The past couple of days had been gray and depressing…not mention uneventful. Caleb hated the winter, but he was, surprisingly, sorry to see the snow melt away into sludge. He considered the powdery, white snow the lesser evil than the wet, gray slush. The problem was though, that it had rained the other night, and then got cold again. Now the entire town was encased in ice.

Why the hell am I still living here?

He had enough money to uproot and move someplace south, someplace warm, but he stayed in his hometown anyway. He had finally achieved his writing ideals. He had published several novels, most of which had went over very well with his audience. He would be collecting royalties from the Raccoon City novel for years to come. He no longer had to work the nine-to-five job, but could set his own pace, hours, and still reap the benefits of a decent income.

He had just finished a chapter on his fantasy book when he decided that it was time to get up and do something else. He would force Matthew to read the chapter to check for typos, grammatical errors, and also to get his professional opinion. It helped have another opinion that he trusted around. His family was approving everything he wrote.

They're too approving.

He opened the door to the spare bedroom, the one that Matthew was staying in. His clothes were scattered all over the floor. He had run out of clothes pretty quick, considering he had only packed two changes of clothes. He had borrowed some of Caleb's clothes for a while, and it had worked for a while, considering how close to the same build that they were.

They were very close to the same height, weight, size and build. They even looked similar, not close enough to look related; they had entirely different faces, but they might appear so from behind. Both were about six feet tall, two hundred pounds and dark hair. At a closer look, the difference really started to stand out. Matthew had very pale, almost ghost-white skin, Caleb had a natural tan hue to his skin. Caleb's facial features were very round, pronounced and striking. Matthew's were sharper, more angular and subtle. Caleb kept his dark brown hair cut short and spiked on the top. Matthew's hair was longer, his bangs hanging in his face. Caleb had brown eyes, at first glance they were so dark it looked like he had just a big black pupil. Under the light his eyes were a unique sienna color. Matthew's eyes were a rare and alluring green, some shade between jade and forest.

Caleb had always found a kindred spirit in Matthew. They both wrote when they were younger and grew to do it for a living. He would never imagine that they would work on a project of this nature together. Writing a novel together was one thing, but meddling with Umbrella's covert affairs for a story was risky business. Still, he could think of no one better to take on the challenge than Matthew.

He picked up the dirty clothes and stuffed them into a laundry basic. He checked under the bed to make sure that he had every stray article. Matthew was out buying some extra clothes right now so that he did not have to keep borrowing from Caleb. They had very different dress styles too. Caleb was a little more conservative, reserved. Matthew was a little more edgy and hip.

He poured some mountain fresh detergent in the washer, turned it on and arranged the clothes evenly around the turbine. He was sure to go through the pockets in case that Matthew had left something in his pocket that he would not want washed. He felt a cardstock, unmistakable, rectangular shape of a business card in the pocket of the only pair of khakis that the kid probably owned. Curious, Caleb plunged his hand into the pocket and pulled it out. On the back was a note scribbled in damn-near illegible handwriting.

Call me!

And there was a number on it, probably a cell phone number. He turned the card over and his eyes went wide with surprise.

Kasey Feldman – Alton Telegraph

He totally knew her! In fact, he went to high school together; they were part of the same graduated class of nine people. They had both gone to a very small, private school. She had graduated early as a junior his senior year. Last he had heard from her was about four years ago. He had run into her one night at Daddie-O's, a local bar, and she was actually dating his cousin. He was curious to see how that turned out. He did not talk to his cousin very often, and talked to Kasey even less. Obviously, they had not gotten hitched, he figured; her last name was still Feldman.

He was even more shocked to learn that she worked for the telegraph.

No, wait! It totally knew about that! I read an article of hers not too longer, saw the name and wondered if it was her or not.

He had not given it much thought at the time. Most girls he knew spelled their name with a 'C' instead of a 'K' so it had to be her, now that he thought about it. It would totally be just like her to go and be a writer for the Telegraph, just because it was so unexpected. She was one of those rare girls who graduated with a degree in Spanish and became a journalist for her town's local paper.

I'll have to ask Matthew about her when he gets back.

As if on cue, the front door opened up and Matthew stumbled in with two huge bags of clothes. He kicked the door closed and tossed Caleb's keys on the coffee table.

"Hey," he greeted nonchalantly, making his way to the spare bedroom.

"When did you run into Kasey Feldman?" Caleb asked straightaway.

"Why? Do you know here?" Matthew replied with a question.

"Yeah, we went to high school together," Caleb explained. Matthew scoffed.

