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Vic followed his partner to his desk and leaned in to see his computer. “Remember my ‘bad actor’ theory? That the vibes from the whatchamacallit that was bound might have encouraged crimes to draw juice from them?” Ross asked.

Vic nodded.

“It’s correlation, not causation,” Ross warned. “But recently there was a definite uptick of arson cases right before we figure the main creature broke out. And in the past, before we think it was bound, there was more arson nearby before each of the suspicious fires at the hotel. More sightings of the fire salamander and dark ghosts too.”

“You’re brilliant, but don’t let it go to your head.” Vic looked over the data and agreed with the results. “If this holds true, then we’re likely to see another uptick if the creature suspects that Simon and his friends intend to bind it again. But if we know that and prepare for it, maybe we can nip them in the bud so the spirit gets less juice out of them.”

“No one’s going to complain about us preventing crimes, even if we do just happen to be in the right place at the right time,” Ross said. “And that counts as doing our regular jobs, sort of, so the captain should be happy.”

Vic went back to his desk and leaned his chair against the wall. “Murphey said there were a bunch of suicides at the hotel in 1929 when the stock market crashed, including a shady broker. I believe him, but I wanted to see if we had anything in the records, just in case there was something more to the story.”

“That’s going back almost a century,” Ross pointed out. “Records might be skimpy.”

Vic shrugged. “I don’t need everyone. Just the high rollers who were wealthy businessmen, and some of the more well-known middle-sized investors who took their own lives. They’d have been local celebrities, so the suicides would have made the news, even if the actual cause of death wasn’t said out loud.”

“What’s that going to tell you?” Ross sounded curious.

“Not sure. But if some of them are haunting Ocean Visions and we get other mediums involved, it might help to reach some of the ghosts by name. After all this time, they might be ready to move on. And if something is holding them there, that’s good to know too.”

“Didn’t they already try? If those investor spirits were there, wouldn’t they have responded?” Ross asked.

“There was a lot of shame around losing their fortunes, and around killing themselves,” Vic replied. “Maybe that’s part of what’s holding them back. If they don’t have to reveal themselves because we already know they’re there, maybe they’ll have something to say.”

“Do you think they’re the dark spirits?” Ross questioned.

Vic thought for a moment and then shook his head. “We’ve got a hunch the ghosts are different from the dark spirits. Simon’s not sure the dark spirits were ever human, just attracted to misery.”

Vic knew researching these possibilities was a wild card, but he wanted to be helpful to Simon and already felt like he had few ways to assist. As Ross predicted, records were thin going back that far, but Vic found several obituaries with a combination of suspicious timing and vague cause of death to give him a short list.

“You found more than I thought you would,” Ross said when Vic showed him the notes. “Good job. Anything interesting?”

“It’s sad. People had their entire life savings wiped out because the markets were corrupt,” Vic replied. “The big investors lost huge amounts and usually tanked their companies as well as their own fortunes. I can’t imagine that would have made them very popular with anyone, so I can see how they might not have thought they had better options.”

“Some people did recover, even after they lost a lot,” Ross pointed out.

Vic nodded. “I didn’t say I agreed with the others, just that I understood their reasoning. And the people who recovered aren’t the ones haunting the hotel. I’m guessing this counts as ‘unfinished business’ big-time.”

He paused. “If we’re right about dark ghosts being a ‘secondary infection’ to the hotel’s fire spirit, the boom-and-bust luck cycle would also fit. From what Simon’s told me in the past, malevolent ghosts don’t just kill people; they like to play with their food.”

Vic was constantly surprised by how the things he learned about the supernatural from Simon kept being relevant in his police job.

“I also ran a search on Dixie Mafia for the era right before the entity went quiet,” Ross said. “Not only were some of the bigwigs investors in the hotel, they also helped bail it out, ran illegal gambling there, and a few of them either died in shootouts at the Ocean Visions or were quietly strangled in their beds by their mistresses.”

“Wow. Next, we’ll find out it was built over an ancient burying ground,” Vic quipped.

Ross glared at him. “Don’t joke about such things. I saw that movie.” He paused. “There was one more thing. I got a hunch about looking for any significant thefts at the Ocean Visions over the years. That sort of thing happens at all the hotels, still does.”

Vic grunted in assent. The Myrtle Beach cops had handled plenty of reports from guests at the Grand Strand’s many resorts. “Find anything unusual?”

“Maybe, back in the 1920s, early in the hotel’s life, there was a huge upswing in spiritualism. Maybe because of all the deaths from World War I and the Spanish Flu. Even the guy who wrote the Sherlock Holmes books was into it. Ouija boards, automatic writing, séances, the whole shebang.

“There was a big convention about spiritualism held in Myrtle Beach in the brand-new Ocean Visions Hotel,” Ross said with a grin and note of triumph in his voice. “Just like the ones they held in Lilydale, New York. Bunch of famous seers and psychics, lots of people looking for advice or wanting to speak with ghosts, and at the end, a huge ceremony where they were going to use a book of ancient knowledge to call on the mystical elders for protection.”

“I’m guessing it didn’t go well?” Vic ventured.

“It was a shit show. Some of the headliners started fighting with each other, making all kinds of accusations. Attendees ‘fell out’ with fainting spells and claimed to be visited by bad spirits. There was a major thunderstorm the night of the ceremony, and the lights went out,” Ross told him.

“Someone get killed?” Vic asked.