When The Snow Falls

It wasn't a surprise to hear that there was a secret society at Kingston Royal Academy or that there was a gathering of shady people. He hoped that Sunny or Christopher would tell him more about it because he hadn't been at the school long enough to get invited to shady secret societies.

"What secret society?" he asked.

Sunny baulked and made a face. Daniel could guess that Felix hadn't told her anything else.

"He didn't tell me. There are some official societies here. There's the Sports Club run by Fenston, the Chess Club is run by Liam, Raven is in charge of the Art Club and David leads the Drama Club."

He had never found four people that suited their clubs so much. They did sound like run of the mill school clubs though. That being said, they were probably better funded that most clubs at other schools. The Drama Club did spark a memory of hearing about Jack and the tour Liam had given him when he had first arrived the previous day. Jack's accident and eventual death had been on the night of the school play. Was there a potential connection between the two events?

"Is the Drama Club above board?" He asked.

Sunny's face flushed an incandescent red that he could make out in the dark which confused him. Had Felix been a member of the Drama Club? She only seemed to blush when Felix was mentioned. Or maybe the cold temperature was getting to her.

"...It is a kind of also a cover for something. I don't think it's anything to do with Jack or Felix...they weren't members."

Daniel was intrigued by her evasive reaction. Even if she claimed it was nothing to do with Felix's 'accident', he was still curious.

"Yes?"

"This school is all boys!" she blurted out. "The Drama Club acts as a sort of dating network."

Daniel understood it then. It also explained something his father had said to him about Kingston Royal Academy.

"My father told me I could have a gay experience here if I wanted. I'm just not allowed to do it outside of here," he sighed. "It really makes me wonder about what he was like when he was here."

Sunny nodded vigorously.

"It's like that for practically everyone here considering most of them have titles and can't do it out in the open outside of this school. I heard it was tradition."

"Are there any other societies?" he decided to change the subject in case Sunny reeled off a list of Drama Club members and their partners.

"Those four are the officially recognised and most popular ones. There are some smaller ones, he could have been talking about one of those. You'll probably have better luck finding out about those than me. I only get the gossip that Ben overhears," Sunny complained.

Daniel thanked her and turned to go. Then he thought of another question to ask her. It had been at the back of his mind since he had met her. Something didn't quite add up about Felix and Sunny.

"How did you get to know Felix? I have a feeling you aren't allowed to talk to pupils."

Sunny's awkward twitch confirmed his guess.

"I was trying to help a cat that was caught in a tree last spring. I was hanging on for dear life when he suddenly appeared, grabbed the cat and then helped me down from the tree. We talked after that and every time I saw a cat, I saw him as well."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. Did she not think the fact that Felix had saved the cat before her was significant? He did appreciate the story because it reminded him that there were four cats trapped in Felix's wardrobe. He hated cats, but he didn't want them to starve.

"...Can you help me with the cats in Felix's wardrobe? I don't know what to do with them," he requested.

Sunny nodded knowingly. "I always wondered where the cats disappeared to. There's a farm across the fields and that's where a lot of the cats wander in from. I assumed they just went back there."

Before they got to Felix's wardrobe, they had the issue of sneaking Sunny into the dorm block. It turned out to be surprisingly easy because no one was around. Daniel assumed that everyone was taking their revision very seriously.

He had bothered with any revision yet for the obvious reason. He had been 18 when he died and a genius, exams for 16 year olds were pretty easy for him.

Daniel opened the wardrobe whilst Sunny stood around trying not to look like she was snooping around Felix's side of the room. All he saw in the wardrobe was Felix's clothes and an empty suitcase.

"They're gone!" Daniel exclaimed in shock.

He leant in to check that they weren't behind anything. Then he checked under the bed and desk. His nose wasn't itching so the cats couldn't be in the room.

"They were definitely here," he said and thought about the most likely suspects.

Raven had wanted to remove the cats, David had wanted one whilst Liam had said to leave them there in case they needed to use them to make Felix's 'accidental fall' sound plausible.

Sunny double checked everything after him and came up with nothing.

"Could they have escaped?" she asked.

"They would have done it before." Daniel dismissed her suggestion.

Who could have taken them and for what purpose?

"Your room is so cold," Sunny shivered and readjusted her scarf so it wound around her neck better. "Isn't there a radiator?"

Daniel knew that the radiator was going to be stone cold to touch but he checked anyway. The one under his desk was freezing as was the one under Felix's.

"They don't work," he explained.

"You should get some heat packs," she said. "Felix had some cat shaped ones that are really cute."

It was hard to resist an eye roll when he heard that detail. He thought back to his search through Felix's possessions. There hadn't been any heat packs let alone cat shaped ones. Either he had a hiding place that he and the prefects had been unable to find or he had been carrying them when he fell from the roof.

Anything he had been wearing was probably still being kept at the hospital. There was a chance that whatever the prefects were looking for could also be at the hospital. He had been the first one to Felix so no one had been able to search his pockets.

