What I’m Writing @LucyBurdette

**Quilting Lady is the winner of A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. Thank you all so much for your interest and support!

LUCY BURDETTE: If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, or are signed up for my newsletter, or read the “Four things I’ve learned so far” blog right here, you’ll have heard that I enrolled in the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Citizens Police Academy this spring. Twelve of us citizens met for seven Thursday sessions of three hours each to learn about all the amazing things the sheriff’s deputies do. I was pleased to have this class come along at exactly the time I’m writing Key West food critic mystery #14, because much of the action in this book takes place north of Key West and wouldn’t be handled by Nathan Bransford and the rest of the KW police department. It’s definitely helping me avoid ugly mistakes! The temptation however is to cram in more of these wonderful details than the story needs or can support. For example, one week the crime scene investigator for the county showed us his lab and had us suit up in Tyvek to learn fingerprinting, foot printing, and identification of bodily fluids. (We weren’t sure if we looked like investigators or NASA pilots or something more nefarious…)

But would Hayley Snow have an opportunity to learn all of this? Probably not. She sure shouldn’t get involved in traffic stops after a felony crime has been committed…

And so far as I know, she doesn’t own a gun and wouldn’t have been trained in shoot-don’t shoot scenarios, the way we were. (What an adrenaline rush, by the way!)

Would she have the opportunity to clear a room the way the SWAT team taught us? Probably not that either…

An encounter with the bomb squad? Nope. Coral, the drug-sniffing golden retriever? Maybe...

My hope is to use what I learned in the class to inform my characters’ actions and to advance the story. Here’s a draft of the rewritten scene right after Hayley and another woman find a body in a motel office on Big Pine Key. 

Two more sheriff’s office vehicles pulled up behind Darcy Rogers, one of them a tall van with Crime Scene Investigations written across the side. Darcy trotted over to confer with the stocky man who climbed out.

When she returned, she told us the investigator would be taking our fingerprints and footprints in order to rule us out as suspects. “Any problem with that?”

“It’s routine,” I said to Catherine before she could argue. “If you don’t agree, we’ll have to sit here a while until they can get a search warrant. Could be quite a while, depending on the whims of the judge.”

“Fine,” she said. “I’d like to get this over with as soon as possible.”

The investigator returned wearing a white Tyvek suit, carrying a big black box. He quickly set up a station to take our fingerprints, followed by what looked like a small kitty litter box filled with sand to take the imprints of our shoes.

“That’s all for now,” Darcy Rogers said to us briskly once he was finished. “I’ll need your contact information and a list of people who might have information about this present death or details about your past connections in Big Pine. I’ll be in touch shortly.” She strode off before either of us could respond. We watched her go, then I rustled through my backpack to find the pack of wipes I kept there for cleaning emergencies. Once we’d brushed the black powder from our hands, I took Catherine’s elbow and steered her toward the car. As she slid into the passenger seat, Catherine noticed blood on the bottom of her right sandal, now crusted with crystals of sand. 

“I feel sick,” she said suddenly, clutching her hand to her stomach. “Excuse me a minute.” She bolted out of the car and rushed around the corner of the building into the brush. I could hear her retching. A few minutes later, she returned, her chin quivering, and the color leached from her face. I handed her the pack of wipes. 

“Let’s get out of here,” I muttered. “You can text the deputy later. She won’t expect you to sit here and write out a grocery list of suspects. Trust me, she’s dogged. She’ll follow up until every pebble is turned over.”

LUCY AGAIN: All in all, it’s been an amazing experience—all the deputies we’ve met have been truly excited to share the details of their work with us. Here are a couple of photos from the graduation night, where I had the honor of being the keynote speaker!

That's me of course, with Captain David Smith on the left and Sheriff Rick Ramsey on the right...

By the way, we did finally get the answer to the question of how to avoid a speeding ticket: Don’t speed!

On another topic, I was thrilled and honored to have A DISH TO DIE FOR awarded the bronze medal for popular fiction by the Florida Book Awards!

Finally, I’ve just received a box containing a few advanced reader copies of A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS, coming this August. I’d love to give one away here. To have a chance at receiving the book, leave a comment! I’ll let Lottie choose the winner—please check back on Saturday when it will be announced.