The Terrorists Read Online Free PDF Page B

case?”
    Bulldozer looked at the spectator, who, however, returned his gaze so directly and demandingly that after a brief glance at Braxén, he let his gaze wander over the judge, the assistant judge and the jury, after which he fixed it on the accused. Rebecka Lind’s own gaze seemed to be fixed in space, far from crazy bureaucrats and all other possible good and evil.
    Bulldozer clasped his hands behind his back and began walking back and forth. “Well, Rebecka,” he said in a friendly way, “what has happened to you is unfortunately something that happens to many young people today. Together we will try to help you … I suppose I may use your first name?”
    The girl did not seem to have heard the question, if it was one.
    “Technically speaking, this is an open-and-shut case, about which there can be little discussion. As was evident at the arraignment—”
    Braxén had appeared to be sunk in his thoughts, but now he suddenly jerked a large cigar out of his inside pocket, pointed it at Bulldozer’s chest and cried, “I object! Neither I nor any other lawyer was present at the arraignment. Was this girl Camilla Lund even informed of her right to counsel?”
    “Rebecka Lind,” said the assistant judge.
    “Yes, yes,” said Crasher impatiently. “That makes her arrest illegal.”
    “Not at all,” said Bulldozer. “Rebecka was asked and she said it didn’t matter. It didn’t, either. As I will shortly show, the case was crystal clear.”
    “The very arraignment was illegal,” said Crasher conclusively. “I would like my objection to be entered in the record.”
    “So, Rebecka,” continued Bulldozer, with that winning smile that was one of his main assets. “Let us now, clearly and truthfully, try to clarify the actual course of events, what happened to you on the twenty-second of May and why it happened. You robbed a bank, certainly out of desperation and thoughtlessness, and then assaulted a policeman.”
    “I object to counsel’s choice of words,” said Crasher. “I object to counsel for the prosecution’s attitude toward both myself and this girl.”
    Bulldozer for once appeared put out. But he soon collectedhimself and, in as good form as ever, gesticulating and smiling, pursued his case to its conclusion, despite the fact that Braxen interrupted him no fewer than forty-two times, often with totally incomprehensible objections.
    Briefly, the case was as follows: Shortly before two o’clock on the twenty-second of May, Rebecka Lind had walked into the PK Bank’s branch in Midsommarkransen and gone up to one of the tellers. She had been carrying a large shoulder bag, which she placed on the counter. She then demanded money. The teller noticed that she was armed with a large knife and set off the police alarm with her foot as she began to fill the bag with bundles of notes, amounting to a sum of five thousand Swedish kronor. Before Rebecka Lind had time to leave the bank with her booty, the first of the radio patrol cars arrived. Two policemen with guns drawn went into the bank and disarmed the robber, at which a certain tumult arose, during which the notes were scattered over the floor. The police arrested the robber, and the prisoner offered violent resistance, inflicting on the policemen damage to their uniforms. They drove her to the station on Kungsholm. The robber, who turned out to be eighteen-year-old Rebecka Lind, was taken first to the Criminal Division duty office and was then transferred to the special department concerned with bank robberies. She was immediately charged with suspected armed robbery of a bank and assault of a policeman, and the following day was formally arraigned at a singularly brief transaction before the Stockholm assize court.
    Bulldozer admitted that certain judicial formalities had not been observed in connection with the arraignment, but pointed out that, technically speaking, these were of no importance. Rebecka Lind had herself been quite uninterested