Author's Note: The reason that Natalie gave for not marrying Steven in the previous chapter was part of a dream that I had which inspired my involvement with this collab (at least in part). "Why didn't you marry him?" "Because he wasn't you." I think embodies Natalie's struggle in the series. She dated a lot and even kissed a leper to find love, but only Adrian had her heart. If the series would have continued, Drywall wouldn't have stood a chance against him.
Special thanks again to LJD, Ineffabelbway, Country, Alkibiades, Kittykat06, JRChandlerFan, and now Nataliony (from Slovakia - Welcome!) for your kind words. Reviews again our our life's blood as authors so we love hearing from you.
Nataliony, we're 100% with you on the ending. Best series ever, disappointed in the End (not the acting, just the storyline). Hence, these fanfics.
On that note, a couple of comments about Molly and Steven… We're sorry/sot Sorry for the strong reaction the death of Molly provoked. Sorry to make you sad, but not sorry because it means we wrote her right. The writers of Monk the TV series actually provided a couple of 'seeds' of information that lend themselves to further character development for the boring but handsome Steven Albright. I don't believe he was a good guy as the series inferred. You will see one of those seeds germinate and sprout in the next couple of chapters. The other one you can see in my alternate universe with KittyKat06, AftertheEnd, story 1.
Finally, we are simply blown away by the reception this story has received. As I am writing this, we had 92 'readers' yesterday and this month 11 countries have been represented in our readership. We love this! Welcome to all and we are happy that you are enjoying our story. Please feel free to drop us a review or a private message. We love to hear from you. And now, without further ado…back to Mr. Monk and the Vow.
Captain Leland Stottlemeyer's office was busy, more so than usual for a Monday morning. And, as such, he was unable to attend to his former protégé, Chief of Police Randy Disher, who would be in town for several days. Unfortunately, this allowed Randy to pretty much have the run of the squad room floor where he could catch up with his former team mates and where he had the opportunity to spread a little local gossip.
By the time that Adrian and Natalie appeared at the precinct at ten o'clock that morning, everyone from Lieutenant Prince to the boy who delivered the mail was well aware of the compromising situation that Monk and his assistant found themselves in just two days before, and they were all extremely interested in how the duo would act once they arrived. It began in the parking lot as Sergeant Lopez tripped over a curb and fell into some bushes saying hello to the couple as they arrived in separate cars.
"What's up with him?" Natalie wondered out loud.
Adrian just smiled at his fiancé. "Probably just overwhelmed at your beauty."
Monk had smiled a lot over the past couple of days and couldn't help but beam with pride that this woman who had been so much a part of his life had consented to be his bride. It was a dream come true – and this time, he refused to allow himself to second guess it. He was happy at last.
Walking into the squad room hand-in-hand, the two immediately watched as fifteen heads rapidly turned away and pretended to be busy. They heard some snickering off to the side and Adrian tilted his head with suspicion, curious as to what was going on. Looking across the room, they spotted Randy Disher who was sitting on the corner of Alicia's desk drinking a super-sized cup of soda.
"Hi guys!" Randy miled, standing up and walking mid-way to greet them. Adrian allowed Natalie to walk ahead of him before joining their friend at the center of the room. Randy stuck out his hand to shake Monk's own, but then withdrew it as he remembered Monk's germaphobia.
"Sorry, I forgot." He said, taking a sip from his straw.
"Forgot what?" Adrian asked, sticking out his hand in a gesture that surprised even Natalie. "We've spent so many years working together. I've pretty much developed an immunity to your germs."
Randy returned the handshake. "It's great seeing you man. Great to see you and Natalie…and to see you so…you know, happy." He smiled, gesturing with his elbow and a wink.
Monk missed the meaning but Natalie blushed, even as Adrian walked a couple of feet further and looked into Leland's office. "Thanks, Randy. We are happy. Very much so. Is Leland busy?"
Randy glanced over at the Captain's office and nodded. "Yeah. But not with active cases. Commissioner has him learning a new software program that's supposed to help simplify logging investigations."
