When The Snow Falls

Daniel glanced at Felix. His boyfriend appeared to be highly intrigued. It was good to finally have someone who shared his passion for mysteries.

"There is something you have missed," Lily said and brought him out of his thoughts.

"What is it?"

She tapped the cover of the yearbook with a pink manicured nail.

"This book was allowed to be printed with my brother's name and photo in it. I think he told me the books were printed at the end of the academic year."

Lily picked up her phone again and showed him a photo of a group of teenagers in school uniforms that looked a lot like the British International School uniform only with the logo bigger and on the other side of the blazer. She pointed to someone sitting in the front row with a forced smile. He had brown hair, tanned skin and was sporting what looked like a forced smile.

Now he knew what one of missing pages was and what Carter Emberry had looked like.

"That's Carter. He sent it to me at the time it was taken and said he would show me the yearbook when it was printed when the year finished. So that means the yearbook was allowed to be printed with proof of his existence, but the pages were later torn out. Do you understand the significance?"

The inconsistency had never occurred to him and judging from the look on Felix's face, he hadn't noticed either. If the school had feared people finding out Carter Emberry had been a student there, the yearbook would not have been allowed to be printed with his name and photo.

"The school had no concern at the time about there being clear evidence of your brother's existence only to deny it later," Felix summarised.

"Exactly. Then something must have happened to cause them to worry and tear those pages out. I wonder what it was," she mused and smiled suddenly. "It was me. I turned up eventually asking about him. I finally realised my parents weren't doing anything productive so I came here."

Everything she said made sense, however Daniel couldn't quite picture her as being a genuine threat. She seemed to guess what he was thinking.

"Just because I wear pink, it doesn't mean that I cannot be tough. After enquiring there and getting nowhere, I decided to snoop there instead. I was caught before I got too far. That is probably when the evidence got destroyed."

Daniel agreed that the trigger for the destruction of the yearbook had to be her appearance at the school and her tenacity for asking uncomfortable questions.

"Why didn't you enrol at the school?" Felix enquired. "It would have been a better route."

Lily picked the strawberry off the top of her cake and frowned.

"By the time I got here, I had done my A-levels- I stayed behind with my grandparents in England while my brother and parents came here. I was debating trying to apply there, citing wanting to redo some exams when my father told me it was too dangerous."

Hearing that added more evidence to Daniel's almost certain theory that Carter's parents knew exactly what had happened.

"Did he explain why?"

She shook her head.

"Despite my best efforts, he didn't. I ended up doing university entrance exams instead. I have not just spent four and a half years here shopping. I graduated last year."

"Do you live with them?" Felix asked.

"No," she answered shortly. I go to their house every Sunday for a roast dinner though. It feels awkward a lot of the time."

Daniel could imagine that. His family dinners were bad enough and he didn't have a dead brother that his second set of parents knew what happened to and were keeping quiet.

Felix picked up the photo of the writing they had found under the desk in the old Mystery Club room.

"Is this your brother's writing?"

Lily nodded slowly.

"It is. I knew it was immediately. I just don't know what any of it means."

Daniel was glad she had confirmed that it was something her brother had written. It was a shame she didn't know what 'Room 23' and 'Shelling Ford' referred to.

"Thank you for meeting with us," he said. "You've helped us a lot."

Lily smiled sadly at them.

"No, thank you for meeting with me. It's been nice to speak with both of you. Please let me know if you find anything else and I might start hassling my parents again for answers."

They parted outside the shopping centre. Daniel stopped outside Takeshita Street on the way back and gestured to his boyfriend.

"Go and get yourself something with a cat on. It's fine with me."

***

Daniel was writing up his case notes when he heard a knock at his bedroom door. He tucked the notebook under his pillow in case it was Vanessa or Colin.

"You can come in," he said.

He relaxed when Felix opened the door and stepped in.

"I'm going to guess you're thinking about the mystery again," he said and came to sit next to him on the bed.

Daniel pulled out his case notes from his pillow and showed him.

"You know most male teenagers are hiding dirty mags under their pillow not mystery notes," Felix sighed.

The reborn teenager shrugged. He wasn't really a teenager in reality and he'd never been a typical teenager in his past life.

