“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” or as I would write in steno, SKWRA*EUPBLG. What’s steno you ask? My immediate response is to say it’s the curious little language that has earned me a front row seat to my town’s most heinous crimes. But in actuality, steno—also known as shorthand stenography—is an abbreviated symbolic writing method done on a stenotype, which is a machine that increases the speed and brevity of writing compared to a standard computer keyboard. Of course, the goal of a person who uses steno is to write as fast as someone can speak.

But as usual, my passion for the art has supplanted my manners. Hello, my name is Victoria Justice. Most people think of me as Madame Court Reporter, the person who captures the verbatim record during a trial. I work in the Superior Court of Trident County in the seaside town of Bickerton, Delaware. I’ve lived here all twenty-five years of my life with my mother Corinne Justice and her best friend (my mentor), The Honorable Frederica Scott Wannamaker.

On a typical day, I drive to work in my midnight blue Mustang convertible even though I live less than two miles from Bickerton Square where the courthouse is located. Sometimes I’ll stop into Cake & Kettle on my way since the café is across the street from my job and serves my favorite lemon ginger tea. I love the place because it’s run by one of my closest friends, Jillian Galbraith. She’s crammed the tiny restaurant with velveteen settees and wingback chairs just like an old English drawing room. Plus, the dusky sweet aroma of cinnamon from the Chelsea buns (baked daily!) invades your nostrils the moment you hit the door. It’s my little slice of heaven.

Otherwise, I typically don’t like hanging around the center of town since that puts me even closer to the shoreline. Unlike most people, I am deathly afraid of water thanks to an incident of bullying that occurred around the school pool when I was in high school. The incident still haunts me, but that’s probably why I love my job so much since being a court reporter allows me to keep my head down while still having an active inner life. After all, a good stenographer is like a panther ready to mentally pounce on the words that come at her fast and furious while she remains calm on the outside.

The Trident County Superior Courthouse is the oldest building in town, walking inside is like entering a cathedral with its big white pillars, high ceilings, and carved oak finishes. I’ve worked here for five years—six if you count the year I interned for Judge Wannamaker while I trained online for stenography. Once in the office, I split the day’s docket with my coworkers Candi and James. Candi is a cockeyed optimist and a stickler for the rules while James is a massive slacker, which means I often have to play the voice of reason in an otherwise tense work environment.

You see, our court handles both criminal and civil proceedings, so the day could consist of a violent murder trial or a simple property dispute. Either way, a common misconception is that court reporters receive the details of a case ahead of time. Lawyers and jurors assume that since we’re sitting quietly, not asking questions, we must have some divine insight into the proceedings. Not true. The court reporter is the last person to receive the details of a case. For us, every proceeding is a wheel of fortune, a roll of the dice. We are only given a list of names—the judge’s, the witnesses’, and the defendant’s. Yet, we are expected to capture every word at 98 percent accuracy. We’re silent because from the moment a trial starts, we are left in the dark, embroiled in an intricate game of catch up.

Today, I’ve chosen a drug trial, which is good since the gruesome details of a murder case can linger with you, and I often find myself wondering what else could have been done to right what went wrong. Drug trials, however, are simply about catching the intricate details and usually provide a little humor with defendants claiming the narcotics were given to them by a friend.

As I take a seat behind my steno machine, an electronic device about the size of a kid’s lunchbox, I try not to look at the accused. Defendants somehow always know you’re the one cog that’s different from all the rest in the judicial machine and inevitably try to mess with you by either trying to make friends with you, hitting on you, or intimidating you.

And yet, that’s the irony of being a court reporter. The trick is to capture the record without becoming a part of it. If I do my job well, I go virtually unnoticed. But that very ability means that I sometimes fly under the radar, which is probably what makes me such a good detective.

Poetic Justice is the first book in the NEW “Victoria Justice” cozy thriller series, coming October 6, 2020 on Kindle, November 24th in hardcover.

Twenty-five year old Victoria Justice has never really gotten over a near drowning at the hands of a high school bully, but has attempted to build her confidence and career as a court stenographer under the mentorship of The Honorable Frederica Scott Wannamaker, the county’s first African-American Superior Court judge. But when her old nemesis appears on the court docket, Victoria’s carefully crafted world implodes―evidence goes missing, a potential mistrial abounds, and the judge winds up drowned in the courthouse bathroom.

Victoria realizes her transcript of the proceedings unlocks everyone’s secrets. . .including the murderer’s. Plagued with guilt for failing to protect her mentor, Victoria teams up with Ashton North, the handsome state trooper accused of mishandling trial evidence, and starts to untangle the conspiracy surrounding the case. Meanwhile, the deputy attorney general hangs himself during the Post-Election Festival. Everyone is quick to accept his suicide note as a sign of guilt, but Victoria is convinced the truth behind her mentor’s death lies in the trial transcript. Can she suppress her fears long enough to crack the code, find her voice, and avoid the crosshairs of the killer?

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Meet the author
From cozy mysteries to steamy romances, Andrea J. Johnson writes stories that warm the soul and captivate the mind. She is a contributor for the women’s lifestyle website Popsugar and a columnist for LitReactor, a web-based magazine devoted to examining genre fiction, but it’s her experiences as a former court stenographer that help her turn real-life headlines into captivating novels. Visit ajthenovelist.com to sign up for her monthly newsletter where you’ll learn about her latest giveaways and newest releases. You can also follow Andrea on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

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