The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again! (35 page)

‘We are here to check some things we’ve been wondering about.’

Birgerson discreetly pressed the button which activated the CCTV camera. Tompa noticed and gave Jörgen a knowing nod. His mate looked quickly around, backed away and silently cut the cable
to the camera.

‘You must explain yourselves.’ Birgerson tried to sound in charge.

‘Nice stuff you’ve got in the docks.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

Tompa pulled out his mobile and showed the photos from inside the warehouse.

‘How in the name of?’

‘Motorcycles, boats, veteran cars, art and all that shit. All just been bought. It’s amazing that your office “owns” so much stuff.’

There was no mistaking the irony in his voice. Birgerson reached out to the alarm button. Nothing happened. Tompa noticed and smirked. The damaged security door. The technicians must have
disconnected the alarm so that they could repair it.

‘What are you going to do with all them luxury items? Present for the wife, perhaps?’ Tompa teased him.

Birgerson didn’t answer.

Ah, I see, you’re just middle-men, right. Do they pay you well, those tax-dodgers? You must get paid a lot by them, right? Stinking rich!’

‘I have no reason to reveal anything about my clients’ business,’ Birgerson retorted.

‘You are the one who owns this firm. Do the police know about all this? Your shady deals, I mean.’

Birgerson suddenly looked worried, moved some papers on his desk and reached out for his mobile. Tompa saw the movement and with a quick swipe of his hand the phone was knocked to the floor.

‘Get out of here!’ Birgerson shouted.

Tompa and Jörgen ran up to him and lifted him out of his chair. Birgerson’s forehead shone and he smelt of fear. They pushed him.

‘You know very well what this is about. You have a legal firm that deals with shady business. We want ten million within a week to keep our mouths shut. Otherwise we’ll take
something as security, yeah, those things in the warehouse will do nicely for that.’ Tompa smiled, but it was only his mouth that moved. He pressed a hard elbow into the side of the lawyer.
‘Have you understood, or should we go to the police right now?’

‘But—’

‘Economic crime. It would mean a lot of years behind bars!’ Jörgen smirked.

‘Our firm is not guilty of anything, you have simply imagined—’

Tompa and Jörgen despatched the computer to the floor and kicked the mobile phone into the corner of the room.

‘Don’t try it. Ten million, we said. We’ll be in touch!’

‘But—’

‘If you don’t pay,’ Tompa lifted his fist and put it right under Birgerson’s nose, ‘then we’ll have no option but to collect the debt and then you’ll be
in a right mess. Don’t involve the police or it’ll be the last thing you do. Your son goes to the Östra Secondary College and is a promising member of the Bromma Boys team. You
don’t want anything to happen to him, do you? As long as you do as we say, then everything will be all right.’

When Birgerson finally retrieved his telephone, the two bikers had already left the offices and disappeared down the street. From below he could hear the sound of two motorbikes starting up and
driving off. He went up to the window and looked out. He had too much work, hadn’t really had time to deal with all that stuff in the docks, and now some idiot had let those bikers get in.
This was looking really bad. The insurance premiums hadn’t been paid yet and he certainly didn’t have ten million. The firm was not doing well, even though he tried to keep up
appearances, and, as if that wasn’t enough, this had happened. Birgerson could usually control himself, but he started to weep. He had no idea how he could solve this.

Customs officer Carlsson stuck his USB into Blomberg’s computer and clicked on the icon. This time he had downloaded the CCTV footage from the Historical Museum and the
Gold Room. He leaned forward and pointed.

‘Here, Blomberg, here’s the old lady I told you about. I recognize her from before when I worked at the airport. She’s on the images from outside the Handelsbanken branch
too.’ Carlsson put his finger on a shadowy picture of Martha when she walked round and round the Wishing Well with something bulky over her shoulder, perhaps a large handbag. Now and then she
leaned over the railings and studied the money in the water, sometimes she spoke to some other elderly people. ‘Surely that’s the same old woman you interviewed?

‘Oh my God, it’s her. No, please, not her again!’ Blomberg moaned and put his hand on his forehead.

‘Did you arrest her?’

‘No bloody way! I couldn’t get rid of her quick enough. She is totally cuckoo. She just happened to be there at the museum.’

