Last week was quite a week, let me tell you. On New Year’s Eve, I was working from home and my parents warned me someone was approaching. A knock at the door around 4:30pm got me to leave my computer.

I need to properly set the scene. I worked from home that day because I had dropped a desk on my foot while my dad and I were moving it the night before and I needed to keep elevating and icing it (which would have been hard to do at the day job office). I was wearing Christmas leggings covered in wrapped presents, ornaments and candy canes (reminder: this was New Year’s Eve). My hair was up in a bun, no make-up, wearing a couple of tank tops. You get the idea.

I answer the door and I see a badge.

“Are you Lisa?”

“Yes.” My mind runs a million miles a minute. Why was there a police officer at my door? Was I being sued? Is someone hurt – but who – my parents were with me.

“Is that your car?” He points to my red sedan parked on the street (so my parents could have my parking spot).

“Yes.” Then I start thinking my car must have been hit.

The DETECTIVE introduces himself and begins to ask where I’d been on Sunday night because “something had been hit and run over.”

In that moment, my mind completely blanked on what I’d done the previous few days. I told him I’d been at work the day before (Monday). I remembered running errands Friday and I told him I’d been at home all weekend.

“You didn’t leave? Not even to get groceries?” He said it with a smile and he was very nice. But that didn’t make it any less embarrassing to admit that no, I had not left my house for two days.

He then told me a man had been hit, run over, and then left there. He was in the hospital in critical condition. They had surveillance footage showing a red sedan, similar to mine. Oh, and it happened right by my house.

Spoiler: last I heard, the man is in stable condition and getting better. Yay! I’m very relieved and wish him a speedy recovery.

The detective even said, “He was wearing black at night. He would have been hard to see.”

I swear that at that moment I was questioning everything. I was a wreck. I knew I hadn’t done it, but I found myself checking to see if I still take Ambien and could I have been sleep driving (I haven’t had Ambien in years).

With all of the true crime I watch/listen to, I even found myself wondering if I was making too much eye contact, not enough, was I helpful, too helpful. Ugh.

I offered to let him check out my car and he took me up on it (as a second cop approached my front door).

I went back inside to put on shoes and a sweatshirt and tell my parents what was happening. My adrenaline was pretty well spiked at that point.

Grabbing my keys, I walked them out to my car where a THIRD cop joined us. I’m sure my neighbors had fun speculating why there were three separate police vehicles with their drivers talking to me.

The detective got on the ground and pointed his flashlight all over the place. I tried to make awkward small talk and ask how the guy was without sounding guilty. IT WAS A MINEFIELD. To even worry about sounding guilty when I hadn’t done anything wrong.

He said he didn’t see anything, but asked if I’d be willing to take my car to their shop so they could raise it and look more closely.

I mean, yeah, of course, anything to help the investigation and clear myself. I knew a good defense attorney would want to make sure the police did their due diligence in clearing all nearby cars that could be suspect.

But still, I was pretty freaked out.

The detective texted on New Year’s Day to make arrangements for me to bring my car in the day after that. The whole car checking took less than five minutes. I barely had enough time to tell him I write cozy mysteries and had some new ideas based on the whole experience.

It was a wild ride, folks. But when someone asks me where I get my ideas? Now I have a good story to share.

Also, I’ve decided to pursue indie publishing my debut cozy and I’ll be doing so as Lisa Kinsley. Super pumped! I’ll be sure to share my journey here as I prepare for my (TBD) launch.