Vincent Moore stood outside Kelli Anderson's room, dripping with sweat from the game of basketball he had just played with Michael Thomas. They had been playing a game to determine who was really in love with Kelli, but unfortunately the game ended in a tie.

Vince opened the door and walked inside, taking the T-shirt in his hand and placing part of it in the waistband of his gym shorts. As he came into full view of the room, Vince found Kelli seated at the laptop provided to her by the hotel.

Detective Joel Kincaid and his brother, Duncan, were next to her with their eyes glued on the screen. Vince frowned and approached them with his arms folded.

"Boo," Vince said, rolling his eyes. "What's going on here?"

"Duncan and Detective Kincaid are trying to help me find out where Thomas's text message is from," Kelli replied.

Vince sighed. "Don't tell me you still believe that Michael Thomas didn't die of cancer three years ago and that he's alive somewhere here in St. Laurent."

"Fine, I won't tell you," Kelli said.

"Kelli, this is ridiculous," Vince said, knowing all too well that he was lying to her. Michael Thomas was in fact, alive, and living at the Highwind Resort. The only problem was that he was posing as his brother, Blake, in order to keep the others from discovering that Thomas has been alive in Marquette Cove for two years following his resurrection from the dead.

"Stop being so negative, Vincent," Joel said, taking a sip from a cup of coffee.

"You've all been at this for weeks," Vince said. "Surprise, surprise…the ex-convict and the alcoholic brother duo haven't figured out a damn thing."

"Don't talk about them that way," Kelli said. "They're trying to help."

"And I'm not an alcoholic," Joel insisted.

"Joel…there's whiskey in that coffee," Duncan muttered.

Joel ignored his brother and set down his cup, returning his attention to the screen. He stared for a few moments as the program that was currently running continued to read files from Kelli's cell phone. A phone that by all rights, shouldn't have received a text message since there was no type of service in St. Laurent.

A few moments later, Joel let out a cry.

"What's wrong?" Vince demanded.

"We found coordinates," Joel said, grinning. "I think we might have found where the message is from!"


BEL AMI CLUB

Beau Ormand walked into the office at the nightclub that he and his brother, Remy, owned together. He unbuttoned his shirt and hung it on the rack next to the door. He crossed over to his desk and sat down while waiting for his brother to return.

A few moments later, Remy entered the office and frowned at his brother. "What is it with you and not wearing shirts?"

"Never mind that," Beau said. "We have a problem at the Highwind."

"Mom is dead?" Remy demanded.

"No."

"She's marrying Vincent?"

"No," Beau snapped. "Well, yes…but that's not the point."

"Then what is it?"

"We have an escapee," Beau replied. "It appears that #24601 is AWOL."

"God, will you stop doing that?"

"What?"

"Making references to Les Mis and other stupid Broadway musicals?"

"You know, St. Laurent could stand to burst into song for a couple of weeks," Beau insisted.

Remy rolled his eyes. "There's a way to kill your reading audience."

Beau shrugged off Remy's meta statement and rose to his feet all the while admiring his biceps and wondering if he should spray them with water to make them glisten and stand out.

"What are we going to do?" Beau demanded. "Besides having you find her and start a statutory relationship with her?"

"Nothing," Remy said. "I've already contact our mole and informed him."

"How'd you know before me?"

"Well, besides the fact that I've been here all day and not at the Highwind doing the hippy-shake for middle-aged women…I caught the girl's cellmate trying to escape as well."

"Really?"

"She's in the hallway. I tied her up."

Beau brushed past Remy and stepped into the hallway, where he found a woman bound and gagged in a chair. She was African-American, with dark black hair, and she was, at the moment, unconscious.

Beau smirked. "Good job."

"I told Ms. Samantha Clark here that if she tried to escape again, she'd get a new title," Remy said. "She'll become St. Laurent's Next Top Corpse."


THE HIGHWIND RESORT
GISELLE ORMAND'S OFFICE

"And so, we have $950,000 as the estimated gross of sales in 2004," Elena Halstrom said, speaking to Giselle Ormand, owner of the Highwind.

Giselle didn't respond; she rarely did while Elena spoke. The old crone liked to ignore Elena and treat her as if she were lesser than a human she was even turned in her chair with her back to Elena. She was such a bitch. Before Elena could continued, Michael Thomas entered the office carrying a large plastic bag full of ashes.

