The next day, Don ran a background check on Monk.
"Who's that?" Terry asked as she looked over his shoulder.
"Some P.I Charles hired"
"Why?"
"He thinks that someone sabotaged the car of a colleague, causing him to crash."
"And you think that it was just an accident?"
"Yeah" Don swiveled his chair to face her. Their desks were across from each other.
"So does he check out?"
"Yeah. He is a P.I with severe OCD"
"OCD?" As a profiler, Terry knew about psychological disorders.
"Textbook" Don said. "When I came went to see dad and Charlie, last night, he was vacuuming the house."
"Alan must have loved that" Terry joked.
Meanwhile, Charlie took Monk and Natalie to see the intersection where the professor died. As the sleuth closely examined it, a German Shepard, on a leash, came by, causing Monk to slowly walk away, especially when Charlie started to talk to its owner, a friend who taught Biology at CalSci.
"Mr. Monk, where are you going?" Natalie asked.
"Away from the dog."
When the canine and its owner left, the sleuth went back to work.
"I need to talk to some of his students and colleagues."
"Sure thing"
The mathematician led them to Larry's office. As soon as they entered, Monk proceeded to organize and clean the professor's desk, which was a chaotic miasma, by sorting out the papers, picking up folders and dusting with a wipe.
"I was under the impression that he came here to ask me about Professor Hans?" the man asked Charlie while staring at Monk
"He has O.C.D" Charlie explained
"How well did you know him?" the sleuth asked, as he alphabetized a pile of graded tests by last name."
"Well, we had lunch a few times with others"
"Did he ever discuss his work?" The sleuth closely inspected an exam.
"He liked to talk about String theory….." Larry stopped when he saw that Monk crossed out an 'A' on a test and wrote a very neat 'F' above it.
"What are you doing?" Larry glared at him.
"This student cheated."
The two professors, plus Natalie just looked at him.
"Look at the third problem" Monk pointed.
"What about it?"
"The lead is darker" Monk said. "Meaning that the cheater pressed harder with the pencil out of anxiety."
"It was a test!" Natalie said.
"These problems gave the cheater more stress than the others." the Monk said. "Being caught at cheating is worse than failing an exam."
"I've yet to see the deviation that you are talking about" Larry told him sardonically.
"Did you proctor the test yourself?" the sleuth inquired.
"No, one of my T.A.s did." Larry said. "And I trust her completely."
"How is the classroom arranged during a test?"
"Every other seat is empty." Larry answered then asked wryly. "Didn't Charles hire you to find out about Dr. Hans?"
"Let's go talk to Dr. Kenny." Charles urged, annoyed that Monk was distracted yet again.
"Theoretically, couldn't the student's extra anxiety, which you claim is evident, be a result of the problem itself?" Larry asked.
"There is no evidence of erasing on the problems on the student cheated on." Monk showed Larry what he meant as Charlie put a hand over his face in frustration and shook his head.
TBC
