The Hunter Read Online Free PDF

of the bench and its surroundings. Wada had donned a surgical-like face mask, the kind sold for protection from pollen, that he'd cleverly brought along. Takizawa walked over to him, giving wide berth to the other investigators, and when he saw what Wada had uncovered from the cinders, he immediately called the forensic scientist from SRI over.
    Wearing thick glasses that gave him the appearance of an insect, the scientist crouched down and picked up the item with tweezers, examining it meticulously. Takizawa stood behind him, leaning forward, studying the object. One by one, the others gathered around.
    Leaning farther forward, Takizawa asked, "Now whaddaya suppose that is?"
    Hearing Takizawa's voice in his ear, the scientist gave a start, but he answered thoughtfully, "Well, let's see." He brought the object to his nose and sniffed it, then held it up so the rest of them could see. Less than two inches long, it looked, at first glance, like a charred section of the body of a snake.
    "Part of a belt, I should think. Probably belonging to the man who burned to death," the scientist pronounced, his voice muffled behind the towel over his mouth. Recalling the severity of the victim's burns at the midriff, Takizawa was amazed that any part of the belt could have made it through the fire.
    "Whaddaya make of that?" Takizawa said, pointing to a part of the item that was completely carbonized and so fragile-looking that it seemed the least amount of force might cause it to disintegrate.
    The scientist nodded. "See the tarry substance, over here?"
    "Yeah."
    "I can't be sure, but. . . Let's look around again. I'm wondering if there's anything in this area that could be part of an ignition device?"
    At these words, spoken as the scientist got up from his crouch, an excitement ran through the team of investigators. Takizawa also straightened up, stretching his sore back. Several investigators were already crouched down again to begin a new search.
    "Part of an ignition device, you say?" Takizawa asked the scientist.
    "At this stage, I can't draw any hard and fast conclusions, of course. But just for argument's sake, let's say—"
    Long years of experience gave Takizawa a pretty good idea what the other man was thinking. But the scientist tilted his head to one side as if deep in thought, and chose his words carefully. Resisting the impulse to tell the guy to stop sounding so self-important and just spit it out, Takizawa looked up at this scientist, who, fortyish, still seemed to have something of the student about him. Takizawa had never thought of himself as particularly short in stature, yet lately it had occurred to him that no matter who he was talking to, especially if they were younger, he was the one looking up.
    "There is a possibility that a chemical was used."
    "A chemical," Takizawa repeated.
    That much he could understand. The problem was, it was on the belt. The scientist was holding the blackened object up in his tweezers and sniffing it.
    "Is it possible to rig something like that up on a belt?"
    "That would depend on the type of chemical. But there's nothing on the inside of a belt that would burn like this, and we do have multiple witnesses saying the fire erupted from the victim himself, so it fits the facts."
    The same suspicion had occurred to Takizawa straight away; the moment he saw the blackened object held up by Wada, alarm bells had gone off. That was precisely why he had beckoned the scientist over. Yet even if the theory fit the facts, the notion of attaching an ignition device to a belt still seemed incredible.
    "People will do the goddamnedest things."
    Until now the scientist had looked distinctly out of sorts at being dragged out of bed so early in the morning, but with the discovery of the belt fragment, his attention seemed all at once to quicken. He, too, began searching the floor with care, his eyes darting around.
    One investigator had taken a broom and swept up debris around where the belt fragment