"Special delivery," Thomas said.

"Why are you carrying around a bag of ashes?"

"I burned the files Monique gave me," Thomas replied.

"You're not very smart, are you?" Elena demanded, snatching the bag away from Thomas and exiting the office.

"You're welcome," Thomas muttered.

"That was rather stupid, you must admit," Rory Kahn insisted, appearing behind Thomas.

Thomas spun around in surprised and glared at Rory. "I told you to stop doing that."

"I apologize," Rory said. "But I come bearing news."

"What's up?"

"You must return, those two fools who run the Bel Ami will be missing you," Rory said, before turning to Giselle. "Sorry."

"She knows they're idiots," Thomas said.

"No, Giselle hates The Phantom of the Opera."

"Oh. Well, I'll take care of some things first…then I'll head out."


KELLI ANDERSON'S ROOM

Vince wondered exactly what the hidden coordinates Joel had just found would be. Especially since Vince highly doubted that they'd actually lead anyone to Michael Thomas, who was currently masquerading as his twin brother Blake Thomas.

"I found the coordinates," Joel said. "Duncan, pull up the map of St. Laurent."

"You found a map of the town?" Vince demanded.

"Well, my passcodes from when I used to be a cartographer still work," Duncan said. "Surprisingly enough, St. Laurent seems to have only a lake and a hotel ski resort."

"And one huge electric ice forcefield," Kelli added.

"So, where do these coordinates say cancer boy is?" Vince asked.

Kelli shot Vince a dirty look, and then turned her attention to the computer screen.

"The coordinates are outside of the forcefield," Duncan announced.

"What?" Kelli demanded. "How can Thomas be outside of the forcefield?"

"That's a good question," Vince muttered, shipping out off the room unnoticed.

"Keep working, Duncan," Joel said. "There's no way out of the forcefield. These coordinates have to be wrong."

Kelli frowned. "Let's hope so."


BEL AMI CLUB

Beau lifted an unconscious Samantha from the chair she was in and carried her through the hallway. Once he reached a locked door, he stepped aside and waited for Remy to unlock the cell door. Remy pushed open the door and let Bea set Samantha down on the floor.

"Why are you putting her in here?" A woman by the name of Kelly Crane demanded, as she was huddled in a corner. "What have you done to her?"

"Shut up," Beau snapped. "You two ladies make nice…and if you get really friendly, I'll get it on tape."

"You disgusting bastard," Kelly spat. "How can you keep us captive here in these cold, disgusting rooms?"

"Spare me," Beau said, as he heard shouting from a room further down the hallway. "God, are those two at it again?"

"I'll shut them up," Remy said, hurrying to the room where two men were arguing.

Remy unlocked the door and opened it, removing a gun from his waistband. He aimed the gun at Sean and Derek Moore, the two brothers being held captive in the room together.

"Shut the hell up, or I'll cap both of you," Remy snapped, placing his finger on the gun's trigger. "Just try me."


THE HIGHWIND RESORT
MICHAEL THOMAS' ROOM

Vince knocked on the door to Michael Thomas's room and waited for a response. After hearing nothing, Vince tried the doorknob but found that it was locked.

"Thomas, open the damn door!" Vince shouted. "I want some answers!"

As he stood by the door, Vince began to smell smoke coming from the room. He banged on the door once more, to no avail. Becoming fed up, Vince kicked the door and sent it flying open. Vince stepped into the room and saw that the smoke was coming from a trashcan in the center of the hotel room. Next to the can was an unconscious girl lying face down on the carpet.

Vince hurried to her side and turned the girl over onto her back. He gasped when he saw who it was and staggered back into the wall.

""No…it can't be," Vince gasped. "Erin Maddock…she's alive. Oh my God, she's…she's alive!"

Vince tried regaining his composure and noticed something suspicious out of the corner of his eye. Through the room's open window, he saw Thomas sprinting through the snow.

"That bastard," Vince snapped, crossing to the window and climbing out to follow Thomas. "He's not going to get away from me that easily."

Melissa Maddock stepped out of her hotel room and entered the hallway after hearing a loud noise that sounded like wood breaking. She noticed the door to Blake Thomas's room standing wide open and walked toward it. Part of her wanted to see if everything was all right, yet Melissa was also curious as to what Blake might be up to. None of the other Highwind guests had been inside Blake's room in the weeks since they discovered his presence at the hotel.

