Mira scheduled a field visit when the weather stayed damp. She said she would bring a microscope suitable for preliminary examination, sterile sampling supplies, and a field notebook. She also warned that any identification they made outside would remain subject to confirmation and quality assessment before commercial sale.
Nora agreed readily. She had learned that the more interesting a finding became, the more dangerous it was to hurry the answer. By the time Mira's car turned into the lane, the sample bags were stacked beside the ledger, the orchard row numbers were legible, and the hand rake had been left in the barn.
Mira stepped out carrying two cases and looked down the finished fire access route. "Last time I was here, I had to squeeze past a half-buried rose cane to reach the trees."
"We've been working," Nora said.
"So I see."
Tess came from the barn with the binder, and Rook emerged from beneath the truck, stretching as though he had been summoned to an ordinary morning's chore. Jonah joined them shortly afterward to observe the trained search without interfering. The group walked into the orchard beneath a sky the color of wet stone.
The old trees stood ahead of them with their guarded trunks and new growth spreading beyond last year's vine scars. Beyond the cleared rows, the unopened portions of the property were still thick with blackberry, greenbrier, and privet. Nora looked from the dark wall of vegetation to the carefully numbered trees and realized how small a portion of thirty-eight acres she truly understood.
Then Jonah gave Rook the quiet command to search, and the dog lowered his nose to the damp ground.
Rook moved through the first row without sitting. He passed the tree where Nora had uncovered the initial brown lump, sniffed briefly along the edge of its guard, and continued toward the more open part of the orchard. Nora felt an almost physical urge to stop him. That tree had given her the first clue, and she had expected him to recognize it again. She kept her mouth closed and allowed the leash to move between her fingers.
Jonah walked several paces behind them. He did not offer encouragement, correction, or praise. He was there to watch whether the dog worked independently, and he seemed determined not to become another voice telling Rook what answer to give. Mira and Tess followed with the field notebook and a map of the numbered trees, careful to avoid stepping into the areas Rook was investigating.
The dog sniffed a rotting pecan beside a low branch, considered it, and moved on. Under another tree, he circled a patch of damp grass but showed no interest in the soil beneath. Nora recorded those passes only after Tess read the tree numbers aloud. She did not want her own memory of last autumn to alter what the dog was doing now.
They reached the mature tree near the old irrigation riser. The pipe stood several yards away, rusty and silent, its bent fitting rising above the soil like the remains of an abandoned question. Rook moved toward the trunk, paused, and followed a scent that seemed to cross the ground just beyond the guard.