 Dalziel and Pascoe investigate the death of Donald Fitzgerald who is found the morning after his retirement party bludgeoned to death on a golf course driving range with three golf balls shoved into his mouth. He had returned home after the party to tell his wife he was leaving her and then left the house, taking with him a new golf club he received as a retirement gift. Suspicion falls on Danny Macer who was recently acquitted in a murder case with striking similarities. When they find a key on Fitzgerald that leads to safe deposit box with a 100,000 pounds, they begin to wonder exactly what their ex-colleague was up to. A second murder leads them to one of their own.