The Priory School - Part Two

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Cashback offers for new customers only cannot be used in conjunction with other promotions and offer ends. 5th of April 2026, other fees may apply. Raise the rudder. Raise the sails. Raise the sails. Captain and unidentified ship approaching. Over. Roger that. Wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. Spend £200 on your first campaign and get a £200 credit for the next one. Go to linkedin.com slash lead to claim your offer. Terms and conditions apply. Come join the Patreon. It's a huge community now with loads of extra cool stuff. Patreon.com slash show look and go. Previously on Sherlock and Cubs. Yeah, we're saying that you can kind of help us get out of right because you can pick out the clients that would be able to cover a, you know, a larger invoice. I'm Tom Huxdale. I am the executive headteacher at Moor Hill. 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, Saltire Duke. He went to bed at 10 p.m. He's not been seen since. You think he was taken? Not the behaviour 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 Hideggers room. Stefan! Stefan! Open the door, mate! He watched and he waited. Perhaps he lured him out. Lord 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. The Currently traversing the sheep nibbled grass of Mackleton, I believe, the nearest sort of village parish, what have you, to Moor Hill with Archie, of course. He's scuttling about somewhere. Well, I'm stopping every now and again because my feet hurt. But of course, also to admire everything really, absolutely everything. It's dropped dead gorgeous, an absolute babe, 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 realise I'm also meant to be looking for a German man and a missing boy, but look at that one go. Six. It's a six. What was that saying? Yeah, the Lake District. It's not a sort of village green cottage next to a babbling brook type situation. It's um, I don't know. It's, 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, sorry. Oh, hello. You made me jump there. Archie, got a friend here for you mate. All right, where you go? Bulldog. There he is. What's this fella? If you said horse, I wouldn't be surprised. A big lad. This is Robbie. He's a deer round. Right, right, wow. Hello Robbie mate. Absolute unit, aren't you? Oh, you've been hunting for something, you say? Yes, you have stalking these lans. There's bigger rounds that stalk them all into this country, lad. Beasts that would make even Robbie issue it 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, the stories. No, telling yourself a few stories then, weren't you, lad? Oh yeah, no, sorry. I make a podcast. I was just talking to the listeners of it, describing the beauty of the place. No beauty here son. If only you knew the darkness and the demons that live within it. I mean, I'll come on. You've been in that school I bet, haven't you? Sniffing around for that boy. You have no idea what they do to them up there. Sorry, what? Evil incarnate. A temple to wickedness. A demented sickness is writhing all over us in elites. You should see them all and... 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 school. Many outsiders. Nothing but stock trout. Stock trout. Stock trout in a hilltown. Not native, flashier, hungrier and gone the moment the water warms. They eat the young lad. Think about it. Would, yeah, no. I can imagine. Actually here for an investigation is taking place. You're not here for the apparent beauty, you know, right? You see that along the foot till there? The flower, yeah, it's lovely, beautiful. I was just saying... Roaded engine. Of course, they look nice, don't they? But the estate owners brought them in generations ago. No other mental plant. Grandfather helped stick half them in the soil for about two penneth. If he'd known, I'd tell you. Oh, no good. The spread, I'll tell you the bloody spread. Those roots mussel into the soil choking out the native species. It smothers the land. You think they're co-existing? They're not. They're replacing. Do you understand? Sorry, two seconds. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Hello. Where are you? I'm just walking to... Sorry, excuse me. Where am I? You would have been in Mardale. But you're not anymore. Mardale... Excuse me. Sorry, hello. Right, well, he's gone. Who was that? A cheery local. I will be back in 20 minutes. Honies, I'm... Oh, God, sorry. I forgot how crap this was. Hey Archie boy, breakfast? For me or the dog? You? Oh, man, yes. You are the best. Yeah, I would love some. You got it. Fire pit, outside. Good idea. Oh, you want a coffee too? I can bring you a coffee. Wow, okay, yeah, sure. Morning, John. Hey, morning mate. You okay? Splendid. Fire pit is ready, Mariana. I've saved you extra sausages, dear Watts. Oh, you guys. And you get the extra egg too. Oh, now you're talking. Hell yeah. Or should I say, shell yeah. How ingenious, but also amusing. You okay? Yeah. Yeah, why, why, why are we being so nice to me? Hello, mate. Sorry, is this where I pump out the toilet waste? Great. Your shit's a full up, is it? Yeah, it didn't get pumped out from the last guest, so... Dirty sods. Yeah, yep. What were we waiting for, mate? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Great, great for splotching shit and pissing to a bin, mate, yeah. You know, you might just have a plump. The trick is lots of fibre, I find. The big floaters struggle getting through the flush pipe. Oh, Jesus. Enjoying your holiday? Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, loving it. You want another sausage in here, John? I'm actually... I'll, I'll pass on that, thank you. Notice you didn't come and help on the dump, Palm Parchee. Thanks, mate. Coffee. Here. Thank you. How was your morning stroll? Good. Good, yeah. Yeah, well, I didn't see any signs of saltire 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 school pedo 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 saltire couldn't provide a connection between the two, between him and Stefan. No animosity, nor the reverse. As in... As in they had no reason to believe he'd kidnapped him? But Mariana found this. Instagram, oh, Stefan Heidegger, good work. Yes, read the caption. The rich getting richer. Oh, 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, Blimey, what is this mighty tone? Oh, my homework. Where'd you get that? I asked Huckstable 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 a life story of a badass billionaire type. Sure. Sure is saltire mentioned. Yeah, he talks about most of the kids, some more than others. Yeah, the ones who still speak to him probably. 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 them. 