"Didn't you have a graduating class of like, six?"

"Nine," Caleb snapped bitterly.

"Whatever. Anyway, yeah! She was at the press conference at Tri-Cell. She works for the Telegraph."

"…the Telegraph," Caleb interjected, saying the words at the same time as Matthew had. Matthew nodded and continued to put his clothes away. Caleb was not nearly done getting information from him. His curiosity was known to be pretty insatiable.

"So…" Caleb said, prompting Matthew to continue talking.

"So…what?" Matthew replied, mimicking Caleb's voice and tone.

"So why did Kasey give her number…does she have the hots for you?"

"Maybe. You jealous?" Matthew shot back. Caleb chuckled.

"No. I was just curious. You didn't tell her about what we're gonna do," Caleb said. It was supposed to be a question, but he was so disconcerted for a moment, it came out as a statement.

"Of course not," Matthew answered, looking at Caleb like he was stupid.

"Just wanted to make sure…anyway! What are you feeling for supper tonight?" Caleb asked, changing the subject.

"Pizza," Matthew said, without hesitation. Caleb like pizza well enough, but his taste for food was always on the more ethnic side: Mexican, Chinese, Sushi, and Indian. Right now, he could totally chow into some pizza though.

"I'll call Papa John's; you pick out a movie," Caleb said. He picked up the phone and mindlessly ordered some pizzas, hot wings, sodas, breadsticks and way more food than the two of them would eat. That was the good thing about delivery food though, it was always good heated up the next day. He was just finishing the order when Matthew tried to get his attention.

"Hey! Hey, do you have TiVo? Caleb! Do you have a DV-R or something?" he started demanding out of nowhere. Irritated, Caleb turned his back and held up one finger, letting Matthew know he would rewind the damn thing in a minute.

Sheesh…

"Yes, sir. Nope, an hour is fine. Thank you," he said, hanging the phone up, and turning to tend to Matthew sudden and dire need to operate the TiVo.

"Yes. It's the black remote…no! The other one! Here, let me do it," he said, snatching the remote out of Matthew's hand. He hit the rewind button and looked over at Matthew for when to stop.

"That's good," Matthew exclaimed, holding up a hand. He pointed to the screen for Caleb to watch.

What the hell could be so damn important that…

"…bizarre murder last night in Hartford, IL. The victim was thirty-three year old Thomas Eden, resident of the small refinery town. Authorities say that the body was mutilated so badly, the body was not recognizable. His wallets and other belongings were found in tact on his person, ruling out a mugging. Police still do not have a motive for this grisly crime…"

Caleb frowned, disturbed by what had happened. The worse crimes that happened in his area were the rare robbery or shooting in downtown Alton. To his knowledge, no one had ever been 'mutilated beyond recognition' in his town. He did not see why this piece of information was so important to Matthew or himself. Was he supposed to know the guy? The name sounded vaguely familiar, but he was sure that he did not know the man personally.

"Okay…so what is this all about?" Caleb asked. Matthew rolled his eyes and sighed, like he could not believe that Caleb was not getting the connection.

"Don't you see? We're too late. There's already a spill. It's T-virus! It's gotta be!" Matthew exclaimed. Caleb raised one eyebrow, deliberately letting his expression ooze with skepticism.

"Why do you say that?"

"Oh come on, Caleb! Really? Don't you remember what happened with Raccoon City? It all started with bizarre murder cases. Hikers would go missing and then be found completely ravished…eaten…their bones picked clean," Matthew iterated.

"Yeah, I know all that. You think that's what happened to this guy?"

"Don't you?"

"I don't know what to think. They didn't really give very much information…"

"Take my word for it, Caleb. In a few days, they are going to release that his body was mutilated from human teeth. If they're not careful with the body, they could spread the virus," Matthew said, biting his lip nervously.

"Will you chill out, dude? The T-Virus is old news; most police forces are trained to deal with stuff like that. I'm sure that even Umbrella doesn't want another spill on their hands. They had a hard enough time cleaning up their other messes," Caleb replied.

"I need to use your computer," Matthew said. Caleb motioned for him to go ahead. Matthew leapt up from the couch and sat down at the desk, pecking away at the keyboard. Now, Caleb was way too curious not to follow along.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm checking to see if Tri-Cell has purchased any other local facilities around here besides the refineries," Matthew replied.

"Like what?" Caleb asked.

"Like this," he said, tapping the monitor a little too furiously for Caleb's liking. Caleb looked and saw the headline of the article: "Tri-Cell Donates Huge to Local Hospitals."

