White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz Page A

He didn’t understand it himself most of the time. All he knew was that to do his best work, he needed the solitude and tranquillity of Scargill Cove.
    It was late. The fog-shrouded moon illuminated the looming outlines of the natural foods grocery, the craft galleries and a handful of other shops that composed the town’s tiny commercial district.
    This was July but the windswept cove, with its slice of rocky beach and looming cliffs, attracted few tourists. Those who found their way into town never stayed long, primarily because there was very little in the way of lodging. The Scargill Cove Inn had only six rooms. Visitors hung around just long enough to browse the arts and crafts galleries. They left before sunset in search of accommodations and restaurants farther down the coast.
    Cedric Jones, with his level-ten intuition, had sensed that Scargill Cove would stay undiscovered for a long, long time. He had been right.
    Jones & Jones was a family business with branches in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was founded in the aftermath of the First Cabal in the late 1800s. All the branches were headed by members of the Jones family who had descended from the alchemist founder, Sylvester Jones.
    Most of the time the firm’s various offices were kept busy handling a wide range of security and investigative work for members of the Society and others in the general population who chose to seek the assistance of psychic detectives. But those in the Society who were aware of J&J’s history understood that its primary client was the governing Council of the Arcane Society.
    As far as the Council was concerned, J&J’s chief job was to protect the Society’s most extraordinarily dangerous secret: the founder’s formula.
    The original formula was created by Sylvester Jones. In his private journals he claimed it could greatly enhance psychic abilities in those who possessed at least some traces of paranormal talent. Over the years the formula had become just one more Arcane Society legend as far as most members were concerned. But the Jones family and the Council knew the truth. The formula had existed and it had worked.
    The para-enhancement elixir had also proved to be exceedingly dangerous, its effects wildly unpredictable. Those who had tried it had, indeed, developed frighteningly powerful psychic abilities. But they had also become obsessed with the drug. Inevitably the formula had transformed its users into ruthless, psychically enhanced, highly unstable sociopaths.
    Despite the risks, however, it seemed that in every generation some power-hungry sensitive came along who would stop at nothing to re-create the founder’s formula. Whenever that happened it was understood that it was J&J’s job to deal with the problem.
    In some instances, the person intent on obtaining the formula was merely an unbalanced eccentric or someone who had become fixated on the legend of Sylvester Jones. Generally speaking such individuals did not get far before J&J stepped in to deal with the problem.
    But this latest situation was different. The information that had filtered in thus far suggested that they were dealing with a highly disciplined, carefully structured, utterly ruthless organization. In fact it had all the earmarks of a full-blown conspiracy along the lines of the First Cabal.
    The cabal was another Arcane Society legend, and, like the story of the founder’s formula, it was based on more than a nugget of truth. The original conspiracy formed in the late 1800s. Its goal was to take control of the Society and, using it as a base of power, to extend its tentacles into the highest levels of business and government in the UK.
    The shadowy outlines of this new, modern conspiracy had been revealed over the past few months. At least two Arcane Society lab researchers had disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Their bodies had never been found. A month ago a technician who worked in an Arcane Society facility turned up dead. Just