Natalie's eyes fluttered open and she squinted against the afternoon sun as she regained consciousness aboard the Navy Yacht. For a few minutes, she laid there, confused as to where she was and how she had gotten there. But, as she heard the rumbling of the engine and felt the salty sea air, then saw the insignia of the U.S. Navy stamped onto a piece of equipment, she knew. She remembered it all.

Slowly, she began to stand, but fell backwards onto the padded deck seat when she became dizzy. It was then that she noticed the chain around her leg which tethered her to a boat anchor. Tugging on the chain, she noted it was very heavy; and then, she heard the voice of Steven Albright coming from behind her at the helm of the boat.

"Not going to happen." He said. "It's too heavy, so you might as well not even struggle against it. I've got the key and you'll just rub your leg raw if you do." He said, taunting her with the key to the ankle cuff which he twirled around his finger.

She looked over at him, frightened, but said nothing.

"Would you care for something to eat?" he asked, pointing towards the stairs. "We have some frozen dinners, lunch meat…chicken pot pie."

Natalie remained mute, trying not to react as he played his little game. She had one and only one goal, that was to get away from him and back to safety.

"Ah. Silent treatment." He sneered. "I suppose I deserve it…although, I never can figure out why you women are all about talking until it's something you don't want to hear. Caroline was that way. She heard word about me and a little flirtation that I had while overseas and confronted me about it. Then, when I told her about it she didn't want to talk. Of course, it was a little hard to speak with a broken jaw."

"Where are you taking me?" Natalie demanded.

Albright smirked. "Out to sea." He replied. "Not too far, mind you. He still has to find you. About six or seven miles will do."

Natalie shuttered as she realized that he was setting a trap. "If...if you're talking about Adrian, he doesn't even know where I'm at. You'll be waiting a long time."

Steven laughed. "Come on Nat…you expect me to believe that you went to go see your old fiancé and didn't tell your new fiancé where you were going? That's highly unlikely, and besides, he's Adrian Monk. He's probably already on his way…although, with his fear of water, I'm sure he could be delayed. Hopefully, he reaches you in time. But, like I said, I would never hurt you physically…as long as I'm not provoked and not without a way out."

Natalie tried to remain calm, her eyes scanning the shoreline to try to determine her whereabouts. She recognized certain landmarks and realized they were heading North. "Steven…what do you hope to gain through all of this? I tried to love you. I really did. And I'm sorry that I hurt you."

Albright sneered. "You really still think that's what this is all about, Natalie? That I feel jilted by you so I've flipped my lid? No Davenport Dearie, I couldn't care less that you never loved me, though I will admit to being a bit miffed that you left me at the altar. I was so looking forward to living off of your Daddy's dime. Aside from that, I knew you never loved me. You've only had eyes for two men in your life. Your darling Mitch and that defective detective you hang out with all of the time. So, no. This isn't over you ditching me."

"Then what?" she asked as she watched him steer the vessel through Bay traffic. He slowed down the vessel tremendously then set it on autopilot before turning around."What are you doing this for?" she asked.

"You really want to know?"

Arriving at the Marina, Monk quickly made his way to the manager who told him where the Navy Yacht was usually parked. Pulling out his cell phone, he immediately called Stottlemeyer to tell him where to meet him, speaking as he walked.

The phone rang in Leland's car which was pushing its way through busy San Francisco streets, siren blazing. Randy Disher was in the front seat and picked up the phone and Alicia Prince sat in back.

"Well, answer it!" Alicia insisted as the phone continued to ring.

Randy looked dumbfounded that he was being asked to do this without the Captain's permission. "Is it okay?"

"Yes, Randy. Just answer the da—rn phone." Leland replied as he weaved in between a truck and an SUV in order to make his way to the highway on ramp. With the sirens on, people were generally pulling over so things should have run more smoothy from that point on, except they ran into a situation where a tractor trailer had jackknifed and was blocking the road, so everything came to a grinding halt. Leland was beyond frustrated.

"Captain Stottlemeyer's phone." Randy answered with an authoritarian tone. "May I help you?" He listened a moment then turned to Leland. "Captain, it's Monk."

