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Art galleries are receiving demands from an extortionist calling himself 'Dada' who has proved his ability to make important paintings melt. 'Dada' is in fact Jed Frewin, an old enemy of Cornelius and a master of disguise. The insurers' agent, Carol Bolitho, consults Cornelius, and Frewin insists JC should personally deliver the one million pounds in ransom money he has demanded. Then Frewin kills Meriel Connors, his accomplice in the art world, and suddenly he is living on borrowed time.

Cornelius and Samantha pursue the killer of Jane Arkwright, a psychologist whose body was found near the notoriously severe Judge Rawcliffe's house - with the murderer leaving a string of taunting, cryptic clues. Rawcliffe, whose wife also died mysteriously, becomes the chief suspect. And the killer's clues seem intended to lead the pursuit on a wild goose chase.

Roger Smith, who claims to be Father Christmas's brother, takes a quantity of human bones to the police, then disappears. Smith is a patient of Cornelius, and the bones are found to be two teaching skeletons and a more recently-dead hand. Cornelius and Samantha are in the thick of the mystery.