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 he climbed down backwards, then pivoted, 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, wait. Terrain beast. That's the claw pattern on the bottom. That's the same as me. Ah, yes. Good work, John. Shoes are coming in handy, people. He's a couple of sizes larger than you would seem. Yeah, all right. The hasty summary would be that Stefan, in his Terrain Beast walking shoes, greeted Master Saltaia 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 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. He wasn't all creepy stuff. He chewed my ear off about trout and flowers. Hey, incoming? Oh, she's emerged from her book. Huxedable, coming this way. Do we share our information? Why wouldn't we? I mean, after what your friend said about the school this morning. It's not my friend. Holmes Watson. I'm a mech a thorough. Yes, yes, that's the one. Mr. Duke's team is here. Could we have a word? 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 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. Seeing your fair share of dark waters then, hey? More than enough, thanks. Yeah. Yeah. No comparison to what Benjamin Duke is going through now, of course. Saltire? 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, well. Graduated in 98, I believe. Following in his father's footsteps. Where's our detective? He was catching up with Huxley on a few matters. What is it you do for Benjamin Duke? I'm his fixer in the UK. Fixer? Right, 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. How are you, mate? Forgive me, Mr Wilder. Jim Wilder, hi. Mariana. I'm here on behalf of Benjamin, so, yeah. Yeah, this is rough. Very much so. Is he okay? He's just 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 the Soletier'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. 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 I'd, 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 pre-limb disbursement. What is a pre-limb disbursement? Preliminary. It's a payout. Of? Funtz and then Stock in his name. It's mentioned in his book too. He does it with all his kids. Prelimbs 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 hair heiderger. 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, 1998? Yeah, you've got them guys. Then you, Usman, surgeon, J Moriarty, academic, P Wallace, media, H H Marl, novelist. I mean, for a school that turns out 12 kids a year, how rages ratio. I mean, 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. So you have an idea? Indeed. Okay, that's good. That's good. Would that thought like to flutter out of your carbon into our ears or? No, it's still nests. It mustn't be disturbed. Of course. Yep. Mariana, the book. How far have you read? Over halfway. Good. Good. Hey, where are you going? To the great outdoors, Watson. Care to join me? Indeed, present. Highers, you can't afford to get wrong. Like a warehouse operations manager. Uh, where were the forklifts? I sold them. They were too expensive. I got a great deal on these scooters, though. You expect us to move a two tonne pallet on a scooter? It'll be fun. Just think of the core strength you'll build. This is a job for sponsored jobs. This is what happens when you don't sponsor your job on Indeed. So the next time you need someone to get the job done right, get matched with quality candidates with an Indeed sponsored job. Visit Indeed.com slash Next hire and sponsor your job today. What? Gallons and gallows, I bet it. It was a brutal scene. I'm told. And it, you know, it's, it's funny because you think about these guys. I don't know if this is just a uniquely male thing, but, but, 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 emotive 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 roads? They could have just driven out of here and no one would know. Stefan didn't own a car. Nanapin reported stolen and his motorbike is still locked up. This could be part of a wider conspiracy. Like a group of men took that boy. 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 Moor Hill 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 Thornley's, 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 that sheep field 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. Uh, they hurt like hell don't they? I mean yes, yeah they do. But like I say it's like uh, you know it's a necessary pain 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 laugh 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. Oh god, I've got a blister as well. Ha ha ha. Okay go on, off you go. Don't help me. Oh god please. No, no, no. Stop it. I can try and catch you. Please. This way Arch, come on. Oh man, I feel cruel now. Why? Nothing. Or something serious is at stake. True, but it's fuel isn't it, you know, at the end of the day. Fuel? Yeah, having a laugh and pissing about. Speaking of, yeah, that was the toilet pump this morning. Ha ha, you know. It was almost as painful as these bloody shoes. Ha ha ha. 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, reservoir the guy said. Hawswater. Absolutely vast isn't it? Yes, carved out by, just about every geological phenomenon you could 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 still. So quiet. We should keep walking. We should. It's unlikely our fugitives travel further up this fell. Yeah. Let's head down to the water's edge. The gate's open. Feel like we should probably shut that sheet field and all. Okay, come on. Just careful, John, this gets kind of steep. Roger that. Eish. Ooh, okay. Right, painful shoes actually coming in handy now. Sherlock. What? The claw. 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. Ah, do you still see them? It's, 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, it's, 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. Do you see anything, Sherlock? I'm looking. Yeah, have a drink, aren't you? Mate, half a Manchester is apparently, so it's clean. Why would they come to the water? They 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 that- We've 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, 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 feel like I can see something in the water. Like a body? No, not- Something down in the deep part. I don't see what you mean. Am I going crazy? Is that a church? A church in the water? It's the spire. I can see the stained glass windage. Please, please, look. I don't see. The wind has disturbed it. Do you want us to sit down? Are you okay? Yeah, no, I'm all right. Arch, come on away. Someone's boat. Archie, come on. 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. Oh, 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, your memory color will bleed into one eventually. 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 round, a bit more symmetrical. Oh, no, that one. Go for that one right there. Closest thing to spend your time with, Thames. Shitting hell! What? What? Sherlock! Oh my god. What? Is that you? What happens? What? Blood. Sherlock, look. It's all over this stone I picked up and look, it's... Yeah, there's more down here. Lord, it... 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. Um... What's under there, John? What's under the boat? Holy shit. To binge this adventure in full and without ads, go to patreon.com forward slash Sherlock and Co. Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. 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