“Seize the phone,” the room agreed.

“What about the leg?” someone else called out.

“You, sir, are bloodthirsty. The rest of the room gets extra credit. No personal photos of the scene. Any prosecutor will tell you cell phone photos, selfies, whatever, are the bane of their existence. Any photo of the scene is evidence, and all evidence is subject to discovery—meaning it must be turned over to the defense upon request. Rookie officer takes a photo, rookie officer never tells, so the defense never gets a chance to view it, and six months after trial, when the officer shares it to the wrong person at a bar, the defense lawyer now has grounds to overturn the conviction. Definitely no personal photos at the scene. So. I believe our DG is still missing a leg.”

D.D. stopped. Took a sip of her coffee. Contemplated her audience. They were leaning forward eagerly. Alex had pegged them correctly. Thriller writers had a thing for gore.

“This is what a homicide detective really does upon entering a scene: prioritize. I have a motel room with a dead body that needs to be analyzed by both the crime scene techs as well as my squad. I have an entire building full of possible witnesses, most of whom will deny everything, but I gotta ask. In this day and age, there’s also video somewhere, which, sooner versus later, I want to pull. Lots of things to do, very little time to do it. So, I need to prioritize objectives, then devise strategy.

“In this case, I assigned patrol officers to go door-to-door for witnesses. Who heard what. If there’s something of interest, the patrol officer will summon one of my detectives to conduct the actual questioning. In the meantime, I assign my squad mate Phil to meet with the night manager, drill him on what he knows about who checked into this room, and, oh yes, grab any and all video he can. Phil has a way with people, so even without a warrant, I’m sure he’ll get the job done.

“That leaves me and my other partner, Neil, to work the room. Two detectives in a space this small are more than enough. Understand I already have crime scene techs everywhere, not to mention a photographer. Too many of us in the room and no one can get anything done. I’ve also held off the ME. Guy’s dead, not going anyplace; the ME can remove the body, and the leg, when we’re done. This is crime scene management. And frankly, it’s one of the most important parts of my job. Just as with securing the perimeter, screw the management, screw the investigation. I’m not going to mess up my own investigation. Which brings us to . . .

“The leg.”

D.D. paused, took another sip of coffee.

“No, see, of course you want the leg. I wanted to stare at the leg; Neil, a former EMT, definitely wanted to stare at the leg. But in my job, just like your novels, you can’t skip ahead in the story. Leg is in the bathtub. Body’s in front of the door. Meaning first, we gotta deal with the body.