Joan examined the box. “Look at the flame pattern. The box was surely buried on a hillside, and the flames leapt irregularly and scorched through to dry, freshly excavated dirt, at some point in time before the seeding that produced grass on that hillside. I would conclude that the box was buried immediately before the 1933 fire that Dr. Ashida mentioned, or at the time of the fire itself.” Dr. Nort gawked. Ashida half-grinned. Joan tickled the dead man’s chin. “Run molecular-compound tests on the charred wood, and check the grain markings against the photographic records kept at local
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