"...radiation suits, anti-disinfectants, water purifying tablets,..." Natalie ticked off the contents of Adrian's briefcase, "I'd say you're ready for action."

"Are you sure nothing's missing?" Adrian skimmed over them himself, "If we have to have close contact with any creatures, I can't be caught off guard."

"These are marine creatures, Mr. Monk, they're not going to hurt you," she chided him, "Most of them are behind glass anyway."

"You still don't think these things out, do you?" Adrian mumbled cryptically. The two of them hopped out of the car and followed a waiting Disher up Pier 39 to the Aquarium of the Bay's main entrance. The stoic figure of Captain Leland Stottlemeyer stood by the doors, puffing away tersely on a cigar. "Good, Monk, glad you could make it," he greeted his best man, "We've got something in here that warrants your attention, we thought. Name's...Monk, come on, please pay attention for once!"

The detective was already squirting down the glass on the front windows with a bottle of cleaner and wiping them down. "I'm listening, go on," he told them without turning around.

"The victim's name's Bob Nack; he was the head of the live whale shows here," the captain explained, "He was found this morning being had for breakfast by one of his 'children.' We all suspected it was some freak accident, that he fell in or something, but the trainer insists it was something more, so if you'll just let that glass go for a moment, we can go check out the scene and get your vote on the matter."

He swung the door opened and gestured them inside. The aquarium was filled with groups of people milling around towards the various exhibits. The corridor leading to the main whale tank, however, was barricaded off with a velvet rope and a sign enscribed AREA CLOSED FOR REPAIRS. Stottlemeyer lifted up the rope for them to go under. Adrian however, strode over towards the nearest bathroom. "It's THIS way, Mr. Monk," Natalie gestured towards the exhibit.

"Got to get ready," Adrian called over his shoulder. He disappeared into the bathroom with his briefcase, and when he emerged a good fifteen minutes later, he was clad in yet another radiation suit. "Think it took you long enough to get ready, Monk?" Stottlemeyer mumbled sarcastically at him.

"I would have been out sooner, but a couple stalls hadn't be cleaned; had to take care of that," Adrian explained, "I'm, I'm ready now."

The four of them entered the exhibit. The whale tank was about thirty feet in diameter and about twenty-five feet deep, Adrian noted--not quite the specifications a whale would be comfortable with. Indeed, even now, he could make out a dark shape swimming very slowly in the far corner of the tank, and he could tell right away the whale was unhappy. Stottlemeyer led the way over to clump of officers surrounding a rather attractive young woman in her twenties. "Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, homicide," he flashed his badge at her, "I'm in charge of the investigation, this is..."

"I know," she nodded, "I watch the show. Adrian Monk," her eyes went a little wider to see him wearing his radiation suit, but quickly returned to normal, as if watching the show had conditioned her to expect the unexpected with him, "I glad they called you; I knew Riptide wouldn't have..."

"Riptide?" Disher inquired.

"He's our new orca," the woman pointed at the whale in the tank, who exhaled through its blowhole at that exact moment, "He was brought in two weeks ago so we could nurse him back to health. You see, he was pretty badly injured when a group of poachers attacked his pod; he wouldn't have made it without our help."

"That's absolutely terrible," Natalie looked repulsed that anyone would want to treat a creature so badly, "Did they catch whoever did it yet?"

"No," the woman shook her head, "I'm told they haven't even gotten any leads. Riptide was pretty emotionally shattered; they took his mate and child even though he tried to fight them off.

"So...he lost his wife too?" Adrian stared at the whale in amazement, "So...we're, we're the same. Our lives have both gone irreversably down the drain."

There was a brief silence. "So anyway," Stottlemeyer tried to veer the investigation back on course, "They told me you were the one who found the body, miss..."

"Bonnie McCloskey, I train the whales and dolphins here," she told him, "Yes, I came in for the morning shift, and found Riptide holding Mr. Nack in his jaws, dead. But I don't understand it. He never abused Riptide during his time here, and Riptide never showed any hostile feeling towards us before. Plus, the door in was locked, and, well, I couldn't find the keys anywhere."

"Including on Mr. Nack's body?" Adrian glanced towards one of the officers nearby, who shook his head. "That's very interesting," the detective paced slowly around the edge of the tank, "Something here doesn't seem to be adding up. Was Nack still here when you left last night, Mrs. McCloskey?"

"No," she shook her head, "I'm always the last one out, and I lock everything up afterwards. What he'd come back here for, I don't know."

"Was he suicidal?" Disher proposed.

"Now Randy, do you really think a guy who wants to die would do so by throwing himself into the mouth of a big fish?" Stottlemeyer pointed out to him.

"Not Mr. Nack, he was living a happy life to date; stable marriage, several children," Bonnie protested, "And Riptide's a mammal, Captain, not a fish, he breathes air like you and I."

