When The Snow Falls

"Where do we start then?" Felix asked.

"Let's gather together and discuss it," Daniel suggested.

It took a moment to group together all the members of the mystery club. Daniel was expecting Oliver and Harry to be thrilled that they would be involved in a real mystery this time, but they were still shell shocked.

"I can't believe I saw someone get murdered," Oliver said with a shiver. "It didn't hit me until I saw the Police."

"Someone died," Harry said. "I don't know how to feel."

Daniel looked at Felix for assistance. He hadn't thought of this development. He had seen enough blood in his first life and had died himself, this death hadn't traumatised him.

"We can exclude you two from this," Felix said gently. "The four of us are happy to solve it."

Oliver shook his head fervently.

"It's not that. It's just been an experience today. Reading mysteries doesn't prepare you for the real thing."

"Don't leave me out," Harry said nervously. "I'll recover later and will regret being left out."

Daniel looked round at Amien. The oldest member hadn't appeared ruffled by the death and had taken charge well at the beginning.

"It was a shock and I'm sure I will feel later," Amien told him, after interpreting the glance correctly.

"My legs are still like jelly," Meredith admitted. "They probably will be for a while."

Once Daniel was satisfied that all the members were truly happy with investigating he began his plan.

"We need to establish where the knife is stored between the performances and who has access to it, who knew that the 'murder' would be performed that way. We will also need to establish the alibis and make a suspect list," he began. "We really need to know everyone involved with the play."

"Are we including the event organiser in this?" Amien asked shrewdly.

Daniel thought back to how the evening started. Yamamoto had already been at the theatre when they had arrived.

"Yes," he agreed. "He also had opportunity."

"We need a copy of the script as well," Felix added. "Why did she have to actually make the cut instead of just making a motion close to his neck. We wouldn't have known the difference from where we were sitting. Who asked her to actually let the knife slash him?"

Daniel hadn't considered that point before. He was very impressed with his boyfriend.

"I hadn't thought of that," he complimented Felix.

Felix grinned. "Let's never break up."

Amien cleared his throat. "Moving on, our main intention is to make a list of everyone with access to the theatre, everyone involved with the play, establish alibis, suspect relations and obtain a copy of the script."

"Are we including ourselves and the other school?" Harry asked. "We all had access to the theatre and so did they."

Amien subjected Harry to a disdainful look.

"Did any of you sneak off, magically find out how the play was going to be performed and remove the cover from the knife? If any of you lot did, raise your hand. Remember that we share rooms."

Daniel shared his opinion. Whilst it was a valid point that they could be considered suspects from an investigative standpoint, it just wasn't practical.

Meredith glared at him. "I'm the only one not sharing a room, but I was in your room for most of the hour before until I went to get my coat."

"That's right," Amien agreed. "Unless Daniel and Felix teamed up to commit a murder, we can rule ourselves out. Let's end this useless investigation topic and start doing something sensible."

Daniel turned to Felix.

"Could you sweet talk someone to give you a copy of the script? You are the most persuasive person here."

Felix sighed dramatically.

"I swear you only keep me around for my superior language skills."

"Please no flirting," Amien g.r.o.a.n.e.d.

"We're lightening the tone," Felix said with a grin and walked off.

He returned ten minutes later with a stack of paper. Daniel could see from the way that it was laid out, it was indeed a copy of the script. The only problem was that he could see a lot of Kanji which he still wasn't quite an expert in.

"I asked one of the stage technicians if there was a spare copy," Felix said and opened it around the middle.

He flipped through the next few pages and held up the script.

"I found the stage direction for that scene. It says 'Haruka mimes a throat slash and catches the blood bag which should then burst'. It details the light changes as well which did happen."

They all exchanged looks.

"She wasn't supposed to actually touch him in the original script," Oliver summarised. "But she did in the real thing."

"I asked the stage technician a few questions," Felix added. "As you can read from the front of the script, the director and writer of the play is Matsumoto who as you know played the fake owner of the manor house. This is also the first time the play has been performed. A similar version was written and performed last year for this event. The company has been doing this event for five years running."

"Did you ask about any differences between the script and real performance?" Amien enquired.

Felix raised his eyebrows.

"He told me that in the rehearsal Matsumoto criticised Yukari heavily for poor acting and made the decision that she should stop miming the slash and do it for real and then puncture the blood bag. Matsumoto was unusually strict during the rehearsal and seemed to be in a bad mood."

From the way Felix had a smile on his face Daniel could tell there was more to come.

"Apparently he had finally found out today that his wife was cheating on him with Nakajima…"

"He's top of the suspect list," Amien said immediately. "Unless you have anything to add."

"Yukari and Nakajima had a blazing row backstage over the cheating. It seemed she found out today as well," Felix continued on. "Yukari wasn't too popular in the cast as she was the only one that was officially going out with Nakajima."

"So much for none of them being able to think of a motive for killing him," Daniel sighed.

"Who would have expected there to be so much blood between ten people?" Oliver asked out loud. "Did you pick up anything else?"

"As Matsumoto told Daniel, the knife is new for the performance. The stage technician prepared the cover over the sharp edge and checked it after each rehearsal and confirmed that it was in perfect condition after the dress rehearsal. He put it out on the table backstage with everything else needed on stage like the tea sets and the dusters. That table would have been accessible to anyone if they went backstage."

Daniel g.r.o.a.n.e.d. Finding out who had access to the knife hadn't narrowed down anything at all. Surely there had to be a way to slim the number of suspects.

"There is more to add," Felix continued.

From the way he had paused, Daniel knew Felix had found out something important.

"At around 6, the technician said he heard the back door of the theatre open and some footsteps. This was when the rehearsal was in progress. He assumed it was one of the actors who don't appear until later parts coming back in after going for a cigarette. Instead he found them all waiting in the wings so it wasn't any of them. He says he isn't mistaken as the door wasn't closed properly- it has a rusty latch so it doesn't shut itself."

That was very interesting to hear. The only problem was that right now it didn't mean anything.

"He said he heard the door again a while after the rehearsal finished. He actually found a muddy shoe print by the door which he has told the Police about," Felix explained.

"The plot thickens," Amien said. "It really opens this up to anyone being involved if he is telling the truth and he didn't make a mistake."

"I would say he was telling the truth for what my opinion is worth," Felix replied. "What do you think, Daniel?"

His boyfriend had the look of someone wanting to be praised.

"You did a good job," he said. "Did you get anything else out of him?"

"No," Felix replied. "So our suspects can be considered to be him, Yamamoto and the nine actors. The food is prepared off site and brought across so these 12 people are definitely who we can class as suspects."

Daniel greatly appreciated the neat narrowing down of the suspects.

"12 suspects," Amien mused thoughtfully. "I wonder if we can really do this."

Daniel was ready for the challenge. It was time to get mystery solving.