Each member of the Unsolved Crimes and Open Case Squad had been instructed to assemble in the club car park before approaching Miranda Jordan. Robert Strickland happened to be a member of the sister golf club of the one Miranda Jordan belonged to, therefore he was able to set up an informal interview with ease.
Despite Rob Strickland's car being sandwiched between a Mercedes and a Bentley he wasn't in sight when Sandra pulled into the gravel floored car park.
Her predictions were proved to be correct when Jack and Brian where the next to arrive.
"Sorry we are late Sandra, we stopped by the care home Peter Rose claimed to have been at the time of Dervla's death. His alibi checks out, there is even the CCTV with all the timings to prove it." Jack said as he locked his car.
"You aren't late Gerry hasn't showed up yet and Strickland is here, somewhere. Did Peter Rose have much to say about his and Dervla's relationship?"
"Well he said they had their fair share of rows but he said they were okay. I think there is more to that than meets the eye there though." Brain replied taking in his new surroundings.
"I'll second that, he was quick to deny any public rows or the fact he argued with aggression but he gave us the impression the relationship wasn't always rosy. He wasn't even sympathetic when she confided in him about her anxiety issues. " Jack added. "Peter Rose also mentioned that Dervla Spencer had said to him that she had arranged to meet an old friend on the day she died but who that friend was he said he didn't know."
"Cheers boys, we will dig a little deeper when we get back into the office; there must be something he is refusing to tell us" Sandra smiled putting on her sunshades as the glare from the great fireball in the sky was causing her to squint as she spoke to her boys.
"How did you get on with the Doctor?" Jack inquired.
"Well he had prescribed Dervla the benzodiazepine two months before her death for ten days use only. He made it clear that they are highly addictive and he his reluctant to prescribe them for any longer than two weeks. On the way out the receptionist gave me a copy of Dervla's prescription. So it is possible that she either didn't take the drugs when they were first prescribed to her, or she got some more elsewhere. Doctor Jessop also said she was due back for a check up on the day she died but cancelled it earlier in the week but gave no reason as to why she wished to cancel the appointment."
"Do you think that was on account of meeting the 'old friend'?" Brian thought aloud.
"Possibly, we need to see if somehow we can pin down this 'old friend' and see if there is any way of finding out if Dervla had been seeing another GP, even if it was just for a second opinion." Sandra said. Jack and Brian nodded in agreement before they turned and pointed towards Gerry's car swinging into the car park blasting out some rock music that wasn't to dissimilar to Bad Faith.
"Alright, how have you all got on?" He said looking chipper as he carefully pulled to the door on the driver's side.
"If you had been here a few seconds ago you then would have known, Gerald" Sandra said giving Gerry her well rehearsed cheeky smile, before proceeding to tuned her head away and look around the car park for any sign of her superior.
"Pardon me for breathing" Gerry replied sarcastically "Well the ex husband is clearly still in love with Dervla, he says he has always known her death wasn't suicide. He also said the reason behind their split was her dedication to golf and he didn't like being in the spotlight."
"A bit like the boyfriend then" Brain added interrupting Gerry's full flow.
"Jeremy Crawford also said he believed Peter Rose was aggressive towards Dervla which was half the reason they had this ongoing custody battle." Gerry finished.
"Did he say anything about the possibility Dervla wasn't alone at the bar?"
"He did say she never drunk wine alone and when he found her, there was a bottle on the table but only the one glass, which was beside Dervla Spencer. Either she broke the habit of a lifetime or the killer took the other glass with them" Gerry speculated.
"Maybe, but we need more to go on than that if we are going to prove anything and make it stick" Sandra reminded her team.
"He did also say that her parents kept most of her belonging in trust for when her daughter was older. This included her mobile phone, I contacted the parents just before I left Crawford's house and they said they were happy for us to go through the phone and her stuff as they didn't know about her having plans to meet anyone that day. Bernice, that's her mother, said they were very close and the spoke every day. They will drop the box of things off at the office for us by this time tomorrow."
"Good work guys, it's all a good start. Finally!" Sandra exclaimed as she saw the Deputy Assistant Commissioner emerge casually from the clubhouse.
"So sorry for being late, Miranda Jordan has just finishing playing her round, I was invited to play alongside some of the members of the club while we waited for Miss Jordan" he said, sounding like he well and truly had his pipe and slippers under the table here. How is the investigation going?" He asked leading them up the path and into the clubhouse.
As Sandra informed her boss of what they had found out that morning, she was relieved to see that club welcomed its many female members as the last time she paid a visit to a golf club for work the sexist men, who were very set in their ways tried to stop her entering the building and conducting her enquiries.
