The nurse who found it is named Perpetua Oyelaran and she found it during a routine turn and she stopped, and she did not remove it, and she called the attending, and the attending called security, and it was photographed in situ and then removed with gloves and bagged.

That is a chain of custody.

That is what one nurse’s four seconds of judgement produces, and it is why there was physical evidence.

Transdermal patches carry a lot number.

Pharmacies record lot numbers against dispensing records, and dispensing records are held in a state prescription monitoring database, and a detective with a subpoena can run one.

It took nine days.

The patch was from a box dispensed on the eleventh of the month to a patient at a pain clinic in San Jeronimo under a prescription written by Dr.