"They're not here," he told her.

"That's too bad. You should tell your housemaster about the radiators so it can be fixed," she suggested and then she blinked. "I've just remembered: there's someone else that Felix used to talk to. He's the gardener's son. He might know some things."

Felix must have been very sociable to maintain good relationsh.i.p.s with other pupils as well siblings and children of staff members. Daniel was slightly envious of his social skills.

"You'll have to introduce me," he said and remembered how indiscreet Ben was. "Can I have your number?"

He exchanged contact information with Sunny and as he typed in her number, he realised that he could ask someone about Kingston Royal Academy that had no connections to the prefects. His father would know about the societies. Kingston Royal Academy appeared to pride itself on traditions, the current societies were probably the same or derived from the ones that had been around in his father's time.

Aware of bad it would look for Sunny if she was caught leaving alone at night, he walked her out of the dormitory block and watched her disappear into the swirling darkness.

He returned to his room and made the decision to wear his dressing gown once he heard the wind outside and felt a chilling gust of air from the gap in the window frame. Kingston Royal Academy didn't have charmingly Victorian architecture, it was dilapidated and out of date. He had been surprised at how modern the bathrooms were in comparison, he'd been expecting a pull chain flush in the toilets.

He dialled the number for home and his mother picked up on the first ring as if she had been standing by the phone waiting for him to ring.

"Daniel!" she said excitedly. "I've wanted to call you all day, but your father wouldn't let me. He claimed that if you wanted to talk, you'd call."

That did sound like something his father would decree. His stubbornness and pushy ways had contributed to the original Daniel's death.

"I did call to ask him something, it can wait though."

He couldn't decide if he wanted to tell his mother about Felix falling off the roof. It was likely that she would be very concerned about it. His mother in this life was always worried about everyone else's wellbeing.

"How is your roommate?" she asked eagerly. "Is he nice looking?"

Daniel sighed. He was definitely going to have to tell her now. He ignored that nice looking question that she'd tacked on at the end.

"I've never really met him. I found him unconscious in the snow last night and now he's in a coma."

There was a sharp gasp over the line and he waited for the interrogation. He avoided telling her that he didn't think it was an accident and stuck to lines that the prefects would have loved. If he told her the full truth she would probably drive there immediately and drag him away.

"That's so unfortunate," she commented after his innocent and censored explanation. "I hope he wakes up soon with no side effects. I bet you're glad to have a room on your own. Is it cold?"

Daniel had been planning to cut the conversation off there and ask to speak to his father, however the mention of the temperature side-tracked him.

"It's freezing. The heating doesn't work and there's a gap in the window. Thanks for the blanket and thermals though," he said. "Can I get some boots that are suitable for the snow? My current ones aren't insulating and just sink in the snow."

"Of course," she agreed quickly. "Any food? I'll keep it a secret from your father."

That was another tempting side-track. There was a chocolate stash in his drawer that he hadn't yet touched mainly because having a potential murder case to solve and a secret society to track did make chocolate seem less important.

"I'm fine for the moment, but you can send some anyway," he assured her. "I wanted to speak to Dad."

"Are you having fun?" was the first thing his father asked once the phone had been passed to him.

Daniel restrained himself from saying that he was freezing his balls off, had a suspicious death, and suspected attempted murder to solve.

"Sort of. I heard about the clubs. Which ones were you a member of?"

"Why are you asking?" his father sounded suspicious. "I wasn't a member of the Drama Club if that's what you were implying."

Daniel was thankful that Sunny had explained the other side of the Drama Club to him. He would have been confused by his father's reaction otherwise.

"No. I can't imagine you as an actor," he replied innocently.

"I see. I was in the Chess Club and the Latin Club. They were more fun than they sounded. You're scheming enough to fit into the Chess Club and the Latin Club probably doesn't exist anymore."

The Latin Club did sound outdated and Latin wasn't known as a dead language for nothing, however Kingston Royal Academy was steeped in tradition so it could still be around. He personally wouldn't mind the Chess Club though. He had beaten everyone in his family and his old school.

"Are there any others you can remember? Are there any secret societies?" he probed.

He wasn't sure if his father was the right type to be invited to secret societies. He wasn't very strait-laced so there was a chance. Fortunately his father did know the answer.

"There weren't any secret societies per say. There were just secret inner circles to a couple of societies. The less secret one was the inner circle of the Drama Club and the other one was in a smaller club."

That answer was helpful to Daniel. He could narrow down his search criteria and exclude the Drama Club. He didn't know if he wanted anything to do with the Drama Club now that he knew about the dating circle.

His father continued on.

"The other secret inner circle was more unsavoury than the Drama Club one. There were lots of rumours and I wasn't invited so I can't be sure. I know the normal part of it will sound tempting to you, but I suggest you don't join."

"What club was it part of?" Daniel asked whilst attempting to hide his eagerness.

"The Pudding Club."

The recipe book he had found hidden in Felix's pillow took on a different meaning now. Could he have been a member of the secret society?