"Well put him on speaker." The Captain barked as he looked for a way around the traffic. Randy complied.

"Monk. This is Ran-dy Dish-er. You. Are. Now. On. The. Speakerphone. The Cap-tan is listening."

Leland rolled his eyes and ignored Randy's antics but Alicia threw up her hands causing Randy to look back at her and shrug. "What? I guess you could do better?"

"Hey, Buddy." Leland interjected. "We're on our way. Where 'bouts are you?"

"I'm at the Marina at the East Harbor near the San Francisco Grill. Manager says Albright's boat should be parked in row 17, letter E. Leland, he's the guy!" Adrian said breathlessly as he moved quickly through the lot.

"The guy for what?"

"Everything!" Monk replied. "All of it Leland – the espionage, Svetlana's murder, Mitch…" he began to cry. "Oh, gosh - Leland...and about Molly. He killed her, Leland. He killed Molly!"

"Albright killed Molly Evans?! Why? What for?"

"...For sticking this into places that it never belonged." Albright growled, sticking his hand out and tapping Natalie on her nose.

Natalie leaned away from him as much as she could. She didn't want him touching her at all. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, you don't do you? It's about bank accounts and cell phone records, and dredging up things that should have long remained buried. All that snooping alerted a certain banker to his wife and sister-in-law's activities which wrecked our plans. It all had to be buried – along with those who knew too much."

Natalie thought then looked up at Steven in shock. "Dear Heaven, Steven! You mean …?"

"Yes, my Molly, Leland. She got too close…she got too close to finding him out, so he had to kill her…he killed her Leland, that snake killed Trudy's daughter! And now, he has Natalie." He began to hyperventilate.

"Awe, geez Monk." the captain said, trying to comfort his friend whose pain and fear were beginning to get the better of him. "Calm down, buddy; and tell me...tell me what you know. Let's try to concentrate on getting Natalie back right now. Try to focus."

Monk took several deep breaths and collected himself, finally regaining composure. Then, he began to speak as he started walking down the row.

"Leland. Here's what happened…"

"It all started when I was in Kosovo." Steven explained. "As you know, Mitch and I were buddies from the Naval Academy and both of us entered the ranks at the same time. We did everything at the same time up until he married you, then our lives seemed to diverge. He got a wife and kid. I had a series of one night stands. He got a promotion; I stayed in the same role. Then, I got a promotion, he got one even higher until by the time we reached the Balkans I found my friend was a rising star and I was still just a Junior Grade Lieutenant sailing nowhere. He didn't' have time to hang out with me anymore and hardly ever drank, so I spent my time with the other guys in the squadron and that's who I hung out with. I was a hero to those guys which for me was a good thing. My pal Mitch was now second in command and as far as the outside was concerned, I was just the guy who once knew him. I guess you could say, I became a bit resentful of that.

Monk continued. "Ibrahim Tahiri was a double agent, not for the KLA and NATO, but for Serbian Forces and Milosevic. He was well-connected politically and used a front organization ostensibly for the aid of refugees in order to funnel money, armaments and secrets to the Serbian government and militia. To do this required that he have the cooperation of certain well-placed people within the U.S. to achieve his ends.

On the political front, that person was Ethan Rickover, an ambitious lawyer-turned-judge with a network of legal connections throughout California and the United States. Ethan knew where the corrupt judges were because he was one. For anyone who spent any time at all around Ethan, it was clear that he sought to rise through the ranks quickly with an eye on the highest legal seat in the land – Supreme Court Justice. He didn't care who he had to step on (or murder) in order to get there and was precisely the kind of person that Tahiri was looking for. Through Rickover, Tahiri was able to funnel money, earmarked for charitable causes, directly towards his fiendish purposes.

Another man that Tahiri utilized in his schemes was a certain Naval Doctor, a man of ambition equal to that of Rickover."

"Albright." Leland interjected.

