Edge of the Heat 7

by Ladew, Lisa

  Emma laughed, then her eyes grew serious again. “I sleep when you’re off gallivanting around doing dangerous stuff.”

  Craig raised an eyebrow, making Emma laugh again. “I never gallivant. Besides, that’s different. You’re a woman. I’m supposed to take care of you.”

  Emma sucked in a breath between her teeth and Craig winced and smiled inwardly at the same time. He knew he’d said something wrong, and if only she wasn’t so tired he’d take full advantage of it, teasing her right up to the edge of blowing up at him, then telling her how right she was about everything and plying her with kisses until she channeled her unspent anger into mind-blowing sex. But she had to be back at the fire department in six hours and he thought she’d want to spend all of those hours asleep.

  “Craig Masterson, I didn’t know you were a closet sexist!” Emma cried.

  Craig chuckled. “What did I say that was sexist?”

  “Because I’m a woman, you can’t go about your business when I’m doing my job! You have to wait around in case I need you? Because I’m not capable of taking care of myself?”

  Now Craig knew she was past the point of tired and well on her way to exhaustion. He could hear the subtle whining note in her voice that said she didn’t even want to be arguing, she didn’t know why she was saying what she was saying, but she couldn’t help herself. He tried the easy way out.

  “Of course not Emma, that’s not what I meant at all.”

  Emma didn’t say anything for a few moments and he drove in silence, hoping she was done. She’d feel differently when she got at least a few hours of sleep.

  “Good. Because you’re not always going to be able to rush out and try to take care of me. When we have kids you’ll have to stay home and take care of them, no matter how dangerous of a call I’m at.”

  Craig pulled over to the side of the road quickly and threw his truck in park. Emma had avoided this subject for a year now, even after Vivian got pregnant. Especially after Vivian got pregnant.

  He turned to face her head-on. “We’re having kids?”

  Emma smiled and blushed at the same time, then looked at him through her lashes, almost shyly. “Well, you’re almost done right? You said you were going to quit the FBI once the Oberlin investigation was over, and that’s in two weeks. Then I thought maybe we could try.”

  “Even if I go back to work? I still want to join the fire department.”

  “You’ll only work ten twenty-four hour shifts a month. I’m on day shift now. Why not? After my maternity leave we would only need a sitter for eight hours, five or six times a month. My sister might even be willing to do it.”

  Craig unclasped his seatbelt and slid across the seat to his wife, his brain boiling with excitement. With his right hand he unclasped her seatbelt, and with his left he pulled the hair tie out of her hair, then plunged his hand into her tresses, pulling her mouth to him. He kissed her long and hard, maneuvering her into his lap as he did so.

  He pulled back, leaving her breathless. “Call in sick tomorrow. We’ll start trying tonight,” he whispered, then he kissed her again to still the protests he knew were on her lips.

  Finally, he had to stop kissing her.

  “Craig, I can’t. You know Jack is going to be exhausted tomorrow, just like I am now. We’re short a Lieutenant and Vince is on day off. I have to go in. Besides, I don’t want to start trying till you are officially out of the FBI. Until there is no possible way they can send you somewhere else.”

  Craig sighed and scooted himself back to his spot. The radio on Emma’s belt crackled, asking for any available rank to respond. Emma sighed and waited a beat, hoping someone else would answer. When no one did she unclipped the radio and held it to her lips. “Lieutenant 6-4,” she said.

  “Lieutenant 6-4, we’ve got a residence explosion at 1281 Azalea Lane. No medic units available to respond, please advise.”

  Craig saw fear lance across Emma’s face. He replayed what the dispatcher had said over in his mind and felt his own bowels turn to water. Hawk and Vivian’s place!

  He threw his truck into drive, grabbed the police bubble from under his seat and slapped it on the roof, then stepped on the gas. “Get your seatbelt on,” he said in a low voice as he took a hard right without slowing.

  Emma did it with one hand while she spoke into the radio. “I’ll be there in five - ah four minutes, Central, to let you know what we need. Scramble someone from the hospital or another call. If no one will be free in under five, get a unit heading from Tetam County. I’ll cancel if they aren’t needed.”

