A talent for destruction

the long version

The skull is buried in the snow. Little Justin and Adrian think at first that it's a football -- but footballs don't have eyeless, noseless sockets and grinning teeth. Detective Chief Inspector Douglas Quantrill is the first policeman on the scene. He finds the skeleton of what appears to be a young man dressed in jeans. He could have been a derelict who died of drugs, he could have fallen down an embankment from a nearby highway -- or it could be murder. But who is he? Nobody has been reported missing.