The Priory School - Part Two

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Previously on Sherlock and Yeah, we're saying that you can kind of help us get out of it, right?

Because you can pick out the clients that will be able to cover a, you know, a larger invoice.

I'm Tom Huxtable.

I am the executive head teacher at Moorhill.

Its standards of education and discipline secured it the most upmarket client base you can imagine.

And it's even become a bit of a sought-after spot for the offspring of tech billionaires.

One in particular, Benjamin Duke.

But we enrolled just his fourth boy a couple of years ago, Soltire Duke.

He went to bed at 10 p.m.

He's not been seen since.

You think he was taken?

Not the behavior of someone that was dragged out into the night, rather, someone that hopped out this window willingly.

I'd like to go in there.

That's Heidegger's room.

Stefan!

Stefan!

Open the door, mate!

He watched and he waited.

Perhaps he lured him out.

Lured him out into the darkness and took him.

I told you, didn't I?

In the last part, I said distressing themes.

And you were probably like, ah, no, it won't be.

Just ignore him.

Now look, child abduction.

Hope you're proud of yourselves.

Yeah, part two now.

Bye.

The team on the ground were able to establish contact with a gentleman who resided by the lake.

He did boat hires, him and his giant dog,

called Robbie.

Robbie the dog.

This thing is enormous.

And that single initial interaction in hindsight was

where we got a foothold on the case.

Incredible.

That's how these things work.

It's these tiny fortuitous moments that you've got to be wise enough and sharp enough to whittle into something of value.

You make your own luck.

You make your own luck.

Currently

traversing the sheep-nibbled grass of

Mackleton, I believe, the

nearest sort of village, parish, what have you,

to Moorhill with Archie, of course.

He is um he's scuttling about somewhere.

Wow

I'm uh I'm stopping every now and again uh because my feet hurt, but but of course also

to admire uh Well, everything really, absolutely everything.

It's it's drop dead gorgeous.

An absolute babe or unk, even of a place.

It's not sort of

attractive in a cutesy kind of chocolate boxy kind of way that you'd expect.

Sorry, just at a lake.

I cannot ignore some prime skimming stones here.

Blame my dad.

His legacy.

I realize I'm also, you know, meant to be looking for a German man and a missing boy, but

look at that one go.

Six.

It's a sixer.

Oh,

what was that saying?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the lake district.

It's not a sort of village green cottage next to a babbling brook type situation.

It's

I don't know, it's

melancholic, very raw.

There's these big gullies and sharp hillsides and these vast

slabs of water just come up out of nowhere.

It's like God was going through a little emo phase or, you know, a gothy sort of streak when he fiddled about making this place.

Nothing godlike about that, son.

Oh, bloody hell.

Oh, sorry.

Oh, hello.

You made me jump there.

Archie, got a friend here for you, mate.

All right.

What do you got?

Bulldog.

Here he is.

What's this fella?

If you said horse, I wouldn't be surprised.

He's a big lad.

This is Robbie.

He's a deer-hound.

Right?

Right, wow.

Uh, hello, Robbie, mate.

Absolute unit, aren't you?

Oh, you've been hunting for something, sir.

Yes, you have stalking these lands.

There's bigger hounds that stalk the more lands of this country, lad.

Beasts that would make even Robbie ish were to his little bones.

Beasts, yeah, yeah, no.

I'm, you know, I'm sort of rural myself.

I've always,

you know, been fascinated by the uh the stories.

Aye.

Telling Killing yourself a few stories then, weren't you, lad?

Oh, yeah, no, sorry.

Uh, I make a podcast.

Um, it's I was

just talking to the listeners of it, you know, describing the beauty of the place.

No beauty here, son.

If only you knew the darkness and the demons that live within it.

Yeah, I mean, oh, come on.

You've been at that school, I bet, haven't you?

Sniffing around for that boy.

Hey.

You have no idea what they do to them up there.

Sorry, wait.

What?

Evil incarnate.

A temple to wickedness.

A demented sickness is rife in all those elites.

Should see them all hanged.

Oh, okay, Arch.

If you just let me pick him up.

Tell me what you think that is.

What?

That

it's a lake.

It's a reservoir.

Oh okay, I'm not from here no one is anymore Sorry just to ask about the schools

nothing but stock trout stocked trout stock trout in a hill town

Not native flashier hungrier and gone the moment the water warms

They eat the young what

think about it Well yeah, no I

can imagine I'm actually here for uh there's an investigation um is taking place.