  “10-4,” came the reply and Emma dropped the radio, holding on tight to the seat and the handle above her head. Craig was on a straightaway and about to hit close to one hundred miles per hour, but a left turn was coming up. Luckily the streets were empty, since it was the middle of the night.

  Craig made the turn with no problem, although Emma swore she felt the tires lift off the pavement. She didn’t dare breathe a word to him to break his concentration. Besides, nothing needed to be said. Hawk and Vivian had to be OK. Had to! Her sister was pregnant. The baby … Emma bit back her terror, and tried not to think about the fact that Hawk and Vivian were almost certainly asleep in their bed when their house exploded.

  As they drew close, Emma saw exactly what she was praying she wouldn’t. A glow in the sky ahead of her. Something was definitely on fire. Emma squeezed her eyes shut, determined not to condemn her sister and Craig’s best friend to death in her mind. They were OK. They had to be.

  Craig rounded another corner and advanced up the street fast. Emma could see Hawk and Vivian’s house, fully ablaze, barely any part of the structure left. A fire truck in front had just arrived and was putting out its hoses. Four or five people thronged on the sidewalk. Emma leaned forward and strained her eyes, trying to pick out Hawk and Vivian.

  Craig slowed and Emma opened her door, popping her seatbelt and jumping out at a run. She reached the small knot of people and almost cried in relief at the sight of Vivian and Hawk looking sad and horrified, but very much alive.

  Emma slung her arms around Vivian, who was wearing only a man’s shirt and a sheet around her waist. “What happened?” she asked, her eyes on the blazing house she’d been in so many times.

  Hawk stepped in front of her, dressed only in dark silk boxers. “There was a bomb under our bed. I found it just before it exploded. I dropped it and we ran.”

  Craig walked up, already holding up his spare clothes and boots for Hawk. “A bomb? What in the hell?”

  Hawk turned a knowing eye on him and nodded. “Someone’s not happy about something I’m doing.”

  Emma stared at the two men, unable to believe Hawk and Vivian had almost been murdered in their bed … because of Hawk’s job? The same job her own husband did? She hugged her sister harder as Vivian began to cry.

  Chapter 5

  Emma swayed on her feet, blinking up at the late-morning sun. She’d been given the day off at work, since she’d been at the scene of the explosion all night, but she wouldn’t leave this scene until she heard what the fire inspector had to say. She had to know.

  Hawk, Vivian, and Craig had also chosen to stay, the three of them huddled around the back of Craig’s truck, waiting for news. They’d called JT and Dani at the hotel they were staying in while they were in town, but those two lovebirds hadn’t picked up their phones yet or responded to any messages. Emma knew they tended to turn off their phones when they were on vacation. They’d check in when they got up.

  Jerry had been by, as soon as he got the message Emma left for him at dispatch when he arrived at work, but he couldn’t stay. He was working on the ambulance all day. He’d been offered a promotion similar to Emma’s but had declined it, saying he wanted to work on the ambulance as long as his bad leg let him. Emma thought that was probably an excuse. His leg seemed fine these days, almost never giving him problems. He just liked the ambulance. And he didn’t need the money. Emma liked the ambulance too, but sh
e couldn’t turn down the hefty raise that came with the Lieutenant’s position.

  Jerry had said Sara wasn’t feeling good, and that’s why she hadn’t come by, but he offered their spare room to Hawk and Vivian. His sister had moved in with her boyfriend and it was just empty. Emma had cut in, thanking Jerry but saying Vivian and Hawk could stay with her and Craig for as long as they wanted. They had a spare room too.

  Emma watched the fire inspector move about the smoking pile of melted concrete and burning wood that had all collapsed into the centuries-old cellar and wondered at how hard and fast the fire had spread. The other items Hawk had seen under the bed had to be an accelerant of some kind. That was the only thing that could possibly explain how little of the structure was left. Well, that and the fact that only one fire truck had ever arrived to fight the fire. Last night had been so busy it was all that could be spared.

