When The Snow Falls

Kingston Royal Academy was turning out to not be the prestigious institution he had been led to believe it was. The prefects drugged students, he had found one dying in the snow and now he was finding out about a suspicious death.

His mind flashed back to the date in Felix's notebook: 11/12/18. Could it be the date of Felix's roommate's death? It was within the right timeframe.

"When did he die?" he asked.

Christopher answered quickly.

"The 11th of December, it was the day after the play. He was found outside by a teacher in the morning and died on the way to hospital."

That explained the mysterious date.

"How did he die?" Daniel enquired.

This time Christopher was more hesitant in answering.

"The walkways were covered in ice, he must have slipped on the stone steps and cracked his head on the ground. We were told it was an accident and it seemed right. This school does have its hazards, but we all know to stay away from icy areas," he paused to add something else. "And trees during when it's snowing."

Daniel understood his point. He had learnt his lesson from the chillingly wet patches of water on his shirt and trousers and it was only his second day. If this pupil had been at Kingston Royal Academy for four years and one term he would have known to be careful about ice.

"What was his name?"

"Jack Edwards," Christopher told him. "He was a little shy. He was about your height but had white blond hair instead and wasn't anywhere near as pale as you are."

It appeared that he now knew who the identity of the other person in the photo with Felix. It did make sense that Felix had a photo of himself and his roommate together.

His cousin continued on without prompting.

"Felix was the most affected by his death. I didn't see him much before the end of term, but I encountered him yesterday morning and he completely different."

Daniel was now very glad that Christoper was his cousin for once. If he hadn't talked to him he wouldn't have known anything about what was really going on at Kingston Royal Academy. Taking to Sunny would have only got him so far.

"I said hello and he just blanked me. He was normally very sociable," Christoper explained. "He was also looking around a lot like he was worried about someone watching him."

There probably had been someone watching him considering how yesterday had ended for Felix. It was now very obvious that Felix's fall had not been an accident. It wasn't yet clear how he came to be on the roof. He thought about the highly dubious prefects and internally debated about asking Christoper. His cousin was a stickler for rules and authority figures so there was a chance he wouldn't believe him if he told him about the prefects drugging him.

"How much influence do the prefects really have here? They seem to be more serious than the ones at my old school."

"This is an old-fashioned boarding school so they have a lot more clout than your average school prefects," Christoper said wryly. "They do inspections, have meetings with the staff, take assemblies and lead the societies."

Now was the important question. If Christoper said he trusted them he couldn't ask him any more questions in case Christoper told the prefects about his curiosity at a later point.

"Do you trust them?"

Christoper's answer surprised him.

"No."

"You have good judgement," Daniel complimented him. "You should hear what they did last night."

***

Half an hour Daniel emerged from Christoper's room with slightly drier clothes and more information. If even Christoper had noticed was something fishy about the prefects there was definitely something strange going on at Kingston Royal Academy. His cousin had been shocked to hear about their transgression in his room, but hadn't been able to provide an explanation.

Daniel had kept back the part about finding the notebook in case Christoper let it slip or he genuinely was in with the prefects and was trying to gain his trust. His very short time at Kingston Royal Academy hadn't inspired much trust in any of the staff or students.

He decided to tentatively start putting the puzzle pieces of the case together. There was no harm in getting all the background information.

He returned to his room and immediately changed into his spare school uniform because whilst Christoper's room had been at a comparatively balmy temperature, his room was like stepping into a freezer. There was a knock at the door once he had pulled up his trousers. He had a suspicion that it was a prefect so he hung up his coat with the hidden notebook in the wardrobe out of sight.

His actions turned out to be superfluous as the visitor turned out to be Mr Collings, housemaster for the Scarlet Wren House who was wearing a snow dusted thick coat. Daniel guessed he had been somewhere from the pattern of snow on his coat and how much had melted.

"I've just returned from the hospital," he explained. "I thought you would like to hear the news."

Considering that the housemaster didn't look overtly sad, he assumed that the news was going to be positive.

"Felix pulled through fine, mainly thanks to your quick actions," he paused. "The bad news is that he's in a coma with a traumatic brain injury."

Daniel had known that falling off the roof had caused a lot of injuries to Felix and that his recovery- if he survived- would be a difficult one. The possibility of him being in a coma hadn't crossed his mind.

"It's an induced coma," the housemaster continued on. "He will be fine if he wakes up after the drugs are withdrawn."

The unsaid part was obvious. Felix would not be fine if he didn't wake up. That would suit at least four people at Kingston Royal Academy.

"If he does recover, will he come back here?" he asked curiously to see if the housemaster would provide any hints about Felix's recent state.

The housemaster's eyes shifted tellingly towards Daniel's bed. Daniel knew exactly what he was thinking of. Felix had been different after his roommate's death.

"He is a scholarship student and he could transfer to a different private school," the reply was very guarded. "However, he did have a lot of friends here and if he did transfer schools, he would have to stay back to catch up on schoolwork."

