I really love your writing, your style, your story concepts, and your characters. You've got a quick, dry realism that works with your haunting and stripped down narratives. All movement and dialogue, allowing your reader to fill in the mental and emotional blanks. That's a great talent for the type of story you seem drawn to tell.

I like this piece because of your style, but I did struggle with it. And I'll tell you why "I" have three issues with it. This is "ME" and my personal preferences and may have more bearing on the type of story I enjoy rather than on your story as a stand-alone piece.

First is technical - the time switch in the middle. The conversation that precedes the beginning and the ending. It confused me on the first read through and I felt a bit lost as to when the ending occurred. I'm not sure the first section needs to be separated out from the last.

Second, are these folks Russian? Would a forty-year old man be that attached to and aware of the tiniest of the matryoshka? What is the weight of these dolls emotionally to this family and to him in particular? I want to be convinced that this man/son is as "precious" about the dolls as the mother is, so much so that he would ask his sister if the missing doll was at her home.

And this feeds into the main point for me. Sentimentality. I'm not of the "Chekhov's gun" school and I would have been thrilled to see the missing doll with more "reveals" about the mother and the importance of the dolls....and then no further mention at all of the doll.

That being said. :) If you love the doll and the idea of him having taken it or retrieved it, then I would suggest that it be found later when the coroner (or doctor) gives his effects to his family rather than having it fall out of his pocket. For realism's sake.

On a more editing point - here are two examples of sentence level edits I would recommend -

The pickup sped off and kicked up gravel that pelted David’s feed truck.

He shifted the truck into gear and it ambled down the road...

Both of these use verbs (kicked up and ambled) that are more "human" than "truck" and perhaps would be better as more mechanical visuals. But if you want to keep them, then the first example would be stronger without the "that". gravel, pelting

;) And I loathe "like". Editing for "that" and "like" can really improve the rhythmic flow of a piece.

You're welcome!