Murder and Romance at Augustine Pine Golf Club: A Persephone and Potea Mystery: Persephone and Potea Mystery Series, #1

By Sabe Dianella

Potea Kobe has lived in the largely exclusive enclave of St. Seymour his entire life. The town surrounded by majestic Lake Caroda is home to political, industry and community icons, the most notable of which is Raven Shinus, the partner in the premier advertising agency, Creative Maximization, as well as the President of the dominant sporting facility in St. Seymour, Augustine Pine Golf Club.

A recently retired mathematics teacher and logician Potea joins the ultra-exclusive Augustine Pine Golf Club. Some few months later Potea discovers the body of Raven Shinus, brutally slain, on the 15th hole of Augustine Pine, a hole known as 'Devil's Destroyer'. Investigating the death is Detective Inspector Persephone Jones, a pudgy, clever, career police officer with a calm, methodical, but slightly brusque manner.

The relationship between Potea and Persephone is defensive at first, but as their personal connection grows stronger, so does the body count. As the deaths mount up and the strong likelihood that the deaths are connected, who amongst the small pool of suspects could have killed? Was it his long-suffering wife? Could it have been the business partner who has secrets of her own? What about the uber-glamorous personal assistant of Raven Shinus? As investigations continue, the secrets that lie behind St. Seymour are exposed, and the relationship between Persephone and Potea becomes slowly warmer. However, as the investigation etches closer to a realisation, Potea becomes aware of a connection to his late wife,  killed some years ago in a hit and run accident. While he battles the demons of what occurred in the past, he and Persephone must work together to identify those responsible and bring calm, not only back to their own lives, but to the township of St. Seymour.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sabe Dianella
• Release date: Feb 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393033523

Book preview

Prologue:  Death on the Course

THOUGHTS CAN BE DECEIVING. Raven Shinus believed it was like any other late Friday afternoon at the golf course. He began his preparations to play nine holes, as was his desire at the end of nearly every week. He liked this time. A golf tragic from way back he enjoyed the summer warmth. Today, a gentle breeze provided relief from the sticky heat of the earlier hours. Unpacking his large personalised golf bag and placing it on his motorised buggy, he reflected on what had been a busy week. His initial investigations into some financial irregularities in the business accounts of his advertising firm, Creative Maximization, concerned him, and he needed to formulate a way to approach his business partner, Ilsa Buchon, about this. He also wondered if his wife, Lara, had begun to suspect that the domestic financial arrangements were perhaps not as good as appearances would suggest. He had his future financial commitments – commitments that he liked to keep very private.

As President of Augustine Pine Country Club, he was also concerned about an allegation of cheating discreetly circulated by the defeated finalist from the championship. Bob’s acceptance of his defeat was, in Raven’s view, not helped when the winner of the championship was a member of the opposite sex, Lauren Chantice. This had been the first year where females and males could compete on equal terms. Compounding the complexity was that Lauren was his assistant at Creative Maximization. The circulating rumours that Raven and Lauren were more than close friends did not help.

These problems, though, could be compartmentalised to another day. Today was purely about golf, his thoughts and his time. It allowed him to re-set the week, recalibrate his thinking, and focus on himself. Playing lowered the blood pressure, de-stressed the matters that concerned him, and allowed him to reorganise and resolve the problems that he faced. Usually, he would have the course to himself, or at worst, with only a few others present. He liked it that way. It was his time to practise. Today, the course was his own, the humidity of the day, and the lateness of the hour allowing him the privilege of solitude.

He had been a member of Augustine Pine for some 25 years. It was a traditional country club with an indoor bowling rink, squash court, and highly commended dining facilities. The jewel in the crown though was its elite championship golf course. Membership of the club emanated from the political, community, and industry icons of the exclusive enclave of St Seymour. Under his leadership, the club had modernised and become inclusive and innovative in its membership structures and values.

Starting on the back nine of the course, Raven was only four holes into his game when he approached the fifteenth hole, the signature hole of Augustine Pine. It was a 165-metre par 3, bordering the glorious Lake Caroda on the right-hand side, with large, well-hidden and deep pot bunkers on the left. Hitting your tee shot long was also not an option. If the ball travelled beyond the green, the magnificent 30-metre high redwoods that gracefully overlooked the hole would swallow the ball leaving you with no other option other than to re-hit from the tee. If not on the green, the only safe option was short, but this then left a  difficult chip shot to a green sloping from front to back, right to left; a Redan-style green. It was known as ‘Devil’s Destroyer’ because of its ability to completely undermine otherwise good rounds.

