Sam Rose had never been to Alice Springs. This, although not extraordinary, was surprising given he was a Territory boy, born and raised. For all but two years of his life, early in his police career when he served as a General Duties officer in Katherine, three hundred kilometres to the south of Darwin, he had lived in the Northern Territory’s capital city.
Exactly what inspired Rose to visit Alice Springs now was best described as an affair of the heart. At forty-four, Sam fell in love, perhaps genuinely in love, for the first time in his life; and then, it all fell apart.
Sam was no stranger to the charms of members of the opposite gender. Indeed, it would be fair to say he bore the reputation of being somewhat of a playboy. It was not a reputation that sat comfortably with him, but i