You're not here for the apparent beauty, you're not, eh?

You see that along the foothill there?

Uh uh the flower, yeah, it's it's lovely, beautiful.

Um, I was just saying rhododendron.

Of course they look nice, don't they?

But the estate owners brought them in generations ago.

An ornamental plant.

The grandfather helped stick off them in the soil for about two pennies.

If know him,

I'd tell you.

No good.

They spread.

I'll tell you, they bloody spread.

Those roots muscle into the soil, choking out the native species.

It smothers the land.

You think they're coexisting?

They're not.

They're replacing.

Do you understand?

Sorry, two seconds.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Hello, where are you?

I'm just uh walking to to

um sorry, excuse me, where am I?

You would have been in Mardale.

Uh Mardale.

But you're not anymore.

R Mardale.

Hey, excuse me.

Sorry, hello.

Right, well, he's gone.

Who was that?

A cheery local.

I will be back in twenty minutes.

Honeys, I'm hurt.

Oh, God, sorry, forgot how crap this was.

Hey, Archie boy.

Breakfast?

For me or the dog?

You?

Oh, man, yes.

Oh,

you are the best.

Yeah, I would love some.

You got it.

Fire pit.

Outside.

Good idea.

Oh, you want coffee too?

I can bring you a coffee.

Um, wow.

Okay, yeah.

Uh, sure.

Morning, John.

Hey, morning, mate.

You okay?

Splendid.

Fire pit is ready, Mariana.

I've saved you extra sausages, dear Watson.

Oh, you guys.

And you get the extra egg top.

Oh, now you're talking.

Hell yeah.

Or should I say, shell yeah.

How ingenious, but also amusing.

You okay?

Yeah.

Yeah, why why uh

why are we being so nice to me?

Hello, mate.

Sorry, is this where I pump out the toilet waste?

Great.

it?

Uh yeah, it didn't get pumped out from the last guest, so.

Dirty shots.

Yeah, yep.

But we're warning for it, mine.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Great, great for sploshing shit and piss into a bin, mate, yeah.

You know, you might just have a clonk.

The trick is lots of fibre, I find.

The big floaters struggle getting through the flush pipe.

Oh, Jesus.

Enjoyed your hole there.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, loving it.

You want another sausage in here, John?

I'm actually.

I'll pass on that.

Thank you.

Notice you didn't come and help on the dump pump, Archie.

Thanks, mate.

Coffee.

Here.

Thank you.

How was your morning stroll?

Good.

Good, yeah.

Yeah, well, I didn't see any signs of Soltire or or Stefan Heidegger, so bad in that respect, but a beautiful walk.

Um

yeah, met a local village

I hesitate to say village idiot, but village weirdo, can I say weirdo?

In what respect?

Oh, just

dodgy bloke rambling about the schoolpedo conspiracy or something.

Weird.

We don't think that, right, Sherlock?

We do not.

It's he's.

he was a bit crazed, so.

Yeah, dunno.

Changing the subject from clogged toilets and child abuse, how's the research?

Increasingly illuminating.

Our disappearing German, Stefan Heidegger, his motorbike remains parked.

No cameras on any of the grounds, nor from businesses and farms in the local area, have picked them up.

Herr Heidegger had been working at the school since just September, and close friends of our missing Soltire couldn't provide a connection between the two, between him and Stefan.

No animosity, nor the reverse.

As in,

they had no reason to believe he'd kidnap him.

But Mariana found this.

Oh, Stefan Heidegger, good work.

Yes.

Read the caption.

The rich getting richer.

Oof, hello.

Hi.

It's a picture of helicopters coming to land at the start of the new term.

Bringing in the students.

Oh, Stefan mate.

Damning from a motive point of view, of course.

But to breach the school's photo policy and social media policy on your first day is quite the indication.

The plot thickens.

Speaking of thick, blind me, what is this mighty tone?

Oh, my homework.

Where'd you get that?

I asked Huxtable if I could read it.

It belonged to Saltire.

Dukedom, the Empire of Benjamin Duke.

He gave this to his son.

Oh, yeah.

Probably charged him for it.

And he signed it too, see?

This book is the key to understanding it all.

How is it?

