When The Snow Falls

There was a moment of respectful silence before they spoke again.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Felix asked.

Daniel thought back carefully to the headmaster's stipulations.

"We only had to find the body, not bring it to him. So I guess we wait."

Felix put down the shovel and they climbed out of the hole. Daniel avoided looking down at the body.

They didn't have to wait long as Daniel suspected. If they were being watched over CCTV by someone who knew where the body was, it wouldn't take long for someone to find them and they had been quite close to the time limit.

Footsteps began to approach and Daniel looked around to see Dr Noble coming towards them.

"You two… found him…"

She came to a stop by the hole and looked down with a shiver.

"I never thought I would see him again."

Daniel didn't care about that.

"Can we go now?" he asked. "A promise was made."

Dr Noble dug her hand into her pocket and came out with a ferocious looking knife. Daniel understood then. There had never been an intention to let them leave with evidence and a decent knowledge of what had gone on.

"Earlier I recorded everything you two said and sent the recording externally to someone else. They are going to take it to the authorities," Felix replied in a surprisingly stern tone. "Give it up."

Dr Noble shivered again.

"I don't care. I just want Carter's resting place to never be disturbed again."

She raised the knife and stopped.

"There's someone coming," she said. "My husband said he would leave this with me. Maybe he changed his mind…"

Another figure came through the trees and Daniel was surprised to see Tatsuaki coming towards them. Dr Noble turned round and in her moment of distraction, Felix tackled her to the ground.

"Tatsuaki? Did my brother send you?" she demanded ferociously.

Tatsuaki came to bend down next to her with a stern look on his face.

"Rachel, give up now. Let the Emberries have his body and bury him in peace. His body doesn't belong here. I've called the Police," he said. "You'll be arrested either way. Don't add more deaths to your list."

Dr Noble crumpled at his words and didn't reply. Tatsauki turned to them.

"Thank you Felix- you can let her go now," he said. "Thank you to both of you for succeeding in what I haven't managed to in six years."

***

They sat on the school field together watching the proceedings from a comfortable distance. The Police had cordoned off the area and taken their statements first before telling them they could leave or wait around the area for someone to pick them up.

The grounds were now filled with Police cars and Daniel had been keeping count of the arrests.

"I think that's all the teachers now," he commented eventually.

"You know, there's some things I'm still wondering about," Felix said.

Daniel was in complete agreement. There were still some aspects of the case that hadn't been resolved yet.

"There's definitely still some strands left."

His gaze shifted to the school gates and he spotted three familiar people walk into the grounds and get through the Police cordon easily.

"It's Lily and her parents…"

Daniel didn't feel like approaching them. It just wasn't the right time. They were probably there to identify their son's body.

Someone came forward to greet the trio and Daniel was surprised to see it was Tatsuaki. Mr Emberry warmly hugged him and this added another question to the list.

"Do you feel like Tatsuaki was in the Emberries' employ?" he asked out loud.

"I'm beginning to think so," Felix agreed.

Lily found them first and brought them over to meet her parents half an hour later after the body had been removed from the grounds.

"Dad, Mum, this is Felix and Daniel. They've done so much for us."

"Thank you for finding our son," Mr Emberry said with a weak smile. "Thank you for doing what we couldn't do."

"We just couldn't do anything…" Mrs Emberry sobbed and wiped her eyes with a tissue. "That bitch…"

That told Daniel what the initials 'TB' stood for in her diary. It was a good thing that they hadn't heavily relied on those initials to solve the mystery. He wouldn't have thought of that angle.

"We've been waiting for her to weaken for years. I sent my personal secretary in when I realised the caretaker here had the same name as him and was the same nationality. We paid him off and Tatasuaki replaced him like nothing had happened. He found a lot."

That explained even more for Daniel. The conflicting descriptions of Tatsuaki emerged from the switch from a non English speaking Japanese man to a very fluent English speaker with an English accent. No wonder he had seemed odd.

Tatsuaki spoke up.

"I found the well and took samples of the water at the bottom for testing. We realised immediately what it had been used for, but again we were lacking real evidence. I didn't really find anything in the old building either so when you two came looking with evidence of Carter's existence, I was happy to hand over the keys."

Everything was starting to add up neatly now.

"Ah," Tatsuaki said. "I need to explain to the Police here about the fake skull I put in the well. I placed it there to give you two a clue about what it was used for."

The skull had been in the very back of Daniel's mind since Dr Noble had mentioned that the school had only been opened once all traces of the bodies had gone.

"I'd go do that now," Mr Emberry advised. "I expect you back in the office on Monday for the first time in a long time."

Tatsuaki grinned and walked off.

"Any ideas why I was being followed around if you two weren't?" Lily asked suddenly.

Daniel was all too keen to explain.

"That was a clue actually," he said. "Your aunt knew she could manipulate your parents into silence, but knew that you were much more of a risk and wanted to keep an eye on you. That hint helped me decided that your aunt was heavily involved. Someone who didn't know you well wouldn't come to that conclusion."

"I guess everything is wrapped up now," she replied. "Thank you for everything. I just don't know what I'm going to do now."