"Simplifying Software?" Monk asked sarcastically. "What an oxymoron." Natalie snickered at her fiancé's comment, something she was doing quite a bit the past couple of days, then patted him on the shoulder.
"So, did you guys come in to work?" Randy asked.
"Yeah, why else would we be here?" Monk responded, perplexed.
"Oh, no reason." Disher replied. "Just curious. Figured you two might have more interesting things to do."
Natalie furrowed her brow and shook her head, but the inference again flew over Adrian's head.
Moments later, Lisa Stringer walked over to see them but respected their privacy enough that she wasn't going to touch on their relationship with a ten-foot pole.
"Hi Natalie, Detective. Happy to see you two back together. I've missed having my best college mom friend here at the office."
Natalie smiled. "I've missed being here too, Lisa. Julie and I were so busy planning for…" she stopped, wanting to put her past with Albright behind her. "Well, we've just been busy. I never even tried to find out what was going on at Berkeley."
"Oh, you haven't seen?" she said. "Come over to my desk and I'll show you their new testing procedures. It's different for sure."
"New testing procedures?" Natalie asked.
"Yeah. Particularly in the college of Arts and Sciences." She replied.
Natalie looked over to Adrian who nodded and winked, indicating that he wouldn't need her for a bit and so she walked away leaving him there with Disher.
'So…you and Natalie…" Randy smiled. "Tell, me. Why did I never pick up on that?"
"On our relationship?" Adrian asked.
"Yeah, man. From Leland's point of view, I must have been blind to have not seen it."
Adrian smiled, wistfully. "No, Randy. I was blind. It was there all along and I missed it. This beautiful gem…"
"Well, Sharona wasn't surprised when I told her." He responded. "Said she could see it when she came back and visited you that time, in the way that you got all nervous when Natalie showed up and you were with Sharona. She felt like somehow she was the 'other woman' that you were trying to explain away." He responded.
"I didn't do that intentionally, I don't think." Monk replied. "Frankly, I was just trying to keep my head down most of the time while she was here. Wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of either one of them. They are both strong, independent women."
"Here, here!" Randy responded.
The door opened to Leland's office and out walked the captain with the precinct's software expert Ryan Jordan, a twenty-year-old Computer Science major at the University of California. Leland grinned proudly when he saw his friend, walking over and patting him on the shoulder and telling him it was good to have him back.
"It's good to be here." Monk replied. "Randy tells me you're learning some new computer program?"
"Yes, I am. It's supposed to log all of our cases and store them in the cloud so we never lose them."
"Store them in the cloud?" Monk asked.
"Yes, the internet cloud." Ryan said, stepping forward. "It's like a digital domain with tons and tons of space where companies and business can store their data. Lots of companies use it. Like Amazon, Hulu."
"Mr. Monk is probably more familiar with Netflix." A male officer around Ryan's age said as he slipped behind the Captain on his way to his desk.
"Netflix?" Monk asked. "I don't understand."
The young man, grinned mischievously and leaned in. "Oh…I had just heard through the grapevine that you and Ms. Teeger like to 'watch Netflix and chill.'"
Jordan snickered, as did Randy who waved the man away with his index finger even as Natalie walked back over to the group.
"What's so funny?" she asked as Leland and Monk looked at Randy in confusion.
Jordan hid his face, still chuckling over the comment and Randy smirked. "Oh, just something Kravitz said."
"Something he said?" she asked as Adrian shrugged. "Really? I want to hear."
"Forget about it." Randy replied. "He wouldn't know what it meant anyway. No harm, no foul."
Now, Natalie was really curious. "What do you mean, no harm no foul? What did he say?"
"It's not important." Randy replied as Leland's gaze now bore into him.
"Disher?" he responded, with hands on his hips. "What exactly were Junior Officer Kravitz and the Chief of Police of Summit, New Jersey talking about?"
Randy looked down, suppressing a guilty laugh. "Nothing. He just…he just said he had heard that Monk and Natalie liked to watch Netflix and chill."
Natalie's eyes grew wide. "RANDY!" she gasped.
Randy looked up and laughed. "It's nothing, Natalie. Monk doesn't even know what it is."
