After getting the address from Captain Ross, Julianna left One Police Plaza and hopped on the subway heading toward Greenwich Village. After reaching her stop, she got off the train and started the couple blocks walk. When she finally reached the apartment building, she stopped to study the place. It wasn't anything special- older, a little ( Read more... )

"This job isn't about favors. It's about finding truth." - Dr. Julianna Cox, Homicide: Life on the Street 6x14 "Lies and Other Truths."
( Baltimore, 1998... )

I don’t have a will. I probably should get on that. It’s just…one of those things I haven’t gotten around to…or maybe that I always manage to put off. And yes, I do remember what I do for a living and I am aware of how indiscriminate death can be ( Read more... )

I was never the kid who thought Friday the Thirteenth was something to be afraid of. I grew up thinking that kind of thing was cool. I liked cats, especially black ones, and loved testing my luck. My friends and I used to see who could go the longest without getting screaming or showing other outward signs of fear while watching zombie movies ( Read more... )

I like to think of myself as on the ball-as having a good attention to detail. In a job like mine, that’s important. Miss a small detail and that could mean missing the real cause of death or missing a piece of crucial information that helps convict a killer. Usually, autopsies and crime scene analyses are helped along by chemical tests - lab ( Read more... )

More police officers are killed every year by suicide than in the line of duty. It’s a simple fact. When most guys sign up for the force, they take into account the risk of being shot on the job. They take into account the long hours and bad eating habits and other physical health risks. The mental health risks are often ignored until it’s too ( Read more... )

Julianna was on her living room couch, engrossed in a book, when the phone began to ring. It rang several times before she picked it up to look at the caller ID. The familiar number, Maryland area code, still unchanged after all these years, made her heart leap slightly. She stared at the screen but didn’t hit “talk ( Read more... )

If I never hear another teenybopper use the word “awesome”, it would still be too soon. I don’t even think it’s limited to the Britney-and-Justin set either. Come on, guys, aren’t they teaching a diverse vocabulary in school these days? I don’t mind “dude” or “cool” - I think those are time-honored standards. But if everything you do or ( Read more... )

What was the longest day of my life ( Read more... )

Discretion is important in my line of work. I deal with confidential files, highly sensitive case material and often, discontent people. I know how to act like everything is fine when it’s not, to put on one face for the family of a victim and another for a careless employee who needs a reprimand ( Read more... )