Carabinieri and men traverse a bumpy country road that bisects the high plains used as the backdrop for western spaghetti.
“This is a truffle hunter’s battlefield,” Tomassetti said as he stepped out of his car near the scene of the chocolate lab collapse. A specially trained Belgian Shepherd, Asia, jumped out of Carabinieri’s truck.
“Search,” Mr. Formichetti said.
As Asia investigated, Mr. Tomassetti and his friends complained that there was an “omerta” or Mafioso code of silence among truffle hunters.
“Maybe it’s one of us,” he said.
“Don’t look at me when you say that!” his friend, Mario Morganti, 62, said.
Some suspect a local was drinking coffee in the town’s bar.
“I will hide in the woods,” said Mr. Bravi. He nearly lost his dog, also named Bella, ten years ago to poisoning. He installed a video camera in his jeep to see who approached when he was out with his dogs. “It’s running now. And then when I catch him and meet him in the square, I’ll break his little hands.”
Asia completed her scan without finding any evidence. Then Mr. Tomassetti put his Bella in the back of his jeep, but carefully held her by the leash. As they went deeper into the forest, he set her free. She found truffles and then she found the fox’s body.
After Carabinieri returned the body to the laboratory, Mr. Tomassetti and the others returned to their jeep. As Bella toiled in his crate, he looked into the woods and lamented that the local truffle hunters wanted it all to themselves. The jeep headed back to Rome, and he brought Bella to the front of the maximum security prison near his home.
“That is where,” he said, “the killers belong.”