"Yes. Steven Albright was stationed overseas on a Navy frigate. While there, he began having a sex-affair with the sister of the secretary of one of Tahiri's underlings, Svetlana Yaroslav. Yaroslav was an activist and trained combatant and sharp shooter for the Serbian Militia (as was her sister Nadia, the secretary) and posed as a Croatian local to seduce some sailors who they knew were coming into port. She made a connection with Albright through one of those missions and through her Albright hooked up with Tahiri. The old adage, 'loose lips sink ships' is true; only, in this case the prize was military coordinates and arms. With the promise of a large sum of money and professional promotion, the doctor signed into the ship's classified system then printed off and passed along data concerning troop movements and arms directly to Svetlana who passed them to the militia"

Monk stopped talking. He had reached the spot on the pier where the yacht was supposed to have been parked but found it empty. Monk gasped. "They're not here. They're not here, Leland!"

"Who? Albright and Natalie?" Stottlemeyer asked.

"Yes. I'm at the spot they told me that he'd be and there's nothing here." He replied.

"Well hang tight Monk, we've gotten through the bigger part of the traffic and we should be at the Marina in about ten minutes."

Monk began to run towards a boat rental facility. "I've got no time, Leland! He's got Natalie! He's taken her out to sea and he's going to kill her. I've got to save her!"

"Monk, wait up! We'll go together."

"I can't! I'll call you back!" he replied before catching the manager's eye. "Hey…you! You! I need to rent a boat!"

Steven took a seat across from Natalie who had been listening to the same basic tale but from Albright's point of view. All the while, she kept her eyes on the water, hoping for Adrian to appear.

"Detective isn't here yet? Guess he's slipping. Maybe he's not as sharp as I thought he was. Unlike Mitch."

"Mitch? My Mitch? What...?"

"Mitch discovered the breech and started investigating. He got suspicious when I received a letter from Tahiri, so he began digging into it. He found out that I was dating a woman named Svetlana who was part of the Serbian militia. He also discovered that Svetlana had a sister named Nadia who was already on the Navy's radar and so he set up some clandestine meetings with Nadia, pretending to be a spy, in order to determine if that was where the breech was.

The first packet he passed along was in Mid-March. Nadia passed it along to me and I saw that it was genuine data but was out of date. By the time the second packet was delivered, I saw where the data was genuine and up to date, but some key elements had been deliberately changed. He was leading them into a trap." Steven explained. "That, of course, couldn't be allowed to stand."

Natalie's eyes overflowed with tears as she now sat in horror and heartbreak listening to the tale. She knew what was coming next. "So, you…you killed him?" she wept. "Steven! How could you? HE WAS YOUR FRIEND?!"

"Really, Natalie? Was Mitch my friend? Really?" he replied. "He was preparing papers to have me court-martialed, tried for treason! WHAT SORT OF FRIEND DOES THAT?!"

"WHAT SORT OF FRIEND BETRAYS HIS COUNTRY?" she screamed.

"WHAT SORT OF FIANCÉE BETRAYS HER BETROTHED AT THE ALTAR?" he yelled. She shrank back in fear. Then, he lowering his voice. "Seriously, Natalie. You have no room for casting aspersions upon one's loyalty to another. Now, do you?"

Monk chartered the speedboat and donned his life jacket, pushing all fear of the water to the back of his mind. He was in luck because the driver not only was familiar with the Navy vessel across the dock but actually knew Albright and had a good idea where he was most likely to sail. The two had gone fishing together a fortnight earlier and he knew that Steven had spoken quite enthusiastically about this little alcove they had visited, particularly its privacy.

As they sped along the bay, Monk pulled out his cell phone to call Leland back. The Captain was now within minutes of the Marina.

"Monk!" he answered. "Buddy, are you okay?"

"I'm on a speedboat, Leland." He yelled over the sound of the motor. "We're heading to an area called Bonita Cove."

"I know the area. It's a little West of the Golden Gate."

"Yes. Driver knows the vessel and knows Albright. He says he took him fishing there about two weeks ago. Albright remarked about liking the privacy of the area so that's our best guess right now as to where he's taken her."

"Okay. That sounds good, Monk. But pick up where you left off. You say Albright was passing information to the Serbs?"

"Information, arms, all sorts of things. Of course, the other side was doing it too, but evidently Mitch Teeger caught on to what he was doing and was working to build a case against him when he was killed."

"You think Albright killed him?"

