Streak of Lightning Read Online Free Page A

the food. I’d been hungry four hours ago when our train was approaching the city; I was famished now. I grabbed a sandwich and a few of the doughnuts, and sat next to Eleanor.
    â€œDo you guys remember the day I opened Jitters?” Carrie asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “Joe stormed in yelling that I’d better not put pizza on the menu or I’d be sorry.”
    â€œI remember,” I told her. “All he had to do was look around. The place was stocked with coffee and muffins, and no pizza or pizza ovens. But Joe wouldn’t listen.”
    â€œHe never listened,” Eleanor agreed.
    Carrie took a deep breath. “He scared my kids. He scared my customers. He scared me. I hate to say this, but maybe this time he tried to scare the wrong person and he was killed because of it.”
    â€œAssuming it was murder,” Jesse pointed out. “Lori said it herself: all that anger and stress could have led to a heart attack.”
    â€œOr Lori could have arranged a heart attack with whatever was in those pills she brought to the police station,” I added.
    â€œPoor thing.” Eleanor spoke quietly, as if she were talking to herself, and patted Barney’s head.
    â€œPoor Lori?”
    â€œYes, her, too. But poor Joe,” she said. “He lived his life with such unhappiness. Never saw joy in anything. Not in his beautiful wife, or his successful business, or in the many friends that were his for the asking. He looked for reasons to be angry. He alienated the people who tried to help him. It’s nearly impossible not to be made happy by something, and yet in all the years I knew him, Joe never was. That has to be a sad way to live, and now a sad way to die.”
    Leave it to Grandma to remind us that Joe, for all his faults, deserved better than to die at someone else’s hand. I turned back to Jesse. “So what do we do?”
    â€œGreg made a semi-confession in that statement that Terri Adkin overheard. She’s a good cop, a fair person, but she’s got a guy who had an altercation with Joe saying he killed him. If the autopsy shows foul play, Greg’s going to be in trouble.”
    â€œPlus, there’s that history between Joe and Greg’s father,” Eleanor said. “Once the state police look into that, it will add motive.”
    Carrie looked at me, but I shrugged. Neither of us were Archers Rest natives, so we didn’t know the backstory behind many of the town’s feuds, but it wasn’t surprising that at least one would involve Joe.
    â€œWhy did Greg say he killed Joe?” Carrie asked.
    â€œHe was talking gibberish,” Jesse said. “Greg has a tendency to blurt things out without thinking.”
    â€œIf you didn’t think he meant it,” I asked, “why did you stop him from explaining himself?”
    â€œBecause everything he says is on the record. If he changes his story later, it could be a problem.” Jesse took a deep breath, and when he spoke again his voice sounded tired and frustrated. “He’s a good cop, and one day he’ll be a great one, but his eagerness gets the better of him. He jumps in with theories and opinions when he should stick to the facts. Sometimes he thinks he’s solved a case before we’ve even made it to the crime scene. I don’t want him to say anything to anyone in law enforcement, including me, until he has a chance to calm down and think through what really happened. Once that ball gets rolling, I might not be able to help him.”
    â€œBut how do you know that he didn’t do it?” Carrie pressed him.
    â€œIf I thought he had, I would have put the cuffs on him myself. But I know Greg. We all know Greg. Do you think he could murder someone?”
    â€œNo, not really,” she admitted. “But if being part of this little group has taught me anything, it’s that anyone is capable of murder under the right