The process of recovery from trauma is not linear, and it’s not predictable. Those who have experienced an event like this one can never know what might trigger memories and emotions that overwhelm them. Newspapers aren’t predictable either. The Capital Gazette journalists can never know what they’ll encounter when they leave the office or pick up the phone. They could find themselves at a crime scene or on the receiving end of a rant about the mainstream media. With every step in the case against the man accused of killing their co-workers, Capital Gazette reporters are the ones going to the courthouse to pick up the documents. Every mass shooting that has followed — and there have been many, from the killings at a Rite Aid warehouse in Harford County to the murders at a Pittsburgh synagogue — represented yet another trial.