He circled once. Then he made a second smaller circle, nose low, feet moving with unusual care. Nora looked at Jonah, who gave no sign that she should intervene. Rook stopped, lowered his chest slightly, and sat.
The motion was quiet enough that a person who did not know him might have mistaken it for rest. Nora knew better. His head was held steady, his eyes were turned toward the ground, and he did not reach out with a paw. He waited for the next step in the routine they had practiced through winter and spring.
"Good boy," Nora said softly. She rewarded him without allowing him to disturb the soil. Then she moved back so Tess could read the number from the tree guard and note the date, the recent rainfall, and the exact position of the indication relative to the trunk.
Mira opened a clean sample bag. "Take your time," she said. "We have no reason to hurry this."
Nora knelt and brushed aside a thin layer of leaf litter with her fingertips. Beneath it, the soil was dark and friable. She moved a small amount aside where the dog had indicated, barely deeper than the uppermost layer, and saw a curved brown surface that had not been visible before.
She stopped and looked toward Mira. The pathologist nodded. Nora worked gently around the object, avoiding the finer roots, and lifted a firm, rounded body from the soil. It was neither perfectly spherical nor smooth. Its skin had shallow ridges and small irregular lobes that caught the light when she turned it.
The aroma reached them before anyone cut it open. It was richer than the scent of wet soil, with a warm, earthy quality and something faintly nutty beneath it. Nora had smelled mushrooms in the woods for years, but this was different. It seemed concentrated, as though the damp orchard floor had been gathered into a single small thing.
Mira examined the outer surface and recorded the characteristics. Then, with Nora's permission, she made a careful cut through a portion of the specimen. Inside, pale veins crossed dense brown flesh in a complicated marbled pattern. Tess leaned closer and held the notebook still while Mira compared the structure with photographs and notes she had brought from her work.
"This is much better material than what we had last autumn," Mira said. "Mature, firm, aromatic, and collected with its location recorded. The shape and interior are consistent with a pecan truffle."
Nora looked at her. "You can name it?"
"I can make a strong field identification. I want to check the spores under magnification before I give you my final answer."
They moved to a clean work surface near the truck, where Mira prepared a small section for microscopic examination. Nora watched without trying to interpret every movement. It was enough to see the pathologist slow down, adjust the focus, and study the sample rather than merely glance at it.