The Hat 2- The man sitting in the corner of the bar, watching.

1944 / 45 .. Sydney, a hotel by the harbour frequented by service personnel involved in managing the passage of shipping both naval and merchant in and out of the boom that stretched from one side of the harbour to the other whether it be done in broad daylight for all to see or in the darkness of a blacked-out night for none to see.

And there, sitting prettily amongst the older regulars is a twenty-something young lady.

Security Services in those distant days are often ridiculed by those who know better these days – but we weren’t there to see the man sitting in the corner of the bar watching the young woman chatting to the older men and the only reason the man was there was because he had been trained to seek out and watch such gatherings, or rather this type of gathering given the nature and situation of the mens’ work and knowing that Sydney had much more to offer a young unmarried woman who liked to socialise, particularly with all the Americans around. But here she was.

So he watched who she talked to and as time went by a couple of his female colleagues took turns in following her when she wasn’t working, seeing who else she might be meeting regularly then following them around. Some of these individuals she met in city hotel lobbies, others in parks churches and cemeteries and here grew more suspicion as she was never observed to visit them in their homes. The question was asked: if they weren’t her friends then what were they?

Her file grew.

She fell pregnant. She moved to Melbourne. Then to Adelaide.

And so did one of the men she used to meet regularly in parks churches and cemeteries

His file grew.