"All right, what's your next plan?" Felix asked. "But first, when are we going to go on another date?"

Daniel stopped writing. He hadn't been a good boyfriend recently. If he didn't show any interest in their relationship, Felix might want to dump him and he didn't want that.

"Tomorrow?" he asked. "We don't have sixth form. I don't know where to go though."

"I'll handle it," Felix said. "You can talk about the case as freely as you want now."

Daniel beamed and started reading through his notes.

"So what we know is that the Mystery Club starts investigating the mysteries of the school six years ago, it's a lot easier for them as the old building is still being used. Carter Emberry has something to prove and puts a lot of effort in. He disappears and his parents don't put any visible effort in to find him. He did leave behind two hints though. His sister comes poking around and evidence of his existence disappears."

"Our only avenue at the moment is those two hints," Felix observed. "Unless Lily turns up something."

"We need to look into the school's history thoroughly to work out what they could be hiding," Daniel continued. "There's something dodgy there. There was something for Carter to find six years ago."

"So we've got some avenues to follow," Felix continued. "I'm okay with just focusing on non mystery stuff right now. If I think about it too much, it hurts my mind."

***

Felix's idea of a date that was free from mystery solving stimulus was a trip to a theme park. For someone who had never been to one it was a visual overload. Daniel wasted a lot of time at the entrance looking around at all the bright colours and noisy rides.

"Let me guess. Earls don't take their children to theme parks?" Felix asked wryly after watching him for a few minutes.

"Of course not. They're dirty," Daniel replied automatically.

He had never been interested in going to one, but the original Daniel had wanted to and begged his parents to let him go on the school trip to one. The Earl had not allowed that stating that no one born into nobility would be seen dead near one.

"We should try all the rides then," Felix said.

Daniel spent the time in the queue for the first ride looking around at all the food stands which amused Felix to no end.

"Is my boyfriend hungry already? It's only 10 in the morning and we had breakfast right before leaving."

Daniel ignored his teasing and looked up at the ride. The viking boat definitely went high.

"...Are you all right with heights?" Felix asked in concern. "I didn't think of that…"

"I don't know," Daniel replied honestly. "I've never had a chance to find out. Are you going to be okay? You fell from quite a height last year…"

Felix waved his hand.

"I told you, I don't remember anything."

After a morning of rollercoasters and ghost trains, Daniel was quite ready for lunch. They sat inside one of the restaurants as the wind speed had picked up and Daniel didn't want to spend their date chasing after things.

As they were choosing from the menu, Daniel heard something from a nearby table that caught hit interest.

"I have heard that the Mystery Club are investigating the Seven Mysteries again," a male voice said.

Daniel stilled and met eyes with Felix. Yes, there were probably mystery clubs at other schools and the Seven Mysteries was a phenomenon at most Japanese schools. But the line had been said in English with an English accent and there wasn't another British based international school in Tokyo.

"That's hardly a concern," another voice, this one female scoffed. "There is only one intelligent member and if he found out the truth behind them, he would keep his mouth shut."

"They have two new members who are just as good. They will run to the Police if they find out the truth. One has a family in business which would be hard to put pressure on as they have yet to be affiliated with my company. The other one is completely unknown."

They were definitely listening to two people who knew what was really going on at the international school. The intelligent member had to be Amien and the two new members were them. It all matched. Felix's hand gripped his under the table.

"Don't move," he mouthed.

"That's assuming they work it out. The means to solve the case are beyond them- they can't break into the clubhouse without leaving traces behind."

There was a rustling sound and Daniel resisted the urge to turn around and look. It was a shame he and Felix were sitting next to each other instead of on opposite sides of the table otherwise one of them could see the mysterious pair.

"Unfortunately they met up with Lily Emberry in Harajuku yesterday. Under normal circ.u.mstances there wouldn't be any connection between them," the male voice continued on.

Daniel glanced at Felix. They had been seen meeting Lily by someone connected with the school. The mystery was much more complex and dangerous than he had thought.

"The person following her must be so bored by now. All she ever does is buy clothes," the female commented.

"The only possible connection between them is that her brother was once a member of the Mystery Club."

"Perhaps we need to issue a subtle warning to the club to stop their amateur mystery solving," the female voice drawled.