Super Speed Four by A. Richardson©2005

"Pass my wet suit will you Jim", Andy calls as she lifts her surf board from the trailer where the team store their boards and diving equipment.

The weather has been brilliant for the last three days on the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales. Perfect surfing weather for the competition which is being held today slightly along the coast from Abersoch where the sands stretch lazily in the sun and the usual sounds of jet skiis roaring their way across the inlet have been silenced for the day by order of the local tourism board who have organised this event to please the ever growing community of surf boarders who are now congregated below the pier. There are twenty seven teams taking part in the competiton.The Super Speed Four are the favourites to win according to the bookie standing at the ice cream stall taking bets from locals and tourists alike. He's doing a roaring trade, since this is the first time anyone has ever held any type of event where betting could take place.( After all it is only a matter of a year or so since people have been allowed to buy alcohol on a Sunday in this area and you can't expect miracles)! Enthusiastic excitement can be felt in the whole atmosphere. Tension mounts as the teams prepare their equipment before racing through the waves to their starting places.

Andy, Jim, Gareth and Nia make up the Super Speed 4 team. They've been friends ever since their schooldays in the local village school in Sarn Bach, but it is always Andy who leads the team by unanimous approval, consequently Andy is the first to launch her board onto the flashing white mountain as it thrusts her upwards in its rush to the shore. This area of the beach and shoreline have been chosen for the competition because there are no obstructions like rocks or wrecks beneath the surface. Riding the waves with expertise Andy has just begun her favourite acrobatic move on what should be a smooth run, when her board shoots sideways making a dreadful whacking sound. Andy can't hold her steady. It's too unexpected a move on the part of the board, and she is flung into the air where the board hits the side of her head as she falls into the sea. Her team mates are stunned when they see Andy lying still on the waters' surface. Forgetting the competition altogether they all rush to her aid. Gareth, arriving first, grabs her under the arms to hold her head above the water, while Nia who reaches them both a few seconds later, helps him slide Andy onto a surf board. They both swim alongside the board until they reach shallow water , where onlookers from the beach rush to help get Andys' lifeless body onto the shore.

In the meantime, Jim, who has stayed behind in the water, is searching for the cause of Andys' accident. His board forgotten, he dives time and time again, looking for the rock that could have caused all this. After his fifth dive, Jim , treading water, mumbles with a puzzled expression, " There must be something under here. It's not possible for someone as good as Andy to come a cropper like that without there being an obstruction. It's got to be here somewhere." He swivels in the water to face towards Tudwal Islands, then dives beneath the surface once again. In the dark of the ocean he feels around himself with his arms outspread, but still no sign of the cause of Andys' accident. Tired and short of breath he begins his ascent to the surface when something hits the side of his leg. Suddenly he is fighting to prevent himself from panicking as his leg becomes entangled in something. Unable to swim upwards, he looks down to see what is not only holding him down, but seems to be attempting to pull him farther beneath the surface. As he peers into the murky depths a pair of wide staring eyes look straight at him. Jim is so shocked that he tries to shoot to the surface, immediately, gasping for breath, but something is still grabbing him by the leg, so he can't go anywhere. He's also fast running out of the ability to hold his breath any longer. Racked with pain he grabs his own leg running his fingers to the place where he is being held, and can just make out the bucket shape below him. He feels the handle of the bucket and releases his leg from where it has been caught in the handle. Desperately needing air as well as feeling extremely sick at what he has seen, he shoots to the surface where he sucks in huge gasps of air . Jim doesn't wait to go back down to take a better look, but swims for the shore as though the devil is behind him.In fact he thinks it probably is, since he's never been more scared in his life.

Episode Two-Concrete Proof

By the time Jim had reached the shore the others had disappeared off to the hospital with Andy. It was not until Andy was awake and recovering that anyone even realised that they had left Jim behind. He, on the other hand, was missing them dreadfully. The shock of seeing a dead body, coupled with the worry over Andy, had caused Jim to feel more alone, shivery and sick, than he'd ever known before. He set off to the hospital to find the team as well as to get their help , since he didn't know what to do about the body he'd seen. Not usually one to talk much, he badly needed to tell his friends about the womans' body.

They sat around Andy's bed while she sipped some warm tea, discussing the probability of finding out who had done this to the woman. Finally, The Super Speed Four , Andy included, she being quite perky by now, decided they would become detectives in a search for the murderer, for murder it was, they were all certain of that much. Together they returned to the beach where all except Andy swam out to the place where Jim had seen the body. It didn't take long for them to locate the right spot because Nia saw the same face peering at her when she went down for her second dive. Gulping in air frantically she waved to the others to come down again with her. Beneath the surface Nia, Jim, and Gareth swam around the woman's body as it swayed in the current's flow - the tide was turning, so there wouldn't be much time for them to get her to the surface. Gareth went lower to unattach her from the bucket, while Jim and Nia held her arms. When she was loose they hauled her to the surface. In the meantime Gareth had a good look at the manner in which she had been secured beneath the water. The bucket , which had rope tied to its handle , was full of solid cement . It was this rope which had been wound around the woman's legs and arms , then knotted about her waist so that the two ends hung downwards until they finished at the knots on each side of the bucket handle. Gareth attached a marker to the bucket to make it easier for the police to find it later. Swimming together they gently hauled the body to the shore, where Nia and Andy stayed beside it while Gareth and Jim went to inform the police. " I wonder who she is", Nia commented as she placed her towel over the woman's face. Andy was more concerned to find out why she had been killed and who had done the dirty deed. " More to the point, why was she weighted down like that, and did they drown her or what?", she replied.

Another mystery for the Super Speed Four to solve.....................