He gives Ree money that had been meant to cover the rest of Jessup's bond, saying the person who put it up won't be around to collect it.
How is this linked to Jessup's murder? The money was given for Jessup's bail so that he would be free for the cookers to kill him before trial? Knowing Ree's plight, they decide to let the money go to her instead?
"Well that's, like, ya know, your opinion, man..." -The Dude
My take - Jessup was going to snitch so somebody put up the bond anonymously to free him from custody so they could kill him to stop him.
They can't go back and claim the money because that would tie them to the murder - this is also partly why Ree lies to the sheriff regarding how she found her father's hands.
So with the money unclaimed the bondsman gave it to Ree.
In the book, the bondsman is very impressed by Ree, though he subordinates it to getting his money back from the court. Not only does he give her the leftover money, but he considers giving her a job when she is older.
shareJessup put up the house and the woodlot and it wasn't enough to bond him out.
Some unnamed others put up the rest so that Jessup gets out of jail. And he goes off with them.
Two possibilities:
Bonded out by people who want him to continue cooking meth.
Bonded out by people who know he's been informing and want to kill him.
Any rate, the amount of the bond (and the refund to Ree) is more than just clearing the title to the house and woodlot. She gets the the rest because no one is coming to claim it (and the bondsman likes her).
I think the second possibility has some merit because Teardrop thinks he knows who killed Jessup.
There is no way the anonymous guy was coming back for the money since now they know that Jessup is dead (and they would think it was murder), the most logical guilty party would be the person who bailed him out of jail.
shareIn the book, the bail bondsman describes the man who paid the rest of the bail well enough for Teardrop to figure out his identity.
The bail bondsman said that the man was half-asleep or looked like he was falling asleep or something like that.
One of the characters mentioned in the book was "Sleepy John" who was in Thump Milton's gang.
This is how Teardrop knew who had killed Jessup.