Now, Adrian looked offended. "Netflix? I know what Netflix is. What are you talking about?! I wasn't born yesterday."
"Okay, what is it?" Jordan asked with a crooked grin.
"Honey, don't." Natalie warned. "Don't answer them."
"No, sweetheart. I can answer them. I may not be into technology, but I know that Netflix is a service provider where people can order video tape motion pictures and have them sent to their house." He said, puffing up his chest.
Leland grinned and shook his head, chuckling to himself.
Jordan rolled his eyes. "Maybe about eighty years ago." He replied. "It's all on the cloud now. You just order the movies up."
"Fine. Cloud, mail. It's a motion picture distribution service, right?"
"Adrian, you're right. But that's not what you were talking about now, was it, Ryan?" Natalie said, sternly with an authoritarian air to her voice.
"No, ma'am. It wasn't." he said, ashamed, and bowing his head.
"Then what was it?" Adrian asked.
"I'm not sure we want to know, Monk." Leland responded, not having a clue himself but gathering from the context what they might be talking about. He looked with suspicion over at his former chief Lieutenant. Randy bit his lip.
A few seconds later, Kravitz walked back through. "I heard he makes a mean salad too..." causing both Disher and Jordan to burst out laughing and Natalie to throw her hands up in the air in consternation.
"Who's been talking!" she demanded. "Where did you hear this?"
Kravitz nodded towards Disher and promptly left the room.
"Randeeeee!" she exclaimed.
"What?" he asked, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "I didn't' do nuthin'."
"I didn't say you did something. What have you been telling people?" she asked.
"Ho…ho…hold up a second. Let me catch up." Monk said, still completely in the dark. "What's wrong with salad or Netflix?"
Randy snickered. "Oh, absolutely nothing. In fact, it's dope." He raised his eyebrows up and down.
Monk looked at him strangely. "Huh? What does reefer have to do with anything? I'll have you know, my Natalie and I don't do drugs."
Natalie leaned over and whispered in his ear what they were referring to and Randy and Leland watched as Adrian's eyes widened and his mouth was agape.
"It means WHAT?!" he exclaimed, before lunging at Disher with his fist cocked backward. Randy scampered out of the way, hiding behind Leland.
"It was just a joke, man!" Randy cried out. "Didn't mean anything by it."
"Just a joke? What kind of a man jokes about something like that?!" Adrian replied with anger. "Leland! Do you know what it was he said?"
"I think I can figure it out." Stottlemeyer replied, removing Randy's hands from his arm and stepping a bit to the side.
"Make him apologize!" he responded. "Right now! Natalie and I weren't making salad together and we sure as heck weren't watching Netflix!"
"Make me?" Randy asked, taking a step forward as if ready for a fight.
"Apologize, Randy!" Leland said, placing his hands on his hips and then giving Randy the look. Randy's eyes looked over towards Natalie whose glare would cause the strongest oak to wither, then he looked at Monk whose anger was likewise apparent. He relaxed his stance and uncomfortably eked out a soft "I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Monk asked.
"Yes. Sorry for gossiping about you and Natalie and for giving people the impression that you two were…well..you know."
Natalie exhaled and shook her head. The apology was not enough. "Randy, how could you do that? That's…so, juvenile."
"Well, that may be but I don't think you two realize what kinda of news that is around here. And besides, you guys were about to do that weren't you?" he asked. "How am I supposed to know what happened after we left."
"Not salad making! That's for sure." Monk replied, sitting down on the edge of a desk and slumping over with embarrassment. Natalie reached her hand over and took his own.
"Regardless if it did or didn't, it's really none of your business Randy." She replied. "We don't pry into you and Sharona…"
Monk rolled his neck and scrunched his nose up at the thought and Leland grinned at Monk's discomfort.
"Yeah, but it's you and Monk…" Randy replied. "No offense, but I didn't even think he thought that way."
"So, now I'm not a man?" Adrian replied, standing up with his chest stuck out once again.
"Sit down, Adrian." Natalie ordered.
"Yes, dear."
