Can you find a five letter word that is left with only two letters if one is removed?

My thunder comes before the lightning; my lightning comes before clouds; my rain dries all the land it touches. What am I?

Detective Rockford was jogging near the beach at 4:30 am.
He hears a sound near the shack "No Michael, Please Do not shoot me".
Next instance he heard the sound of gunfire. Rockford rushes to the shack where he finds women lying dead and a gun in close proximity of three "Doctore Lawyer and a Teacher".

Rockford immediately knew that the Lawyer has committed the crime. How?

Which Travels Faster? Solve below famous picture riddle:

What word is identified by the below rebus?

Your Your Your Your Your
Your Your Your Your Your

You have two strings whose only known property is that when you light one end of either string it takes exactly one hour to burn. The rate at which the strings will burn is completely random and each string is different.

How do you measure 45 minutes?

How do you go from 98 to 720 using just one letter?

There was a competition where the contestants had to hold something. At the end of the event, the winner was a person who had no hands or feet. What was it that the contestants had to hold?

Find the next number in the series?
2, 12, 36, 80, 150, 252, 392, _ ?

There are four 3-link chains. All you have to do is join them into a big 12-link chain. For joining two closed links, one of the links must be cut and placed onto the other link for closing.

How many minimum links will you have to cut to make the big chain?