Free Permanent Sunset by C. Michele Dorsey Page A

love to get out of these clothes. Any idea when we can get some of our stuff from the villa?” Jack asked. Sabrina looked at him, dressed in a now-wrinkled silk shirt and linen pants, guessing this wasn’t a standard outfit for a guy in construction.
    Henry and Sabrina dragged the two bags of lost and found out into the great room, where they found Paul sitting in a chair looking as if he’d just had a cool shower and put fresh clothes on. They explained that everything in the bags was clean.
    “Oh, look. Fabulous!” Heather said, grabbing a shapeless, gaudy, loose-fitting sleeveless dress in an orange-and-green blossom print. The style wasn’t very different from the green-and-blue polka-dotted dress Heather was already wearing, except hers had two front pockets, which made it seem even more matronly.
    Jack found a pair of Sloop Jones swim trunks, which were hand painted in a wild pattern of red, yellow, and green.
    “Way to go, Jack. I don’t know how those got by me. Sloop’s a local artist and hand paints all his stuff. You just scored,” Henry said.
    Sabrina winced, catching Paul shaking his head at Henry’s familiarity, but Jack just grinned as he reached in trying to find a T-shirt.
    Kate found a skirt and tank top.
    Henry handed out the toothbrushes and toothpaste that Ten Villas kept stocked. Paul accepted a fresh Izod shirt from Sabrina. It was beginning to feel a little like a party on Gilligan’s Island.
    Sabrina suggested they all sit so she and Henry could serve them dinner. This time Paul surprised her.
    “You and Henry have been working all day, first thinking you were throwing a wedding and then helping us after . . . after, well, you know. Please join us,” he said, taking a place at the head of the table, while Jack moved toward the opposite seat, like two chairmen of the board commencing a meeting.
    “There’s cold champagne I could open, unless you think it inappropriate given the circumstances,” Sabrina said, hating how awkward she sounded. But how the hell was she supposed to know if it was bad taste or simply an act of kindness to offer champagne after someone was murdered? Really, she had read all the etiquette books ranging from Miss Manners to Emily Post in an effort to compensate for her own lack of experience, but none of them had prepared her for this. She supposed she had the breeding, given the substantial amount of wealth on her mother’s side of the family, but without someone to modelmanners and social grace, Sabrina had to educate herself on social skills.
    “Yes, let’s open the champagne and eat and gather our strength for what lies ahead,” Kate said, taking a seat next to her husband.
    Henry had inserted place settings for them. He sat next to Heather, while Sabrina sat next to Paul on one side with an empty chair reserved for Sean on the other, in case he woke up and decided to join them.
    Henry began passing the serving dishes. The conversation dwindled as they ate their way through the wedding menu. Sabrina was impressed by how tasty the combination of salads and cold foods were, silently admiring Elena for being right in all her choices. She felt a little guilty for enjoying a meal that should have been part of the celebration of a marriage, not comfort after a death. But Kate was right. They had all been through an ordeal and needed to fortify themselves. And it wasn’t like they were eating the wedding cake, which sat on a shelf in the middle of the refrigerator at Villa Nirvana. Would the police appreciate the elegance of Elena’s wedding menu?
    She heard the sound of a car engine, then saw lights shining into the garden from the driveway. Who would be coming to Bella Vista at this hour?
    Henry rose from the table, leaving the dining room and walking toward the front door as Sabrina heard the loud knocks. After some low murmuring, Henry enteredthe dining room, followed by Detective Hodge and Sergeant Detree.
    “I’ve come to ask several important