Read Online Road Less Traveled by Cris Ramsay - Free Book Online

Bakers.
    He’d definitely showered this morning. And he was too far away for Dr. Baker to have smelled his breath. Was it something he’d done recently? Or something in the water? Or just Eureka’s residents acting in their usual bizarre and unpredictable fashion?
    Well, whatever. He could live without the Bakers greeting him enthusiastically every time he crossed their path. Right now he had a thunderstorm to chase, and a mystery to solve.
    And a deputy to race.
    He hit the gas, and his Jeep’s tires squealed as he sped away from the stop sign.
    Â 
    Carter took the corner of Heigel and Plato, hard—and then cursed under his breath. Jo’s car was already pulled up in front of one of the houses there. The house that had the miniature thundercloud hovering directly over its tiled roof.
    How did she always arrive ahead of him?
    He pulled up behind her and hopped out, trying to ignore the smirk she directed his way. But that same smirk turned to a grimace when her companion spoke.
    â€œHey, Sheriff. Took you long enough.”
    â€œI didn’t realize it was a race, Fargo,” Carter replied, ignoring Jo’s glare—the glare that clearly said “you saddled me with him, this is all your fault!” Which, in a way, it was.
    But they might need a science geek for this. Henry would have been perfect, but as the town’s mechanic, mayor, fire chief, and a dozen other roles, he was probably a little too busy to just roam around with them all day. And Jo was a lot of things, and ridiculously good at almost all of them, but science geek? Not so much.
    Hence, Fargo.
    â€œLooks like the place,” Carter commented, glancing up at the thundercloud. Little flickers of lightning rolled through it here and there, and he could hear the thunder that accompanied them, though it was oddly muted. This was probably due to its size; the entire storm couldn’t be more than twenty feet across.
    But that was more than big enough to house a Thunderbird, he was guessing.
    â€œThink the second one hatched?” he asked as the three of them approached the house. It was a modest two-story dwelling with a mixed stone and brick front and a small awning over the front door. An awning that wasn’t going to shield them from the sheets of water pouring down onto the front steps. The rain was heavy enough for them to hear it from the front lawn, and Carter guessed that walking through it would be like stepping into a heavy curtain—of hard-hitting rain.
    His third shower of the day. Swell.
    â€œPossibly,” Fargo answered, tailing him and Jo. “Though if it did, it reached a much greater maturity than the last one, and in record time.” He smiled. “Dr. Korinko and Dr. Boggs should be pleased.”
    Yeah, of course, Carter thought. Because having your prize research stolen, then set off prematurely and turned into a house-sized hurricane, was exactly what they’d been hoping for. But still, he knew what Fargo meant.
    â€œI don’t see any evidence of the Thunderbird itself,” Jo pointed out, squinting up at the cloud. “Though that storm is more than dense enough to hide it, especially since the Thunderbird looks like a storm itself.”
    â€œDoes it create storms, or is it a storm?” Carter asked. “I wasn’t really clear on that part.”
    â€œMe either,” Fargo admitted. “Dr. Korinko only said that it generated thunder and lightning, wind and rain. She didn’t say if it contained those within it or could somehow separate them to produce storms that would remain independent of the Thunderbird’s own location.” Which just proved why they needed Fargo along on this one—Carter hadn’t followed through on his initial thought to realize that a Thunderbird might be able to create storms and then move on, leaving them behind like stray feathers.
    â€œWell, either way, this is the best lead we’ve had all