Oh, just the life story of a badass billionaire type.

Sure, sure.

Is Saltire mentioned?

Hmm, yeah.

He talks about most of the kids.

Some more than others.

Yeah, the ones who still speak to him, probably.

Mm-hmm.

Well, you're a way faster reader than I am, so this is in the right hands.

And breakfast is served.

Ah, lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely.

Right, quick coffee, cheers and clink, everybody.

Cheers, cheers,

life

is

a lesson.

School never ends right, and watching the way a detective works, the way a detective observes everything from interactions to facial features, similarities, what's right in front of us, what's in our periphery, they're able to take in all of it and process it.

And it's only when they run that through every filter they have

do they start to build the case.

Only then.

everybody else they rush

they jump to conclusions they self-fulfill with emotion ego ideology whatever not this guy

not this guy

I found one!

Did you actually

right

here

yeah you're right that's a footprint he climbed he didn't jump how'd you know footprint is facing the wall so we climb down backwards then pivot it and you can follow the very faint outline here and then here

and finally here where i would say it meets another shoe designed for trekking deep grooves a claw-like pattern

claw-like

Hey, wait, wait, wait.

Terrain Beast.

That's the claw pattern on the bottom.

That's the same as me.

Ah, yes.

Good work, John.

Haha, shoes are coming in handy, people.

He's a couple of sizes larger than you, it would seem.

Yeah, all right.

The hasty summary would be that Stefan, in his terrain beast walking shoes, greeted Master Saltire Duke.

It would seem they headed, although I am speculating somewhat as these prints fade, particularly in that grass there that caught the sunlight, eastwards.

Down the hill to Mardale.

Mackleton.

Yeah, no, that's next along, but the crazy dog man I spoke to this morning, he said I was in Mardale.

Well, then, your friend is wrong.

I mean, he could be right.

He's local.

It wasn't all creepy stuff.

He chewed my ear off about trout and flowers.

Hey, incoming?

Oh, she's emerged from her book.

Huxtable, coming this way.

Do we share our information?

Why wouldn't we?

I mean, after what your friend said about the school this morning, she's not my friend.

Holmes, Watson, I'm

They asked him for this.

For what, sorry?

For the pool.

The boss, Benjamin Duke, had it built.

Specifically requesting the

dark tiles.

Yeah, it's

it is dark.

Black,

like a lake.

Scary stuff.

I think I remember him saying it would make some men.

Cruel, really.

You're a doctor, right?

Yes, yeah, yeah, ex-army.

Seen your fair share of dark waters, then, hey?

More than enough, thanks.

Yeah.

No comparison to what Benjamin Duke is going through now, of course.

Saltyre?

He's tough.

Clever boy.

He knows what he's doing.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be at the very, very best school, right?

Right, yeah.

Benjamin was here once, too.

Oh, wow.

Graduated in 98, I believe.

Following in his father's footsteps.

Hmm.

Where's our detective?

He was

catching up with Huxtable on a few matters.

What is it you do for Benjamin Duke?

I'm his fixer in the UK.

Fixer?

Right, cool.

Cool.

What does that entail?

How long you got?

Well, I could be the same for the detective to build.

Any tips?

Yeah, booze.

Oh, steady.

Hi, mate.

Forgive me, Mr.

Wilder.

Jim Wilder.

Hi.

Mariana.

I'm here on behalf of Benjamin.

So, uh.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is Rath.

Very much so.

Is he okay?

He's

just a positive mental attitude right now.

He's manifesting his son's return.

You can't convince him out of it.

Of course.

Yeah, I get that.

So,

where do we stand?

Chief suspect is a Stefan Heidegger, teacher of German here at the school.

A line of sight on Solty's room, a grudging attitude towards the student's background, and he is missing.

Right.

What do the students say?

Anything?

Not anything, right?

Not quite.

Um, he

jumped onto a call, I think, with a lawyer

last week.

And you overheard it?

Well,

yeah, he was in the library, so, of course, but I wasn't eavesdropping or anything.

What exactly took place during the call?

He had just turned 16.

They kept saying he had just turned 16.

So the lawyer was instructing him about a

prelim disbursement.

What is a prelim disbursement?

Preliminary.

It's a payout.

Of

funds and then stock in his name.

It's mentioned in his book, too.

He does it with all his kids.

Prelims before the age of 25.

Then big money, big jobs.

