The Bodysurfers by Robert Drewe

Author:Robert Drewe
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742283456
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Published: 2009-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

Sweetlip

I am outlining the inquiries I have made since speaking to you after the cremation service.

As Director of Security for P & M may I suggest this report be kept confidential, perhaps restricted to the Board of Directors.

Many remarks recorded here, especially some by the family, were either hearsay or pure emotional supposition. There could be legal and other worries for us in their circulation. The resort is, of course, part of the Dunbar Group of companies, of whom we are more than aware in the present takeover climate.

I leave this aspect to you. By detailing the events chronologically I hope you will have a clearer picture of this affair which has distressed all of us in the Company.

On Saturday, 22 November last year, ten P&M executives arrived by North Queensland Airways Sikorsky helicopter on Sweetlip Island, the venue for the Company’s annual sales and marketing conference. Following Company safety policy of staggering our executives’ flights, another eight arrived next day, and the final six on Monday.

As Managing Director, Rex Lang, one of the first arrivals, headed the twenty-four-man party. He was joint chairman of the working parties with Kevin Brownbill, Manager of the Services’ Division.

Their convention agenda was full. From Sunday until Friday — with Wednesday a lay day for a fishing cruise — they assembled each morning at 8.30 in the Marlin Hotel’s conference room. They worked, with meal and coffee breaks, until 5.00 p.m.

However, that still left time for rest and recreation. Each morning some exercised before work. For example, Brownbill kept up his jogging. Lang would go for a walk along the lagoon, then swim before breakfast, his custom for the past twenty years.

Some of the party apparently nursed hangovers. No names are forthcoming here. There are six bars on Sweetlip Island, including one disco, ‘Randy’s’, which remains open till 4.00 a.m. It would be perhaps unreasonable not to expect that at night some of the party discussed sales and marketing strategy in some of them.

One who touched hardly a drop of alcohol, however, was Rex Lang. He had decided to spend a ‘dry’ convention week in order to lose some weight.

It goes without saying he was not an habitué of ‘Randy’s’.

He resisted his colleagues’ teasing. On Tuesday, 25 November, he sent a postcard to his wife (I report this with Mrs Janice Lang’s permission), saying ‘Darling, here I am in a little beach hut, just like that holiday on Maui in ’73. Great weather, feeling fine. The only way to work! Starting Day 3 — still no booze! See you Sunday. Love, Rex.’

As for the food question, the Sweetlip Island brochures say, ‘Eat, drink and be merry.’ The guests can be expected to comply. Each week there is a South Sea Island Night where the guests feast on pigs cooked in the traditional Polynesian manner on hot stones. There is also an Oriental Night, a Roaring Twenties Night, a Left Bank Night and a King Neptune Night, with the menu varying accordingly. Lunch is a

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