"Business Partner?!" Natalie said as soon as the door shut. "Since when am I your 'business partner'?"
"Since they said wives couldn't come. What was I supposed to say? This is my hottie pa-tottie?" Adrian replied.
"Oh, so now I'm some sort of cheap floozie you hang around?" she responded, getting more and more angry. "You could have said, 'this is Natalie, my Assistant. She travels with me."
"That's what I said." Adrian responded.
"That's not what you said" said Natalie as he opened the door and helped her with her jacket. "Business partner. Sounds like you're dealing with Wall Street rather than criminal case work."
"Well, I thought it sounded more professional." Adrian replied, pressing the elevator door. "Glad we're not very high up."
"Well, it's more professional than 'hottie pa-tottie'" she said as they stepped onto a waiting elevator.
Adrian started to put his arm around her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.
"What?! What did I do?!" he responded as the doors shut.
The President's personal chauffeur, Jack Hauser, picked them up in an armored limousine fit for a king. Schaeffer and Brown rode along and started a debriefing.
"The President is very interested in talking with you this morning because of the unfortunate incident involving his wife yesterday. We understand you were aboard the plane?"
"Yes, it was awful." Adrian responded. "The aide was so young."
"Yeah, she was. She hadn't been here but a few weeks. We just don't understand how this could have happened." Schaeffer said and then turned to Hauser – "Jack, can you let us off at the entrance by the lobby? Mr. Monk, Natalie, I'll have you all wait in the Roosevelt Room until the President is ready. He's getting his daily briefing from the chief of staff right now and shouldn't be long.
Hauser pulled the limo up to the lobby entrance where they were greeted by the President's chief of staff Paul Franklin. Stepping out of the limo as if onto the red carpet, Adrian and Natalie shook Franklin's hand (followed by a quick discreet scrub with wipes) and were guided through the lobby into the West Wing and Roosevelt room.
The Roosevelt room was a well-lit conference room that was regularly shown on television. This morning, it was empty, so Monk and Natalie had a look around. The décor was like that which one might see in the early 20th century with beautiful wood furniture, crown molding, and leather chairs surrounding a large rectangular table used when the legislative and executive branches were in conference with one another. Natalie sat to the side of the room and invited Adrian to sit next to her, but he was too busy taking in the sights. Oil paintings of Presidents and General Americana surrounded the room. There was a statue of an eagle and another one of a horse, a Frederic Remington original. A 19th century grandfather clock stood on the opposite wall from Natalie and when Adrian reached it, he looked at his own watch, opened the door, began adjusting the hands of the clock.
"Adrian! What are you doing!? Stop!" Natalie said.
"The clock is wrong." Adrian responded.
"It's their clock. Let it be wrong." Natalie retorted.
"They work for us, so it's our clock." Adrian said shutting the glass over the face of the clock.
He looked to the left and saw a Tiffany lamp adorned with crystal prisms and a sapphire colored amulet on top. He was examining each prism on the lamp when the door opened from the outer oval office and the secretary to the President, Mrs. Janet Leeweather bid them to come in.
"The President will see you now." said Janet.
Janet led them to the President's office and announced, "Mr. Adrian Monk and his partner, Natalie Albright to see you sir."
In addition to President, the chief of staff, Secretary of State Luis Fernandez an FBI Director Sharon Grier were all seated in a seating area in the middle of the office.
"So, this is the famous Adrian Monk" President John Barnsworth Stoddard said, greeting Adrian and Natalie warmly. "And this is…?"
"This is Natalie, Mr. President. Natalie Albright. She's my right hand. I couldn't make it without her." he said with a smile.
Stoddard took Natalie's hand and kissed it, much to Adrian's dislike. "I am very pleased to meet you Ms. Albright." he said as he took his seat. "Please, sit down."
Monk and Natalie both took seats in chairs across from the sofa as Adrian became fixated on two jars of candy sitting on the coffee table. One was about 1/3 full and the other about 2/3 full. He shifted his neck and shoulders and struggled to pay attention.
"Luis and Sharon, as I was telling you, Monk here has a reputation of being one of the best private detectives in the nation – really, the world." The President started.
"Mr. Monk, when I lived in Nevada, I was a member of a true crimes club and your work was always one of the most exciting things that we studied. You truly have a gift." he continued.
"And a curse." stated Adrian with a smile.
"Well. I'm sure you realize why I had you brought in today. What happened aboard Air Force Two has more implications than just those felt by my dear wife. Any time things appear unstable in this office, heads of state of various nations start getting nervous. We have trade deals and treaties in the works right now that threaten to be put on hold simply because various leaders are getting cold feet due to recent events. We've got to get this case solved as soon as possible for not only Gloria's sake but for the country." he said.
"How is Mrs. Stoddard?" Natalie asked.
"Shaken up a bit but handling it with all of the grace and decorum that you would expect." The President replied.
Stoddard met his wife when they were both in high school and married her shortly thereafter. Back in the day, Gloria was a beauty queen and today her appearance still outshined most women even half her age. Now in their sixties, the Stoddards were a picture-perfect story of a love that lasts; at least that is what the campaign ads emphasized. The reality was, they were friends and partners in a high society arrangement that suited them both. Coming from old money, there was little room in their lives for politics until the latter part of their marriage. John was never a Washington insider, but he was a patriot and wanted the country heading in the right direction.
"Monk, I would like you, along with the Secret Service, and Federal and Local law enforcement all on this case. My wife is innocent. But I'll have to admit, with many eyewitnesses seeing her holding the murder weapon, it doesn't look good. We didn't even know the girl. I had seen her maybe once, twice. There was absolutely no motive for us to go after her." Stoddard said.
Chief of Staff Franklin spoke up. "Sir, the news media is forming their own motives. They are quoting 'unnamed sources' as saying that you were having an affair with the girl."
"Preposterous!" said Stoddard. "I love my wife! If these attention whores in the media can't' get a news scoop they will make one up. Makes me sick."
"Mr. Monk, we interviewed the First Lady immediately after it happened, and we have preserved the scene exactly as she left it. We would like you to go with us to examine the crime scene and see if there is anything you can find that makes any sense." Said FBI Director Grier.
"Sure, Director Grier. Mr. President." Adrian leaned forward and took the lids off both candy dishes. He spoke as he poured candy from the fuller of the two into the less full until they were perfectly even. "It would be an honor for me to review this case." He said, looking the President in the eye with a smile.