kidnapped Lily a few months ago, but Iâm not clear on any other details about him.â
Nan shook her head. âItâs one of those sad stories that defy explanation. How can one son turn out so bad, how can one man create such havoc?â
âHe did more than kidnap Lily? That I remember, of course, but Emmett said heâs also murdered some others. And that Ryan is a distant relative. Is that why Lily was targeted?â
âThe connection between the Jamisons and the Fortunes is one of those sagas that more than one family could probably find hiding along with the skeletons in their closets. Ryan told Dean and me about it before his death, and apparently itâs a story that Jason Jamison knew as wellâand then twisted in his mind to become the motivation for his crimes.â
âWhat exactly is the connection between the Jamisons and the Fortunes?â
âItâs a who, â Nan replied. âKingston Fortune, Ryanâs father.â
And Rickyâs grandfather, Linda thought. Cameron, Rickyâs father, had been Ryanâs older brother and so would have been another of Kingston Fortuneâs sons. âGo on,â she said.
âIn Iowa in the early 1900s, a handsome son of a wealthy family, Travis Jamison, got a young farm girl pregnant. He was shipped out of state before he knew about the child, and its unwed, disgraced mother left the baby boy with a family in the next countyâthe Fortunes, who named him Kingston. It was he who built the Fortune empire here in San Antonio and in the Red Rock area.â
âSo who put the Jamisons and the Fortunes in touch with each other again?â
âTravis Jamisonâs sister discovered the connection. Travis married, had two sons, and then died in the 1930s. But Aunt Bonnie doted on Travisâs sons, Joseph and Farley. Farley went to law school and then into politics. He married and had three children, none who truly inherited his same itch for power. He lost an important election, and it was then that Aunt Bonnie told him about a long-lost relative sheâd foundâKingston Fortune. He was Farleyâs half brother, wealthy and influential enough to buy Farley a powerful political office in Texas.â
Lindaâs soup bowl was empty. She reached for the basket of crusty rolls. A story like this one was good for her appetite. âDid Kingston help Farley?â
Nan shook her head. âHe wouldnât even meet with him. The more uncooperative Kingston was, the more Farley became obsessed with him. He ultimately ended up in a rundown cabin outside of Houston, where he would rant and rave about the Texas Fortunes to anyone who would listen, particularly one of his grandsons.â
âJason.â
âThatâs right. Farleyâs son Blake had three boys, Christopher, Jason and Emmett. Christopher was a teacherââ
âAnd Emmett an FBI agent.â
âAnd Jasonâ¦â Nan shrugged. âIn my youth, we called a boy like that one a bad seed.â
âWhat did he want from the Fortunes?â
Nan shrugged again. âThe papers speculate that he started out wanting to ruin Ryan Fortuneâs businesses as retribution for the help never given to Farley. Who knows? The fact is, his older brother Christopher tracked Jason here to Texas last year hoping to steer him away from his dangerous interest in the Fortunes. But Jason killed Christopher.â
Linda gasped. âOne of the people he murdered was his own brother?â
âThatâs right. He dumped the body in Lake Mondo, but when it was recovered it was found to have a birthmark on the back right hipâa birthmark distinctive to the Fortunes of Texas.â
âDoes Ricky?â
Nan nodded. âRicky has it, too. When the body from the lake was ultimately identified as Christopher Jamison, it was his father, Blake Jamison, who told Ryan of the circumstances of Kingston Fortuneâs birth.