When The Snow Falls

Things were starting to fall into place. Drugs were a problem at all schools and Kingston Royal Academy was no exception. Instead of meeting a dealer outside of school hours like an average secondary school pupil would, they had a whole secret society devoted to drugs.

The person that sent him the cat had to be a member. It was now obvious. He still couldn't tell if it had been a warning or a threat though.

He thought back to Christoper and Alvin's description of Jack's behaviour before his death. Paranoia and puking up did match the symptoms of drug taking. The secret society had led him to his death by getting him hooked on drugs. Perhaps they had killed him by letting the withdrawal symptoms get to him and he fell of his own accord. It was a possibility.

He felt genuine hate towards the Pudding Club that was stronger than he usually felt. It was one thing to have a drug ring, it was another thing completely to get a pupil that people had been waiting to bully into the inner sect alone and get him addicted to drugs.

Felix must have known enough to tell Sunny that they had killed him. The black pudding he had made with blood for the Pudding Club might have been his own version of a threat to them.

He heard running footsteps and tensed up. Much to his relief it was only Sunny rushing into the toilets.

"There's syringes and other things everywhere. They're doing drugs here," she told him breathlessly. "I think we should leave as soon as possible. It's dangerous."

He could see that the discovery had made her realise the precarious situation they were in. Daniel was inclined to agree with her. He knew that people went to extremes to obtain drugs and protect their stash. If they were caught here, they would end up like Felix or worse.

"We're leaving," he said. "I'll get George."

The poster caught his eye again and he hastily took a photo of it and stuck it back on the wall before rushing off to retrieve George. The redhead had found the same things as Sunny and was similarly terrified. Daniel took a few photos and pocketed a syringe whilst their attention was diverted by the fear of being caught.

He needed evidence of the inner sect's criminal activities.

***

"I'm never going back there again," Sunny vowed. "We're lucky that no one was there."

They hadn't stopped to speak until they reached Sunny's house and were in the living room with the curtains closed.

"Daniel, don't make us go there again," George begged.

Daniel knew that if he joined the Pudding Club, he would eventually end up there sooner or later with people that weren't as friendly as George and Sunny. He didn't know what he would do once he was in that situation.

"I won't," he promised. "All I wanted to find was a clue for what they were using it for and we know now."

"I guess we should have considered drugs before," Sunny sighed. "I wish it was something smaller. It's life threatening. What do you think happened to Jack?"

Daniel appreciated that she had calmed down enough to make the link between the club, drugs and Jack.

"From what I've heard, it sounds like he was brought into the drug taking part of the club which is the secret society. They wanted to get him away from Felix so they could bully him," he explained sadly. "I don't know what they gave him, but it affected him badly. They might have not even needed to push him down those steps, his impaired senses from taking drugs could have caused his fall."

Sunny's eyes welled up and Daniel wasn't sure what to do. If Ben walked in now and saw her crying he would be in trouble. Then again, he'd rather face Ben than the secret society.

"They're evil," George stated plainly.

"They'll probably say it's something to do with tradition," Daniel answered truthfully. "Tradition has a strange meaning here. Scholarship students have to be treated badly because it's tradition. The secret drug taking is most likely another tradition that has to be upheld."

He thought about the prefects. Prefects were usually chosen at the start of the year at most schools. Kingston Royal Academy's criteria for choosing prefects was unknown. There had to have been a prefect that was against drugs at least once. It was clear that any prefect unhappy with the situation would have been forced to go along with it or lose the coveted position.

The current four prefects had shown a lot of devotion to the secret society. They had recruited Jack, led him to his death, attempted to kill Felix who was also a scholarship student and had even targeted himself by drugging his coffee. He realised that he should have seen his drugging as an early hint of drugs being involved.

He thought about the cat again. Had one of the prefects sent it to him as a hint so he could uncover the true purpose of the secret society? It was worth thinking about.

"What do you want to do now?" Sunny questioned him.

"Go back to my dorm," he replied simply.

She shook her head.

"I know that. I meant, what are you going to do with what we've found out? You said that they wanted to recruit you into the secret society. I don't want you to get hooked on drugs," she said fervently.

Daniel was somewhat touched by her strong feelings about his well being. Her concerns were completely correct. If he joined, there was a huge risk involved.

"Liam is coming around to see me tomorrow and he's kind of forcing me to join the actual Pudding Club. I have some time. They won't get me into the secret society immediately," he told her to reassure her.

In a way he was also reassuring himself. He never wanted to get into the drug taking part. Some of his cases in his past life had shown him the consequences of drug taking and they were never good ones.

"If you need to hide out, we'll help you," George promised him.

***

When he crept back through the dorm building to his room it was half past one in the morning. He removed the pile of clothes from under the duvet and lay down. He knew he wasn't going to get any sleep considering what he had found out.

