Streak of Lightning Read Free Page B

the beginning.”
    â€œYou were here for the beginning. I arrested him, and we put him in the cell. That’s it. That’s all I know.”
    Greg looked anxious, and I couldn’t blame him. The normally quiet police station was filled with people, most of them strangers. Archers Rest shared paramedics and firemen with Morristown, a larger town just north of us, and several were hovering as Greg, Jesse, and I huddled in the main area of the police station. Two people from the county coroner’s office were dealing with Joe’s body; at least four state police officers were wandering past us; and Larry, a mechanic and volunteer police officer, was giving a statement to one of the state police just out of earshot of the rest of us.
    Jesse tried to get Greg to focus on him. I could tell Jesse wanted to bring Greg into his office and question him privately, but a detective from the criminal investigation unit of the state police, a woman named Terri Adkin, had already commandeered Jesse’s office, as well as the conference room and the jail cell. We were lucky to be allowed in the station at all. She’d made it very clear that a possible homicide involving a member of the Archers Rest police force, in the Archers Rest police station, meant that the state police were in charge of the case.
    â€œThe beginning,” Jesse said to Greg, quietly and calmly, “was when you saw Joe throw the chair into Violet’s window.”
    â€œI didn’t see it,” Greg corrected him. “I told you. I was on my way back up Main toward the station, and Violet came running over to me, saying Joe was out of control again. So we went over to the flower shop, and Violet and I went inside to see the damage. Joe was already in there getting his chair back. He told me right away that he’d done it. It wouldn’t have been rocket science even if he hadn’t confessed. So I handcuffed him and brought him here.”
    When I’d passed the flower shop earlier in the day, the three of them must have been inside. If I hadn’t been in so much of a hurry, I might have stopped. Not that it would have done any good, I reminded myself. Joe didn’t die because he threw a chair through a window. At least I didn’t think so.
    â€œHe said you pushed him.” I’d been quiet up until that point, standing behind Jesse and trying my best to stay out of the way, but it was better any issues with Greg’s statement be cleared up now before Detective Adkin found them.
    â€œThat’s right.” Greg looked even more flustered. “He said that. Well, I didn’t push him exactly. I just tried to handcuff him, and he wouldn’t let me. So I kind of—you know how it is, Jesse—I kind of grabbed him. He kept going around in a circle, trying to keep me from getting his hands. Like it was a game or something. I wasn’t rough on him, I swear I wasn’t. He got away from me, so I had to grab him before he did any more damage to Violet’s place. And then, once I got him cuffed, he knocked into me. I don’t know if he thought he could escape or what he was doing.”
    â€œHe was drunk,” Jesse told him. “We could all see that.”
    â€œAnd the coroner’s report will show it,” I agreed. “Why are they so sure it’s murder?”
    â€œThey’re not. I am.” Greg took a deep breath. “He was making a fuss, told me he wasn’t feeling well. He said he had some medicine he takes every night and he needed it. I called Mrs. Proctor, and she brought it by. I gave it to him, and ten minutes later he was dead.”
    â€œYou’re saying Lori killed him?” I asked.
    â€œNo, I’m saying I did.”
    As Greg spoke those words, Detective Adkin walked over. “Can I get you to repeat that statement, Officer Burke?” she asked.
    Jesse stepped between Greg and Detective Adkin. “No. He’ll get a lawyer and