"No. His girlfriend Svetlana. As I said, Svetlana was a sharp shooter. She specialized in quick drops. It would have been too dangerous for them to use anyone else because Mitch was an excellent Marksman himself. They used a woman, the sister of Nadia Yaroslav, to pull it off. She shot him in the neck, just as she later did her brother-in-law when he discovered their scheme."

"Steubens."

"Exactly."

"So, Steubens ran into their smuggling and espionage schemes and all the money associated with that and confronted them over it?" Leland asked.

"That's my best guess." He replied. "He confronted Nadia and Svetlana when he saw some bank transactions that he traced to Svetlana's landlord. Svetlana pulled out her sister's pistol and shot Steubens in the neck. Nadia covered, not only because it was her sister but because she didn't want to be caught for such treasonous activity herself. Albright got drug into it because Nadia was still in touch with him due to their earlier connection with Tahiri."

"Who is dead." Disher stated.

"Yeah. I think Rickover killed him for knowing too much. But, the Yaroslavs and probably also Albright knew about Tahiri's cash and worked together on funneling it to the Venezuelan ghost account where it became nearly untraceable, unless you knew what you were looking for."

"How do you know Albright knew about the cash?" Leland asked.

"He just about had to have. He was working with all of the players and it's part of the reason he killed Svetlana. Do you remember when he showed up with Natalie and I at Svetlana's murder scene?" Monk replied.

"Yeah. You were a bit miffed." The captain responded.

"With good reason. I didn't want him tampering with evidence. And Albright knew precisely where the key evidence would be. Remember when he was next to the window?"

"Right, where the power cord was." Leland replied.

"Correct. Forensics told us that the handles on the windowsill had been wiped clean. Albright knew where the evidence was because he is the one who left it. When he heard that I was being pulled in on the case, he interjected himself to make sure that I wouldn't find it. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have time to deal with the power cord and we therefore knew her real cause of death.

But that's not how I know he knew about the cash. Albright and the landlord knew each other."

"Sergei Gregori?" Alicia stated.

"Yes. When we entered Yaroslav's apartment, Gregori turned to Albright first thing and asked him if he was there to examine the body."

"So?" Alicia asked.

"Nobody had been introduced yet. He didn't know any of us from Adam, but he somehow knew Steven was a doctor. He knew because he had seen him around there before visiting his former girlfriend. He knew because they were all working together. He slipped up."

"Wow. Good catch." Leland replied as the speedboat reached the general area of Bonita Cove and cut its engine.

"We're here now, Leland. I've got more but I'm going to have to go." Monk said as he looked off into the distance and saw the yacht.

"Okay, buddy. We're not far behind you. Stay safe." Leland responded.

"Yeah, man. Stay safe." Disher added. "We want you around to tell us the rest of the story…like why did Svetlana have to die?"

Monk thought for a moment and gave him the answer before hanging up the phone and diving into the water. In case he didn't make it back, he wanted the story told.

"It was Jealousy."

"Jealousy?"

"Jealousy." Albright explained. "It was jealousy and greed. Svetlana knew that I was seeing you and wanted me to dump you to rekindle what we had. When I wouldn't do that, she tried to blackmail me out of my share of the loot. With Steubens, Rickover and Tahiri dead, the only people who knew where that money was deposited was myself, Nadia, Svetlana and Sergei."

"Sergei?"

"Svetlana's landlord. He was also a part of the opposition in the Balkans. Svetlana threatened to expose the whole saga, thereby ensuring that I would walk the plank for my part in the espionage scheme and for killing Mitch, and therefore she had to go.

So really, if you think about it, I'm not a bad guy. Just don't betray me. Mitch was snooping where he didn't belong. Molly was digging into details that she had no business digging into. And then Svetlana threatened to destroy me, so she had to go too. If people would just stay in their lane, then all would be fine." He noted with a sarcastic grin on his face.

"And how exactly was I in your lane when you tried to kill me, Albright?" a voice said from the starboard side of the boat.

Natalie gasped. "Adrian!"

Albright's mouth widened into an iniquitous smile. "Ah, I believe our guest of honor has arrived." He turned quickly back towards ship's steering pressing a few buttons before returning to look for Monk. The yacht lurched forward and began to move. Natalie's eyes darted wildly as she saw them leaving the area and heading towards the ocean.