"He doesn't think that way, Randy." She responded. "He thinks a million times better. You think talking crudely about things is funny, but it's serious to him and it's serious to us. That sort of relationship infers love and commitment, both of which we have. It's not a laughing matter and making it into such certainly doesn't make one a man. More like an adolescent who needs to be sent to his room to think about what he has done." She replied, throwing her jaw in the air in open defiance as she completed the speech.
Randy sighed and then pinched his lips together in shame.
"You're right, of course." He replied. "I was out of line…and I was wrong. It's none of my business. And truly, I'm happy for you guys. Really happy. I can't think of two people that I would like to see happy together more than you and Monk. I'm sorry. Seriously, sorry. Please, accept my apology."
After tempers cooled a bit, Leland called the team into his office in order to look over the packet of information that he had received from central headquarters. Natalie excused herself from the group explaining that she had a box of Steven's stuff in the car that she needed to return to him and that she would be back within about an hour. Adrian followed her out into the hallway.
"Are you sure you don't want me going with you?" Adrian asked, placing his hands on her waist as she looked lovingly up at him with her wrists resting on his shoulders.
"No, my darling. I'll be fine."
"That's probably true, but I'd feel better if I at least sat out in the car."
"No. Just stay here with Leland, Alicia and Randy and work on the case." She responded. "I feel like I need to deal with this alone. I hurt him and left him at the altar. I owe him an explanation."
"I'm not sure you owe him anything. It just wasn't right." He replied, not liking it but not wanting to infer that he didn't' trust her. "But, if you must…please do whatever you have to do and come back quickly. Also, call me if you run into any trouble. You'll be at the Marina?"
"Yes, Gashouse Cove. Don't worry. I'll be okay." She responded. "Remember, this is the guy who has probably only fought porpoises. I don't think he'd hurt a fly."
Adrian leaned down and kissed his fiancé tenderly. "I love you, soon to be Mrs. Monk." He said softly.
She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him even more fervently. "Not as much as I love you."
"Oh, I don't know about that…" he teased. "Be safe."
"I will be. Talk to you in about an hour." She blew him a kiss and then left.
Back in Stottlemeyer's office, Leland pulled out two stacks of papers from the package that had arrived that morning. Notes from an interview with Robbie Robinson's wife Cara, now living in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, were in one pile and the phone records of Ethan Rickover in the other.
When Monk returned, he was most interested in the records from Rickover, but agreed to look over the Robinson notes first as they might be pertinent in the Navy closing Mitch's case as well as for the precinct in unravelling the Yaroslav saga. Disher took over the task of cross-referencing the inbound and outbound phone calls of Ethan Rickover in the months prior to his demise for Adrian's later review.
Taking the papers from Leland, Monk took a seat over on his sofa and began thumbing through the information. To his surprise, in addition to the interview of Cara, they included a photocopy of a journal that Robbie had kept during his time in the Navy as well as photographs of him and some of his Navy friends. Laying out the pictures on Leland's coffee table, Monk reviewed them, recognizing several in the image from some of the photographs in Mitch's collection. In one photo, Mitch was standing off to the right next to a man who appeared to be the Captain of the fleet. He stood straight and tall and looked to be quite serious, much different from the young relaxed man that he had seen in photographs around Natalie's house. Next to him was Steven Albright who looked pretty much the same except for a certain swagger that he emitted that was different from the disciplined officer that Monk had come to know. He wondered about the man's history and how he and Mitch had come to be such good friends. Natalie certainly had a wild streak when she was younger, but seeing the contrast between her husband and her former fiancé even when they were younger did spark Adrian's curiosity a bit.
Laying down the photos, he turned to the interview from Cara who wasn't a lot of help in details other than to say that Robbie was an excellent swimmer and she did not feel that he had died of natural causes. His body was found in the couple's swimming pool on a weekday after Cara had come home from work. Robbie had acted agitated throughout the week and had called her to the side the weekend before to tell her where his will and personal papers were. He had mentioned at the time that there were some things he had done while overseas in the Navy that he wasn't proud of, things he might soon have to pay for. Then, he told her, "If I am no longer here, the answers will be found in my notes." He wouldn't explain what that meant and she never knew. But she assumed by 'notes' he meant the journal.
