When The Snow Falls

Christopher had told him that during the rare times the fire alarm had gone off, taking attendance had never been done properly due to the commotion. Taking accurate attendance would be even harder considering that there were still pupils that hadn't returned from holiday yet. Daniel knew this was his only time to pull this off.

Daniel located the room of the Green Oak prefect, Fenston Alderidge first because it was the closest and was the only one he didn't have any assistance with. Fortunately the door was unlocked and he ran straight in. The room was the same size as his room only with a double bed and green painted walls. He found a green folder in one of Fenston's desk drawers and took a quick glance through it. As Felix had theorised it was the other half of Liam's drug ledger.

He wasted a second wondering whether to steal it and hope its disappearance wouldn't be noticed or to make a copy. After a moment of thought he took photos because it was a continually updated ledger and Fenston would notice a disappearance eventually.

His next aim was Raven's bedroom in the Violet Rose area of the dormitory building. As promised, the door was unlocked and the purple folder was lying on top of his desk, ready to be taken. There was still an incense stick burning and he could see an empty rabbit cage through the light smoke in the air. He looked at his watch to see that ten minutes had passed. Daniel needed to hurry up if he wanted to be unnoticed. The sound of the fire alarm was also giving him a major headache.

With that thought in mind, he grabbed the folder and rushed out of the Violet Rose dorm and into the Golden Lion's. This was where his luck ended, David Wang had locked his door. He would have to pick the lock after all. At least he had a lot of experience in that area from his past life, but it still wasted a minute of his limited time.

Once the door had swung open he strode in and got to work. A cursory search didn't unearth anything that looked like a gold coloured folder which made him groan. David was more cautious than the other two. He was also a lot tidier than them. Everything in the room was neat and orderly which made it a lot harder to find anything. His past life had taught him that people with neat rooms notice changes.

He checked down the radiator just in case and underneath all the desk drawers. Time was ticking and he didn't want to be caught. He thought about where he would hide a folder that he didn't want found by anyone.

That led him to David's leopard print suitcase. He felt the inner lining and found a flat thin object and unzipped the lining. It was indeed a gold coloured folder. He didn't have time to take photos so he simply grabbed it and locked the door again once he was out of the room.

His c.h.e.s.t started to become uncomfortably tight as he slipped out the fire exit and into the night. The cold breeze cooled him down, but made his c.h.e.s.t feel even more constricted. All the running and rushing had completely worn him out. At least it wasn't snowing though, he didn't have the energy to run through snow.

Daniel slipped into the trees and rushed through then until he came out to the back of the car park where everyone was milling around. As he had hoped, it was an unorganised mess and no one was taking attendance.

He found Christopher at the edge of the car park. The plan had been formulated between them and seemed to have been a success. The two folders he had taken were squashed in the inner pocket of his coat; there had been no time to leave them in his room. Christopher shot him a questioning glance and he nodded in return.

The fire alarm silenced a few seconds later and the crowd hushed.

"Is it a false alarm?" he heard Mr Collings ask another teacher.

"There isn't a fire," another teacher confirmed. "It must be a glitch with the detectors."

"Should we lead them back to the building then?" a different teacher asked. "It's lucky the headmaster isn't back yet. This is a mess."

The teachers and prefects converged for a minute before ordering everyone to split into houses. Daniel found Alvin who had neglected to grab a coat and was shivering in the cold.

"Are you okay? Alvin asked in concern. "Your face is red."

"I'm a bit scared," Daniel said. "I thought it was a real fire."

"I did too," Alvin giggled. "I'm glad it's not. I've been looking for you."

"I lost you in the crowd," Daniel lied.

Alvin pouted and started talking about how wonderfully the prefects had dealt with leading them out and telling them where to go. Daniel would have tuned that out, but it was beneficial to hear that all four of the prefects had been outside with the students.

Eventually the Golden Lion house pupils were led away by David Wang and Liam started leading everyone in the Scarlet Wren house back to the dorm building a few minutes after them.

