When The Snow Falls

"What do you think could be behind there?" Felix questioned and came to check for himself.

Daniel put his ear to the wall and knocked again. There was definitely a lot of empty space behind there. He remembered how small the clubroom next door had seemed compared to this one. There was definitely space for something to be hidden in between the two walls. There hadn't been any sign of a filled in hole in the wall in the other room so the opening had to have been on the Mystery Club's side.

"I don't know yet. It sounds like empty space."

He pushed the wall gently. It was going to take some force to knock the plaster through.

"It looks like it's undergone some damage from earthquakes," Felix observed. "It will be easier to break through."

Daniel examined it closer. As Felix had said, they could apply some force and break through the weakened parts, but he could see traces of much darker plaster which suggested it had been covered up a few times before. He took a photo of the wall just so they could have some evidence before they destroyed it.

Felix picked up the nearest chair and smashed it against the wall. The plasterboard splintered and fell away. It was much easier than he had thought.

They shone their torches into the cavity. It took Daniel a moment to focus his eyes due to the plaster and dust in the air and he realised he was looking at a set of wooden steps. He stepped into the small place and tested the first one. It was solid but creaky.

"Are you coming up?" he asked Felix.

Felix's face looked very pale in torchlight.

"...I'm worried about stumbling onto a dead body," he admitted.

"I'll find it first," Daniel said and held out his hand.

He started to climb up with Felix's cold hand in his grasp and his torch in the other.

The inclusion of the secret staircase did explain why there was only twelve steps instead of nineteen on the set leading to the top floor. These steps had to lead to the attic or some area in the roof.

Perhaps the mysterious stairs led to something to do with the old pharmaceutical company. At this point he was fairly excited rather than scared.

He soon found himself in a large room with a low ceiling. It became evident when Felix added his own torch that it was a small laboratory. The walls were off white and covered in damp and the air was full of stale smelling dust.

"I guess we've found the secret to this building," Daniel commented. "Let's just go through everything. I'll take this half of the room. I don't think there's a dead body here- we'd smell it."

Felix nodded and went off to the other side of the room.

Daniel's half of the laboratory was full of cabinets containing dusty glassware, micropipettes and microscopes. It had everything that was expected of a science lab. What was missing was any doc.u.mentation to hint what it was used for. Even some health and safety risk assessment forms would be helpful. If it was a hidden lab, what went on had to be top secret, illegal or both. The rumour that Amien had told him of was definitely shaping up to be the complete truth.

"Have you found anything?" he asked Felix.

Felix sneezed and held up a metal tray and a plastic device. Daniel recognised them from his first life.

"The tray is for counting pills and the other cuts pills," he informed him and found himself close to saying that his mother had been a pharmacy technician which wouldn't match Lady Entwhistle.

His boyfriend shot him a confused look and Daniel joined him in searching. Felix started opening the drawers in the nearest cabinet and pulled out something small and flat which he shone his torch on.

"It's an empty blister pack of pills. It's strange- the name of the drug isn't printed on it so I have no idea what it is. Is that even legal?"

"Nope," Daniel said automatically. "That would be a good reason for a recall."

He internally winced. He was getting too lax around Felix. A distraction was needed.

"I think whatever was in there must have been made in this lab. I think this matches with what Amien told me quite well."

Daniel peered into the sink as he spoke and illuminated it with his torch. He squinted when he spotted something.

"There's something in here. I think it's a hair."

He pulled it out with difficulty and shone his torch on it.

"It's… pink. Hot pink to be precise."

He and Felix looked at each other. It appeared they had both thought of the same thing.

"That woman from the theme park!" Felix exclaimed. "She was here."

"If she works at this school, she would be easy to recognise. There can't be any more than one member of staff with hot pink hair."

His mind flashed back to the photos at Lily's apartment. Her aunt had hot pink hair in some of the photos. Could it be? He shook his head. Lily would have said her aunt was in Japan when he'd asked about her. He needed to stop being so quick to tie things together.

"That's true," Felix acknowledged. "We need to find all the original teachers tomorrow as soon as we can."

Daniel took some plastic bags out his backpack and placed the hair in one and the empty blister pack in another. They would have to do as evidence bags.

"Should we take photos?" Felix asked.

Daniel agreed with the idea. Some hard evidence was going to be required to prosecute whoever had killed Carter Emberry and the laboratory wasn't guaranteed to stay it its current state permanently.

"Wait, there's something in the corner," Felix said after shining his torch around.

Daniel approached the dark shadow in the corner and realised it was a large vat. He shone his torch on the label and saw what it was.

18 molar Sulphuric Acid.

He pushed it slightly and deduced that it was nearly empty. The date on the label was from 20 years before.

That all added up to one conclusion.

"I think… I know what happened to the dead bodies from the drug trial. They were disintegrated using Sulphuric Acid."

"Oh," was all Felix said.

They took photos in silence. Daniel could tell Felix was revulsed by the findings and he didn't know what to say. It was an undeniably dark case.

"...Shall we go down to Room 23?" Felix asked when they were finished. "Being up here isn't nice."

They replaced the poster as neatly as possible and Daniel dusted the plaster shards from breaking the wall under the cupboards. Their subterfuge would pass a cursory inspection, but if someone was searching carefully for traces their secret lab had been busted, it would be obvious. They just needed to solve the mystery as quickly as possible.

Carter Emberry must have also found the secret lab six years before and someone had found out. The clues he'd left told Daniel that Carter had made it out of the lab without notice.

Room 23 looked just like an average science lab from twenty years ago with lots of dark wood and benches fixed into place instead of tables and white gas taps as well as nothing interesting to find. All they turned up was a lot of dust, a nest of dead spiders, dirty glassware and a dead rat.

Despite their best efforts they couldn't find anything out of place. Daniel closed the door behind them after half an hour of searching and was about to pass it off as fruitless when the nameplate on the door caught his attention. It was very faded with only a few letters visible.

Ra….Em….

It must have been the teacher's name. Could Carter have been indicated the teacher had killed him? Instantly he realised he didn't make sense. Carter wouldn't have known who had killed him, he must have wanted to indicate he had found evidence against this teacher.

"We found a lot," Felix commented in the hallway. "Do we have enough to work it all out?"

Daniel's mind was in the middle of adding up all the new findings and the old findings together and came to a conclusion that made sense.

"I know who Carter's murderer probably is. I just don't have evidence," he announced.