Permanent Sunset (9 page)

Sabrina checked her cell phone for messages once she and Henry were back in the van. Reception was so spotty on island that you had to check frequently if you wanted to be able to respond to things as they came in. Sure enough, there was one from Detective Hodge, which she played for Henry, instructing her to have her guests return to Villa Nirvana at 3:00 when they could pick up some of their possessions and be interviewed. They would not be permitted to stay at the villa until the “public safety issues” had been resolved. It wasn’t necessary for the young Keating children to come.

Sabrina fumed. Public safety issues. What BS. They needed to resolve Elena’s murder quickly before Hodge used this subterfuge to undermine their entire business. Henry had managed to spin the last murder at one of their villas so that people were actually clamoring to stay there, but a second homicide might be pushing it.

“I appreciate how difficult it must have been for you to ask David for help, Henry. Let me make the next part of your day a little easier. I’ll pick up Gavin and Lisa at the Westin. You can take the rest of the clan up at Bella Vista. It’s my turn to deal with Gavin,” Sabrina said.

“Okay,” Henry sighed. Sabrina wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk about David or not. She wanted to be a supportive friend but wasn’t sure if that meant letting Henry have some time to digest his first meeting with David or encouraging him to talk about it. How did people know these things? Why didn’t she have this sense others seemed to take for granted? She plunged in any way.

“‘Whatever it takes’ is a huge commitment,” Sabrina said.

“David’s good at words. Let’s see him put them into action.”

Sabrina drove to Henry’s condominium on Gifft Hill and switched to the Ten Villas Jeep Wrangler since she would have only two passengers. She called Lisa Keating’s cell phone rather than Gavin’s and left a message that she would pick them up shortly. Sabrina had been careful to collect the cell phone numbers of the entire Keating clan before they’d arrived on St. John. With so many people attending an event and staying at various places, the chances of something unplanned happening were high. She just hadn’t known it would be a murder.

Lisa answered the door before Sabrina had a chance to knock. She was dressed in a different outfit than Sabrina
remembered from the beach just twenty-four hours earlier. The Westin had several high-fashion, pricey boutiques, and Lisa was definitely not dressed in clothes from the lost-and-found bags. Sabrina noted she was wearing a blouse with long sleeves that covered the marks on her arms.

“I saw you coming. Kind of hard to miss that shade of green,” Lisa said, smiling.

“A business decision I have lived to regret,” Sabrina said, not for the first time wishing she and Henry had not chosen the gecko-green color for their Wrangler, but she laughed with Lisa, whom she noticed was sipping what appeared to be a Bloody Mary.

“Can I offer you one?” Lisa asked.

“I better not. Where’s Gavin?” Sabrina asked, looking around the spacious but generically decorated room.

“He’s going to meet us there. He had some calls to make and the reception here is lousy, so he drove over to the Park Department, where Anneka said he’d have four bars. He’s really worried about how Elena’s death will affect the company.”

What a pompous prig
, Sabrina thought. Gavin was more worried about collateral damage to the business than he was about his family. His half brother’s bride is murdered and all he can think about is how it could hurt Keating Construction. She hoped Detective Hodge wouldn’t be annoyed with her because Gavin was coming on his own
rather than in her care. At this point, Hodge was ready to pile the blame on Ten Villas for just about anything.

“Are the kids with him?” Sabrina asked, realizing how quiet the condo was.

“Are you kidding? No, Gavin wouldn’t know what to do with one of the girls, let alone all three. They’re with Anneka over at the hotel pool,” Lisa said, sipping the last of her drink.

“Do I have time for a refill?”

Ever the good girl, Sabrina was ready to tell her no, that Lisa ought to be sober when she talked to the police because you never know how they’re going to interpret your words. Then she realized she wasn’t in charge of Lisa and that maybe Lisa had some information that might shed light on the situation.

“Sure. Do you have a bottle of water?”

“Of course. There’s no shortage of all things liquid on this island, is there?” Lisa said, pouring more vodka than tomato juice into her glass, then handing Sabrina a grapefruit San Pellegrino.

“That’s the truth.” Sabrina thought Lisa would probably succumb to the temptations of island living if left on St. John for too long. For so many people, the booze just flowed too easily to resist and before you knew it, you were either on your way back home after blowing all your money or sitting under the pavilion at Hawksnest at an AA meeting trying to sort it all out with others who had the same proclivity.

“Were you and Elena close?” Sabrina asked, sliding onto a stool at an island counter that separated the living room from the kitchen.

“Close? Ha. I don’t think Elena was close to anyone, including Sean.”

“Why do you say that?” Sabrina asked, hoping she wasn’t pushing too hard. She had no way to gauge it if she were, so why not try?

“Elena wasn’t the kind of woman you got close to. I mean, I can’t imagine going shopping or gossiping with her. She was always planning, thinking. She definitely had a mind for business.”

