Tin God by Stacy Green Page B

seem to know much about her personal activities. Then again, his lips are glued to Newton’s backside.”
    “I’ve got some information for you.” Cage said.
    “From where?”
    “Jaymee Ballard.”
    “You got to be kidding me,” Charles said. “I drove that girl to work yesterday. She had all the time in the world to tell me what she knew.”
    “She got the information from someone else. Doesn’t want to get them in trouble.”
    “I’ll bet. What’d she tell you?”
    “Royce Newton’s a special friend of a neighborhood hooker who works with wealthy clientele.”
    “Crystal Harns.”
    Cage’s shoulders rose in a noncommittal shrug. “Few days before Rebecca’s murder, Royce met up with her.” Cage told Charles about Royce’s cryptic conversation with Crystal.
    “Those his exact words?” Charles asked. “‘Rebecca knew about the money, about Jackson. He didn’t know how he was going to get out of it?’ That Rebecca could ruin him?”
    “Far as I know,” Cage said.
    “Well, looks like I’ve got some new questions for Mr. Newton. Maybe he’s our killer after all.”
    Nick cleared his throat. “That’s not all. Jaymee had a run-in with her father yesterday after you dropped her off at work.”
    Charles’s chubby face turned a darker shade of red. “Friggin’ Paul Ballard. I’ve heard enough stories from my wife about Sonia Ballard’s strange bruises to know he’s a bastard.”
    “She remembers Rebecca telling her about an altercation she had with Paul after a city council meeting shortly before she died.”
    “Come on, now,” Charles said after Nick finished telling him the story. “I know she’s your friend, Cage, and I ain’t saying she’s a bad kid, but she’s not known for her relationship with her father. I remember what happened in ’06.”
    He looked pointedly at Nick. “She’d been gone for a spell. Supposedly for discipline issues, although she was never in any trouble. Came back in September, I think. Couple months later, out of nowhere, she loses it in church. Her daddy’s up there on the pulpit–he’s a deacon–and she rips into him faster than a mama pig protecting her babies. Put him in the hospital with a mild heart attack. Course, she’d already headed to Jackson. Didn’t come back for a month or more.”
    “That must have been when she came to Jackson and stayed with Lana,” Nick said. He wanted to tell Charles exactly why Jaymee had called her father out, but that would destroy his chances of earning her trust.
    “It was,” Cage snapped. “And you know everything she said about Ballard is true.”
    Charles shrugged. “Probably. But now the only member of her family to pay her any attention is her brother. So Daddy shows up at the diner, lays into her about what?”
    “Arriving at work in a police car.”
    “Shit.” Charles looked ashamed. “Didn’t mean for that to happen. But he no doubt chewed her up and down. She’s got to be fuming, and rightly so. Perfect chance for her to get back at him.”
    “She wouldn’t do that. Jaymee cared about Rebecca.” Cage got to his feet. “So you don’t believe her?”
    “I believe Crystal Harns was blowing Royce Newton. I believe he probably ran his mouth to her. But do I think Paul Ballard told our dead lady he was going to smite his enemies?” Charles pulled himself from the chair, and it puffed a loud, grateful sigh. “Maybe. Doesn’t mean he acted on it. But I’ll check with the city council people, see if they remember anything.”
    Nick stood, too. “The same person who killed Rebecca Newton killed my wife.” He pointed to the baggie with the note. “That’s no coincidence, Detective.”
    Charles grunted. “You show this note to the Jackson P.D.?”
    “No. Cage told me about the murder here, and I headed down.”
    Charles fingered the baggie, tracing the type with his jagged nail. “Typewriter, not a word processor.”
    “Right.”
    “I’ll send this to the state lab,” Charles