Melissa approached the room, and at the detection of smoke, hurried into the room. She noticed the garbage can immediately, and then her attention focused on the girl lying on the floor.

Once she recognized the girl, Melissa began to scream.


OUTSKIRTS OF ST. LAURENT

Vince kept a close watch on Thomas as they approached the large forcefield of electrified ice surrounding the Highwind, and apparently where St. Laurent ended. Vince buttoned the jacket he was now wearing and breathed heavily as he hurried to catch up with Thomas.

He noticed Thomas reach into the snow and pick up a handful of it. Thomas patted the snow into a ball and threw it at the forcefield. A surge of electricity lit up the forcefield and turned it a bright blue color. A few seconds later, the ice wall split in two, leaving a pathway for Thomas.

Vince gasped as Thomas walked through the pathway. He raced after Thomas and tried running through the pathway as the wall's halves began sliding back together. Vince leapt forward and landed on the other side of the forcefield in a mound of snow, just as the wall sealed itself once more.


THE HIGHWIND RESORT
MICHAEL THOMAS' ROOM

Joel stepped into the room, followed by Kelli and Duncan. They'd been interrupted by the sound of screams coming from the room and hurried to Thomas's as soon as they could. Filing into the room, they found Melissa standing over a girl screaming.

"Melissa, what's wrong?" Joel demanded, rushing to her side. "Who's this in…oh my God. Is that…"

"It's Erin!" Kelli cried. "She's alive, just like the rest of us!"

"But I…I saw her in the morgue, Joel!" Melissa cried. "You were there with me! We both saw her!"

"I know, Melissa," Joel said. "But we were all dead too. Or at least we thought we were."

"How could someone do this?" Melissa demanded. "Erin died months before any of us appeared here. Were they torturing her for that long? Why wasn't she at the hospital?"

"And why is she unconscious in Blake's room?" Duncan wondered aloud.

"I'm sure there's an explanation," Kelli insisted. "Blake's not here, and there's smoke in here…something must have happened to him. Maybe we were getting to close to finding out where Thomas was! Maybe Blake figured it out!"

"I doubt it," Duncan said. "There's something else going on here."

"We need to get everyone together," Joel said. "We need answers."


BEL AMI CLUB

Michael Thomas walked into the Bel Ami Club and slammed the door shut, thankful to no longer be wandering through the blizzard occurring outside. As he walked through the empty bar area, he found Beau standing near the door. He was, as usual, not wearing a shirt.

"Did you miss me?" Thomas asked.

"No," Beau said. "But your cellmate has. Everyone's been wondering where you escaped to. We tried sending you an encrypted text message, but it was intercepted by that ex-girlfriend of yours."

"That's unfortunate," Thomas said. "So listen, we've got a problem. Erin Maddock is at the Highwind, I had to leave her."

"Doesn't matter," Beau said. "It's all part of Giselle's plan."

"She's behind this?"

"She knows everything," Beau said. "Nothing happens without her knowing."

"Well, good. Because this needs to be dealt with," Thomas said. "But as for now, I need to return my little hole in the wall before anyone else gets suspicious. I'll fill you in on the Highwind situation later."

"I'll take care of it," Remy announced, entering the bar with his gun outstretched.

He grabbed Thomas by his shirt and dragged him into the hallway where the other prisoners were being kept. As he reached the room where Thomas was headed, he unlocked the door and cleared his throat.

"And don't ever get any ideas of escaping again!" Remy shouted, shoving Thomas into his cell. He closed the cell door, and then smirked as he locked it and returned to the bar.

Once Remy was gone, Thomas took a deep breath and tried banging on the door, pretending as if he were really being held prisoner.

"Let me out of here!" Thomas cried.

"You're back, Thomas!"

Thomas turned around to see his cellmate, Tyler, standing before him.

"Yeah, they caught me," Thomas said. "I didn't get very far…I have no idea where the hell we are."

"Did you make back to the other compound Beau and Remy have talked about before?" Tyler demanded.

"Why do you ask?"

"Is one of the people being held…is one of those people my mother, Thomas?" Tyler asked, his voice shaking. "Is Melissa Maddock being held captive here too?"