Chapter 12

Monk and Natalie had a surprised look on there face. "Oh my God!" Natalie said shocked. "Do you know who the killer is."

"Nope. That's why I'm here….again." Stottlemeyer said. Monk walked around the room trying to focus, while Natalie and Leland talked about the murder.

"Ok. Well let's just bring in the girlfriend again." Natalie said looking at Monk and then to Stottlemeyer.

"Randy's looking for her right now." Stottlemeyer said as he stood up and followed Monk. Stottlemeyer's cell phone began to ring and Monk and Natalie looked at him. "Stottlemeyer." he said when he opened the phone, "Alright." Stottlemeyer said and slammed the phone shut. "They can't find her. We don't know where she is."

"Wait, I just solved the case. Tell Randy to check the airport." Monk said. "I just remembered she had two airline tickets to Paris on her desk at work." Stottlemeyer got back in touch with Randy and told him. Stottlemeyer, Natalie, and Monk went down to the station. They took separate cars so Monk and Natalie had a chance to talk.

"So how did you solve the case?" Natalie asked him while they were stopped at a red light.

"I remembered she told Randy about her fiancé's insurance policy. It was over 2 million dollars. Now that wasn't a lot to her, considering her lifestyle, but it was a lot to Alex. He must have talked her into killing her fiancé, and when she got tired of Alex telling her what to do she killed him." Monk said.

"Wait, why did they change the shirt?"

"Ellen couldn't stand to see him like that. So she changed the shirt to hide the bullet wound."

"You figured all that out by remembering the insurance policy?" She asked him when they pulled into the parking spot.

"Well you know the whole gift/curse thing." He said looking out the window.

"You really are a genius, Adrian Monk." She smiled at him and he smiled back, and they both met each other in the middle for a kiss. Natalie turned around and opened the door.

"Natalie." Monk said to get her attention.

She turned back toward him, "Yeah?"

"I…I really do love you too." He said and she kissed him again, passionately.

"Come on. You've got a case to solve." Natalie said getting out of the car and running to him. She put her arm in his and looked up at him. "Adrian, Trudy would be so proud of you. "How do you know?" Monk asked looking at her.

"Because I'm proud of you. You know, what we were about to do an hour ago, maybe we should wait. I don't want to take a chance and risk everything we have." Natalie said as she took her arm out of his.

"I think you're right." Monk said. "I was thinking…maybe we could tell Leland and Randy about us now. So there won't be any secrets."

"Are you sure? That's great because now I can do this." She grabbed him by his jacket collar and pulled him in for a huge kiss as soon as they got to Disher's desk.

"Uh, Monk." Stottlemeyer smiled. They let go of each other and Monk summed up the case. Randy took Ellen back to her holding cell and Stottlemeyer pulled Monk and Natalie into his office. "So…uh…you two are…"

"Yeah." Monk and Natalie said at the same time. They looked at each other and held hands.

"Well I'm proud of you." Stottlemeyer said as he patted Monk on the back. "Have fun." he told Natalie.