‘She happens to be in an awful lot of places. Just look at the CCTV images. Just after the robbery she’s got something big and multicoloured under her arm. It looks like a
helmet.’

Blomberg pointed with a biro at the screen and laughed.

‘That bulky thing, oh yes! You know what that is? That’s her cloth bag. It’s got a big floral pattern and it looks really weird. And guess what she has inside it? Fish
food!’

‘Fish food, are you sure?’

‘Yes, I’m sure, and if you bring that old hag in one more time –’ Blomberg searched for something he could threaten Carlson with – ‘then I’ll move all
your flower pots and change the furniture!’

The League of Pensioners could be exposed any day. The plants down in the garden were growing at great speed and the valuable gold was being covered by all the longer and
thicker roots. The group of friends waited patiently. The days passed and soon they were in June, but neither the state, the city government nor anyone else offered to pay any ransom money. What if
a rabbit started to dig tunnels out in the garden and happened to kick up a gold necklace or a gold nugget? A new neighbour right at the bottom of the hill had now acquired a horse. What if that
got loose? No, it didn’t feel at all safe having gold in the garden, and it hadn’t given them any money either. In their big old house the pensioners were beginning to despair. They had
written letters to venture capitalists and finance sharks but nobody, absolutely nobody, had shown the slightest interest in Sweden’s cultural treasures.

‘We should have written that we had a home-help service or a retirement home for sale, and then we might have got an answer,’ Martha sighed.

Or a school,’ Brains added, and they all nodded in agreement and despaired a little longer.

The police, too, were remarkably silent. No new bulletins, not a word. The detectives had got nowhere, or perhaps they were sitting somewhere ready to pounce. The worry spread among them, and
Martha had her hands full trying to keep up their spirits. She scheduled a few extra gym sessions to keep the gang in trim and tried to console each one of them with the claim that nobody would dig
in a herb garden full of manure without reason. When the others didn’t react, she raised her voice and said more forcefully:

‘Especially not in a herb garden that has an ants’ nest on it too!’

At least Rake could agree that she might be right.

Nothing happened in the Stockholm docks either, and Martha and Brains began to wonder whether their plan had perhaps failed. Now and then they also discussed whether they should make a big
announcement with the news of their engagement just to break the stalemate. But then they wanted a party mood to surround their news, and that certainly wasn’t present now. What was the point
of proclaiming such good news if nobody felt like celebrating? No, first they must deal with the awkward situation they had put themselves in. Some of Sweden’s finest ancient treasures were
buried in their garden, and they couldn’t remain there forever.

‘There is something I didn’t know about our new direction in life,’ Martha said a little later in the evening when she and Brains sat talking in her room. Even though they
hadn’t told anybody about their engagement, they often sneaked into each other’s room. It was nice to have a visit and a little more exciting like this when you didn’t take each
other for granted. Besides, Martha thought that it was a good thing Brains had his own room because he was extremely messy.

‘New direction in life?’ Brains said, kicking off his slippers. ‘In what way?’

‘Yes, we have changed from acting quickly to waiting. For that you need patience.’ Martha put on her nightcap and reached out for her ear plugs. Despite using a mouth-guard, Brains
snored something terrible.

‘Perseverance and patience, that’s what it’s about. Patience, yes, such good training for you, my friend.’

‘What did you say?’

‘Hmm, well, that you look cute in your nightcap.’

‘You are sweet, Brains,’ said Martha, and she gave him a little hug.

At dawn, Brains was suddenly woken by mysterious sounds from down by the bay. Not motorbikes, no, it sounded like a large Evinrude outboard and a hot bulb engine. He shook
Martha.

‘Martha, I can hear boats coming into our bay.’

Martha and Brains hastily put on their dressing gowns and looked out. From the balcony they could see a Pettersson boat and two luxury boats berthing at the jetty. Dark-clothed Bandangels
members made fast and jumped ashore. The motorboats had only just arrived when new, unusual sounds could be heard.

A Bentley,’ Brains claimed confidently.

‘What did you say, darling?’

A Bentley, and oh my God – here comes a Jaguar too!’

‘Goodness me,’ said Martha.

