The Father: Made in Sweden Part I (37 page)

You have no other sons! But I have two brothers!

A hundred and forty kilometres per hour.

You failed! I succeeded!

It wasn’t until Jasper pulled hard on his arm and screamed loudly that he slowed abruptly. While trying not to miss the exit to the back roads, he’d temporarily lost control of the car, and the police scanner had fallen out of Jasper’s lap.

They were on a narrow, winding road through woods and meadows and past the occasional lake. Outside, the fields had turned from white to mostly brown, dirt and grass, after a week of above-freezing temperatures, a dirty, irregular blanket. The petrol station was on the only short straight section of the road, closed after the construction of the nearby motorway. He slowed down and drove into the hidden area behind the building – yellow blinds and petrol prices still at 76.40 kronor – and parked the company car next to the stolen Mercedes that Felix and Vincent had arrived in.

They broke the padlock on the rusty metal door with a pair of bolt cutters, replaced it with a new one, and put all their equipment on a worn counter next to a half-open cash register. In silence – other than the creak of the faded Caltex signs swinging in the wind – they changed from one uniform to another. Leo helped Vincent tighten his bulletproof vest around his thin bare chest.

It would never change, thought Leo, no matter how many banks they robbed – the body he was strapping into this bulletproof vest was the same one that had once worn a green snowsuit zipped up to the chin, so
no snow could get in. And it was only when Felix asked for the third time,
what the hell’s the matter?
, and he answered for the third time,
nothing
, that he stopped pulling on the straps.

The two wristwatches on Leo’s right arm were on a little tight, because it was important for the jumpsuit fabric to stay put underneath. The first one was old with squat, red, ugly hands, but he’d replaced the strap with a new light brown leather one. He’d bought the other watch as an adult: a Rolex with a watchcase of brushed steel, a face with luminous hands, and clockwork that ticked the seconds loud enough to hear them.

Leo, according to his handwritten note, had to keep track of six different time frames.

This phase held the least amount of risk. From construction clothing into their robbery outfits at an abandoned petrol station and their first car change to a Mercedes. Drive nine and a half kilometres to the second car and switch to the stolen Volkswagen Beetle. Drive two kilometres to Ösmo Square.

And this part would be the riskiest. They would have just committed two bank robberies. They’d be driving down minor roads with little traffic between Ösmo and Sorunda, first in a stolen Volkswagen Beetle that witnesses would see and the police would be able to identify, and then in a stolen Mercedes. But a bomb would also have sent large sections of the police force to attend Stockholm Central Station fifty kilometres away.

These phases had an elevated, but manageable level of risk. From the third bank they would head back to their starting point, the abandoned petrol station, where they would switch from their robbery gear into their construction clothes, from the stolen Mercedes to a company car. And that was what he was using the older watch for: to keep track of the total time –
31 minutes
– during which they could be captured.

Both of Leo’s watches read 14.51. One minute left of
Stage 1
. They arrived at Ösmo Square via streets of villas, townhouses, apartment blocks. And in the distance there was a roof below which a lonely old man was eating onions and smoked pork.

The Beetle took the final turn past a library and an indoor swimming pool and into the car park in front of a U-shaped shopping centre.

‘Down,
now
,’ said Leo. ‘Twenty seconds to go.’

Combat pack and bulletproof vest on, a heavy weapon balanced on his thighs, Leo pulled the ski mask over his head, straightened the holes at the eyes.

‘Ten seconds.’

Slow breaths.

‘Five seconds.’

A gentle bump and the car left the road and rolled across the square towards those big store windows and the two banks that shared a wall.

‘Exactly three minutes. Two of them – simultaneously. Then we’ll meet here again.’

Police Unit: Crime	Police Unit: Crime
Offence: Robbery	Offence: Robbery
Witness: Hansen, TOMAS	Witness: Lindh, MARIT
Loc: Handels Bank Ösmo C	Loc: SE-Bank Ösmo C
A lone gunman rushed in wearing a black ski mask and shouted ‘Down! Get down!’ and fired several shots at one camera on the ceiling and one on the wall.	Two men in black ski masks rushed in and shouted ‘Lie down on the floor!’ and both fired about twenty shots at two cameras.
Hansen was standing in the customer queue, and a woman screamed she had to get out and ran towards the door. The robber then grabbed hold of her jacket.	Lindh watched as one of the robbers jumped over the counter and asked ‘Who’s got the keys to the vault?’
The woman continued screaming as the robber pushed her to the ground. At that point one of the bank staff told her to be quiet and lie still.	Lindh took the key lying on her desk, pressed the button to the bank gate and opened the inner vault.
After what Hansen describes as ‘a moment’ the screaming woman stood up. He then observed how the robber and a cashier went into the vault, while another robber stood outside the window and took aim at him.	When the robbers were in the vault Lindh heard the buzzing sound, which meant that the cash drawer units were being opened. They emptied them one at a time. She was encouraged to lie down again and noticed that they were wearing identical boots.
When the lone robber left the vault, he was carrying a large bag over his shoulder. He passed the woman on his way out. As Hansen remembers it, she was frightened and screaming the whole time.	A loud voice said ‘Five seconds left, out out!’ before both robbers disappeared. Lindh adds that during the robbery she could hear the shots and screams coming from the bank next door.