Hanrahan said when he checked into the station a little after noon. “Just checked with the state attorney’s office.” “Can’t keep a bad man down,” Lieberman said, offering his partner a Life Saver. Hanrahan took it. They were at Hanrahan’s desk with Lieberman sucking a mint and standing with arms folded trying to come back from a distant thought. “Seems Mike had enough sense and money to hire Herberts,” said Hanrahan. “Kid he was up against in the state attorney’s office was ready to deal after five minutes with Herberts. Misdemeanor fraud. Five-hundred-dollar fine. Probation. Judge said, ‘Fine.’ Mike walked and we’ve already got a call in from downtown that an old lady on the South Side talked to good old Mike and he convinced her that her roof was dangerous and needed immediate replacements four thousand bucks. Lady says she’ll think about it and ask her grandson. Mike says she has to take the special offer now or … The lady is about to celebrate her eighty-fourth birthday, is almost blind, Black, a devout Baptist living on Social Security and a very small pension, but she insists that she has to talk to her grandson.