Martha and Brains looked out towards the road. A caravan of cars drove up the hill. Now everybody in the old house woke up and soon the rest of the gang joined them on the balcony while car
after car and motorbike after motorbike drove past.

‘Do you recognize those cars, Brains?’ Martha asked, as, despite being so tired, she wanted to know if their plan had worked. But her sweetheart was in a world of his own at the
sight of all those fantastic vehicles, and she couldn’t get a sensible word out of him.

‘Here comes an old T-Ford and here are some Harley-Davidsons,’ Brains sighed, quite lyrical at the sight.

‘Yes, what a fantastic convoy,’ said Rake, and he rubbed his eyes. ‘I’ve never seen so many luxury cars in one place all my life.’

Some of the luxury cars were parked on the Bandangels’ land, but when their yard was full the rest of the vehicles were directed across to their own land.

‘They do just what they want, they are completely ruthless,’ said Christina when she saw that car after car and trailer after trailer with boats of various sizes were parked on their
land.

‘Shush, Christina. Let them be. This is what we’ve been waiting for,’ said Martha.

Brains, who had been silent for a few moments, now started to pace nervously up and down the balcony.

‘This is just crazy, Martha. I feel so terribly guilty. They seem to have emptied the whole warehouse in the docks. I wonder how they got hold of the keys, or have they hotwired them
all?’

Martha took his hand. ‘Brains, dear. The shady deals that the Bandangels and Beylings are involved in are their own doing. You haven’t done anything. You just spilt the
beans.’

‘Yes, I know, but I did it on purpose and I was the one who showed them where the goods were.’

‘It will turn out well, just wait and see.’

‘Hmm, if you say so,’ said Brains, but he still looked rather unhappy. He had come to realize that this was more dangerous than he had anticipated. After all, he had seen all those
cars and boats in the dock warehouse and now they were all on the way here. Tompa might fathom that he would recognize them and might even want to silence him. Brains pondered this, but
didn’t say anything to Martha. He didn’t want to frighten her.

They watched for a long time as their land was covered with cars. In the end, it felt as if it was just noise and images. Exhausted, they went back in.

‘I think we’ve had enough excitement now,’ Martha announced, and she closed the balcony door. ‘Let’s go to bed again; we need all the sleep we can get.’

They all agreed this was a good idea, and retired to their rooms. It was quite a while before they could fall asleep again. It is hard to sleep when stolen goods to a value of millions of kronor
have been put on your land.

They had a rather late breakfast the next day, and after drinking coffee, eating eggs, yoghurt and muesli, they were all back on form. Martha got up and took Brains with her
upstairs. They had a look out of the window. The whole slope was a mess of tyre tracks and the most luxurious cars, trucks and boats were still outside.

‘This is just crazy. A whole garden full of luxury goods,’ said Brains.

‘Yes, now is the time for you to act,’ said Martha. ‘You must make sure you get really angry now, Brains, make a hell of a fuss.’

Angry? But that isn’t so easy, Martha dear. I never lose my temper.’

‘But can’t you see! The whole garden is full of stuff that isn’t ours. It would be strange if we didn’t get furious!’

‘But it’s not that. How can I be really angry when I’m not? I’m just so happy and pleased that, well, you know, you and I . . .’

Martha heard what he said, felt a warm sensation deep inside and completely lost track of what she had been thinking. Suddenly the Great Plan didn’t seem as important any longer. A hug
from Brains and she would feel just as good as after a bank robbery. She was still for a moment.

‘To think that I had to wait such a long time for someone like you,’ Martha mumbled almost inaudibly. ‘It really is so nice that we can do lots of fun things together. Cosy up
and all that . . .’

‘Yes, yes of course.’
It’s just that I find it hard to keep up with all your ideas
, Brains thought, but he was diplomatic enough not to say it out loud. Instead, he
smiled and pulled her towards him. Then suddenly they heard footsteps on the stairs, upon which they moved a few fumbling steps back, cleared their throats and mumbled something about a big and
important task that waited. Then they went down into the kitchen.

‘We must tie up the loose ends now,’ said Martha, and she nodded to the others. ‘It’s high time we confronted the Bandangels, and we’re going to manage
it.’