The first thing Daniel did when he got back to his room was to lay Felix's duvet on the floor by the door and place his suitcase on top. That would make sure his light wouldn't be visible from the corridor and would alert him to anyone walking in.

He pulled out the folders he had taken and pulled out the photos of David's folder contents on his phone. The two halves of the drug ledger lined up perfectly and he could see that the most recent delivery had been last year, the week before Jack's death and the next column stated that all the drugs had been used. That suggested there were no meetings at the moment possibly due to Jack's death. This meant that he didn't have to worry about them getting him into drugs too soon because they didn't have any to supply him with.

However there was also a question of where the drugs were coming from.

The delivery column on the ledger merely listed 'usual route' for all entries. It clearly meant something to the prefects. He couldn't see it being a drug dealer that hung around outside the gates mainly because it would attract too much attention and the amounts and frequency were too excessive for that to be practical. That would also be something he would need to investigate.

The other two folders were next. Raven's contained alternating pages explaining the history of the drug ring secret society which had been added onto by past prefects. David had the other pages and together they were an interesting read.

The doc.u.ment confirmed some of his guesses and things he'd already known. The four prefects had to be members, but were able to choose whether or not to take part in the drug taking. The other drug ring secret society members had to also be members of the normal Pudding Club and scholarship members were banned. Daniel read the information carefully through to the end to see if that had changed over the years and it hadn't which raised the question of why Jack had been allowed in.

The observer role was mentioned as being designated for the highest-ranking pupil who was not a prefect and government and/or royal connections were criteria. It made Daniel sure that his three suspects were the right ones.

There were two pages at the end about the Drama Club's secret society. The rules were less strict there, only one prefect had to be the leader, he couldn't date anyone and the other prefects didn't have to be members. The observer also had to be a member, but was free to date anyone. Clearly the dating society ran itself and didn't need as much attention. Daniel had no plans to get mixed up in that secret society. That one hadn't killed anyone.

David Wang had to be the designated prefect for that society as he was the only prefect that had mentioned it. The others hadn't been bothered about it from what he'd overheard. He was struck by a sudden thought, he could narrow down the suspects by finding out if they were also members of the Drama Club.

That could wait until the next day so he placed the two folders with the one Felix had taken. It was a good hiding place because the darkness under the desk made it hard to see anything and no one looked down the back of a radiator. He was now reasonably confident that his theft from David's room wouldn't be noticed because there was no reason for him to decide to suddenly check the history of the secret societies.

The only problem was that the sudden fire drill could make them suspicious, however that could be attributed to the detection system being glitchy.

***

"I can't believe you had the guts to do that," Felix said.

Daniel had texted him the next morning about what he'd found and the supposed amnesiac had called him immediately to hear the details.

"It wasn't my original plan, Christopher suggested it," Daniel agreed. "My other plan was to do them one at a time, but it would have taken too long and had the most risks. The fire alarm method worked. Besides, I would be safer if I was expelled for setting it off deliberately."

"That's true," Felix acknowledged. "Did you find out much?"

Daniel summarised his findings and Felix was silent for a minute.

"If any of your three suspects is the observer, we're both in trouble. The prefects have their weak points, but those three are dangerous," he said. "Sorry for getting you into this."

"Can you tell me about them? Alvin was useless."

"He would be. Hugo Barnes is very smart, like you and me. It's also hard to tell what he's thinking, he's very cold and calculating. Wilfred Anning is very different. He's very sneaky and he's good at getting himself out of trouble. He used to be the top student early on in the first year and then he was exposed for cheating on homework. He managed to worm himself out of any punishment and we all still think he's cheating, but we don't have any proof," Felix sighed. "He's quite a suck up to the teachers and to the prefects. Robert May is the current star student with the teachers and he's managed to be popular with pupils as well. I personally think he's someone to watch out for."