"Nosey neighbors." Albright said as he walked over towards the starboard side of the boat. His eyes flashing malevolent intent. "They can be royal pains, but very predictable. Is Darrell waiting for you or did you let him go, Monk?" Monk didn't answer, so Steven began to slither over towards the port side. "Seems my neighbor led your boyfriend exactly where I expected him to. The ocean is quite a convenient point to reach from here. Good place to lose one's self – or someone else."

Natalie looked frightened but said nothing as Steven peeked around the corner, again, finding no Adrian Monk.

"Playing hide and seek, are we? Listen. I'm not interested in playing games, Adrian, so you might as well reveal yourself." he replied.

"No. I'd rather reveal you. Why did you try to kill me?" Monk's voice came from somewhere else that Albright couldn't determine. He looked through the windows of the yacht and saw nothing.

"I'm also not sure of what you're talking about, Adrian. When did I try to kill you?"

"Of course you're sure, Albright." The voice said , projecting towards the rear. "You tried to kill me when you helped Rickover place the poison in the wipes." Steven stopped and grinned an evil grin, then began to move towards the back as Natalie watched.

"Ricin… from military stores." Adrian continued, once again from the starboard side. "Then, you let Joey Kazarinski know when and where Natalie would be shopping for groceries, and acted as a decoy when he made the switch."

"Steven! You..." Natalie gasped.

Albright looked somewhat amused as he moved back towards the front of the boat. He picked up a harpoon spear to use as a weapon. "Okay…so, maybe I do know what you're talking about. Shouldn't have been surprised that you'd figure that out. I did it as a favor to Ethan and also a future insurance policy. If you got to digging into Mitch's death, you'd probably run into the truth. Let's just call it a mutual C.Y.A. move between Rickover and me."

"Explain that to the real Judge, as you rot for eternity!" Monk exclaimed as he jumped down from the roof of the boat and came crashing down on Albright's head.

Natalie winced as she saw Steven slam shoulder and head first into the side of the boat, but more for Adrian's sake than for Albright's. The spear went flying across the deck. Natalie revived when Monk rolled over and stood up, showing himself to be okay. Quickly, he gave Steven a swift kick to the side of the head and face as the latter tried to get up on all fours. Albright again hit the deck with a thud.

"That's for Molly!" Monk growled, kicking Albright in the stomach before he could get a second wind. Albright doubled over in pain and then watched as blood ran from his mouth, the result of a now missing tooth. He became enraged.

"And this is for me!" Monk snarled, reaching back to kick him again but before he connected this time, Adrian found Albright's foot planted firmly in his shin, just behind Adrian's knee. The knee buckled and Monk went down onto the ground as Natalie screamed.

"Move fast for an old man." Steven scoffed as he righted himself. "But, not fast enough." He dove for him, but Adrian rolled out of the way.

"Care to reconsider?" Monk replied, jumping up from his position and moving towards the spear.

Albright sprang towards Monk, grabbing his waistband and pulled him back, dragging him to the ground. He hit him once and then twice in the jaw. The taste of sweat mixed with blood filled Adrian's mouth.

"I thought you weren't a good swimmer." Steven said.

Monk responded, as he looked around. "Correspondence course worked so well before, I took the advanced course too."

"Ah!" Albright said before throwing his fist towards Monk's face. Monk grabbed a tackle box and used it to shield himself from Steven's blow and Albright's knuckles crashed against the hard metal, causing an electrical jolt to run up his arm; but that was nothing like the pain he felt when the box connected with his nose causing hot, sticky blood to gush from his face. Monk kneed him in the groin, which freed him from the younger man's grip, leaving Steven moaning on the ground.

Adrian rushed to Natalie, touching her face as if he didn't believe she was real, then kissed her, grabbing for her hand.

"We need to get out of here."

"We can't. I'm chained up." She responded. "The key is in his pocket."

Just then, a hiss of air came swishing past Monk's face as the harpoon spear sailed past him and stuck in the hull.

He looked at the spear. "Be right back." He kissed her again and extracted the spear and turned back towards Steven.

