Lucas looked at Sloan, who asked, "Is that two things or three things?"

"Two things," the ME said.

"What's the third thing?" Lucas said.

"There are no defensive wounds. No other bruises, no indications of a struggle, no sign that the killer had to fight to hold his grip. She didn't scratch himher fingernails are clean. I couldn't even find any signs that she thrashed around. She just let herself go. For whoever did it, she was an easy kill."

"Dope," Sloan said. "She might not even have known she was dying."

"Oh, yeah, that's a fourth thing," the ME said. "Thatis a needle stick on her arm, and there are more between her toes. She was taking a lot of sticks."

"An addict?"

"Tell you later. None of this is final. I'll have some definitive stuff this afternoon."

Lucas stopped at the chief's office, gave her a quick capsule of what the ME had said, She made a few notes and said, "So it reallycould be drug-related."

"Yeah. Maybe evenprobably."

"We got half an hour before the press conference," she said. "I've promised everybody that you'll drag the killer in and hurl him to the floor in front of the microphones."

"Or her," Lucas said.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe."

The chief turned to her window, squinted out at the empty sidewalk, then shook her head. "Nope. It's a man. A woman didn't kill Alie'e Maison."

"You're sure?"

"Yup. And seriously, Lucas"

"Mmmm?"

"We'd look really good if we caught this guy quick."

The chief's secretary stuck her head in. "Lucas, Sloan says a Mr. Plain is here."

"Gotta go," Lucas said. "Good luck with the movie people."