Just the kids he had with Camille.

his

late wife.

I see.

I understand.

She was very special.

Again, according to the book.

Were there any other students present?

Don't think so.

They may have overheard and wanted to act.

It's important you tell us.

There was no one else.

No teachers.

No Herr Heidegger.

No.

I see.

Thank you.

You've been very helpful.

Oh, here we go.

Look.

Notable alumni, 1998.

D.

Marcel, inventor of...

Christ, I don't even know what that is.

Sir G.

Harcourt, rower, probably.

B.

Duke, entrepreneur.

That's a big year for your notables, this one.

What?

98?

Yeah, you've got them guys.

Then U.

Usman, surgeon.

J.

Moriarty, academic.

P.

Wallace, media.

H.H.

Marle, novelist.

I mean, for a school that churns out twelve kids a year, outrageous ratio.

You can see why people chuck money at this place.

Hey, what's up?

A very slight

flutter of thought gathers.

Gathers and rests so delicately on this dim bulb that starts to glow inside me.

Ah.

So you have an idea?

Indeed.

Okay, that's good.

That's good.

W Would that thought like to

flutter out of your garb and into our ears?

Or?

No, it still nests.

It mustn't be disturbed.

Of course, yep.

Mariana, the book.

Hmm?

How far have you read?

Over halfway.

Good.

Good.

Hey, where are you going?

To the great outdoors, Watson.

Care to join me?

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Blood?

Gallons and gallons of it.

It was a brutal scene, I'm told.

And it, you know, it's funny because you think about these guys.

I don't know if this is just a uniquely male thing,

but I think we all fantasize about killing these particular types.

Child abusers.

Yeah, we...

There's this

innate urge in us to fight them like an enemy.

I mean, they are an enemy.

Ask the victims, right?

Of course.

But to see...

to be confronted with their demise in such a violent and

brutal way.

It's not...

It's not that same visceral emote of reaction.

This is standing over a slain monster.

There is no remorse.

There is a sense of victory amidst the blood and gore.

There is victory.

How did they find him?

By observing.

By observing.

What about the ropes?

They could have just driven out of here and no one would know.

Stefan didn't own a car.

None have been reported stolen.

And

his motorbike is still locked up.

This could be part of a wider conspiracy.

Like a group of men took that building.

So you expect a van, or a car perhaps, leaving this valley at around the time he went missing.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, I can tell you with total confidence, there was not one.

How do you know that?

There is a single track road that comes out from Moorhill onto the B-road we came in on by Mackleton.

Yeah, exactly.

You see it there?

Uh-huh.

Now, that building, well, collection of buildings.

A farm.

Thornley Farm.

Right at the junction of the B-road, and the track has a security camera.

It picks up that very junction.

And

nothing?

Nothing.

Not a car until 4:45am, according to the Thornleys.

Well, I say car.

Tractor.

Right, so they're here.

In the wild, on foot.

Indeed.

But unfortunately, they have a nearly two-day head start.

But we did at least gather our clues.

I think if we carry on, so um

parallel to this dry stone wall, then it's it's that sheep feel.

But

at the top,

oh, okay, so that's like a ridge.

Yeah, exactly.

And we can maybe see down into the valley a bit more.

There might be a more logical route that they took.

How are the shoes?

Um

yeah, yeah,

yeah,

yeah, yeah.

They hurt like hell, don't they?

I mean, yes, yeah, they do, but like I say, it's it's it's like uh

you know, it's a necessary pain, like like vaccinations or algebra.

You know, it gets you to a better place.

I mean, it's uh, I'm not sure algebra gets you anywhere, to be honest, but yeah, all worth it.

Sure,

I can see you laughing.

And you,

I am merely smirking at the beauty of our surroundings.

Yeah, smirking and giggling.

Stop making me laugh.

I'm gonna roll back down this hill.

I think I've got a blister as well.

Okay, go on.

Off you go.

Damn it.

Stop it.

Try to catch you.

Please.

This way, Arch.

Come on.

Oh man.

I feel cruel now.

Why?

Nothing.

When something serious is at stake.

True, but it's fuel, isn't it?

At the end of the day.

Fuel.

Yeah, having a laugh and pissing about.

Speaking of.

Yeah.

How was the toilet pump this morning?

Oh, you know.

It was almost as painful as these bloody shoes.

