Permanent Sunset Read Online Free Page A

Sabrina could see an easel sitting on the bluff above them.
    Kate pointed out at the water to the right where waves rolled in, crashing against the jagged rocks that rose up from the sea in a gentle rhythm.
    “I’ve been painting the waves all morning. I love how they slide in and over the rocks. They break into these white foamy lines that look like lace curtains blowing in a breeze,” Kate said.
    Sabrina nodded. That was exactly what she thought of when she watched those waves breaking. They reminded her of the white Irish lace curtains in Ruth’s motel cottages back in Allerton, the coastal Massachusetts town where she’d grown up. Distracted by how uncanny it felt to hear someone else share the same impression, Sabrina was jarred back by the urgency in Kate’s voice.
    “Look. Can you see that the symmetry is off at the nearest point where the waves are breaking? There’s something white moving with the waves but not in line withthem. It doesn’t break into foam like the rest of the waves do. Something’s not right.”
    Sabrina scanned the area, looking from left to right and back again several times. She had watched the waves in this cove a thousand times, in the distance, from her tiny cottage up above on a hill in Fish Bay. It was Sabrina’s form of meditation. Kate was right. Something was very wrong.
    “Has it moved at all?” she asked.
    “Just a little when a wave comes. I didn’t notice it at first. I was filling in the clouds and sky when I started. Do you think it’s a person? Maybe a dead shark?”
    She was grateful Kate didn’t know there were two women missing from Villa Nirvana. She knew once again she had the misfortune to stumble upon a situation that at the very least called for action. Oh, she could wait and send for help, but if that really was a person, people would want to know why she hadn’t just done what needed to be done.
    “I’m going to go out on the paddleboard and find out,” Sabrina said, grateful that her boyfriend, Neil Perry, had given her one for her birthday the month before and that she had mastered it enough to at least not fall over much.
    She kicked off her flip-flops, placed her cell phone and keys on top of one, and picked up the yellow paddleboard that was sitting on its side in a rack on the sand. She brought it down to the edge of the water.
    “Kate, please hold the board so it doesn’t float away,” Sabrina said as she went back to the rack and grabbed a paddle.
    The shallow water, having already been heated by the sun, felt warm on her feet. She pushed the board in until she was waist deep and climbed on, placing one knee down at a time. She moved to the center of the board and placed her hands in front of her, gradually raising her body to a standing position. She tucked her pelvis and gave a slight bend to her knees and reminded herself to breathe, just as if she were in mountain pose during yoga.
    Normally, Sabrina would have moved toward the right where there were fewer rocks, but what she needed to explore was to the left. She hoped there was enough water between the rocks and coral that the board wouldn’t scrape against them and topple her over. She paddled out, keeping her eyes on the surface of the water. Reaching the area where the waves were breaking, the paddleboard began to rock. No, standing was not going to work. She was going to have to use the board on her belly.
    Sabrina bent at the waist, placed her hands back on the board and lowered herself onto her abdomen. Placing the paddle next to her, she began paddling with her hands toward what she could now see was a white object undulating with the surf about thirty feet away. Checking the depth of the water for clearance, she moved toward the object.
    Sabrina could see the white lace moving on the top of the water, back and forth as the waves moved in and out. No one had to tell her she had found the missing bride.

Chapter Four
    Sean led the way down the stone steps into the subterranean