Earlier this week, I got the amazing opportunity to visit the Seattle Homicide Unit and meet some of the real-life detectives who risk their lives and work around the clock to protect and serve our community. Here’s a photo of me with Detective Rolf Norton, who has kindly answered all my police procedural questions while I wrote both The Recipient and Inspired by Murder. Now that we are no longer living on different hemispheres, I finally got to meet him face-to-face. Detective Norton has been a Seattle homicide detective for 17 years and now specializes in unsolved cases.
During my visit, Detective Norton gave me a tour, and I got a behind-the-scenes look at how a homicide unit operates. It was hard to contain my excitement for the things I have only before seen on TV as well as the things I didn’t expect to see, like an old poster of Ted Bundy on the wall and an underground tunnel connecting the building to the King County Jail. Although it was thrilling to get an up-close look at what so few people see firsthand, it was also a chilling reality of the real, devastating crimes these detectives are investigating, and the lives of those impacted that will never be the same.
It was a fantastic afternoon, giving me a greater appreciation for law enforcement and some inspiration for the third Emerald City Thriller, which I am at the beginning stages of writing. And, I’m sure, as the story develops, it will lead me to more questions for Detective Norton.