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bolted down the stairs.  He waited until he was sure she was gone and joined Kwon and Miller in the Commander's office.
    "So, what's her story?" he asked, ignoring Miller's look of distaste at his disheveled appearance. 
    "Her name is Cassandra Hart."  Miller drummed her Mont Blanc against the pristine surface of her bleached oak desk.  Drake found himself only half-listening, his attention focused on stray motes of dust caught in the air, sparkling ever so slightly as a narrow beam of sun forced its way through the clouds.  Winking at a private joke.  "She's a physician at Three River's ER."
    "A doctor?  What's she doing with all that FX?"  The sunbeam lost its battle as sullen gray clouds scudded through the small patch of sky visible in the window behind Miller.
    "Says she found it on a patient she was life-flighting last night," Kwon put in. 
    "Who's the patient?  Maybe we can trace the source from them."
    Miller's drumming stilled.  She scrutinized the Mont Blanc as if it were the Holy Grail.  "The patient is a juvenile Jane Doe, in a coma."
    "I'll get someone over to Three Rivers to get her prints and photo," Kwon said.
    Drake thought about the scenario as the clouds continued their dance in the stiffening breeze.   Things just weren't making sense.  "How does a kid get her hands on that much FX?  And why would a doctor bring it here herself?"
    "More to the point," Miller said, "how does that much FX disappear from a hospital without anyone realizing it is gone?"
    He straightened at that, shot an inquiring look at Kwon.  She arched an eyebrow and nodded.  "That's what Hart says.  See for yourself." 
    She skidded the bag of drugs across Miller's desk to him.  He snagged it, examined the pills more closely.  The doctor, Hart, had sealed the original baggie in some sort of lab bag and Kwon had deposited the entire thing in an evidence bag.  He held it under the light of Miller's banker's lamp, saw the markings on the back of the pills.
    "According to Hart," Miller continued, "she had Three Rivers' pharmacy track the lot numbers.  They're from their own inpatient stock."
    "According to Hart."  Kwon's voice was colored with disbelief.  "She could still be covering something--maybe she never came here to tell us about the FX at all.  Maybe Drake was right, she came to rat out whoever gave her those bruises.  Then when she dropped the pills, knew that people had seen her with the FX, she made the story up."
    "There's too many what ifs," Miller conceded.  "I don't like the idea of Hart ignoring hospital protocol to come here herself.  Everyone over there knows to call us to secure evidence.  What I really don't like is that the police bureau has already publicly cleared the area hospitals as being sources of FX.  Last thing we need is to look like fools."
    "That was the narcotics guys who checked the hospital inventories," Kwon protested.  "Before the task force was even formed."
    "Then I guess you all have your work cut out for you, checking again.  But at least we finally have a lead on the FX source.  I want you and Drake in Three Rivers by tonight, monitoring the wards.  See how the drug distribution works, who could have opportunity.  And someone needs to keep an eye out for this Hart woman.  Who does she associate with?  Can anyone back up her story about what happened last night?  By tomorrow morning I want to know everything there is to know about Dr. Cassandra Hart."
    Drake left Chen doing Hart's background check.  He retrieved his coat and service piece and jogged down the steps leading away from the Major Crimes Squad, eager to get going.  Because of Hart, they had their first good lead, now that Lester was dead.  
    He turned the corner onto the landing at the second floor, and a stocky man wearing a gray fedora blocked his way. 
    "Hey, Jimmy," Drake greeted his partner from Major Crimes.  "Thought you were in court this week."
    Jimmy Dolan stopped, brushed the rain from