When The Snow Falls

Had the person asking been Carter Emberry?

Daniel was very eager to find out more, but knew he couldn't show his enthusiasm too much otherwise Phillip might stop sharing information.

"Really? What did he look like?"

The blond screwed up his face in concentration and Daniel realised that he might be asking too much. It would be hard to remember something that specific from six years ago.

"He was a little tanned, frowned a lot and had brown hair."

That did sound like Carter Emberry's appearance in the photo Lily showed him. It had to have been him.

"He was with someone else, but he did most of the talking so I have a strong impression of him."

"Can you tell us the same thing you said to him?" Felix requested.

Daniel recognised the signs of an informant clamming up. The blond narrowed his eyes and didn't answer immediately.

"Who are you two?"

"I'm Daniel and he's Felix," Daniel said. "We're members of the Mystery Club and we're trying to investigate the same thing the club was investigating six years ago."

"I'm Phillip, let's go speak somewhere else."

Phillip led them across the large room and into a smaller one filled with stage backdrops. He closed the door behind him.

"That mask… It was one owned by the Drama Club," was the first thing he said. "All photos of it were supposed to be destroyed. I thought I would never see one again."

He looked closer at the photo Daniel was holding.

"This looks like a photo of the original photo that was circulated. Interesting."

Daniel had a lot of questions for Phillip. Fortunately Phillip kept talking.

"I suppose you want me to set the scene…" Philip said and waved his hand across his face. "Six years ago was a different time at this school. People kept seeing that bloody face in one of the windows of the clubhouse and someone managed to get a photo. The photo went on social media so most people were aware of it."

Whilst Daniel wasn't one for dramatics, he was appreciating the background information. He was going to guess that the photo disappeared from social media websites shortly after.

"In the Drama Club we were all sure it was one of the masks that had been used a long time before. Naturally we all went looking for it in the prop storage room. Every member had their own search for it so we could be sure it was no longer in the prop storage room."

"What happened next?" Felix asked.

"The photo was taken down from the social media and the headmaster put out a notice that anyone with a physical or digital copy of it in their possession would be expelled. As you can guess, everyone promptly deleted their copies."

It seemed like the headmaster realised it was a mistake to use something obvious like a mask in an era where most if not all, school students would have a camera phone on hand to get evidence.

"Who do you think was behind the mask at the window?" he enquired.

Phillip crossed his arms.

"A teacher," he said simply.

Daniel was of the same opinion, but wanted to know how he had arrived at the same conclusion without knowing all the secrets of the school.

"How do you know?"

Phillip looked at him like he had low intelligence.

"The prop storage for the Drama Club is locked as there as some high value items in there and we have a database of every single item in there. The only people with the keys to the room were the club leader and the Drama teacher. The disappearance wouldn't have been really noticed if the mask had been cleared off the database- we sometimes get rid of mouldy props and remove their entry. The club leader and any other member would have hidden their tracks. That makes it a teacher who didn't know how to hide it."

Daniel agreed with his opinion. Philip had definitely given them a lot to think about.

"I never saw that boy again, but I remember seeing the other person with him. He was with what had to be the Mystery Club standing by the trees after the clubhouse was closed down. I thought it was strange he wasn't with them."

That fact confirmed it had been Carter Emberry who Phillip had encountered six years ago.

"Was the Drama teacher new at the time?" Felix asked.

Philip snorted. "Mr Donaldson is ancient. He was certainly not new at the time and he's still pottering around. He's shit drama teacher by the way. I swear he would be better as a science teacher. He never pays any attention to what we do and we have to learn out of books."

***

The first two lessons passed by as a blur for Daniel. All he could think of was the mystery. There was a lot at stake this time. Felix was for once, wasn't focused on the lesson either. Daniel eventually noticed that his boyfriend was texting under the table during Japanese and restrained himself from making a comment. He never thought he would see his boyfriend rule breaking.

Felix explained himself in their break.

"We can't lose any time. I was texting Oliver, Harry and Meredith to ask them to name all the old teachers or find out without asking an actual teacher. They all got back to me quite quickly to agree."