  The fire inspector in the hole pulled out his radio and spoke into it. Emma’s hand went to her waist, turning up her volume automatically to hear what he said.

  He was asking for police. Finally. The police had already come to take Hawk and Vivian’s statement and then left again when the fire inspector said he wouldn’t be able to give a preliminary report for hours.

  The man climbed up the ladder out of the hole in the ground and approached Emma. He nodded to her and Emma tried to smile. His name was York, Carl York, and he was an older man, rather new to the department. A lateral transfer from Los Angeles who she didn’t know well.

  “Well I’ve seen plenty of these in my day,” he said, his voice pitched low, his eyes crawling over the trio behind Craig’s truck. “Never in such an upscale neighborhood though.”

  Emma frowned, not sure what he meant by that.

  He leaned in close to Emma. “There was no bomb, though, I guarantee you that. Are you sure none of the homeowners had burns on them? Their faces or hands?”

  Confusion and apprehension rushed through Emma at his words. She took a deep breath to calm herself. She wasn’t going to like whatever he was about to say, she could tell that much. But he didn’t know of her connection to the homeowners, and she didn’t want to react in a way that would alienate him if she could help it.

  “No, no burns. I examined them myself. What do you mean no bomb?”

  He nodded as if he expected that. Emma felt her eyes drawn to his earlobes, where the deep crease told her he was well on his way to a heart attack. She tried to pull her paramedic’s mind away from that inane fact and focus on what he was telling her. “There must have been someone here who fled the scene before you showed up. You should check the hospital for burn victims over the next few days.”

  “What?” Emma forced out. “What are you talking about?”

  York motioned back over his shoulder at what used to be Hawk and Vivian’s house. “Hash lab. It exploded. Someone was extracting a large amount of oil from marijuana using butane. It caught fire and set off the other containers down there. That blaze burned through the ceiling and caught the rest of the house on fire, essentially allowing it to collapse in on itself. I’ve marked all the pieces of exploded and burnt containers and the marijuana that the police will want to take into evidence.”

  Emma’s mouth fell open. She looked helplessly back at Vivian and Hawk and Craig talking animatedly across the street, not even sure what to do

  “You, you…” she sputtered. “You think there was a hash lab in this house?”

  “I don’t think, I know,” York said, his eyes narrowing. “I have forty-two years of experience investigating fires. Everything I see down there indicates a hash lab.”

  Emma looked at the smoking ruins of a house one more time, then looked back at York, her mind a swirling mess. “What about the bomb? You said you didn’t see a bomb but couldn’t it have burned up?”

  York scoffed and looked at her with growing distrust. “Not completely. There would be some sign. The housing, the wires, something.”

  Emma shook her head, her voice raising. “The homeowner said it was in a shoebox. No housing.” She pointed back at the hole in the ground, her eyes focused on the black and smoking pile of rubble in the middle of it. “I saw you down there, you didn’t go through that pile. There could be anything in there.”

  York looked at her in a horrible appraising way. He pulled back and started to speak, then cut himself off, then leaned forward, his finger in Emma’s face. “Look, Lieutenant,” he said, emphasizing Lieutenant like it was a dirty word. “How many years investigating fires do you have? None? That’s what I thought. You don’t know the first thing about it. Once you’ve investigated even one, you come back and talk to me. Until then—”

  York cut off and looked across the street where Hawk was heading their way. Emma’s heart sunk. She wasn’t going to get what she needed by pissing this guy off. But she didn’t know if there was a way to fix this situation.

  “Great,” York said, his voice sharp and clipped, his eyes following Hawk as he came closer. “Just what I want to deal with.”

  Emma thought quickly, then seized her chance. She leaned in close to York, conspiratorially close, and lowered her voice. “I’ve already dealt with him. He’s a real bear. You get out of here, go back to your office. I’ll deal with the homeowner and send the police to see you there.” She had no plans of sending the police anywhere until she figured out what exactly was going on here, but she wanted him calm and away from the scene.

