The boy is dragged out by the men from the smaller cars. They cover him with a sack, and pass him on to the driver of the pick-up, who carries him over to it and pushes him into the boot.
The giant with the long-barrelled Magnum .357 tosses a piece of paper on to the Major’s lifeless body. On it are written two long numbers. An arrow, drawn with a fountain pen, points from the first series of numbers to the second. On the other side of the paper, written with the same pen: We have your son.
The black saloon, specially adapted for invalids, and the two smaller cars turn tail and speed off along the road they came in on, exactly forty-two seconds earlier. At the first roundabout, they head off in different directions. The other men pile into the pick-up, which drives off down the street opposite.
The big blue German car is the only vehicle left in the empty street.
The coloured pencils lie scattered on the asphalt around it.
About the Author
Edney Silvestre is a Brazilian writer and well-known TV presenter and journalist. He lives in Rio de Janeiro. His first novel, If I Close My Eyes Now, has won several prestigious prizes in Brazil and has been published in eight territories to date. His second novel, Happiness is Easy, has just been published to great acclaim in Brazil and is available in translation as a Doubleday hardback and ebook.
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IF I CLOSE MY EYES NOW
A DOUBLEDAY BOOK:9780857521323
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781448127344
Se eu fechar os olhos agora first published in Brazil by Record, 2009
First published in Great Britain
in 2013 by Doubleday
an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © Edney Silvestre 2009
English translation copyright © Nick Caistor 2013
Obra publicada com o apoio do Ministério da Cultura do Brasil/Fundaçã o Biblioteca Nacional
Edney Silvestre has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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