“Not exactly the one who baked cookies or hosted holidays, I gather,” Sabrina offered, not feeling like she had a pulse on Elena yet.

“Well, funny you should mention that. She wasn’t very domestic, but she was so competitive that it didn’t stop her from trying to control the family holidays.”

“What do you mean?”

“It will probably sound stupid to you, but growing up in an Italian family, Christmas Eve was huge. The Feast of the Seven Fishes was a family tradition and then we’d all go to Midnight Mass,” Lisa said.

“I’ve heard of it. Where did you grow up?” Sabrina asked, surprised to hear Lisa was of Italian descent. She had assumed Lisa was Scandinavian like her mother-in-law, since they were both blonde, which of course was
ridiculous because there are blonde Italians and there are plenty of blondes who are not naturally so.

“Providence, Rhode Island. Federal Hill. You probably never heard of it,” Lisa said.

Sabrina shook her head. “Wrong. I’m from Boston. That’s where the best restaurants in Providence are.”

“Right. So ever since I married Gavin and moved to the West Coast, away from my family, I’ve hosted a traditional Italian Christmas Eve at our home in Corte Madera. I serve seven fish dishes ranging from traditional
baccala
to lobster bisque, in honor of Kate’s Boston roots. The girls help me—well, as much as they can—and it’s become our family tradition. Or had, I should say, until Elena butted in,” Lisa said.

“How so?”

“She insisted on hosting a traditional Puerto Rican Christmas celebration, which of course is also on Christmas Eve. If we were welcoming her into our family, she was sure we would want to include her ethnic heritage, blah, blah, blah. Jack and Kate didn’t know what to say. Sean was so gaga over Elena, it never occurred to him that this might be hurtful to me and the girls. He and Elena weren’t even living together. And Gavin, well, he said it all came down to a business decision. Since Elena was now an important part of the business, he told me to get over it, that I knew where my bread was buttered. Christmas Eve was reduced to a professional choice.”

“I’m sorry,” Sabrina said and meant it. Elena wasn’t turning out to be a very nice woman.

“Here’s the kicker. Sure, Elena served a traditional Puerto Rican meal at her apartment. We had roasted pig,
pasteles
,
gandules
, and even a fabulous
tembleque
, which is a coconut custard that my girls loved. But Elena didn’t cook any of it. She had it prepared by a local Puerto Rican housecleaner and paid for it. She barely touched the food, saying she was more into vegetarian or pescatarian cuisine now. Pescatarian! Tell me, what is more pescatarian than the menu for the Feast of the Seven Fishes?”

“That must have been tough.”

“Everything has been tough since Elena landed into the family. She was so divisive. But Kate said she’d tamed Sean, which was long overdue. He had been living a little too wildly and dangerously.”

“Are he and Gavin as different as they seem?”

“Oh yeah. Like night and day. Gavin’s all business and Sean, well, at least before Elena, was all play,” Lisa said, pulling her hair back into an imaginary ponytail.

Sabrina didn’t think first. She just asked. It had been bothering her ever since Henry told her about the marks on Lisa’s arms.

“Lisa, I don’t want to intrude, but Henry saw the marks on your arms yesterday morning. I know it’s not really my business, except isn’t it everyone’s business to be safe and help other women stay safe? What I’m asking is, do you feel safe? Do you need help?”

Lisa flinched and then turned redder than the Bloody Mary she had just finished.

“Look, we’ve been going through a rough spot. We’re just about to celebrate our tenth anniversary, so who wouldn’t expect a marriage to have a little hiccup?”

“But do you feel safe?” Sabrina asked, figuring she had already fired all her bullets.

“Everyone was so charged up that night. People screaming at Elena to sign the damn prenup. Elena was hysterical, a first, telling everyone she wouldn’t sign the prenup. The wedding be damned. I had had enough of the drama and enough wine that I pulled Gavin to the side and suggested we had better things we could be doing on a warm Caribbean night. The girls were already asleep. He wasn’t exactly receptive to my advances, having been part of the hollering faction. But I persisted until he finally grabbed me by the arms and told me if I wanted to go to bed now, I was welcome to, but that it would be alone. He pressed hard enough to leave those marks, but it’s really my fault for pressuring him. I decided to sleep in the girls’ room and let him cool off. I shouldn’t have been so overbearing.” Lisa sounded pretty sober for a woman who’d just downed two strong drinks.

It’s really my fault? I pressured him to come make love to me? Was Sabrina hearing this right? She didn’t really know what to say next, so she said nothing.

“Look, Sabrina, I know Gavin can be a jerk. Believe me, I probably know better than anyone. But you have to
remember that he hasn’t always had it easy. Overbearing doesn’t begin to describe his mother. She and Jack had the divorce from hell. Then Jack remarries and has another son who displaces Gavin as sole heir. Even Heather diluted Jack’s attention. And Kate was such a warm, loving stepmother, she made Anneka look even worse than she is.”

