Fins 4 Ur Sins Read Online Free PDF Page B

utility truck.
Miles of net that stink of fish guts are piled up in the back tray. The axles
of his Ute toss me from side to side until my ribs grate against my hip bones.
He’s twenty years old, dressed in waders, a thick red and black flannelette
shirt and a black beanie.
    Once he stops the Ute, he jumps
out and waits for us to follow, then strolls over to a spot on the sand. He
points in front of his rubber-covered feet. “This is the place. Dad and I were
cruising for baitfish, and something big chased the whiting close to the beach
that day.”
    “Shark?” Bethany stares at the sand.
    I can see Melanie now, lying
there, gasping for breath. Or, maybe just so still with sea gulls circling on
the breeze around her. I close my eyes, inhaling the tangy air. But the sea is
dangerous—utterly unforgiving—like everything about life.
    It will kill me if I let it. I
cannot be complacent.
    “The baits weren’t touched
offshore.” Cal steps back and gazes out at Coochiemudlo Island in the distance.
“She would’ve had bits missing, too, if you know what I mean. There’ve been
heaps of shark attacks off the islands, but this wasn’t one.”
    “So, what
then?” Bethany asks.
    “Either she jumped or she was
pushed.” He falls silent and then continues: “When the cops rolled her over,
there wasn’t a mark on her. No signs of a struggle at her house either, except
for some blood on the rocks near the east-facing cliffs. Never
seen anything like it myself. They figure she jumped. They couldn’t
prove the parents did anything.”
    I shake my head, staring out at
the low, rolling waves and a bitter sickness twists my insides. “They found
blood. The newspaper report back at your place says there was no note. Nothing to show why she’d do something like that. What would
be her reasons?”
    “Who knows?” Cal’s brown gaze
locks on mine. “What were yours?”
    So he believes I jumped
deliberately, too. I rub my forehead, because I’m getting a little tired of
repeating myself. I palm the puffer in my pocket. My breathing slows, ribs
pinch. I have a toke from the puffer and suck it in
like it’s oxygen. My throat widens and lungs expand.
Air tastes sweet. Bethany has already discussed most of the situation with Cal,
but I guess I need to tell him more.
    “I can’t remember everything,” I
croak. “I remember thinking I’d see my dad’s face and hearing music. I woke up
in absolute agony. My mum was crying, and I slept a lot.” My voice is so raspy,
I sound as if I should be back in hospital.
    He crouches and swishes his
fingers in the water for a few minutes, his face turned to the islands. “Music?” He gives me a quick look over his shoulder.
“Interesting. I’ll ask Dad about that. Injuries?”
    “Dislocated shoulder that they
fixed in hospital, cuts to my hands and feet, which were also fixed there and
my chest . . .” I pause, wondering how to describe the pain without alarming
them. “My lungs are tight. I have trouble breathing.”
    “You almost died.” Beth pads
across the sand to hug my shoulders. “We know you jumped, El. But you can’t
remember why, and that’s why we’re here.”
    Cal’s eyebrows quirk, and his eyes darken. “What about the guy they found, the one on the news this
morning? You heard about that, right?”
    “Yes,” I say.
    “It’s too coincidental for me,”
Bethany answers. “I’ve got a real funny feeling about all of this.”
    Cal chews his bottom lip. “Yeah. There were two other guys before him.”
    Some people think belief doesn’t
have a lot of worth, but in reality, to have someone believe in you and help,
when you can’t even believe in yourself . . . well, that makes all the
difference. I bite my other thumb nail.
    Cal’s looks at me as if he’s
trying to figure me out. Join the queue.
    Bethany switches her gaze back to
her cousin. “Got a boat we can borrow for the day?”
     
    ≈≈≈
     
    MACKEREL SKY. CAL says a
change is coming, and he