Edge of the Heat 3 by Lisa Ladew Page B

out of the monitor directly at Vivian and told her to smarten up. She knew how rare eyes that color were. Besides Emma, she’d never met anyone with blue eyes as light as hers. She’d seen some pictures, yes. But never anyone in real life. She was starting to believe it could be true. And believing didn’t feel good.
    She put her hands in her face. She seemed to be doing this a lot lately. And to think, just a few hours ago she had felt good, happy.
    Hawk leaned toward the phone, his face painted in intense lines. “Emma, how did you meet Norman?”
    “What? What does that have to do with anything?” Emma squeaked.
    “Just humor me, would you? Tell us exactly how you met Norman.”
    “I met him on a call, and then he just started showing up all the time.”
    “Was it the type of call a cop normally would have gone on?”
    Emma was silent for a beat.
    “No wait. I’m wrong. I didn’t meet him on a call. He came to the ambulance bay once at the beginning of my shift. I thought it was weird because we almost never get cops in there. He came over and said hi and told me he liked my uniform. I thought it was silly, but sweet, and after that he kept showing up on my calls. And he asked me out after a call a week later.”
    Vivian stared at the phone, and then at Hawk. What was he getting at?
    Hawk leaned forward even farther. “Ok, hear me out here. Who is to say that the Senator doesn’t know you two are his children? And what if he gave some sort of a job to Norman that had something to do with you? And Norman found you, or looked you up out of curiosity, and decided he liked you. So it was no accident that you met.”
    Vivian heard someone pound the table through the phone. Craig spoke, excitement in his voice “I bet you’re right! Shit Emma, I bet Senator Oberlin is your father.”
    Bile rose in Vivian’s throat. She didn’t know what Emma was feeling at this news, but she imagined it wasn’t good. How does anyone deal with the knowledge that their father is a monster?
    Emma’s voice rang through the phone, sounding small, defeated. “You OK Viv?”
    “No.” And she wasn’t. She was horrible. She was disgusted. She wished it was all still a mystery. “What about you Emma, are you OK?”
    “No.”
    Vivian looked up at Hawk. He was looking at her with some new emotion in his eyes. It didn’t seem to be contempt. What was it?
    “Maybe we should arrange a meeting,” Hawk said.
    “A meeting?” Emma and Vivian said together.
    Craig came through the phone again. “Yes! You two could go meet him. See what he says. This could be our big break - the big event that starts to tie the rest of the story together.”
    Vivian couldn’t believe her ears. Sure, she knew their investigation was a big deal. But they’d only known that this guy, this murderer was their father for 2 minutes and now the guys wanted them to meet him? She glanced at Hawk again. He was still gazing at her with that look in his eyes. Suddenly she figured it out. He was looking at her with interest, with curiosity. Like she was a new kind of bug under a piece of glass. Step right up! Stare at the monster’s daughter! she thought, feeling like her mind was about to crack in two. Vivian stood up and ran to the hallway and locked herself in her room for the second time that day.
    This time she did cry.

Chapter 17

H awk watched Vivian go. He scrubbed his face with his hand. “God I’m an idiot.”
    “What, what happened?” Emma asked, her voice strained.
    “Vivian just ran out of here, upset.”
    “Yeah, you didn’t really give us much time to deal with the fact that that jerkwater was our dad before you started in,” Emma accused.
    “I know. I’m sorry Emma. That was stupid of me.” Guilt ate at Hawk’s gut.
    “Yeah, maybe you should apologize to my sister too.”
    Hawk glanced out the doorway, but the hall was still empty. Vivian must have retreated to her room. He hoped he could make it up to her.
    “You’re right, I