"Adrian! Be careful!" she yelled.

Monk rushed Albright who had somehow come up with a knife and was now standing, albeit wobbly, in warrior's stance. Adrian advanced and Albright slashed with the blade, but missed. When Steven lunged at him, Monk knocked the knife from Albright's hand then knocked him to the ground, placing his heal on Steven's neck.

"They called you Cougar because you always went for the throat." Monk said. "Be kinda ironic if that is how you died."

"No, Adrian! Don't! They'll send you to jail." Natalie warned.

"Better listen to the little lady. She's obviously worried about your well being." The look on Steven's face was one of arrogance. But Monk would not be cowed.

Yanking the spear out of the wood, Monk took the blade and pressed it against his opponent's throat, removing his heel.

"Keys, please. He said, calmly.

Albright squirmed, patting his pockets, but continued the game. "I seem to have mislaid them. Sorry."

Monk kicked him in the side near his hip pocket where he expected the keys were, and pressed the blade into Albright's neck to where it began to sting. "Then it's time you find them." He said, twisting the blade a little more.

Natalie pleaded for Adrian to back away and radio the police but Monk was not budging without what he wanted and Albright was not cooperating.

"Fine. Then I'll just kill you." Monk said.

"No!" she cried. "He's not worth it!"

"Listen to her, Adrian." Steven smiled. "I'm not worth it."

Monk didn't miss a beat. "But Molly was." he said quietly as he pressed hard enough with the blade that it broke the skin. For the first time, Monk saw weakness and fear in Albright's eyes, but that did not weaken his resolve. "You took from Natalie her husband, her friend, and the father of her child and from me the only living part of my wife that I had left - not to mention selling out your country for some vain ambition and wealth. Now please, explain to me, you piece of trash, why precisely should I let you live?"

Albright swallowed and began to tremble.

"Keys, coward." Monk responded, steadily.

Steven pursed his swollen lip, glaring at Monk and then at Natalie. He reached into his pocket and retrieved the key then hurled it across the deck where it landed under a wooden pallet, upon which sat three wooden crates.

Monk removed the spear tip from Albright's throat. "I don't have the energy for this." He grumbled, motioning with the spear. "Get up and get the key, and don't make me ask you twice."

Albright rolled to his side then painfully stood up, keeping his hands in the air beside him as he slowly made his way over to the pallet. He was deliberately slow in his movements.

"You know she didn't suffer a whole lot." Steven said. "Molly that is. I truthfully hadn't planned on killing her, just wanted to drug her for a little bit so I could get the phone records. She came in on me too soon."

"You can explain all that to the police. Just keep walking." Monk replied as he tried to keep his mind away from what Molly went through and keep his focus on rescuing Natalie.

Albright kept talking as he inched towards the key. "She realized what I was doing and tried to stop me from getting her mail. She tried to stop me and placed her hand on my arm. I guess it is a defense mechanism built in from so many years in the Navy." he reached the pallet and began to bend over, but instead of retrieving the key he used the momentum from that position to ram into Monk with his shoulder, knocking the spear from his hand and pulling two of the crates on top of him in the process.

Natalie screamed, "NO!" But her scream came a second too late. It had happened in an instant and the tables were turned. Monk was knocked out cold with his arch nemesis glowering over him.

"Are you sure he said Bonita Cove?" Alicia asked as the trio rode through the area on a Coast Guard Patrol Boat.

"Absolutely." Stottlemeyer said with frustration as there was no boat in sight. "I even confirmed it with him. I asked if it was West of the Golden Gate."

"Maybe they moved on." Randy replied. "What's over in that direction?" he asked, pointing East.

"San Quentin, Castro Cove, San Pablo Bay." The Coast Guard Crew Commander responded.

"And the other way?" Alicia asked.

"Farallon Islands and Ocean." He responded.

"You don't suppose he'd take them there?" Disher asked.

"Well, they're not here." Leland surmised. "And, I think we would have seen them if they went the other way. But talk about a needle in a haystack. There isn't a way to trace the Yacht is there?"

"Might be." the commander replied. "I'd imagine the vessel's GPS coordinates are logged and tracked."

