StillWaters:Book4oftheSophieGreenMysteries Read Online Free PDF

me, not her, silly) in the café, which was a helluva lot more upmarket than I remembered. Call it the Jamie Oliver effect.
    I sat by the window, watching Luke walk down to the water with his board. He moved beautifully, elegant and sinuous like a cat. He turned and said something to Maria, and she laughed, and he laughed too, and I nearly spilt hot chocolate over myself. I really have to get over him. I really do.
    It was hard to keep track of which ones they were after a while. There were half a dozen other surfers out there, all seemingly expert, as were Luke and Maria. They cut through the waves, skimming over and down the steep slopes, somehow keeping balance and not sinking , as if they all weighed nothing at all, as if the most natural thing in the world was to stand on an elliptical piece of fibreglass and fly over fierce, deadly waves.
    You have to love England. December plus Atlantic equals fucking freezing. Yet half a dozen nutcases were surfing out there.
    I saw one dark-haired figure fly off into the air and come to a rolling landing on the beach, her board nearly knocking her out. But she was on her feet again and laughing—Maria, it couldn’t be anyone else, and two more surfers rode up to her to see if she was okay. The three of them—not including Luke—made their way back up the long beach where I’d spent many teenage hours reading under a beach umbrella with Norma Jean for company. While outside my little world of windbreaks and fleecy jumpers, rain fell, and my dad tried to persuade us to go walking across the cliff tops. He got no enthusiasm from anyone but Norma Jean. English summers. Can’t beat ’em.
    The door opened and in a blast of air and laughter, one as cold as the other was warm, Maria and two other wetsuited people came in. They both had the tanned, happy look that comes right next to the word Australian, and even though they looked slightly bewildered at having to wear wetsuits to surf, they looked pretty happy as they propped their boards by the door and strolled over to the bar.
    “Sophie!” Maria trickled over and rummaged through her bag for a fleece. “You sure you don’t want to come out and join us?”
    I looked at the light rain that was starting to mist up the big café windows.
    “I think I’ll pass.”
    “It’s really good out there…”
    Images of the dead woman I still hadn’t even see yet flashed across my mind. “Isn’t it dangerous with the waves so high?”
    She laughed and shook herself like a dog, spraying me and Norma, who didn’t look very impressed.
    “Not if you know what you’re doing. Matt, Carly, come over here and meet Sophie.”
    Carly fell instantly in love with Norma and got her wetsuit coated with blonde hairs as she sat down and played with the dog. Norma’s not at all nervous of strangers, especially if they tell her she’s pretty and tickle her tummy. She’s such a hussy.
    Matt was tall and broad and tanned and had a Heath Ledger smile. Hmm, I thought. Definitely not bad.
    “How come you’re so brown?” I asked, looking ruefully at my own pasty skin.
    He laughed. “Guess it gets permanent after a while. Nah, we’ve only been here a couple of weeks and don’t forget it’s summer in Oz…”
    “I know,” I said, “my parents are there.”
    We talked for a while about where Carly and Matt were from, about where my parents and Chalker would be visiting, about the differences between Bondi and Newquay, as they ate big, fat burgers and I got through my seventh Diet Coke. As they got up to go back to their beloved waves, Maria leaned down to me and said, “You have to tell him, you know.” She nodded at the Diet Coke.
    “But why?” I wailed. “Why does he have to know?”
    “Because sooner or later he’ll find out and he’ll be really hurt you didn’t tell him.” She fondled Norma’s blonde pointy ears. “Come on, Sophie, you know I’m right.”
    I slurped miserably at my Coke and said nothing.
    “If you don’t tell