Alright so we only have one more chapter after this woo hoo! So enjoy it while you can.


Chapter Seven: Suspects and Recordings

Monk

Mr. Monk, Natalie, Captain Stottlemeyer, and Randy Disher walked inside the pharmacy. They were immediately greeted by a man at the counter.

"Mr. Sharpona?" Stottlemeyer immediately asked.

"Yes?" Al said.

"I'm Captain Stottlemeyer head of the homicide department of the San Fransisco Police Department. This is my partner Lt. Randy Disher and this is Adrian Monk and his assistant Natalie Teeger. We would like to ask you a couple of questions concerning the murder of Monica Renalds."

"I thought it was an accident."

"It was definitely murder," Monk said, "You were the only one that wasn't at the party."

"That's correct. Someone had to work at the pharmacy in case of an emergency."

"Did you volunteer?"

"Yes...does that matter?"

"Maybe..." Monk said, "Why didn't you go to the party?"

"Like I said someone needed to keep this place running."

"What was the party for?" Monk asked.

"She got a promotion," Randy said, looking down at his notes.

"Were you up for that promotion?" Monk asked.

"Yes but I don't see what that has to do with this..."

"That's what we call a motive Al," Stottlemeyer said.

"I was here, I answered the phone. You can check the records if you like."

"And we'll do that. Thank you for your time," Stottlemeyer said as they all began to leave the room.

"Oh wait, I would like to buy these sleeping pills," Natalie said as she placed the package on the counter.

"You can't sleep?" Monk asked.

"They're not for me. I figured I'd slip it in Shawn's pineapple upside down cake. This should knock him out," Natalie said. As soon as Natalie finished making her purchase, the four walked out together. As if on cue, Natalie's phone immediately began to ring. "Hi Edward."

"Hello Natalie. How is the case going?" L asked.

"He's the guy," Monk said.

"Who is?"

"Al Sharpona."

"But Monk we have the phone records. There's no way he could have done it."

"He's the guy," Monk said again, "I'm not positive how he did it but I'll figure it out by tonight."

"Shawn and Gus have a suspect as well. Things are moving very smoothly. I should be able to leave in two days," L said flatly on the other line.

"It's too bad we don't have a more difficult case," Randy said.

"Yes. It is unfortunate but we can't decide which cases come up," L replied, "Perhaps I'll see more if I come to visit again. But I must go; Shawn and Gus are turning up the music again."

"See you later at Natalie's house," Monk said. Natalie snapped her phone shut.

"Why are we meeting at my house? Why can't we meet at your house?" Natalie asked.

"Because of Shawn and Gus. They can't be in my house."

"Well you're coming over to clean now."

"Gladly."

Psych

Shawn, Gus, L, and Watari all sat scrunched up next to each other on the couch. Ms. Collins, the victim's friend, was sitting across from them.

"So why are you here exactly? You weren't clear on the phone," Ms. Collins asked.

"We're with the health department and we believe that your apartment might be infested with kinjoos," Shawn said.

"Kinjoos?"

"Yes they're little monkey mouse like creatures that are native to this area."

"I've never heard of such a thing." Shawn looked down at the girl's finger noticing an imprint where a ring should be.

"That's because they're rare. We've never seen anything like this. They tend to like small shiny objects such as a ring," Shawn continued, "Have you been missing any such objects?"

"Yeah but I found out who stole it," Ms. Collins said.

"What do you mean by that?" Gus asked.

"My ring was stolen from my house a few days ago along with other belongings. I found out who took it the next day. My friend's boyfriend! Can you believe that? What kind of jerk does something like that? The only reason I found out was because she recognized it thank God. He's lucky I didn't press charges."

"Well, we're just going to check your apartment for a few minutes and then we'll be on our way. Simba, Timon, Pumba let's go," Shawn said as he got up. Gus, L, and Watari followed accordingly.

"Okay so the guy takes from the friend's house and she found out about it," Gus whispered.

"Right which means she must have found out about his criminal record," Shawn said.

"And she probably threatened him."

"I smell a motive. Okay, here's what we're going to do. L's going to call Six Flags in his scrambled alien voice thing and tell them that we need their security tapes for evidence or something..."

"Why can't you just get them yourself?" L asked.

"Because I have to pretend that I never saw the tapes. So you'll call them and get the tapes for the other day at Six Flags and we'll check this guy out and see where he was when the accident happened."

"Don't you think they'll be suspicious that you're asking for a specific day of tapes that a murder occurred on?" L asked.

"See that's the brilliant thing. You're going to ask for more than one day's worth of tapes. Just tell them it's for a drug deal thing or something. Now I suggest we all go back to Natalie's house and have some pineapple upside down cake." L nodded.

"Watari, can you get me those tapes?" L asked his companion.

"I'll get right on it," Watari responded.

"Are you finished inspecting?" Ms. Collins asked from the other room.

"Good news there are no kinjoos anywhere!" Shawn shouted back.

At the Teeger House

"Shawn he's on the tape! There's no way he could have done it!" Gus exclaimed as the two sat on Natalie's couch looking at the television screen. Sure enough Jimmy Posito was clearly visible in the security camera footage.

"No, he definitely did it, there has to be some sort of trick or something," Shawn said.

"Mr. Monk his voice is on the recording. He couldn't have done it," Natalie said.

"He's the guy. Without a doubt," Monk responded.

"Is there any more cake?" L asked.

"You had the last piece. All that's left is the pineapple upside down cake and it still isn't finished," Julie said.

"Well it would have been done by now if someone didn't have to be completely obsessed with a children's toy," Natalie said.

"Would you like me to buy more sweets L?" Watari asked.

"NO! He can wait ten more minutes," Natalie said yet she was completely forgetting that she had drugged the pineapple upside down cake so that Shawn would sleep tonight.

"Dude how are we supposed to figure this out? I just want to go home," Shawn whined.

"You're having a hard time figuring yours out? Mine is more difficult than yours," Monk said.

"What? No it's not. All the guy did was use the same thing that Ferris Bueller did in Ferris Bueller'sDay Off. Everyone who's seen that movie could figure it out," Shawn said.

"What?" Monk said, "Yours isn't hard at all. Look at the zeros in the corner of each tape. He made a fake tape and instead of using zeros he used the letter "O"," Monk said.

"What are you talking about?" Shawn said.

"What are youtalking about?" Monk asked. The two were suddenly interrupted by a ding.

"Oh look the pineapple upside down cake is ready!" Shawn said as he began to take it out of the little oven, "L are you a fan of delicious flavor?" He now set the plate down.

"This doesn't looked cook," L said.

"Really? I put it in for twenty hours," Shawn said, "So anyway let's go over how each crime was committed shall we?"

"And tomorrow we'll go over to both cases and then we're going home," Gus said.

"Okay but first I have an appointment with Dr. Kroger tomorrow," Monk said.

"Right so all of you will have to come with us and wait in the waiting room," Natalie said, "Is that a problem?"

"It won't be a problem at all. We can have our plane leaving that afternoon," Watari said.

"Oh come on you guys aren't going to hang out in Santa Barbara for a few days? Come on L you know you want to," Shawn said. "L?" Unfortunately, the detective could not answer because he had eaten the entire pineapple upside down cake which meant he was fast asleep. It was then that Natalie remembered that she had slipped sleeping medication in the cake just before the four had arrived.