The colleagues found Miranda Jordan sitting at a table overlooking the picturesque green oasis which marked the start of the intense 18 hole course. The beautiful landscapes and the fact the course wasn't made up of golfers who only played for the hell of it made Jack hungry for a serious but cheeky round of the sport golf while he was here.
The woman the squad had come to see was about five years older than her one time rival, Dervla Spencer; she had an ivory complexion that drew attention to her well defined cheek bones, despite the fact her long wavy mass of red hair did it's best to cover them up. Sat in front of her was a half drunk bottle of the finest rose wine.
Once the formalities of introductions and thanking her for taking a few moments out f her extremely bust schedule were out of the way Sandra got down to the nitty-gritty.
"So Miss Jordan, can you tell me exactly what your thoughts on Ms Spencer were?"
"She was my sporting rival, she was the reason I never won a grand slam, or any tournament." Gerry had to suppress the laugh that was trying its hardest to creep up out of his throat as the woman began to speak. He had imagined, what with her looking stunning and playing golf that Miranda Jordan would speak rather like Penelope Keith or a news reader who worked for the BBC and not with the Lancashire drawl that came out. If Gerry had closed his eyes he would have thought Sandra was interviewing Victoria Wood and not a professional golfer.
"Did you get on with her off the course?" Strickland stepped in.
Miranda shook her head. "I never really saw her after any kind of tournament, she was constantly in demand from journalists and I wasn't. So by the time I had a drink or two and she had given the world's press a few words she had disappeared, presumably she had gone home to feed that spoilt kid of hers."
"What were your intentions regarding the post you had put on your social networking site about Ms Spencer prior to her death? It was you who posted it wasn't it, Miss Jordan?" Sandra asked regaining the driving seat.
"Yes it was me who posted it. What can I say I was frustrated, I was just as good as Dervla sodding Spencer, if not better and yet it was me who always took home the pathetic silver tea tray and never the big gold cup. Ws it so wrong of me to want to win just one little game after the amount of training and practise you have to go through to even qualify? The amount of times I almost broke my back after putting blood, sweat and tears into my drive and my games. I guess Dervla just always had luck on her side." The flame haired beauty said almost snarling.
"No of course not. But isn't golf about persistence and strategy and not luck?"
"Yes I suppose so, why do you ask that" she said turning to Brian who had posed the question.
"Doesn't that suggest that Dervla Spencer was better at being persistent and had developed a way of devising a better strategy? Thus making her champion over you?" The northerner reasoned, causing Sandra and Jack to looking impressed by Brian's sudden fount of knowledge about the sport.
"Dervla's death was convent for you wasn't it?" Sandra asked before Miranda Jordan had a chance to respond to the statement put forward by Brian.
"How do you mean?"
"Well isn't it obvious, you won the Open that year and you won it the following year, when you achieved your dream of earning a Grand Slam. Now I doubt that would have been possible if Dervla Spencer was still in the picture" Jack said.
"Oh come off it" she laughed "do you think I set out to kill Dervla Spencer so I could win a competition? I know I was desperate to win at least once but that acusation is insane."
"You tell me is it all that 'insane'? Where were you on the evening of Dervla's death?" Sandra said. She was beginning to find Miranda Jordan's attitude more irritating than a wasp buzzing around each time the woman opened her mouth to speak.
"I don't remember. Sorry" she pouted in that nonchalant way famous people did to signal that they were better than the person they were talking to.
"It was three days before the Open are you sure you can't remember practising for it?" Gerry asked unable to believe that at the time she would have much else on her mind.
"Possibly" she said as she shrugged her shoulders sticking out her bottom lip as far as it would go. "Look is this all, you may not have noticed but I am a very busy woman, can I go now?"
"Of course but we will most probably be in touch" Robert said before Sandra could give her the well practised speech about how if she didn't comply the informal interview would be upgraded to a formal one at the station."
"Thank you Robert" she smiled as she shook his hand before proceeding to glare in and icy way at the rest of the team as she swiftly left the room.
"Why did you go and tell her she could leave, Sir?"
"Because Sandra, we want Miss Jordan on our side, if she isn't happy with how we treat her, the press will soon get wind of this case" he explained. "And none of us want that, do we?"
"Are you sure it isn't because you want to keep everybody at your precious golf club and its sister one happy" she muttered under her breath.
"I heard that. Keep up the hard work I am off for a round with the Commissioner in five minutes, I'll pass on your regards" Robert said as he too departed the table.
"Just who does he think he is?" Gerry scoffed.
"Leave it Gerry, come on let's get back the office and continue the 'hard work', that means you too Brian" she yelled pulling him up by the elbow.
"What?" he muttered as he tried to keep his eyes glued to the window where he had taken a keen interest in the people playing the sport and how they teed off. "I could do that" he said aloud. Luckily for him his work mates failed to hear the signs he was developing a brand new obsession.