New York is a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Why? Because I’ve lived there!!!

But never had I experienced anything like I did this afternoon. We’re visiting family in NY (5 towns near Kennedy airport) and we haven’t even been here 24 hours. Driving down the street toward my mom’s house I notice about five police cars pulled outside the diner I used to frequent as a teenager. My first thought was “What now?” So we rubberneck like any other curious person and see blood and clothes next to a car where police are milling around. I did a double take! Yep, blood, clothes, police, no body!

Okay, I tried not to freak out since this diner is 1/4 of a mile from my house. I didn’t want to upset the kids, but my cousin in the backseat kept saying, “That’s blood and clothes over there!” So now the kids are all freaked out and we need to know the details. We watched the news to find out what was going on. Seems a gunman (hitman?) shot the man and woman in the front seat with two kids in the back, then got away in the getaway car. My kids were more at ease knowing it was a possible hit than a drive by and it was quite comical to hear my mother try and describe a “hit” to my ten year old.

But the really sick part was that I had a moment of wanting to go down there to visit the crime scene for research purposes! Has writing suspense and mystery made me numb to the actual events? What about you who write in this genre? How would this scene have hit you? My heart goes out to the two little kids who witnessed it all!

I’m really glad I don’t live in NY any more and I can make up crime scenes in my head instead of watching them outside my window!