Mike Dixon

CHAPTER 21
Rosie
t was dark by the time Humphrey arrived in Townsville.
I A light breeze was blowing and the air was pleasantly
warm and dry. He collected his bag from the airport carousel
and made for the toilets where he set about changing into a
new set of clothes. Kirstin‟s contact, the retired historian,
Professor Louise Spencer, had identified the Island View Hotel
as the place where fifteen-year-old Doris and her older com-
panion had entertained the colonel and others during the
war.
Louise was seventy-five but still active. She had warned
Kirstin that the Island View had fallen into disrepair and was
now little more than a boarding house for old men. By good
luck, a few rooms were reserved for overnight stays by cattlemen
from the grazing lands to the west. Aware that her
cultured tones would be unlikely to secure a room for
Humphrey, she had asked an acquaintance, a gravely voiced
cattle farmer, to telephone the hotel and make a reservation.
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