After his death, she was frightened enough to move back to Idaho to live with family and had heard nothing more from anyone associated with Robbie until she received the call from the San Francisco Police. She had remarried and wished to be left alone if possible, but if it would bring Robbie justice, she was open to questions or flying out to San Francisco to testify, though she doubted she could provide any help.
And so, it boiled down to the journal, which Monk directed his attention to next.
Across town, Natalie pulled her silver SUV into a parking space at the Marina then opened her car door to remove a banker's box of things that belonged to Steven, namely some tools he had left over at the house when constructing her back yard seating area, a couple of shirts, a small antique brass maritime telescope that he had brought over to show her through which they looked at the moon, as well as some photographs, and, of course, his ring. Walking down the pier, she looked for the lot number that he had specified and found it toward the end. She called out for him on the dock and was waiting for him to appear when he surprised her by coming up from behind.
"Hello, Natalie." He stated. His voice steady but soft.
She turned her face towards him, expecting to see hurt in his eyes but instead saw indifference, almost like nothing had happened between them. Surprising, even to herself, she felt almost the same. Certainly, she felt a pang of guilt for having left him at the altar and presumably embarrassing him so – but in terms of love, she felt nothing. It had only been two days, but seeing him now she viewed him at best as simply one of Mitch's friends and at worst an acquaintance.
She lifted up the box to hand to him. Looking down at it, he nodded without smiling and took it from her then invited her aboard the Navy Yacht. She had rehearsed in her head what she was going to say to him as she felt she owed him that explanation, one that would be made in private.
Stepping aboard the vessel, she watched as he set the box down on one of the seats. Turning to her, he asked if she would like something to drink. Due to her nervousness, her throat felt dry and so she accepted, but then became a little uncomfortable when he invited her to go below deck to the living quarters as he rustled something up. Still, she followed.
The below-deck quarters were more opulent than she had expected them to be. She was used to the cheap accommodations of Naval family housing, but this yacht reminded her of some of the vacation vessels that her family had used through the years, adorned with crème colored leather and chrome, modern lighting, television and windows from which one could see the water from every direction.
"Please, take a seat. Anywhere is fine." Steven said as he walked over to a bar area and produced two glasses. "We have wine, juice, pop, tea, water…"
Natalie took a seat on the couch and looked around at where Steven was living. She wanted to drive afterwards so alcohol was out. "I'll have a cola." She said, as he would have predicted.
"Sure thing? Cherry-flavoring?"
"Sure." She smiled, acknowledging that he remembered she liked Cherry Coke. As she continued talking, Albright reached below the counter to a small refrigerator and retrieved a can of Coke and some ice.
"I…I can't stay very long today." She explained. "We're still working on that case."
"Oh, you went back to being Monk's assistant?"
"Of course." She replied. "It's where I belong."
"I'm just surprised to see he's over his funk. I mean, after Molly died, he pretty much didn't want to be around you or anyone."
She nodded. "Yes. Well, it was the initial shock. We both agree now that Molly was important to us both and so it's good that we can heal together."
"I see." He replied.
Steven stayed silent and listened as she continued telling him about how she had made her decision and why it was best for both of them that she had. While she was speaking, he reached into the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of Midazolam, a fast-acting cherry-flavored sedative. Measuring out an extra-large dose, he poured it into Natalie's drink then stirred it up before slipping the bottle back into the cabinet.
Walking over to her, he sat on the couch next to her, placing her drink on a coaster in front of her and sitting back in his seat sipping on a glass of bourbon that he had made for himself. Now, he only needed to sit and watch.
"I'm sorry that I let it get so far." She explained. "I never meant to hurt you."
Albright remained calm. "Thank you for that." He said. "I knew you felt torn. It's best that we know now that you and I could have never worked."
She took a healthy-sized drink from her glass, noticing a slight medicinal taste but dismissing it as just the flavoring. "Yes, it is. There is no sense spending our lives and time trying to make something work that could never be. I mean, you need to have someone who can love you…with all of her heart."
