"No, no that's entirely impossible."
Sharona gaped at him. "You're the one telling me it's impossible?" she snapped. "Would it help if I told you I was one hundred percent sure?"
Monk grimaced and shook his head. "No." Sharona sighed exasperatedly. "Sharona, vampires aren't real. It's basic knowledge. You're crazy."
"I'm crazy? Me? Coming from the King of Crazy Town, that's hard to believe. Adrian, I know they took him. It's the only possible explanation!"
Monk and his former assistant were seated in the Captain's office. Stottlemeyer stood watching, both confused and amused at the same time.
"So you're saying that… vampires… took him…?" Stottlemeyer asked. He resisted the impulse to raise his eyebrows.
Sharona groaned. She hated that no one seemed to believe her. She wasn't even sure if Randy did. "Yes," she said, rolling her eyes, "that's what I'm saying. I found a book in his room that said some stuff about vampires turning into mice and stuff and disliking garlic, and I just thought…"
She didn't get time to finish her sentence. Natalie came rushing in, followed closely by Randy.
"Is it true? Vampires took Benjy?"
Stottlemeyer held up one hand. "We are not confirming anything," he said, and Natalie couldn't help but get annoyed that his tone was the same one he used to address the public.
Sharona relayed the conversation to Natalie and the Lieutenant. Of course, Randy had already heard this theory multiple times – for the first time when Sharona spoke to Monk over the phone that night; again when they met him in person because there was some dust underneath the phone cord that Monk tried to vacuum up and instead knocked the cord out of the wall; and for a third time when Sharona had to explain it to Monk again because he was too focused on Sharona's mussed hair – she hadn't had time to brush it before she bolted out the door – to listen.
"So…" Randy began. "What do we do now?"
No one answered him. They were all wondering the same thing.
"Oh!" Sharona's face lit up with an idea. "I got it. Y'know how when Adrian was investigating the murder of Katherine Ashcombe and we got Dolly Flint to do a reading?"
Natalie tilted her head in question; Randy whispered something about telling her later.
"Yes, I remember," Stottlemeyer said. "So?"
"So, maybe we could get a reading done." She quickly opened her purse and fumbled around for something inside. "Karen gave me some business cards," she explained while she searched. "She said she picked them up at a psychic fair or something." She found the cards she was looking for and held them up triumphantly. "See? I was gonna go to a reading with Gail, see if there's actually something wrong with her brain or if she's just crazy."
Stottlemeyer sighed in annoyance, realizing his wife had claimed another victim. Karen was a big believer in spiritual rituals, and she was always trying to convince younger women to join her.
"No no no no no." Monk grabbed the business cards from her hands. "Sharona, they're just a bunch of frauds."
Sharona grabbed them back. "You think everyone's a fraud." She shook her head and then started sorting through the cards. "Madam Rosé… Una's Readings…" she mumbled under her breath, while everyone else looked on, deciding whether or not to argue with her again. "Ooh, this looks good!" She held the card out for everyone to see.
"Marie and Victor le Blank," Natalie read aloud. "Huh. Are they any good?"
Sharona shrugged. "Only one way to find out."
She and Natalie made for the exit.
"Sharona, it's all just a bunch of hocus-pocus," Monk whined. "Sharona!"
Stottlemeyer hung back in his office. Randy was curious, so he followed the women.
Monk looked at the Captain. Stottlemeyer gave him a "your problem, not mine" look.
-SF-
"I see… your son. He's unharmed."
"Oh thank God!" Sharona let out a sigh of relief.
She was seated around an oval-shaped table. Natalie was on her left side, and Marie le Blank was on her right. Victor le Blank, Marie's brother, was placed on Natalie's other side, across from Sharona. Randy waited outside. Marie had forbid him to enter, for whatever reason. Possibly because he was in the SFPD.
"I told you!" Natalie beamed at her friend. Sharona was slightly younger by a few years, and right then she kind of felt like a little sister to Natalie, which made Natalie smile even more.
She was shushed by Victor's piercing stare. She sent Sharona a look.
"The light I see is changing colors," Marie continued. "It is changing shapes, too, almost as if– "
She was interrupted by a knock, and then a police officer entered. The le Blank siblings exchanged severely annoyed glances.
"Sorry to interrupt," said the officer, whom Sharona recognized from the force, "but we found this and were told to bring it to Sharona immediately."
What d'you think they found?