“Lisa, you don’t have to defend Gavin to me,” Sabrina said. What she didn’t say is there’s no defense for a man abusing his wife.

“Things have been a little better. I know Gavin was about to surprise me with a generous and thoughtful gift for our anniversary. He doesn’t know that I found it in his toiletry bag when I was looking for dental floss. I’ll act surprised when he finally gives it to me,” Lisa said, not seeming to be able to stop herself.

Why do women continue to delude themselves like this? Sabrina wanted to scream. Instead, she decided to pacify Lisa.

“What is it?”

“It’s a lovely necklace with three princess-cut diamonds, symbolizing each of our daughters,” Lisa said, beaming.

Henry was grateful for the quiet time during his drive up to Bordeaux Mountain to retrieve the Keating family. He needed to digest what had just happened. Seeing David sitting on the beach at Gibney felt unnaturally natural. The moment should have felt more awkward, but it didn’t. Blurting out to David that he’d made a mess out of life by foisting Villa Nirvana on Sabrina and asking for help wasn’t how he’d intended to approach the situation. Not much of anything he’d planned lately went accordingly. Maybe he was just too much of a control freak.

He pulled into the shady driveway of Bella Vista, wishing he could just take the day off, go to the beach like everyone who came to visit St. John. Henry had learned early that living on an island didn’t mean you got to go to the beach every day. Sometimes you had to work so hard to afford living here, you could go weeks without a day off.

He spotted Heather sitting on a chaise in the orchid garden with a closed book on her lap. That was another thing he missed—time to read.

“Book no good?” he asked.

Heather looked up at him, shaking her head.

“I wouldn’t know. I can’t see well enough to read without my glasses, but I thought I’d give it a try.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess they’re back at Villa Nirvana. Well, you’ll have them back soon. We can pick up everyone’s stuff, but unfortunately they won’t let you stay there just yet.” Henry was furious Detective Hodge was capitalizing on the situation and using it to discredit Ten Villas.

“Don’t be. I like this house much better. Villa Nirvana may be grander, but it’s got no heart. This house feels like it’s been lived in and loved.”

Henry sat down in the chair opposite Heather. He wasn’t looking forward to returning to Nirvana, where he knew they were all going to be treated to a whole lot more than just the opportunity for the Keatings to retrieve their property. Henry dreaded being interviewed by the police, even though he hadn’t done anything near criminal. He’d just been stupid. Why had he inserted himself in the conflict about the prenup? It really had nothing to do with Ten Villas. Had he been egotistical about performing a “celebrity” wedding of sorts as his first wedding? Or was he drawn to drama? That was something David, and more recently Sabrina, had suggested.

“The Falks have owned this house for decades. Anything they do to it is first rate. Look at the Swedish tiles throughout the house, and that kitchen is to die for.” Henry liked that Heather appreciated Bella Vista.

“I really don’t think it’s a good idea to put us all under one roof right now, especially not at Villa Nirvana,” Heather said.

“I get the Villa Nirvana part, but why wouldn’t you all want to be together at a time like this?”

“I don’t think my family will ever be the same after this, Henry. Not that we were perfect before. There’s always been tension between Gavin and Sean, especially when Elena became part of the picture.”

“Well, not to be insensitive, but with Elena gone, won’t the family situation improve? And why did Elena make Sean and Gavin more at odds? I don’t get it.” The enigmatic Elena seemed as mysterious in life as in her death.

“She was Sean’s fiancée, but she was Gavin’s business protégé, although sometimes it really appeared that Elena was in charge. Once Gavin hired her, everything changed. Keating Construction was transformed from a parking garage construction firm to one building luxury villas for elite international businesses. With Jack and Paul ready to retire in three years, Gavin and Elena, and eventually Sean once he became smitten with Elena, persuaded them the company needed to take a new direction if it was to grow,” Heather said, placing the book on the table next to her. Henry could see she had picked up Herman
Wouk’s
Don’t Stop the Carnival
, a classic spoof about chasing dreams of living in the Caribbean.

“Was Sean opposed to building villas at first?” Henry asked.

“Yes, that is until Elena cast her spell over him and turned him into a company man. Don’t get me wrong, Sean was a bit wild and could have used a little taming, but this was like he’d found religion. He’s furious at Gavin for insisting Elena sign the prenup. He’s also upset with Jack and Paul for pushing it, but Gavin was the driving force,” Heather said.

“I can see how that could splinter a family, but it’s not like Elena was driven to suicide because of the prenup. And I could see Sean being angry enough to kill Gavin. But it’s not like Gavin killed her,” Henry said, thinking how his life as an only child had been a little lonely, but much less complicated.

“We don’t know that, do we?” Heather said with a lift of her eyebrow.