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Vic also found that the hotel had a disturbing history of periodic fires, some major and others less damaging. For the first forty years, the fires recurred in ten-year cycles, but after one particularly bad fire sixty years ago, the fires had ended until recently.

After an hour, Vic leaned back in his chair. “Over the last century, there have been a lot of people associated with the hotel who had bad luck or came to a bad end. But if I looked at any company or organization that lasted one hundred years, would it be different? That’s a long period of time and a lot of people. Not all the misfortune was spectacular, or the least bit supernatural. How much is the ghost or just people attributing everything to a curse?”

“I’m sure Simon can tell you about psychological suggestion,” Ross replied. “Plant an idea in someone’s mind, and they’ll subconsciously choose evidence to support it. The more commonplace bad luck is probably due to people wanting to blame anyone but themselves. ‘The devil made me do it,’ so to speak.”

“Problem is, the cycle of fires seems too precise to be random,” Vic went on. “And while the hotel had big fires every ten years, each big fire coincided with a rash of small fires elsewhere that look unrelated other than being on the same cycle. Then they stopped too. No idea what to make of that, but it sounds like there’s too much that is unusual to just dismiss it. Whether it’s a ghost, demon, a curse, or some other dark magic, it’s been ruining lives for a long while.”

“Does that hold true now? Come to think of it, there have been some arson incidents on the news lately,” Ross replied. “I wouldn’t have immediately figured they’d be related to something as big as the Ocean Visions fire.”

Vic shrugged. “No idea, but now it looks suspicious. I’ll see what I can find out.”

“If Simon and his friends can figure out how to stop it, that would do the whole community a favor,” Ross agreed.

Vic rubbed his eyes and finished his coffee. “Yeah, I know. That was my rationality’s last gasp. It’s like that Sherlock Holmes quote about the improbable being what you’re left with after you rule out the impossible.”

“Like we didn’t hear that over and over in the police academy.” Ross laughed. “Although I think we take it further on a daily basis than even Sherlock would have expected.”

Vic drummed his fingers on the desk before he reached for his phone again. “I’m going to check in with Jimmy at the fire department. They’ve probably still got crew on site at the hotel doing cleanup. I bet he could get me access to have a look around while it’s still an active site. Cap might not hear from his friends until everything’s been shut down.”

“You think that’s safe?” Ross asked.

“I don’t think they’d let me go in if it was still burning,” Vic replied. “If you mean supernaturally safe, I’ve got my usual tats, amulets, and protective blessings. I’m not going to try to summon anything. But if the fire did start in a closed-off area, and we’ve had a report from the owner that things might be hinky, I think that is ample reason to want a first-hand look.”

“Need company?” Ross asked.

Vic thought for a moment and then shook his head. “I don’t even know if Jimmy can get me in, and it’s probably easier to ask for one than two, but thanks.”

“And this way, someone knows where you went,” Ross added with a pointed look.

“That too. Hopefully it won’t be necessary,” Vic admitted.

As it turned out, his friend Jimmy was on site at the hotel when Vic called, and he told him to come over.

“I’ll let you know what I find,” Vic told Ross as he got ready to leave. “There might not be anything to support the supernatural aspect, but looking when the evidence is fresh can’t hurt.”

Vic signed out and headed for the hotel. He thought about letting Simon know and decided to wait until he finished. I don’t want to worry him. I might not find anything obvious, although someone with his skills should probably have a look.

Fire trucks were still on the scene when Vic arrived, and a portion of the hotel affected by the blaze was a charred and steaming pile of rubble.

“You didn’t waste any time getting over here,” Jimmy greeted him. He turned to the firefighter protecting the entrance. “It’s okay, he’s with me.” Just for good measure, Vic flashed his badge.

“What brings you out?” Jimmy asked. “This isn’t your usual beat.”

“We got a report that there might have been some unusual elements involved in the fire, and I wanted to get a look before everything gets cleared away,” Vic told him.

“I can give you the grand tour. Just watch out for hot spots and water puddles.” They walked toward the oldest wing of the sprawling Victorian structure. “Started in a basement they said is kept locked. Not sure yet just how that happened. We’ve got investigators looking into it, but it takes a while to get the reports back. We’re also still doing clean-up.”

“Have you been able to get into all the basement rooms?” Vic asked.

Jimmy gave him a questioning look. “What do you mean?”

“When I talked to the owner, he said a couple of basement rooms had been bricked closed, and another door was blocked shut,” Vic replied.

Jimmy sighed. “We see all kinds of stuff in this business. Fires have a way of bringing secrets to light. There were a couple of probably storage rooms in the basement that had been bricked up, and one looked like a force from inside had broken through. That could be from a gas leak, a minor quake, or some old boiler that let loose. We haven’t been able to get inside to see yet. The other is blocked by debris, so we can’t get into it either.”

Jimmy gestured toward the upper floors. “We were able to contain the fire, so it only burned part of the old section. There’s probably wider smoke damage, and I don’t imagine guests will want to stay through the remediation, but it could have been a lot worse.”

Jimmy put his hands on his hips and looked up at the huge old building. “That’s how many of the grand old queens of the beach went—fire, lightning, bad wiring. One or two got torched for insurance. Some of the others just closed and deteriorated until they were torn down to build something new. It’s a shame to see the old ones go.”