Every forensic examiner has their own field kit they bring to an investigation. But having a well stocked kit doesn’t guarantee a thorough result.
Dr. Emily Hartford knows this better than most and brings more than swabs and a camera to a homicide scene.. She has hidden skills… training, instinct, discipline, and habits learned in the quiet corners of her father’s medical examiner’s office.
This post opens up the real tools Emily relies on — the ones she uses on the page, the ones she learned from her father, and the ones grounded in the ME world I grew up around
THE PRACTICAL ESSENTIALS — WHAT A CORONER ACTUALLY USES
While I never mention in my novels about the actual, physical field kit Emily brings to scenes, she would definitely have one with her. Emily relies on standard investigative tools any ME would expect to find on-site. These aren’t glamorous gadgets — they’re the everyday anchors of forensic work.
Gloves, Foot Covers, Hair Covers and Bunny Suits
Non-negotiables. Emily never approaches remains without personal protection equipment. In The Coroner, when she examines her father’s patient files and later steps into her first active investigation in years, she works with the same strict respect for contamination control she learned growing up.
A Camera
Emily often photographs what she notices early — especially subtle details others miss. In What Darkness Does, her initial observations of Samantha Browdey’s injuries and the positioning of the duct tape over the victim’s mouth shapes her understanding of the victim’s final minutes.
Swabs & Evidence Envelopes
Whether evaluating fluids, residue, or trace particulates, Emily follows the same meticulous habits her father modeled. If something might matter, it gets collected.
Measuring Tape & Thermometer
These quiet workhorses show up implicitly in her process. In Frozen Lives, when Emily examines the tracks near the lighthouse, she notices not only their direction but their spacing — a mental measurement that helps her assess timing and gait before the prints disappear.
Tweezers & Spotlights
Used on the field and in the morgue, these tools allow her to illume the scene, the body, and everything surrounding it so that nothing small is missed. Inspect bruising, petechiae, and fine evidence during autopsies (as seen throughout The Coroner and Secret Remains) required a brightly lit room. Unlike the dim crypts we often see on TV shows.
Nothing flashy. Just the real instruments investigators rely on.
HER FIRST HABIT: ONE STILL MOMENT BEFORE THE WORK BEGINS
Growing up in her father’s ME office, Emily absorbed his philosophy:
“Look without flinching. But never without respect.”
We see echoes of this in The Coroner, when she examines a body for the first time after returning home. She steadies herself — not because she’s squeamish, but because she is remembering how her father taught her to see the dead as people, not puzzles.
Emily doesn’t rush.
She calibrates.
That stillness is its own kind of tool.
THE NOTEBOOK — THE ONE PERSONAL ITEM THAT TRULY IS “HERS”
While Emily doesn’t carry a formal field kit, she does carry a leather notebook — a habit inherited more from her father’s method than from any official protocol.
Her notebook is not a replacement for official documentation. It’s a place for the things only Emily would notice.
She might record:
- details that strike her as “off”
- questions she wants to revisit
- inconsistencies between injury and explanation
- emotional cues in families or witnesses
- quiet environmental details a morgue report won’t capture
At a scene she might note things that paint a fuller picture of a victim’s life before the crime occurred: a toy left out, prescriptions on a table, uneaten food in the microwave.
THE INSTINCT IN HER BONES: LOOK TWICE
Emily’s father taught her that the first interpretation of a scene is almost always incomplete.
A clear example appears in Frozen Lives. When Jeremiah disappears, the obvious narrative points toward an accident or a fall into the lake. But Emily notices the second set of boot prints leading away from the water — a critical detail that contradicts the initial assumption and reframes the entire investigation.
Emily excels at this double-take. She sees the thing that doesn’t belong.
COMPASSION: THE INVISIBLE TOOL THAT SHAPES HER WORK
Emily’s compassion is not softness — it’s precision. And it can open doors for people to share and reveal.
In What Darkness Does, when Nick returns after being presumed dead, Emily absorbs the shock of his altered physical and emotional state. She notes how he’s not the man who left for the FBI — thin, disoriented, traumatized. Instead of withdrawing, she approaches him with empathy, giving him space to heal while quietly trying to understand what happened to him.
This same emotional literacy informs her work with families:
She listens carefully.
She chooses her words with respect.
She understands that grief speaks its own dialect.
Compassion helps her navigate truth — because people open up to someone who actually sees and hears them.
HER MOST UNDERRATED SKILL: SHE LISTENS MORE THAN SHE SPEAKS
Emily’s interviews are defined not by interrogation, but by attention.
In Frozen Lives, one of the most telling moments comes not from what Jessica says about the events near the lighthouse — but from what she refuses to say. That silence alerts Emily to the presence of fear, not confusion, shifting the investigative lens toward coercion.
Listening is its own forensic tool.
Emily uses it well.
AND THE FINAL THING SHE ALWAYS CARRIES — HOPE
Hope doesn’t appear in any kit, but it threads through all of Emily’s work.
Hope that the dead will be understood.
Hope that families can get the answers they need and deserve.
Hope that justice, however imperfect, still matters.
Hope that truth will restores more than it destroyed.
This is what keeps her steady in the world she walks.
WHAT EMILY REALLY BRINGS TO EVERY CASE
Emily is always equipped with a fully stocked investigative field bag — but she also enters every scene with the traits that make her an unforgettable, relentless, and compassionate investigator:
- the instincts built under years of morgue spotlights
- the steadying habits her father taught her
- the empathy that shapes her approach
- the discipline of a surgeon
- the courage to look at what others can’t
- The compassion to listen, see, and wait
Emily’s journey continues in Walking on White (coming October 2026), where she gets to use these superpower tools to sort through a tangled web of cover ups.
