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Kayleigh pulled her shoulders back and lifted her chin. “I need to talk to whoever is in charge.”
“They’re over there,” Hudson said, pointing to where the fire trucks were parked.
Together, they walked closer to the group of people who stood watching the firefighters work to extinguish the flames rising from the building.
“Hi, Kayleigh,” the police chief said, then motioned to the man next to him. “You know the fire chief, right?”
She did, mainly because his daughter had been in her class in high school. After shaking hands with both men, she turned her attention to the fire.
“Do you have any thoughts on this?” Kayleigh asked. When neither man said anything, Kayleigh looked over at them. “What’s wrong?”
“Take a sniff,” the police chief said.
Frowning, Kayleigh took a deep inhale, picking up the scent of burning wood. But there was also something more. “Gasoline?”
The fire chief crossed his arms as he nodded. “It seems so.”
Kayleigh looked over at Hudson. “Arson.”
“You have cameras around here, don’t you?” the police chief asked.
“Yes. We’ve got a lot around the property.”
“If I could get a look at them, that would be great,” he said.
Kayleigh glanced at Hudson. “Could you please take him to security?”
He regarded her for a moment before he nodded. She hadn’t meant to boss him around, but she couldn’t be in two places at once, and it felt important that she stay at the site of the fire.
As Hudson and the police chief walked away, Kayleigh called the security office to give them a head’s up and instruct them to give him and the police chief whatever they needed.
“Have you been having trouble around here?” the fire chief asked.
“We’ve had issues with some theft, but this seems a big jump from that.”
“Well, hopefully, the cameras will give a good view of whoever is responsible.”
That would be the best-case scenario, but Kayleigh wasn’t holding her breath. When the chief turned to speak to a couple of his men, Kayleigh glanced around at the scene.
People had come out of nearby cabins, which were thankfully not too close or there might have been a higher risk of the flames spreading. Water arced toward the cabin, drenching it. The fire did seem to be under control, but Kayleigh didn’t think the overall situation was.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped away from the fire chief and moved in the direction of the ambulance. The doors to it were closed, no doubt in deference to the cold.
She saw that the resort’s small bus that was used to move people around the property had been brought out to allow the guests affected by the fire to get out of the cold as the figured out where to take them next. Moving in that direction, Kayleigh prayed that she’d have the words to say to those inside it.
Even knowing she looked nowhere near as professional as she usually did when dealing with guests at the resort, she stepped up onto the bus. There were a handful of people there, huddled under some blankets. The Night Manager was with them, and he stood up when he spotted Kayleigh.
“Hi, Gary,” she said with a nod, then turned to face the others. After she introduced herself, she listened as they shared their experiences that night.
At one point, someone from the hotel showed up with hot drinks and some pastries for the guests. While the people on the bus were helping themselves to the food and drink, Kayleigh took Gary aside to speak to him about the alternative sleeping arrangements for the group.
It took a little while, but soon, they had enough rooms in the hotel for the group who had been displaced for the night. Unfortunately, they’d lost all their belongings in the fire, so arrangements would have to be made to replace enough of it so that they could return to their homes. The resort’s insurance would once again have to reimburse them.
With that all taken care of, the two people who had been receiving oxygen in the ambulance joined them on the bus. Kayleigh instructed Gary to have them all taken to the hotel and settled into their new accommodations.
They were fortunate that there had been a couple of empty rooms in the hotel, though they definitely weren’t as spacious as the cabin they’d had to evacuate. Gary said those rooms were due to be filled the next day, so they’d have to shuffle a few things around to get everything sorted if the group chose to stay another night.
She told Gary to go to the hotel with the guests, since he had things well in hand. The fire looked like it was out, but none of the emergency responders were rushing to leave the site. The water hoses no longer sent steady streams of water over the cabin, but the firefighters were still circling the building.
