I Beg Of You

I refused to leave the room for another two days until Mariela came knocking on our door. She had heard what happened and was concerned. 

"Are you certain the knife was not simply dropped? Al said he only heard one noise," she said rationally.

One noise that somehow ended up right behind him when no one else was seen nearby? I didn't buy that. How could it have been dropped so close without him catching who had down the dropping? It had to have been thrown.

"I'm positive," I said with a shudder. "This has Sigmund's handiwork all over it. His or Duke Orla's."

"The duke returned to his estate yesterday. I doubt he was involved in this."

He left? Just like that? But he hadn't managed to accomplish anything here. Unless he was the one who threw the knife and chose to leave when it failed. I couldn't understand why he would do that though; he was more tenacious than that in the novel.