The past tense when referring to Felix's friends didn't go unnoticed by Daniel. Sunny had said that he hadn't faced the same social stigma as other scholarship students, but everything must have gone downhill after Jack's death.

He wondered if he could ask the housemaster about Jack's death. It could come off as natural considering the whispers he had overheard and the fact that he was sleeping in his bed.

"Mr Collings, I heard something about someone dying here last term. Is it a lie?"

It was the first time he had seen the housemaster panic. A dead student didn't look good for a school, especially if the student had been a social outcast. It was also not the thing to tell a new student, let alone the one who was using his room.

"Um, yes. It was an accident though," the housemaster. "The school play finished late at night and he slipped in the dark. It's nothing to worry about."

Daniel decided to attempt some manipulation. His housemaster was the weakest person he'd had contact with so far and if he took the power of the prefects into account, the housemaster should be the easiest person to worm information out of. He was also still in a panicked state which was a golden opportunity to apply pressure.

"I swear I heard someone say it wasn't an accident... Apparently he was being bullied," Daniel said in his best innocent tone along with the accompanying wide eyed look.

"Who said that- I mean, it's nonsense. If you know who it is, give me their name so I can tell them to stop spreading false information."

The reaction wasn't quite what Daniel had been looking for. He considered another angle on the situation. Mr Collings might actually believe that Jack's death was an accident. That would explain his denial. The prefects were the key to the mystery of Kingston Royal Academy rather than the teachers.

"I don't know anyone here so I can't tell you their name," Daniel replied with an innocent smile.

"That's odd," Mr Collings commented unexpectedly. "Most pupils here are related in some way or have met before. I assumed considering you are a Entwhistle, you would be related to at least one person. That's why it's hard for non titled students to make friends."

Sunny had been right about the reason for the isolation of scholarship students. It was hard to break the ice with snobby pupils that were all related to each other especially if you didn't have a title. Daniel had seen snubbing before at a lot of social events.

***

He spent the rest of the day reading through his detective novels for ideas and reading Felix's recipe book in his reading breaks. The mystery solving part of him had wanted there to be a secret code or a cipher hidden in the recipes, but he couldn't find hints of any. Aside from the date of Jack's death, everything else was cake and other sweet treat recipes written in an elegant cursive. The only slight anomaly in the recipes was the one for black pudding. Black pudding wasn't exactly a sweet dessert due to the fact that it was made out of pig blood.

He checked the time and finished the page he was reading so he could eat dinner at a decent time. He hadn't eaten anything the night before so he wasn't sure about the menu. Would Sunny's brother be there dropping cigarette ash everywhere?

Ben was indeed serving in the canteen when he arrived there having thankfully not encountered anyone falling from the roof. Daniel was however now covered in snow and was regretting his choice of shoes. He would have to ask his mother to send some more suitable boots.

"Fish and ch.i.p.s?" Ben asked him at the counter. "Or are you a vegetarian?"

The mention of fish and ch.i.p.s made Daniel remember that it was indeed a Friday. Most schools reserved ch.i.p.s for Fridays due to tradition. The previous night's events had caused him to lose track of the days.

"Fish and ch.i.p.s is fine," he said. "No mushy peas."

He didn't like them anyway and Ben's cigarette ash had deemed the container of mushy peas to be a suitable place to drop.

Ben leaned forward to pass him a plate and whispered in his ear.

"Sunny says to meet her round the back at 7. No hanky panky."

Daniel flushed red with embarrassment. Did Sunny's brother really there was something amorous going on between them? In any case, she had a very obvious crush on Felix.

"Of course not," he assured him in a low voice.

Ben winked openly and Daniel cringed. Subtlety was not something Ben possessed.

***

Daniel peered cautiously around the corner, slightly wary that it was a trap of some sort. Much to his relief, Sunny was standing there bouncing up and down to keep warm. She was a lot more bundled up than she had been when he had seen her in the morning. It made sense to wear an extra scarf because the wind speed had picked up in the past hour.

"It's me," he called out once he was closer so she wouldn't get a fright.

She let out a shriek anyway and he sighed. The siblings did have a few things in common, an inability to be discreet was certainly one of their shared traits. The shriek had been muted by the wind, but considering the circ.u.mstances it was best to be as quiet as possible.

"Sorry," she winced. "I was beginning to worry that Ben had given my message to another pupil. I don't actually know your name so I just said you were short and cute."

That could have gone badly wrong. Not that he'd seen anyone around as short as him. The younger pupils would probably arrive once the mock exams were over. He would have competition then.

"For future reference I'm Daniel Entwhistle," he told her and decided to get straight to business mainly because he was freezing. "I heard about Jack Edwards from someone else."

It was the right thing to do. Sunny got right to the point.

"Felix thought it was murder, not a tragic accident."

That was what he had been hoping to hear. Jack''s death and Felix's near fatal accident had to have a link. If Jack''s death was indeed a murder it would make sense that Felix had to be silenced.

"Did he say who was involved?" he asked probingly.

Sunny readjusted her woollen mittens self-consciously and motioned for him to come closer so she could whisper in his ear.

"He said it was the secret society."