to elevate moods in normal people. I thought there might be a way to use light from the paranormal end of the spectrum on those with talent to achieve similar positive effects.”
“I understand,” Fallon said.
“I was working from the records of one of my ancestors, a spectrum energy-talent who lived back in the nineteen thirties. I came up with a device that combined various kinds of amber and quartz that are naturally para-luminescent and para-phosphorescent.”
“Oh, boy,” Isabella muttered. “Geek talk. I think my eyes are starting to glaze over.”
Jenny ignored her. She continued talking earnestly to Fallon. “On their own, the rocks don’t have much effect, but when arranged in certain ways and activated by the right kind of mirrors, well, you know what happened. The effects ranged from euphoria to hallucinations and disorientation. All short-term but highly unpredictable.”
“I admit this isn’t my field,” Isabella said. “But the theory behind your research sounds very intriguing.”
“It is,” Jenny said. “And I still think there is a lot of potential in it. But as soon as I ran some tests on my own version of what Tucker called my magic lantern, I realized that although it was a mood enhancer in very small doses, the side effects could be devastating. I could not come up with a safe way to use it in a naturopathic manner.”
“But by then Tucker had learned about your experiments and concluded that it might make an attraction at his club,” Fallon said.
“I swear, I didn’t know that he was the secret owner of the Arcane Club,” Jenny whispered.
“I didn’t know it, either, until the end,” Fallon said.
Jenny sniffed into the handkerchief. “It doesn’t matter now, but I want you to know that I didn’t construct the magic lanterns for him. He used my notes and made them himself. They aren’t that hard to build if you have the right quartz and amber and an obsidian mirror.”
“I never believed that you were involved in the club lanterns,” Fallon said.
Jenny gave him a wan smile. “The thing is, I believed him when he told me that you were the real owner of the club and that you were dealing some kind of terrible psychic drug. After he . . . died I had to go on believing that what he had told me was the truth. The alternative was just too awful.”
Isabella touched Jenny’s shoulder. “You’ve accepted your brother’s guilt, haven’t you? That’s no longer the source of your pain. It’s your sense of responsibility that is driving you into despair.”
“It was all my fault.” Jenny sighed. “If I hadn’t run the experiments with those damn rocks and if I hadn’t demonstrated the results to Tucker—”
“If it hadn’t been the magic-lantern technology, it would have been something else that got Tucker into trouble,” Fallon said. “He liked living on the edge. As time went by, the adrenaline rush of proving that he was smarter and faster than everyone else became his personal drug of choice.”
“Yes,” Jenny said. “I think you’re right. His need to take risks was an addiction. Everyone in the family knew that. My poor mother worried constantly that he would get himself killed on one of his J&J assignments.”
“Proving that he could outmaneuver Jones & Jones was the ultimate challenge,” Fallon said.
Jenny dabbed at her eyes with the handkerchief. “Even knowing Tucker as well as I did, I still let him convince me that you were the bad guy. Can you ever forgive me?”
“I never blamed you,” Fallon said. “You had to make a choice between believing your brother or a man you did not know very well. Hell, if I’d been in your shoes, I would have made the same choice.”
Jenny looked at him with unconcealed desperation. “Do you really think so?”
“Family is something we Joneses understand,” Fallon said.
Jenny crushed the handkerchief in her hand and closed her eyes. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you, Fallon.”
Isabella hugged her again. “Now you need to forgive yourself, Jenny. That’s the only way to make the fog go away.”
Jenny opened her eyes, bewildered. “Fog? What are you talking about?”
Isabella smiled and released her. “Never mind. Just a figure of speech.”
Jenny turned back to Fallon. “You were right.”
“About what?” he asked.
“A moment ago you said that I’d been forced to choose between believing my brother or a man I did not know very well. That’s the truth. I didn’t know you very well, Fallon.”
“No,” he agreed.
“Even if things had been different, I don’t think that would have