“Don’t go, Furi. Don’t go,” I muttered, but watched her set off across the garden walk toward the pond and distant river. It would be quiet there, and I understood her desire for quiet, but I wasn’t the only one who had noticed her departure. The second Nobu had also noticed, and he followed.

Salvaging the situation would be as much as I could do. I didn’t promise to save the miserable carcass of that idiot second Nobu brother but counted as I watched his oily gait to the boundaries of the estate.

How close could I follow without creating an obvious parade? Ten steps. Twelve. Fourteen. Now he was beyond the line of conifers. Twenty-four, twenty-six. Now he was nearing the maple boundary of the inner garden. Forty-two, Forty-four. Almost out of sight.

Now. I could follow now.

I sprang down the hill, never bothering with the gravel pathway, but leaping over shrubs and saplings, I moved straight to the river, making a wide circle around Furi and her stalker. From the screening of the trees along the river bank, I watched his approach by the glow of the rising moon.

He had spooked her, certainly. She almost jumped at his appearance. I hoped, but I knew better than to expect mere civility from him. He had a motive and I could scarcely expect this encounter to end in anything but violence.

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I might intervene now, but for my uncle’s warning against witnesses. And Furi would not need my defensive help. She could face anyone only too handily. The problem was a matter of proportion. Nobu was no great figure of fortitude. She would finish him quickly.

That moment came, and he fell like a waif, and Furi collapsed into the grass beside him. The next moment, I bent over her fatigued body, checked her vitals, and found them strong. Her head lolled to one side, and I arranged her more comfortably upon a pillow of grass. The release of poison would make her sleep, but only for a little while. Soon, she would awaken and I couldn’t let her find Nobu’s body lying dead on her hands.

I checked the corpse for vitals and confirmed his extinction. Then I slung the smallish body over my shoulder and carried him through the tall grass down to the river.

A broad-based rowboat bobbed in the current next to a small dock, and I laid Nobu in it length-wise. The boat could float downstream a fair distance before the body would be discovered and although it gave away human interference to his death, distance and time was more important to Furi at the moment.

No one would suspect Furi of carrying a heavy body down to the river. I liked the strange angles in the appearance of this incident, though the truth was beyond everything for strangeness. Maybe this much interference alone would be enough to distance Furi from the investigation that would inevitably follow.

I reached down into the cool water, hauled up the anchor, and let the boat drift.