"I wouldn't call that a purchase," Caleb pointed out.

"This article says it all, though. They've been throwing money around at the hospitals, the college, specifically the biology department, even the newspapers, police precincts and TV stations," Matthew pointed out.

"They're expanding their range of influence," Caleb said, finally catching on. He felt dumb for not making the connection a little sooner.

"Yeah, they're buying people off. It's a slow process, I'm sure…but people are less likely to tattle on the people writing their checks," Matthew beamed.

"Hey! Check that out. Kasey wrote this article," Caleb exclaimed, pointing at the screen with a smile. Matthew scrolled up so that he could see it better. Sure enough, Kasey had been doing faithful reporting on Tri-Cell's activities.

"See if you can find something on the murder," Caleb suggested.

"One step ahead of ya," Matthew replied, his fingers flying furiously across the keys. In just a few short moments they had multiples stories about the murder, all of them a little more in depth than the news spot. Then again, they had not listened to the whole thing.

As his eyes scanned over the articles, he looked for something that was a little out of the ordinary. He did not have to look long at all. Matthew saw it too.

"I'm sure Tri-Cell loves this," Caleb pointed, a lot softer at the monitor. Matthew maximized the window so that they could get a better look. He began reading from the beginning. It turned out that they were having forensics experts from the FBI coming to examine the crime scene and the body. He smiled for a minute, thinking an absentminded thought about forensics experts.

That would be so crazy is she was here…

He picked up his cell phone and found her number: Lindsey Helden. She had also gone to high school with him, graduated the year before he did. She had went to school for forensics, majoring in biology. She did a lot of autopsies and worked with blood, urine, semen and all the other wonderfully nasty bodily fluids. On a special case like this, they might just call her in.

When he found the number he began to text away. He did not want to ask straightaway without saying hello first. She was another one of those friends that he had not seen in quite a long time.

Hey, friend. Long time no see. How have you been?

He put his phone in his pocket and glued his eyes back to the screen. It was too much for him to try to catch little tidbits here and there.

"Print this stuff. I'll want to look over it more thoroughly later," Caleb said. Matthew nodded and began to print each article about the murder.

"Don't forget the stuff about Tri-Cell too," Caleb reminded.

"I'm on it," Matthew said, assuring him. Caleb began to clear the table and set it for dinner. He was surprised to see that they had been at the computer for almost a half an hour. It did not seem like long at all.

Buzz!

His pocket began to vibrate. Excitedly, he reached into his pocket and saw that he had a text from Lindsey. He opened the phone and read anxiously.

Not too bad…I'm actually in town! We should get together for lunch sometime.

Caleb could not help but to smile ear-to-ear. He had always been a little taken with Lindsey when they were younger. He had only seen pictures on her Myspace and Facebook, but he was sure that she was just as stunning as she had always been. His fingers moved rapidly across the keypad of his phone.

That would be so cool to catch up! What are you in town for?

He was distracted for a little bit, looking at the papers falling from the tray, falling to the floor like a feather. Matthew made no attempt to pick them up or organize the pile. Caleb grumpily went over and picked up the stack from the tray, as well as the few strays that had fallen to the floor.

"Oh sorry, dude," Matthew said, glancing absent-mindedly at the pile on the floor. Caleb could not help himself.

"Yeah, like you didn't notice," he shot back sarcastically. Matthew made an indignant hiss and shrugged, letting Caleb know he did not care.

Whatever…

Buzz!

His phone went off again. He opened it up and laughed out loud in surprise. He could not believe the odds.

There was a murder in Hartford. Some guy got chewed up pretty bad. Anyway! When would be a good time for you?

"You're not gonna believe this," Caleb started, "but my friend Lindsey, from high school, who works in forensics for the FBI, is here investigating the Hartford murder."

"Far out! Do you think she can give us some inside info? Like weather or not the T-Virus was involved?" Matthew asked hopefully.

"Better than that...we were pretty tight in high school. She might let us take a look at the body…maybe even investigate the crime scene," Caleb replied. Matthew's face lit up like Rock Springs Park on Christmas. Caleb nodded to let him know that he was serious.

"Can she be trusted with this? The Umbrella stuff, I mean," Matthew asked.

"She has personal experience working with this sort of think. She's probably seen more action than you," Caleb replied.

"I wouldn't doubt that. I haven't seen any action. I've just talked to a lot of people who have. Anyway, call her here and let her know what's up," Matthew said.

Caleb was already dialing her number.