Daniel agreed with him. Time was of the essence here.

"I'll get some tea," Daniel said. "We are going to need some caffeine by the end of the day."

The tea choice in the sixth form canteen was mostly limited to a lot of fruit tea and green tea. Daniel reluctantly picked some fruit tea and carefully carried the china cups over to Felix. As he was about to place the cups on the table, a sixth form student came rushing across the canteen and bumped into him. Daniel dropped the cups on the table and the tea started flooding out the smashed cups, across the table and down onto Felix's legs. Daniel swore and turned to glare at the student who had the decency to look guilty.

"Uh sorry about that," was the response."If he's burnt, take him to the school doctor. She's nice."

The student continued running off. Daniel didn't bother to reply and turned his attention to his boyfriend.

"Ow," Felix winced.. "I'm not burnt- it's just uncomfortable to have hot wet patches on your trousers. The tea smells nice though."

Daniel rushed off the get paper towels and found a worse problem when he came back. Felix's hand was bleeding.

"I tried to tidy up the broken cups and cut myself," he admitted. "I think we should go to the toilets so I can dry my trousers and then to the school doctor. This is too much for a plaster."

The blood was beginning to drip down his arm as he spoke.

Daniel took charge. He knew basic first aid from his first life.

"Hold your hand up," he instructed and bound the paper towels around it as a compress. "We're going straight to the doctor."

He put the rest of the paper towels in Felix's uninjured hand. Felix took the hint and started wiping the tea off his trousers.

"Where is the school doctor?" he asked the nearest person, a girl who had approached them to help.

"There's signs," she said. "Go out the sixth form door and into the next building. The doctor's room is down the first corridor. If you can't find it, follow the first aid signs. I'll tell the canteen staff about the mess."

Daniel followed the directions and they ended up outside what had to be the right door. It had a sign saying first aid. He knocked on the door. The school doctor had better be there or he was going to have to do it all himself.

"Come in," a faint voice said.

He opened the door and the first thing he saw was a vase of lilies on the windowsill and lots of beds. The room looked clean and well organised which he approved of. Then the school doctor came into view and he wanted to say Felix didn't need first aid and they had come by mistake.

The school doctor was female with hot pink hair and lipstick.

It had to be the woman from the theme park.

There was something else he knew about her that he hadn't told Felix yet.

He had brought his injured boyfriend to his biggest suspect for Carter's murder.

Daniel watched her clock them as being the two remaining members of the Mystery Club. His biggest worry was that she would also recognise them as the canoodling couple from the theme park. He nudged Felix to not speak. He could tell from the way Felix had stiffened that he had also realised it was the same woman.

"My friend has a cut on his hand that's bleeding a lot. Can you help?" he asked.

"Of course I can," she said after a long moment and gestured to the table. "Let me see the patient."

Felix stepped forward a second later and presented his hand. The school doctor pulled a stool forward to the table.

"Sit down please."

Felix sat down and she peeled back the paper towels. Daniel waited for her diagnosis.

"I'll put a dressing on it. Keep it elevated and if it doesn't improve, go to a hospital."

She got up and began sorting through a cupboard. Daniel exchanged a small nod with Felix whilst she was facing the other way.

"What did you do to get such a cut?"

"Broken china," Felix said shortly.

"I'll need to check for shards in your cut then and apply some antiseptic," she said and came back with a metal tray of supplies. "Don't cry."

If this was a completely normal situation Daniel would have teased his boyfriend. However at this moment, he wanted to appear as unboyfriendly as possible.

Felix didn't make a sound as she poked around with tweezers for any tiny shards of china. Daniel was watching as closely as possible. From what he knew about first aid, she was following the correct steps.

"There," she said when she'd bound up the cut. "Done."

Felix removed his hand from her hold.

"Thanks… miss?"

"I'm Dr Noble," she said with a smile. "I will advise you to stay away from anything dangerous in the future. Be careful. I don't want to see you two ever again."