"You really owe me," he said to Felix's empty bed. "Wake up soon."

He stared at the ceiling all night. Who had sent him the cat? Was it their way of doing him a favour? Could he get out of joining the Pudding Club?

There was the option of going to the police with the syringes. The problem with that was that it was a short-term resolution. The only part he had definite evidence for was the drug taking. The Police would probably give an anti-drugs speech in assembly and then leave it to the school to deal with.

The inner sect wouldn't have existed for as long as it had by leaving themselves open to something like that. Presumably all the members that joined stayed because they needed to get a drugs fix themselves.

It was sad to think that everything was this way because of tradition.

His thoughts were interrupted by a phone call from Anabelle which made him realise that it was already 8 in the morning.

"Are you still all right?" she asked eagerly. "Christoper told me about the cat."

He didn't know how to answer her. It was difficult to explain.

"Do you know what meow meow is?" he asked to start off on an easy part.

"Mephedrone," she answered. "'Is skunk stronger than badger? How long is a line of coke?' They're both from anti drug posters in the same series. When I looked up the phrase in the note, I found out where it came from and what it meant."

Annabelle had definitely done her research. She also sounded oddly calm about the drug issue. He waited for a meltdown but nothing came.

"I went to their meeting place last night and there were lots of syringes. I can guess what happened to Jack," he said.

"Daniel, I know you are clever and want to solve everything. Can't you let the school and the police handle this?" she requested in an even tone.

"There's not enough evidence. I need to find definite proof and I can only identify four members at the moment," he told her. "If I'm to bring it down, I need to know a lot more."

"I bet you think that you can only get it by being invited into the secret society. It will be too late then," she paused. "Have you found what Felix took from them yet? He was probably looking for definite evidence as well."

He realised she was right. Felix's actions showed that he'd known a fair amount about the secret society. He might have found something that could be definite evidence before him. That evidence might also have led to the secret society trying to murder Felix.

"No. I should start looking now. He must have found something major for them to want to kill him," he answered. "I really need him to wake from his coma."

Felix was the one person who could turn the case to his advantage rather than the secret society's. Without his knowledge he was stumbling around in the dark.

"If he does wake up, his memory might not be intact," she warned. "Head injuries have lots of consequences."

"You're right," he sighed. "I'm going to look around the school for the mysterious item that Felix took. It can't be in this room; the prefects and I have both looked through everything."

"Did you check the cistern of the toilet?" she asked suddenly. "That's a place that usually gets overlooked."

Annabelle might have read more mystery novels than he had which was saying something. Toilet cisterns did turn occasionally turn up in novels as a hiding place. It had never come to his mind because he'd only been considering practical places to hide things. Admittedly, anything could be hidden in a toilet cistern if it was small and enclosed in a watertight bag. However knowing that only widened the search parameter.

Each room had their own bathroom and people were going to wonder why he kept using their bathrooms.

"No," he g.r.o.a.n.e.d. "Any other suggestions?"

He had asked Sunny the two days ago, but she hadn't come up with anything.

"Under the floorboards?" she guessed. "That might only be in stories though."

Annabelle was definitely a secret mystery fan. When this case was over he would have to see her collection.

***

Daniel decided to start with Anabelle's suggestion mainly because the bathroom was the closest place and he might as well do the easiest one first. He locked the door behind him and pulled the lid off the cistern to have a look.

There proved to be nothing out of the ordinary in the cistern to his disappointment. He decided to visit the library next and then the classrooms that Felix would have used. Daniel decided to look in everyone else's toilets at night if he hadn't found anything before that. The search had the added benefit of getting him acquainted with the layout of the school.

The library was Victorian in style with a musty air to it. It was also annoyingly large for a search. Normally Daniel would have revelled in massive library, instead he g.r.o.a.n.e.d. If Felix had concealed something in a book, there was a lot of choice.

Felix's known interests came to mind so he located the cat books and the pudding books. Interestingly enough there were some Victorian era recipe books and he wasted a little time reading through them. However there was nothing odd concealed in them. The only part of the library that was busy was the study area and there were no prefects to be seen which was good for his investigation. He was dreading encountering Liam.

Next, he checked the classrooms that Felix was timetabled to be in during lessons. All of them were locked because the term hadn't officially started. That didn't leave him with much choice. He walked back through the entrance hall despondently. He was about to continue along back to his room when Mr Collings came running past him. Mr Collings stopped in his tracks when he saw Daniel.

"The hospital just called," he told him breathlessly.

Daniel waited for more details with a nervous heart. Either Felix had died or he'd woken up from his coma. One signalled the mystery being solved and the other meant that he'd lost his most important lead.

"He's woken up," Mr Collings said. "I'm heading over there immediately."

The one person that could definitely help him solve the mystery was now firmly in the land of living.