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“Who did you find?”

DJ hesitated. He apparently heard about what happened in Bridell. “My son.”

“Tim Jamison?”

Another hesitation. “Yeah.”

“How much did Delvin Armstrong agree to pay you?”

“Five thousand upfront. Five thousand when the job was done.”

That small amount of money, William wanted to say, but he held his tongue. He knew his lifestyle was grossly overexaggerated compared to most people. To many, ten thousand dollars was real money.

“How much did you pay your son?” Max asked DJ.

“Half of that.”

“Have you received the other half you were promised?”

“No,” DJ said. But Joy was less concerned about the money than she was about the man he was accusing.

“But this doesn’t make sense,” she said to him. “Gramps never broke the law in his life, but he hired a hit man? Why? And why would he want to kill my husband? He’s never been against William like that. He even came to our wedding and walked me down the aisle. Why would he want to kill the man he handed me over to? Why would he want to kill William?”

“He doesn’t,” DJ admitted.

Everybody looked at him. Especially Max. “What do you mean he doesn’t? You told my guys he hired you to kill Skeffington. You said he wanted to kill Skeffington.”

“He does. But not William Skeffington. Joy Skeffington. He wants to kill her,” he said, and pointed at Joy.

William’s heart dropped. Joy’s heart sank. “That can’t be true,” she said.

“That man is like a grandfather to my wife,” said a now-angry William. “Why would he hire you to kill her?”

“You’ll have to ask him that.”

“Was there anybody else involved besides your brother?” Max asked him.

DJ shook his head. “No.”

“Are you sure about that?” William asked him.

“Yeah I’m sure, dang, what y’all want from me? What y’all coming down so hard on me for? Delvin started this shit, I didn’t. He’s the one that got the ball rolling. I already lost my son! What more y’all want?”

Nobody at that table had any sympathy for DJ. It was his decision to take the money, if that was what happened, that led to his son’s death. He roped his son into that craziness, not them. William and Joy stood up.

Max stood up too. “How you wanna play it, Boss? Want me to bring Gramps in?”

Joy was horrified at the thought. William was too. “No,” he said. “We’ll go to Bridell. Whatever’s going on, it may all be going on right there in Bridell.”

“What about this character?” Max asked, motioning toward DJ.

“Keep him here under heavy guard. If we turn him over to the authorities now they’ll arrest Gramps before we can talk to him. We need to hear what Gramps has to say first. Then we turn him over.”

“But it’s not true,” Joy said, looking mainly at DJ. “There is no way Gramps would hire somebody to kill me. Why that’s ridiculous and you know it!”

“I don’t know shit!” DJ fired back.

William looked at DJ. “Watch who you’re talking to,” he said firmly.