  York nodded and Emma saw gratitude flash in his eyes. She bit back a grimace, feeling slimy, but knowing she had to do this, for Hawk and Vivian.

  Hawk stepped up on the curb and Emma turned her back to him, then made a shooing gesture towards York. He turned and headed towards his car, moving quickly.

  Emma turned around quickly and intercepted Hawk. “We need to talk,” she said motioning for him to follow her back to Craig’s truck. When she had the three of them gathered close to her, she waited until she saw York’s truck drive away, and then spilled, keeping her eyes trained on Hawk. She didn’t want to see Vivian’s reaction.

  “The fire inspector thinks you guys were running a hash lab in the cellar.”

  “What?” Craig roared, taking a step backwards to watch the fire inspector’s car drive away.

  From the corner of her eye, Emma could see Vivian’s mouth drop open, but Hawk only stared, his eyes soft and thoughtful.

  “What in the hell makes him think that?” Craig asked, his voice booming.

  Emma shushed him. “He says there’s butane containers and marijuana down there.”

  Hawk’s eyes narrowed. “Actual marijuana? That just happened to survive that fire?”

  Emma nodded. “That’s what he said.”

  Hawk’s eyes unfocused and Emma could almost see his brain working behind them. Even Craig held his tongue in respect for Hawk’s processes. They’d all seen it a dozen times before. It was how he worked.

  Vivian’s hands fluttered to her face and she began to weep softly. Without looking around, Hawk pulled her into his chest and patted her back, his eyes still far off. Finally he spoke. “It makes sense, in a sick way.”

  “What does?” Emma asked.

  “When does a criminal have the least chance of getting caught?” Hawk countered, then answered his own question. “When the cops don’t know he exists, right? Whoever did this is smart. Smart enough to throw the investigation off from the very beginning. If his plan had succeeded, we’d be dead, unable to defend ourselves. Hell, if he was lucky, the cops and the fire inspector might have written this off as the two of us getting what we deserved. Case closed. Nothing to see here.”

  He turned to Craig. “Except, whoever did it had to know that you wouldn’t let it rest. You, my best friend and an FBI agent.”

  “And brother-in-law,” Craig muttered.

  “And brother-in-law,” Hawk parroted, his voice soft, still thoughtful.

  Craig’s eyes narrowed in some sort of understanding that was just outside of Emma’s reach.<
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  “We better go search my place,” Craig said.

  Hawk nodded and Craig started towards his driver’s door. “Get in, we’ll go straight over.”

  “Wait a minute! What just happened? What are you two talking about?” Emma cried.

  Craig turned back to her. “There’s a good chance that whoever did this might try to do something like it to me too. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. They’d have to know that I would know Hawk wasn’t making hash. And they’d have to know that I wouldn’t let it rest.”

  Emma felt her exhaustion and the events of the last thirty hours closing in on her. Her mind tried to crumple. She looked at her husband squarely. “Are you telling me our house is in danger? We are in danger?”

  Craig took her hand and spoke to her softly. “I don’t know, babe. But we have to assume we are.”

  Emma stared into his eyes and couldn’t process it. She needed sleep, and soon. But only if she were safe—if her house was safe. She looked back at the fire truck still in front of the house. “Let me talk to the fire equipment operator,” she said in a small voice, then turned back to Hawk. “What should I have him tell the police? The inspector wants them to take the butane and marijuana into evidence.”

  Hawk shrugged. “Nothing we can do about it. Have him do what he’s supposed to do and we’ll figure out a damage control plan later.”

  Emma nodded as he held her gaze for just a moment too long. His quiet manner didn’t fool her. He was terrified.

  So was she.

  Chapter 6

  When Emma returned to the truck, Hawk and Craig were already in the front seat, talking animatedly. She climbed into the back seat next to her sister. Vivian sat limp and quiet in the corner, her gaze lost. One of the neighbors had found her a pair of sweat pants to wear. They looked completely out of place on her slim frame, tucked just under her growing belly.

  Emma took Vivian’s flaccid hand and listened to Craig and Hawk talk as Craig pulled away from the curb.