The Marmalade Files by Steve Lewis & Chris Uhlmann

Author:Steve Lewis & Chris Uhlmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

July 29, 2011

One clue, just a single clue. Harry Dunkley leaned back in his chair in his Perth hotel room, arms folded behind his head, and laughed. Heartily. It was so simple in the end. A throwaway line from Jimmy Booth, a man more used to industrial extortion than helping pesky journalists, and Dunkley had been able to track down Doug Turner, through Facebook, of all places.

The former union organiser had indeed been in Vietnam, serving with the 2nd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment in the Asian jungles during the latter half of 1967 and early ’68.

Christ, he must have seen some shit, Dunkley thought.

He found five of Turner’s Facebook ‘friends’ – none of the names familiar, but it was still his best chance of locating the elusive veteran. Three Google searches later and he’d tracked down ‘Roy Shelley’ to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, where he was working as a consultant in IT.

Dunkley dialled the number into his BlackBerry. Six rings, and an Australian accent answered. ‘Hello?’

‘Mr Shelley?’

‘Yep.’

‘G’day, my name is Harry Dunkley, I’m a reporter with the Australian newspaper, out of Canberra. Sorry to disturb you but I’m trying to track down Doug Turner. Thought you may be able to help?’

‘What do you want with Dougie?’

‘I was hoping to speak with him about Bruce Paxton, the Defence Minister in the Toohey Government down here. They were close a number of years back.’

‘Oh, is that so?’ Roy Shelley sounded uninterested and none too trusting. Dunkley assumed Shelley was going to give him the old heave-ho, but instead he seemed willing to help, to some extent, anyway.

‘Look, give me your contact numbers and email, and I’ll pass them on to Doug, if I can find him.’

‘You know where he is, then?’

‘I think so, but Turner can be hard to track down, particularly if he’s trying to dodge someone. You’re a reporter, mate; he’s likely to tell you to go to hell.’

And with that, Roy Shelley hung up, leaving Dunkley hoping that Doug Turner, Vietnam veteran and by all accounts a miserable low-life, could be coaxed out of whatever foxhole he was hiding in.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.