Permanent Sunset by C. Michele Dorsey Read Free Book Online Page B

chimed in.
    “This really does sound more like suicide. Did anyone look for a note?” Neil asked.
    Jack, Kate, and Sean all looked at one another like they’d been poked with a cattle prod.
    “Neil, we haven’t been allowed to do anything other than sit at this table. The cops barely let me get into dry clothes. They’re treating the Keatings like they’re criminals rather than a family who has just suffered a tragedy,” Sabrina said.
    Neil had been so focused on talking to Sabrina and the Keating family that he hadn’t noticed everyone had left the other tables, including the waitstaff from Ten Villas, with the exception of two men sitting several tables away.
    “Who are those two guys?” Neil asked.
    “My other son, Gavin, and the company CFO, Paul Blanchard,” Jack said.
    “Have the cops come over and told you not to discuss the case with anyone?” Neil asked.
    Everyone shook their heads.
    “Good. Let’s chat a little before they’re on to us.”

Chapter Eleven
    Sabrina’s heart warmed at the huskiness in Neil’s voice inviting all of them to have a chat. She was grateful for his presence and willingness to become involved, regardless of what happened to their personal relationship. He could be maddening, but there was something comforting about Neil. He had a sense of confidence that suggested he would get to the bottom of whatever it was. No big deal. We’ll get it fixed. Sabrina was more worried about her business’s reputation than being the person who found the body, but she still didn’t like being this close to another investigation. She hoped there would be a resolution long before anyone in the press connected Elena’s death to her name.
    She knew it would always be like this. She carried her own story like a string of tin cans tied to a car bumper after a wedding. She hadn’t meant to kill Ben when she’d fled to their Nantucket vacation home after learning he was cheating on her. How was she to know he’d pick the samenight—in the middle of the freakin’ winter, no less—to bring his bimbo to their summer home? She’d thought there was a burglar in the house when she heard those noises and used Ben’s own gun to fend off an intruder.
    Except it wasn’t an intruder. It had been her husband, and Sabrina had been tried for first-degree murder. Though acquitted, she lost everything she had scrambled so hard to earn. Her job as a Boston television meteorologist, her home on Beacon Hill, and most importantly, her privacy. Tabloid television featured her case every night for nearly two years.
    Crime fighter and INN (In News Network) television host Faith Chase had tried to reignite the case against Sabrina a few months before when a villa guest had been murdered and Sabrina had discovered the body. She’d enlisted Neil’s help with that case and hoped that if they were as successful working together on this one, she and Ten Villas would escape unscathed from this event. Sabrina knew she was stuffing her personal feelings for Neil down deep inside her, a survivor’s skill she had learned as a child when she constantly had to explain the absence of her mother and had to live with the unpredictability that life with an alcoholic father brought. When you are always living on the edge, emotions become a luxury you can’t indulge.
    “Listen, folks, I’m happy to help you out here as much as I can, but you know I don’t practice law anymore. I can maybe help you sort through some of this and thenmake a couple of calls to local counsel if you think you want or need representation. Do you mind if I ask a few questions?”
    When no one objected, Neil jumped right in.
    “When is the last time each of you saw Elena alive? Sean, you go first.”
    “Last night when I went to her room to ask her one more time if she wouldn’t just sign the prenup to keep my family happy. I told her I would never enforce it. She threw me out of the room,” Sean said, shaking his head as if he couldn’t