"It wasn't suicide," Adrian was pacing back and forth at a faster clip, "This was murder. But I don't think he was killed here. "Look here on the water marks," he pointed to the floor, "There are footsteps here, but none of them match Nack's shoes," he gestured to the soles sticking out from under the sheet covering Nack's body nearby, "He was already dead when his body entered here."

"So if he was dead, how did the whale do it, then?" Stottlemeyer was completely puzzled now.

"It's a mutant whale," Disher abruptly proposed, "It can walk on land, so it crawled out and bit him to death, then climbed back into the tank, knowing no one would be the wiser. Miss McCloskey, was anyone carrying any radioactive materials around here lately that might have gotten into the tank?"

"Anyone with a REAL theory?" the captain inquired as calmly as he could.

"Maybe," Adrian had lifted up the sheet and was examining the body closely, "There are bite marks here, but the one in the middle somewhat deeper and is shaped a little differently. The killer stabbed him first, then threw him to the whale to make it look like it did it. But who would do it?"

Everyone instinctively turned towards Disher. "Uh, well, there is one other theory,..." the lieutenant said slowly.

"Don't tell me, let me guess," Stottlemeyer rolled his eyes in distaste, "It was the Sea Witch. She made a deal with him to give him money and power, then she ran him through and took his soul, and then possessed the whale to bite on him in order to frame it, am I right?"

"How did you guess, sir?" Disher was impressed. Stottlemeyer stiffled a growl and dug out his stress yo-yo. "These things happen, these things happen," he grumbled loudly as he bounced it all over the place. There was another loud puff as Riptide surfaced not more than five feet away and stared at everyone almost imploringly. "Poor guy," Natalie bent down and gave it's nose a rub, "First having to lose your family and then being put through this. Well, Mr. Monk's going to get you out of this, right Mr. Monk?"

"Please, don't touch it, I, don't!" Adrian grimaced, "All right, if you don't take your hand off it right now, Natalie, I'm going to have to dock half of your next paycheck."

"No you won't," she said without turning around.

"Yes, I most certainly will."

"No you won't; since you pay me nothing in the first place, there's nothing for you to take away," she rebutted, then turned back to the whale with an affectionate look, "If only you could tell us exactly what happened, we wouldn't have to be here."

"That's a great idea," Disher gave her a pat on the back, "Maybe it CAN tell us something if we can communicate with it."

He bent down and started making loud squeaking sounds towards Riptide, who paid no attention. Stottlemeyer gave his adjutant a sharp kick in the rear to make him stop and flashed him an aggravated look. "Well, it was just a thought," the lieutenant said quickly, "Uh, maybe we'd better go look around to see if there's anything evidence in the back."

They all started walking off towards the back door. Adrian stopped when he heard Riptide exhale loudly behind him. He glanced back to see the whale was following him like a dog. "Uh, no, you, you can't come with us," he told it, "I, I know where you're coming from, but, um, that's kind of as far as we can go. Here, let me do this for you, though."

He dug a bottle out of the radiation suit's pocket and shook a handful of tablets from it. "Wait, what do you think you're doing?" Natalie took hold of his hand before he could toss them into the tank.

"Trying to do my good deed for nature for the week," he raised a puzzled eyebrow, "This tank is clearly not clean enough, so I'm fixing it."

"Toilet-cleaning tablets!?" she stared in shock at the them in his gloved palm, "Do you really think throwing a whole bottle of them in there's going to be good for this whale, Mr. Monk!?"

"Yes, for the simple matter that they don't sell them in jumbo size," he gestured at the tank, "Now even you can know that this whale probably...with nowhere else to go, it has to...it goes to say this tank would be incredibly unclean, so I'm doing it a huge favor."

Riptide exhaled again and leaned his head over the edge of the tank, prompting Adrian to take two giant steps backwards. "Will you stop being so skittish!?" Natalie chided him, "He's not going to hurt you. I think he just wants to pet him."

"Tell him I'll take a raincheck, and I'm not good with animals in general," Adrian shook his head firmly.

"He does not have any germs," she told him equally firmly, "At least take off that dumb suit; there's nothing in here that's going to kill you."

Adrian glanced hesitantly back and forth between her and Riptide. "You'd better be right," he told her, reluctantly removing the hood. "Hello," he waved at Riptide slowly, "I'm, I'm Adrian Monk, I guess you don't watch TV, you might..."

Without warning, Riptide smacked his tail against the water, completely drenching the detective in H2O. Adrian let out a high shriek and started shaking spastically. His eyes rolled back into his head as if he was having a seizure. "Paramedic!" he whimpered in a high voice, as he stumbled towards the door, "Help, I'm dying!"

"You're not dying, Mr. Monk," Natalie looked torn between laughing at his predicament and being scared by it, "It's just a little water."

"A LITTLE WATER!!??" the detective shrieked again and ran blindly towards the door, "Get me away from them, somebody! She and the whale are both mental! HELP!!!!!"