN

  Moscow, 1953. Under Stalin’s terrifying regime there is no such thing as crime, and who dares disagree? Secret police officer Leo Demidov has spent his career arresting anyone who steps out of line. Suddenly his world is turned upside down when he uncovers evidence of a killer at large. Now, with only his wife at his side, Leo must risk both their lives, to save the lives of others.

  AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER IN OVER 35 LANGUAGES

  OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD

  NOMINATED FOR 17 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, WINNER OF 7

  TOP 100 THRILLERS OF ALL TIME – NPR

  Paperback ISBN 978-0-85720-408-0

  Ebook ISBN 978-1-84739-808-6

  Tom Rob Smith

  THE SECRET SPEECH

  FROM THE AUTHOR OF INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER CHILD 44 THE MULTI-MILLION SELLING TRILOGY CONTINUES . . .

  Moscow, 1965: a society trying to recover from a time when the police were corrupt and the innocent arrested as criminals.

  Detective Leo Demidov, former Secret Police Officer, is forced to ask whether the wrongs of the past can ever be forgiven. Trying to solve a series of brutal murders that grip the capital, he must decide if this is savagery or justice.

  Quickly it becomes apparent that Leo himself – and his family – are in danger from someone intent on revenge. Desperate to save those he loves, he is offered salvation from an unexpected source – and at a terrible price.

  Paperback ISBN 978-0-85720-409-7

  Ebook ISBN 978-1-84737-715-9

  Tom Rob Smith

  AGENT 6

  THE HEART-RACING ADVENTURE THAT BEGAN IN CHILD 44 AND THE SECRET SPEECH REACHES ITS EPIC CONCLUSION

  Moscow, 1965. When Leo Demidov’s worst fears are realised and a tragic murder destroys everything he loves, he demands only one thing: that he is allowed to find the killer who has struck at the heart of his family.

  Crippled by grief, his request denied, Leo sees no other option than to take matters into his own hands, even though he is thousands of miles from the crime scene.

  In a thrilling story that takes us from the backstreets of 1960’s New York to the mountains of Afghanistan in the ’80s, Leo will stop at nothing as he hunts down the one person who knows the truth: Agent 6.

  Paperback ISBN 978-1-84739-674-7

  Ebook ISBN 978-1-84737-976-4