Edge of the Heat 7 Read Online Free PDF

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