"Not someone who is in love with another man." He responded, glancing at the ring on her left hand. He nodded his head towards her. "Is that what I think it is?"
Natalie looked down at her hand and her sparkly diamond and nearly choked. She hadn't meant to even discuss her engagement much less have it come out this way. But she had forgotten to hide her ring before coming to see him. Now that he knew, she felt the need to speak openly.
"Yes. It's an engagement ring."
"He moves quickly." He replied. "Did you even wait a day after leaving me for you became engaged again?"
She lowered her eyes. "The timing isn't important, Steven. What is important is that we were honest. Honest about our feelings. Honest about what we wanted."
"Honest?!" he responded, furrowing his brow. "You agree to marry me and get all the way up to the altar then ditch me for another man and you want to talk of honesty?!"
Natalie sat up in her seat in order to defend herself but suddenly felt the world spinning around her. She blinked a moment then readjusted, and Steven glared at her as his lips curled into a lopsided smirk.
"Feeling a little woozy are we?" he asked. She immediately looked down at her glass then back up at him in horror. Jumping up from her seat, she rushed towards the door only to find herself blocked by Albright as he stood in front of her, grasping her wrist so that she could not reach the door handle.
"Going somewhere, Natalie?" he said as a look of terror registered on her face. "No. I think you're going to stay awhile. Time to learn a lesson that all of your Davenport Dollars can never buy."
"What…what are you going to do?" she asked fearfully.
Albright glowered at her before shoving her forcefully down into a chair. Wrapping his forearm around her neck from behind. "Oh…don't worry, Natalie. I would never hurt you." He replied. "…physically."
Back at the precinct, Randy Disher had made his way through a good portion of the phone list and was seeing certain patterns emerge. Several numbers appeared over and over again in Rickover's records in the last months prior to his death that weren't there before and in running them through the police database he discovered one of them was that of Gretchen Kazarinski. Of course, seeing that Joey had killed Dr. Malcolm Nash and later tried to kill Monk, that wasn't a surprise. But another number appeared in conjunction with those calls and also afterward. A number that wasn't showing up in any police database.
Monk had been focused on Robinson's journal and in particular on the various players mentioned in his comings and goings. Using only their call-signs made things a bit more difficult but thus far Adrian had matched Mitch with "Eagle", Chambers with "Speed", Robinson with Vulture", a guy named Christopher Stephens from Anchorage with "Klondike" and a guy from Baton Rouge with "Red." This left "J.B.", "Silverwolf","Falcon", and "Cougar" for him to identify.
From the contexts of his notes, Monk deduced that Silverwolf was an older officer whose battle with the bottle had kept him from achieving a higher status, and J.B. was a religious guy whom Monk figured out got his name from his tendency to preach at the rank and file. As such, he assumed that "J.B." if it didn't stand for his actual name, stood for "John Baptist" a fitting name for any preacher in the wilderness.
One entry that highlighted J.B.'s activities was something that Monk found very intriguing.
January 12, 1998
U.S.S. Penateka - Off the coast of Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Just got back aboard the frigate after a wild weekend in the lovely town of Dubrovnik. Cougar, Falcon, Speed, Klondike and myself visited this bar on the first night where the only thing distributed more liberally than the alcohol was the affections of the ladies, and when I say affections, I don't mean like the girls back home. These women seemed to have a singular focus – and they were not going to be denied. We danced for a while with them and then once we were done went back to the table and chatted with them a bit. Their English was surprisingly good and they wanted to know all about what it was we did and all about our ranks and about how we lived back in the U.S.
My girl, Ana (whose last name I'm not even going to try to spell as I can't even pronounce it much less spell it without vowels), she was the chattiest of the bunch, staying and talking with me after all the others had gone their separate ways. Cougar had the prettiest girl, Svetlana was her name. She seemed to me to be a very serious sort of woman who engaged him by talking a lot about the types of weapons we use and how much she'd like to see them in action. Cougar was pretty sharp to spot that she was a practiced marksman (or woman) by spotting the callus on her index finger and along the side of her middle finger. Of course, that's right up his alley. It impressed her, regardless and they were the first to leave our group. I doubt his girl back home would have appreciated that but guess what she doesn't know won't hurt her.
