Disclaimer: Monk belongs to the USA Network
Author's Note: Thanks for the wonderful reviews. I appreciate it.
Monk and Sharona were sitting in the car. "So what do we do now?" Sharona asked.
"Learn more about the brothers. Let's talk to Julian's wife," Monk responded.
They pulled up to quaint little house on a cottage. Sharona reached to ring the doorbell. A middle-aged woman with graying hair answered the door. She was wearing a maid's uniform and was holding a duster in one hand. With a British accent she said, "Hello, how may I be of service to you?"
"Hi. I'm Adrian Monk and this is my assistant Sharona Fleming. We were wondering if we could ask Catherine Sluvay a few questions."
"Sure, come on in." The maid took them to the living room and told them to have a seat while she retrieves Mrs. Sluvay. Sharona sat on the leather couch while Monk wondered around the room. He noticed that there were several crooked pictures on the wall. His shoulder started to twitch and he just couldn't help himself. He went over to the wall and started fiddling with a picture of Catherine and Julian on their wedding day.
"Adrian! Stop it! Leave it alone," Sharona exclaimed.
"But, it's crooked," Monk said, looking at her while still fiddling with the picture. Then the picture fell to the floor, making Monk jump, and his arm hit the picture that had been next to the one that he dropped. The glass of both frames broke into many pieces. "Oh, god. I…I need a vacuum. Sharona, could you get me a vacuum?"
"Adrian! I told you to leave it alone. You never listen to me. See what happens when you don't listen to me?" Monk was ignoring Sharona. He was too focused on the mess on the floor. He had pulled out a wipe and was picking up the glass piece by piece.
"Leave it," an unfamiliar voice said. Monk stood up and looked at the woman who had spoken. "The maid will get it later. I'm Catherine Sluvay. What can I do for you?" Catherine was an average sized woman with dark eyes and long, dark hair to match.
"Yes, hi, I'd like to ask you a few questions about your husband. Have you ever known Julian to be a violent man?"
"He's usually a very kind man. He works with various charities to help raise money." There was a long pause, and then Catherine said, "There was… this one time, we had a fight about something…I can't even remember what it was. Anyway, things got out of hand and…he smacked me in the face."
"Did you report it to the police?" Sharona asked.
"No, he apologized, so I didn't feel the need to." Monk couldn't shake the feeling that Mrs. Sluvay was lying about the whole ordeal. It looked like she was making it up right on the spot.
"What about Niles Sluvay? Were you close with him?" Monk asked.
"No, I didn't talk to him much. Neither did Julian."
"When we interrogated Julian this morning, he said that Niles was like a father to him. He said that they were working on a project together," Monk said.
"Oh, really? I didn't know that. Julian never discusses his work with me."
"Where were you last night during the murder?"
"I was at my book club meeting."
Monk gave her a fake smile and said, "Thank you, Mrs. Sluvay. That's all we need for now."
Monk and Sharona left the room and went snooping around the house. It seems that all of Julian's phones were modern accept the one that the police had confiscated as evidence. "Of all the phones in this house, why would he choose the antique phone cord to murder his brother? It's too obvious. He would have known that it would link him to the murder. I think Catherine Sluvay framed her husband."