The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again! by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg Page B

effort. She
thought about Anders and Emma, and was grateful that they had helped her with the gym. They had realized that she was cooking up some new robbery plans and they understood how stupid it would be if
somebody was to fall and fracture their thigh right in front of the police. Suddenly the music stopped.
    ‘Oh dear, the music system evidently isn’t entirely synchronized yet,’ said Martha and she went up to the apparatus. The others relaxed and started to gather their things
together. ‘Hold it there, we must go on. With a bit of gymnastics we will all be a lot fitter . . .’
    ‘ . . . to carry out new bank robberies,’ Brains finished the sentence for her.
    ‘I didn’t know you needed wall bars, rowing machines and treadmills to commit crimes,’ Rake muttered.
    ‘Exercise strengthens your arms and legs, and it will be helpful if we have to carry cases full of banknotes,’ Martha went on, panting while she checked the cables. But the music
system had conked out. It had been tampered with and didn’t seem to want to play CDs. So instead they tried to connect to the vinyl gramophone – which pleased Anna-Greta.
    ‘It can be a bit tricky connecting a vinyl gramophone to this music machine,’ said Brains and he went and stood next to Martha. ‘Let me have a look.’
    He fiddled around with the cables and before long the music started up again. Martha gave him an appreciative look and went back to her place.
    ‘Ready? Up, stretch, switch and up again, twist and bend down! That’s the way! And one more time!’ she called out.
    ‘Stuff this, I’ve had enough,’ said Rake stopping in the middle of a move.
    ‘But, my dear, you who are so fond of women. And they like a nice body to look at, don’t they? Not everybody is in as good a shape as you,’ said Martha.
    Rake changed his mind and returned to his place. But before long Brains, too, protested.
    ‘I think we’ve done enough gymnastics now,’ Brains panted, and pointed at his sodden T-shirt.
    Martha lowered her arms. Perhaps she was too demanding. But if you were going to rob a bank then you couldn’t just fall over and end up lying on the floor with bundles of banknotes around
you. However, if the others were tired, then she would have to adapt to that.
    ‘OK, we’ll say that’s enough for today,’ said Martha. ‘After a shower we can get together and have a drink. It’s time to go through our plan.’
    ‘
Your
plan,’ Rake pointed out, and he picked up a towel and went on his way. Christina watched him a long time.
    ‘I don’t know what’s the matter with Rake. He’s become so sensitive lately.’
    ‘It’s probably my fault,’ Martha sighed. ‘I decide too much. Men don’t like that.’
    ‘No, it isn’t that. He’s been so difficult recently, it’s as though we’re not on the same wavelength. It feels like he doesn’t care about me any
more.’
    ‘But, Christina, you know he is very fond of you. You are his best friend.’
    ‘Friend – but that’s just it. We have been more than that, but now it feels as if he just isn’t here, so to speak.’
    ‘Men live in their own world, and women in ours. Now and then they collide, but that can’t happen all the time,’ Martha consoled her. ‘And here I am bossing and ordering
people about all the time. That’s a sensitive issue, I can tell you.’
    ‘Don’t worry about it, because if you hadn’t organized us we would never have achieved anything at all,’ said Christina.
    Then Martha, warm and sweaty though she was, went right up to her friend and gave her a big hug.
    ‘You know what?’ Martha said in a warm voice. ‘I think it will all sort itself out, the love bit as well as the money. It always seems to work out in the end.’
    ‘Like hell it does!’ said Rake who happened to pass by them just then.

12
    A few hours later when they had all had a drink and were relaxing in the billiard room down in the cellar, they suddenly heard the sound of