They all sounded like they would be perfect for the observer role in Daniel's opinion. The problem was that he didn't have much time left and he didn't really know enough about them to make a guess.

"In your personal opinion, who should it be?"

"They would never choose Wilfred Anning," Felix said. "He's well known as a two faced liar and he would never be given such an important position after being caught out once for cheating. It's one of the other two. In case you're wondering, Jack didn't mention either as being members so I can't help you there. Either the observer was never present or it was someone he didn't want to grass on."

Daniel saved that mental note to mull over later before moving on to his next question.

"The observer has to be a member of both secret societies. Do you know if either of them are in the drama one? That society appears to be an open secret."

"I've never been mixed up with the Drama Club so I can't be sure," Felix admitted. "I was asked to join once by the way, they wanted me for the dating part. Apparently, they thought I would be a draw for them and attract more people into the dating pool."

His tone was amused and Daniel wouldn't have minded knowing what Felix was thinking. That being said, he did find a flaw in Felix's story.

"Scholarship students aren't allowed in any of the secret societies," he pointed out.

Felix laughed and Daniel glared at Felix's bed.

"Maybe they wanted to bend the rules because I'm so handsome."

It wasn't amusing to Daniel as it caused him to remember that someone had bent the rules to let Jack into the society that led to his death. That person had to have known what the outcome would have been.

"I'm going to hang up now," he told him. "I hope you don't get too lonely all by yourself in hospital."

His manipulative tactic succeeded.

"I'm going to be serious here, don't feel tempted to join the Drama Club at all to help investigate. It wouldn't give you much information and the Drama Club attracts the creepiest pupils. David Wang isn't a person to trust either."

It was Daniel's turn to tease. "Are you worried I'll get a boyfriend?"

Felix did not find that amusing. "You'll lower my opinion of you if you join."

The tense mood only got worse when Felix suddenly swore loudly and Daniel barely managed to make out what he said before he hung up. Liam had walked into his ward with Mr Collings.

His concerns about Mr Collings being too easily manipulated had been true. Liam had found his way to Felix. He could only hope that he would fall for the amnesia lie and be reassured by it. Felix probably couldn't survive another murder attempt.

There wasn't anything that Daniel could do about it. He was stuck at Kingston Royal Academy and the hospital was a half hour drive away. All he could do was hope that Felix's act fooled the smartest prefect. Felix would contact him once Liam had gone to let him know he was okay.

The next half an hour was occupied with trying to revise in the library in an attempt to distract his worried mind. Daniel had looked around discreetly for either of his suspects and only found Wilfred Anning much to his annoyance. Wilfred glared at him when he caught him staring and stormed off to another section.

Daniel's phone buzzed when he was looking through online past papers and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw who was calling him.

He rushed outside the library to take the call. The last thing he needed was for someone to overhear his call.

"I should have had the main role in the play last year instead of David," was the first thing that Felix said.

"I take it that he fell for it then," Daniel said.

There was a pause before Felix answered.

"He asked lots of questions and kept staring me down. He was more relaxed when he and Mr Collings left so I believe that he was fooled into thinking I don't remember anything. He could be a better actor than I think though."

Daniel thought back to Liam's performance he'd seen when he'd been pretending to Mr Collings about hoping Felix would wake up. Only someone has unobservant and trusting as Mr Collings would have believed it.

"Hopefully not. So, you're safe for the time being?"

"I am, but you're not," Felix reminded him.

Almost as if on cue, there was a knock on the door and three of the prefects barged in. Raven, Fenston and David. Daniel immediately ended the call and slipped his phone into his pocket. Liam couldn't have returned yet as he'd only just left Felix at the hospital. The most important question was, why were they in his room?

"Liam wants us to take you somewhere," Fenston said. "It would be best manners to tell you that you don't have a choice."

Daniel's heart rate began to speed up. Had they realised that their rooms had been searched and worked out that it was him?

It only got worse when David pulled out a blindfold and approached him.

"Close your eyes," David whispered.