Raven drove his high-end premium ball with a fluency that replicated his low single figure handicap. His tee shot arched high into the azure sky, travelling some 155 metres on a slow right-to-left path that maximised length and accuracy, landing on the right side of the bentgrass green, and then slowly rolling towards the pin. It left him a perfect uphill putt for birdie. Smiling inwardly he saw this as an omen, his troubles were about to be resolved. He could look forward to a new era of growth and profitability from his advertising firm, as well as the resolution of the troubles that he and his beautiful wife faced. Raven Shinus, however, was about to find out that he was very wrong.

Approaching the green, he noticed a figure, a person known all too well to him, walking from the darkness of the majestic trees. Large, slightly overweight, and middle-aged, the person’s face was creased with worry, with his potbelly resembling the early stages of a pregnant woman’s baby bump. He walked with a purpose and resolve, his beige golf trousers slightly too long for his frame, his golf shirt sticking uncomfortably to his body. All this did was accentuate the few extra kilograms that he carried.

‘Hello Raven – out practising?’

‘Oh I, I didn’t see you there, are you playing?’

‘No, I needed to see you, and I wanted to see you alone. You are a creature of habit Raven – all members know of you sojourn for late Friday alone time.’

‘Couldn’t it have waited – troubling me on the golf course seems unnecessary,’ the somewhat annoyed Raven Shinus retorted.

It was then that Raven realised that the motive for the chance meeting was somewhat different from a friendly chat. Whether it was the two-pronged divot repairer appearing somewhat furtively from the left hand, the eyes that bore through Raven, or the set jaw, he knew that this was no ordinary conversation. For Raven Shinus it was no longer an ordinary Friday afternoon. His thoughts had been wrong.

‘WHO FOUND THE DECEASED’ asked Detective Inspector Persephone Jones, in a voice that was calm, melodic, yet undeniably forceful. She was a short, somewhat pudgy, and at first impressions, perhaps best described as a frumpy police officer. Dressed in a mid-priced unflattering fawn suit, her almond eyes betrayed the false impression that her otherwise undistinguished appearance might give. Those who knew her well would tell you that she was distinctly more intelligent than she portrayed.

Standing outside the bunker in which the deceased body of Raven Shinus lay, with crime scene tap extending from one large redwood to another, she failed to see the fascination for golf. If truth be told, however, Persephone Jones was the last person to comment on sporting endeavours. Now in her 40’s she had spent most of her life working out how to avoid physical pursuits.

‘It was me. My name is Potea Kobe. I was in the first group out on the back nine this Saturday. My playing partners and I would have been the first to reach the fifteenth.

Looking at the person speaking, Persephone took in the person she knew as a past teacher at St. Seymour Secondary School. He was shortish, of average weight, and dressed in checked golf trousers and a garish yellow shirt. His cap displayed a brash golf logo, while his golf shoes were an unusual combination of blue and white. While not for a moment considering herself a fashionista, to Detective Inspective Persephone Jones, he looked ridiculous.

‘Do you recognise the deceased?’

With her doe-shaped eyes looking directly at him, Potea Kobe realised that the unremarkable face was somewhat familiar, though he couldn’t place it. ‘Yes, it’s our President, Raven Shinus.’

‘And what did you first notice about him?’

Catching his breath, Potea took a quick double-take. Perhaps dead bodies were part of the Detective’s daily life, but apart from his late wife, this was his first brush with murder, let alone someone with a divot repairer firmly implanted in the carotid artery on the right-hand side of the neck of the now past President. Potea’s face was as blanched as the bunker’s sand, and he distinctly felt unwell. The Detective, all-official, seemed little to care.

Deliberately slowing his breathing, and making sure that his toes moved constantly as a measure to prevent fainting, Potea replied: ‘Well, the divot repair tool Detective Inspector Jones. All new members joining the club receive one. It’s a model that has a switchblade that allows the prongs to be encased and then extended when in use. It bears the insignia of the Augustine Pine Country Club. It's not available for sale, and only members of the club should have it. Once lost, a member cannot get another one. Because of the symbolism of what it represents Detective Inspector Jones, you rarely see them used. Most players carry a generic commonly available model available from the pro shop for use on the course.’

With a somewhat sense of frustration: ‘As I’m not a golfer Mr Kobe, what does this tool normally do?’

‘It repairs holes in the green made by a ball landing on the green. If the ball comes onto the soft green when landing from height, it makes a small indentation in the green. This indentation needs fixing. What happened was that I had played my ball from the tee of Devil’s Destroyer. From there my view of the base of the deep greenside left bunker is hidden. It’s an interesting design feature, as the