"Svetlana?" Monk said under his breath. "What are the odds?"
"Got something?" Alicia asked.
"Yes." Monk replied. "Svetlana Yaroslav. I think she's showing up in Robinson's notes."
Leland looked up over his glasses. "That is something."
"So, Svetlana had something to do with Mitch?" Randy asked.
"It sure looks that way." Monk mused. "She hooked up with one of Mitch's crewmates, Cougar. Sounds like she was a spy even then. On the prowllll… She was asking all sorts of questions that one wouldn't typically ask if you know…you were trying to score a date in a bar scene."
"Score a date?" Leland asked, amused.
"Yeah… you know…pick up someone for a casual dalliance…make a move…" Monk replied. "At least that's what I would assume. Not...that I've ever actually done so."
"You met Natalie in a bar, didn't you?" Randy asked.
Monk looked irritated. "No, Randy. I met her at a crime scene, remember? She worked in a bar. Big difference." he replied.
"Oh yeah."
"Hey..." Leland said, interrupting. "I think these numbers Randy highlighted might be something."
Monk put down the journal and walked over to the captain's desk.
"What is it?" he asked
"Several of these phone numbers from Rickover's list...they are showing up in Ibrahim Tahiri's records as well."
Monk shrugged. "Okay. Tahiri was a business associate of Rickover's. I don't get the point."
"Well, they are also showing up in the phone records of Nadia Yaroslav." He stated, turning the papers he was reviewing over towards the other men and Alicia who had been sitting with Randy trying to use her computer to crack the code.
Randy and Alicia looked at the papers first and nodded in affirmation.
"So, is this proof positive that Rickover was involved in an espionage and money laundering scheme as well?" Alicia asked as she passed the papers over to Monk who was too busy looking for the Captain's answer to review them.
"I don't know." Leland replied. "It really does seem to be a bit odd that here he's off raising money for Tahiri and here we find this same group of people in communication with one another the weeks prior to his death and around the time that Tahiri's accounts were all shut down. If you don't mind, Alicia, go grab us an information request form. We may have to subpoena who these numbers belong to from the phone company"
Alicia immediately complied with the Captain's request, Leland continued to search and Randy went over and picked up Robbie Robinson's papers, while Monk looked down to review the captain's findings. The moment his eyes lit on the first phone number; he received a jolt that he was not in the least expecting. In fact, he blinked a few times to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him, and even put on his glasses. They weren't.
"Oh, no!" he gasped.
"What is it?" Randy asked, lowering Robinson's notes when he saw Monk's alarm.
"Oh, no! No, no, no! This can't be." Monk said as he walked over to Randy and took Robinson's notebook from out of his hands. Flipping through the pages, he went to the month immediately following Mitch Teeger's death. What he found made his blood run cold.
April 20, 1998 U.S.S. Eisenhower
Just released from questioning by the Navy Review Board over Kosovo. I think we'll be home free, particularly since none of us laid a finger on the Eagle. Svetlana's skills were scary good. I see what attracted her to Cougar. Both of them always goes for the throat. Klondike was taken out by Serbian forces when he talked to much so it's just me and Speed's word for it – since we were the eyewitnesses. With Cougar there to intercede, I think it's smooth sailing from here on out. We can all retire wealthy men. It's perfect to have him as an ally since he isn't suspected at all. With friends like that, who needs enemies. Ha! Besides, he was assisting in a surgery at the time things went down so…
Monk dropped the papers on the floor, dazed by what he had seen. All of it suddenly came together. "Oh, No!" he gasped. "Molly! What did you..?." He didn't finish as a second realization hit him immediately following the first. "Oh please God, no! Natalie!"
"You okay, buddy?" Leland asked with concern.
Monk looked up at the clock and sprang from his chair grabbing for his keys in one fluid motion. "Leland! He's the guy He's the guy! "
"Rickover?" Leland asked, in confusion.
"No. Albright." He said as he ran toward the door. "Natalie's in danger! Grab Alicia and as much backup as you can get and meet me at the Marina. I'll explain on the way."