"Can we key into them?" Leland asked.

"I'll radio back to the base and see if they can get ahold of someone over at Navy Command. May take a few minutes but I would say our chances are good."

The piercing pain of a needle being jabbed into the side of the neck was the first thing that Monk felt as he regained consciousness. From that moment things began to feel very strange.

He opened his eyes, trying to adjust them as he looked up from his place on the floor. Albright had moved a little to the left and was again by the medicine chest and a worried Natalie was still where he had placed her, chained to the anchor, her eyes nervously darting between Steven and Adrian.

"What did you do to him?" she asked with a sense of accusation.

Steven looked amused but remained silent as he pulled a tube out of the medical kit and sat it on the towel.

Monk struggle to get up on his feet. He felt woozy but tried to shake it off. He grabbed onto the rail.

"Answer me."

"Soon enough, Nat. Soon enough." Albright said, as he arranged the implements in a row. When he was done, he turned to the two and folded his hands in front of him.

"We're going to play a little game." He said walking towards the sideboard of the craft. He reached forth his hand and unlatched a life-preserver ring then tossed it out into the middle of the ocean where they had stopped. "It's called, 'Does True Love Really Exist'?."

"You're mad." Natalie scoffed.

"Oh no, Natalie. I'm not." He said. "I'm a scientist, and while I've been skeptical in the past, since all of my women have betrayed me, I'm a reasonable man and am willing to concede that perhaps it does. You see, Adrian… this is also a way to win an argument. Natalie says you love her and would do anything for her; but, I think you're just like all other men and a selfish brute. So, the only way to determine which one of us correct is to set up a little experiment." He reached in his pocket and withdrew the key and dangled it over the water.

Monk stood, forcing himself to focus even though his legs felt wobbly and he felt tingling feeling spreading within him from head to toe. He reached out his hand as if to grasp the key, though he was too far away and lowered it when Albright secured the key within his palm, looking smugly at the detective.

"What is the experiment?" Monk asked, as he watched Steven walk over to Natalie and pull her up by the arm. Monk moved forward to protect her but had to stop for a second and adjust when he began to see double.

Albright picked up the anchor with his hand and began to pull Natalie along with him. "When you hit your head just then, it left a nasty scrape. It was my medical opinion that it needed to be attended to and so that it wouldn't get infected, I have administered 500 milligrams of intravenous Tetracycline."

Natalie gasped and Monk's eyes grew wide.

"Oh! Steven!" she cried. "Please, God! No! He'll die!"

"Please God, no?" he asked. "Oh, sweet Natalie, I don't think he has to go so far as to pray to God for help. While I know he has a deadly allergy to that medication, thanks to you, the solution is right here on this yacht." He said, dragging her all the way to the side as she struggled.

Fear rose in Monk's heart as she neared the water's edge. Already, he had an inkling of what was to happen.

Albright took the key out of his pocket and set it on the sideboard and lifted Natalie up in his arms.

"NO!" Monk shouted. "Don't you touch her!"

"Touch her? I'm not going to touch her, Monk." He replied. "That would be no fun. No. I'm going to give you a choice. Your life, or hers. You see, on that counter over there, ready for your use, is some epinephrine. Fresh out of the package. Over here on this ledge is the key to Natalie's shackles. You get to choose."

"How dare you hurt him!" she screamed beating Albright's chest, even as Monk looked between the counter and the sideboard. Albright tossed Natalie into the water and then picked up the anchor with both hands and threw it into the water after her.

"Goodbye, Ms. Davenport." Steven said with a smirk as Natalie's body plummeted into the deep dark blue of the Ocean tide. Turning towards Monk, he continued. "Now, if you'd prefer…" he said.

He stopped speaking. There was no one there.

Hearing a splash, he turned again towards the water and saw that the key was gone. As he walked towards the edge he noted a pattern of concentric rings in the water as evidence that Monk had gone in.

"I'll be damned. I guess it does exist." Albright mused. "Congratulations, Nat. You won - if you call that winning." He laughed.

Turning around, he climbed into captain's chair and started the boat. Pulling away from where he had parked, he sped away and made his escape leaving Natalie and Adrian behind.