Oh, hey

What?

Come up here, look.

Oh,

wow,

quite beautiful.

Yeah, that's um that's the water where I was this morning.

Yeah, it's big.

Yeah, a reservoir, the guy said.

Hoarse water

Absolutely vast, isn't it?

Yes.

Carved out by

just about every geological phenomenon you can imagine over the past 500 million years.

Once, of course, this whole area submerged at the bottom of an ocean.

Hundreds of millions of years later, a range of violent, irritable volcanoes.

So much so that that there, the reservoir in that hollowed-out valley, was formed by a volcanic blast and eventual hardening glacial flow.

Now, of course, forming a perfect bowl to hold all that water for us.

So much turmoil, so much power, and now so skill.

So quiet.

We should keep walking.

We should.

It's unlikely our fugitives traveled further up this fell.

Yeah.

Let's head down to the water's edge.

The gates open.

Although we should probably shut that, that, sheep field and all.

Okay, come on.

Just careful, John.

This gets kind of steep.

Roger, that.

Ace.

Ooh, okay.

Right.

Painful shoes actually coming in handy now.

Sherlock.

What?

The claw.

Goodness.

Claw?

What claw?

The claw shape in the pattern of the bottom of my shoe.

I swear I didn't step there, and there's already one here.

See, in that mud.

Oh my god, they came here.

Do you see any more?

Yeah, I think so.

Look.

They're headed down the hill.

Follow them.

Okay, come on, come on.

Do you still see them?

It's

it's faint.

Can you see them, Sherlock?

I thought I saw some more, um, another footprint, but it's all trampled down the um

the sheep tracks.

Yeah.

Someone was covering their path.

Someone took a load of sheep out with them.

No, this is not an intentional drove.

Drove.

A path made by the long, narrow march of sheep.

This route to the water has been spattered by dozens of cloven hooves.

Your immediate concerns of the gate being open and the sheep finding their way through was valid, John.

And now our data has been compromised deliberately.

Okay, they could have gone anywhere from here.

You see anything, Sherlock?

I'm looking.

Yeah, have a drink, Archie.

Mate, half a Manchester is apparently, so it's clean.

Where would they come to the water?

I don't know.

This is where we need large-scale support.

What do you mean?

I mean, if Sherlock says this was a deliberate act to conceal, that a likely adult male took a child and is now hiding them.

He's known that for ages.

Yes, I know.

But before it was all, he left his dorm.

He climbed down on purpose.

He meant to escape.

Now, it

just doesn't feel right.

This doesn't feel like a boyish adventure into the wilderness.

What?

What is it?

Nothing.

What?

Well, I just...

I feel like I can see something in the water.

Like a body?

No, not.

It's something down in the deep part.

I

don't

see what you mean.

Am I going crazy?

Is that

like a church?

A church in the water?

It's the spire.

I can see the stained glass window.

Please, please, look.

I don't see...

No, the wind has disturbed it.

Do you you want to sit down?

You okay?

Yeah, no, I'm

I'm alright.

Arch, come on away.

That's someone's boat.

Archie, come on.

Sherlock, anything?

Nothing.

What are you doing?

Skimming stones.

Okay.

Why?

My dad used to do it, and it would.

Honestly, they'd go on forever.

Ooh, I've got five then.

I've got six this morning.

Good for you.

Sir.

He's quite therapeutic.

Almost feel like I'm connecting with him sometimes, you know?

Like, not in the throwing of the stone, I mean, but

yeah, your memory cutable bleeds into one eventually, but I distinctly remember him teaching me which stones to go for, which was a good one.

And now, whenever I search for the right stone to skim, I hear him.

So clear, it's weird.

Not that one, John.

One that's flatter, one that's a bit rounder, a bit more symmetrical.

Not that one.

Go for that one right there.

The closest thing to spending time with him is...

Shitting hell!

What?

What?

Sherlock!

Oh my god.

What?

Is that you?

What happened?

What?

Blood.

Sherlock, look.

It's all over this stone I picked up.

And look, it's...

Yeah, uh, there's more down here.

Follow it.

Follow the blood.

It's leading to the upturned boat by the water.

Go.

Go!

Okay, Archie, I take it back.

You can sniff the boat now.

Come on.

Come on.

Turn it over.

I am.

What's under there, Don't?

What's under the boat?

Holy shit.

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