Well, let’s see. It goes back a long way. You were just a kid when Grogan started running things in this neighborhood. He was born and raised here in the Swamp and according to what you’ve heard from the talkers, he started his career as an ordinary hoodlum. So before he was twenty he’d done some time at the Industrial School for Boys. But that was the only stretch. He came out very educated, and even though they grabbed him time and time again, they couldn’t get a thing on him. It was either lack of evidence or lack of witnesses, especially lack of witnesses. You look back through the records, it shows quite a few names that suddenly left town. At least it was said they left town. The fact that they were never seen again is something else. It sorta ties in with that old saying, that friendly suggestion—if you live in the Swamp and you wanna keep living, don’t tangle with Grogan.

All right, that’s one thing. And the other thing is the money. Where does all the money come from? Well, the list of properties shows the taproom and the poolroom, the dry-cleaning shop and the pawnshop. And the rent that comes in from damn near every rent payer in the Swamp. So put all that together and it mounts up. But it’s only part of the money. A very small part.

The real money is the haul from the other activities—the transactions and manipulations that nobody talks about. Not when they’re sober or in their right mind, that is. But there were times when some poor fool would have one drink too many, and then it would slip out. So you remember hearing talk about such matters as extortion and strong-arm protection. And some smuggling. And hijacking. All big-time operations ranging from truckload to carload to shipload. That’s money, all right. That’s heavy gold.

So come to think of it, he didn’t hafta tell you that he’s got a bundle stashed away. You coulda guessed that. Or decided that. And you’re only one of many. It amounts to a long list, this list of people who can guess or decide that Grogan ain’t been paying the income tax he ought to be paying. You can’t start checkin’ the names of that list. You wouldn’t know where to start; there’s too many names and this ain’t like using an index. There’s no way to classify or narrow it down to just a few. I think that fifteen grand is very far away. And I think—