She took a glance at the school.

"I just know I never want to see this place again."

***

Carter's funeral was held two weeks later in England. Daniel and Felix were invited along with the other members of the Mystery Club.

The two weeks had been quiet to an extent. The school had been temporarily closed down whilst the Police investigated everything and dug up the well. Instead of going to school he had gone on a lot of dates with Felix and visited the Emberries a lot.

The Emberries were now business partners with Felix's parents. Colin had been especially feeling betrayed over the conclusion of the case due to the business deal he had agreed to with the headmaster.

"I'm glad the case has finally been brought to a close for everyone involved," Felix said after they had come out of the church.

"Even for Dr Noble, she was clearly at the end of her tether," Daniel agreed. "Guilt and grief isn't a good combination."

"I think we make a good mystery solving duo," Felix commented a moment later. "I'm happy to continue on."

Daniel scoffed. "Just because of this and Kingston Royal Academy, don't expect to run into mysteries every year. It could be years before we find another one."

Trying to seek out mysteries continually in his past life had led to his death so he was keen to keep that idea out of Felix's mind.

They hung around the entrance of the cemetery for a while waiting for Carter's body to be laid to rest. Daniel hadn't wanted to intrude on a sad family moment. There was a lot of people around that looked to be hanging around for the same reason. Daniel recognised them from the church service and realised most of them looked to be around Lily's age. An idea struck him.

"Do you think a lot of the people here are from the Mystery Club six years ago? They look to be the right age?"

The answer came fairly quickly. Lily walked over to them with a blond man in tow.

"This was my brother's friend Edward at the school. He was a member of the Mystery Club. He came to join us at the grave."

Daniel suspected he was the person who had accompanied Carter to visit the Drama Club all those years ago.

"That day, we were supposed to walk home together, but he left something in the clubroom and went back to get it. I never saw him again…" Edward explained in a quiet voice. "When he didn't turn up to school the next day and the clubhouse closed down in the morning, I knew something was up. When I asked about him and was told to shut it, all members of the Mystery Club started working on it."

"What happened after that?" Daniel asked.

He had never heard the case from the perspective of a member of the Mystery Club at the time and was interested to hear his side.

"We were told to stop working on the Mysteries of the School so we did. What we did do was to get the yearbook printed with his photo and name so that we could leave a hint of his existence behind."

"Those pages were torn out though," Felix pointed out.

"Dr Emberry came tearing in one day and ripped them and stormed out," Edward informed him. "We knew we had to do something else then- it seemed like they had known about the yearbook and hadn't been bothered about it."

"That was probably when I turned up at the school," Lily interrupted.

"So the club leader paid the teacher who mostly taught in the classroom we were using to ensure that the classroom was always used by the Mystery Club. We hid the meeting minutes in the cupboard in the hope that someone would find it in the future and finish what we couldn't do at the time. One of us sneaked into the old building as well and left the photo of the mask to suggest that the teachers were involved."

Now everything had really been neatly wrapped up and explained.

Daniel smiled wistfully. It had been good to solve a mystery with someone else at his side who understood him.

"So I would like to thank you two from the bottom of my heart. Almost everyone from the Mystery Club then is here today," Edward added. "We all wanted to go to his funeral if it actually happened."

That was a sobering sentence and Daniel began to feel oddly emotional even though he had already died and this was his second life. He hadn't thought much about how people who had known him would have felt when he died.

"Thank you again," Lily said and gave them both a hug. "I think I'm going to stay in England. I don't want to go back again. I wasn't happy."

Daniel understood her feelings. He had never returned to the city he had grown up in as it would remind him that he had left his first life behind.

"If you feel happier here, then stay here," he said. "I heard your parents will be staying here now as well."

"That's right," she said. "I think I can look at them much better now. It feels odd to think that until recently I thought they were heartless."

"We're going back in a couple of days," Felix said. "The school will be different now and my parents want to stay."

Daniel was about to say something when he felt someone shove into him and turned to find Oliver grinning at him.

"I just got a text from Amien. He wants to be a member again. Should we let him?"

"Considering he gave me most of the important hints, I think he can," Daniel said.

"I hope we find another mystery soon," Harry said.

"I'm not sure on that one…" Meredith frowned. "I didn't enjoy the threat part."

Oliver put his arm around her. "It won't be like that again. Everyone involved is gone now."

Meredith flushed. "I suppose I won't mind another mystery then."

Daniel remembered something important that he knew Oliver would like.

"Amien told me that I would be a disappointment to the Mystery Club if I couldn't solve this mystery…"

Oliver beamed. "I can't wait to see him again now. We also need to go out on an outing as friends when we get back to Japan. We didn't really get a chance before."

"As the club secretary, I will choose somewhere," Meredith announced.

"I'll handle the budget as the accountant," Harry agreed. "I guess Oliver gets to pick the place because he's the leader."

Felix cleared his throat.

"Actually I'm the leader now and Daniel is the official brains of the club."

The conversation made Daniel smile widely. He now had a group of friends and a boyfriend who enjoyed solving mysteries with him.

He was ready to solve another mystery with them.