Jack the Hat Richards a retired and experienced detective from New Scotland Yard has retired north to Cheshire. He is out walking his dog in some woodland, a storm the previous evening has uprooted a large tree. Jack rounds a corner to see his dog waiting, holding what appears to be a stick. On closer inspection Jack sees it is in fact a human leg bone. In the hole left when the tree was uprooted there a skeletal remains. The police are called and an investigation is commenced. Due to the circumstances in the current climate of financial cuts, it is decided to ask Jack to assist in the investigation. Richards is of the old type of detective, he is a quiet man very methodical, some have said he is boring. In reality unlike modern policing he has great attention to detail as he sifts the clues and evidence, but more. He possesses that now long lost skill of investigators to look into the minds of his suspects and never misses a clue or a trick of his target. He agrees to return to duty, and as in other previous cases he is instructed to work from the local police museum with the assistance of an inexperienced policewoman Inspector. She is fresh from university and is the subject of ridicule by her senior officers and subordinates. The two set to work to investigate, painstakingly looking into each of the cases. Jack calls on his old forensic and pathology contacts to assist him. All this skill and patience finally brings remarkable and surprising results.