"Should be any minute now," Adrian mused, leaning forward in the front passenger seat of Jonathan's rental car, his eyes locked in on the prison ahead of him. Sharona had received a call from Alice Courtright on the way back from Muir's Woods, in which the district attorney had agreed with the former detective's assessment about the gunshots on the tape. Thus, the order had been given to release Natalie from custody, and barring any last-minute changes, she would be walking out the door very soon.
The nurse was still on the phone with Francis in the back seat at the moment, now hanging up. "Lieutenant Francis says we're all good to go for tonight, Adrian," she told him, "He'll be by in a minute to give us a more complete rundown, but all the warrants and clearances were secured."
"Great, great," Adrian nodded softly, "With Powell likely standing behind Senator Harvey, we can't leave anything that'll leave open any loopholes for him to exploit in court."
"I made him double-promise they'd have Gail covered during this operation," Sharona continued, "They're going to..."
"Right there," Jonathan pointed hard from the driver's seat. Sure enough, Natalie was now exiting the prison, looking relieved to be free again. Her brother rapidly exited the car. "Nat, I'm so glad to see you," he raced to his sister and embraced her, "How are you doing?"
"OK, Jonathan. I'm so glad to see you too," Natalie hugged him in gratitude, "You don't know how good it feels to be a free person until you get arrested for something you didn't do."
"I'm sure. Monk found the critical evidence that proved it wasn't you, so the D.A. gave the release order," Jonathan told her.
"Good, good to see you, Natalie," Adrian exited the rental car himself and approached her, "I, I hope it wasn't too bad for you in there..."
"Not too bad, Mr. Monk. Thank you for looking until you found the proof it wasn't me," she hugged him as well despite his discomfort with this. "Now we have to find a way to put Harvey behind bars for good," she leaned back, an expression of iron determination growing on her face.
"We've got a plan. Sharona's sister's going under cover tonight; she's going to try and get Harvey to come to us and try to kill her. I hope you don't mind, we're going to use your house as the bait site..."
"Uh, isn't that dangerous?" Natalie frowned, visibly not convinced of the plan.
"Lieutenant Francis assured us he'll have the block locked down with undercover guys," Sharona assured her, climbing out of the car, "And don't worry, nothing's going to happen to your house; I made Gail promise she won't wreck anything in it. She's going to try and come on to Harvey at the rally he's got scheduled tonight at Levi's Stadium and see if he'll single her out to try and kill. If he takes the bait, the cops'll move in when..."
With a screeching of brakes, another car pulled up nearby-Brandon's car, Adrian recognized. The passenger door swung open. "I'd heard you were getting out," Julie slowly exited the car.
"You heard right. I...I don't know what else to say, honey, except I am so sorry for everything," Natalie fell penitently to her knees in front of her daughter, "More than words can say, I'm sorry I hurt your father and hurt you like that. I've been hurting inside every day of my life since I cut off the affair with Seymour Harvey, realizing what I'd done to you and your father. I know it's too late to make it right with him, but anything I can do to make it right with you..."
"Just so I know, Seymour Harvey was the only one? You didn't cheat with anyone else during the time you and Dad were married? I have to know for sure," Julie asked her firmly.
"No one else," Natalie shook her head, "It was like what Judge Rickover did to Trudy; he pulled me in-part of me resisted the whole time inside, you have to believe me on that-until he had me in his clutches..."
"And he...attacked you after you told him you wouldn't leave Dad for him?"
"Attacked...that's too light a word for what he did to me that night," Natalie shuddered at the mere thought of the horrific memory, "But even when he did his worst to me, I told him I wasn't leaving your father for anything. I probably should have told you everything at some point, and I'm so sorry for that, beyond..."
"Mom," Julie bent down to her level and took her hands, "You don't have to keep apologizing to me anymore. I understand more now, about how brutal it was for you. I was out of line too; I shouldn't have slapped you like that, and shouldn't have said a lot of the things I did that night. My life wouldn't be worth anything if my mother wasn't in it..."
"It's all right, honey. You didn't do anything wrong either," breaking into a huge smile to know she was forgiven, Natalie hugged her daughter close, "Let's just move forward as best we can from here."
"Just promise me one thing," Julie pulled back from her.
"What?" Natalie's face crashed in worry.
"You'll get Senator Harvey in jail for life if he did what he did to you."
"We will, I promise that. Won't we, Mr. Monk?" she glanced up at her employer.
"If tonight's plan works, we will," Adrian agreed. He then noticed Francis' car coming towards the prison as well. "Good morning everyone-good to see somebody's out of jail," the lieutenant greeted Natalie warmly.
"No one more than me," she told him, "I heard everything's set?"
"It is," Francis informed her, "Jonathan's wife here will go to the senator's rally tonight at seven. No electronics are allowed in the stadium for security purposes, so we can only hope everything goes to plan once she's inside. Once she's in, she'll register as wanting to meet the senator after the event, and give him your address-it is all right if we use it, right?"
"I guess so," Natalie gave an uncertain nod.
"If all goes well, we'll have him in custody, caught red-handed for attempted first degree murder. In the meantime, Monk, a couple bits of good news," Francis turned back to the former detective, "I'll give the best news first: the state appeals court overturned the restraining orders an hour ago. So whatever we do tonight is now fully legal."
"Wonderful, wonderful," Adrian nodded in relief that they'd turned the tables on Powell, "And?"
My guys checked out the parking garage across from Charlotte Harvey's law firm. Sure enough, we found two shell casings from an assault rifle underneath the wall on the top level, directly across from where Charlotte was shot. Thing is, the guys in Forensics matched them to a rifle that was supposedly used in a slaying in Clarendon Heights three weeks ago-only that rifle disappeared from the evidence room over the weekend."
"How the hell does the department let evidence walk out like that, especially deadly weapons!?" Sharona scowled at him.
"They don't know either; they swear they all saw it there right before it disappeared. There's got to be some explanation, and we'll find that out eventually. In the meantime," Francis turned back to Natalie, "Do you remember seeing or hearing anything from that parking garage either before or after Charlotte was shot?"
Natalie thought hard. "I heard the gunshots, and they seemed to be from the garage's direction, but I didn't see anyone up there. Not that I had reason to with my focus on Charlotte in the alley. And have you found out who the other person with my coat was!?"
"Also working on it. Hopefully our questions will be answered tonight. Also should mention, Clyde the coroner called back with his results on Harvey's wife after she was exhumed. We might be on to something with her too; her neck was smashed in like the other victims..."
"Exactly the same?" Natalie inquired.
"Exactly," the lieutenant nodded, "So I think we can chalk her up to being one of the senator's victims too."
"I think I know what happened there," Adrian said, "Mrs. Harvey must have figured out by then exactly who Charlotte's mother was an how she'd been born. She must have angrily confronted her husband about the affair during that drive. Seymour knew his career would be sunk if she went public-she probably threatened to do so-so he deliberately crashed the car in an isolated spot, killed her before she could recover, and staged it to look like an accident."
"Makes sense," Francis agreed, "All the more reason for us to succeed tonight if we can."
"Well in the meantime, if you don't need my sister or niece right now, I'd like to go have brunch with them," Jonathan asked the lieutenant, "If we're still going to have a wedding-we are, right?" he asked Julie.
"We sure are," she nodded, beaming at Brandon inside his car.
"Well, I'd like to know all about everything to expect there, and to meet the groom-to-be," Jonathan waved at Brandon. He and his sister walked back to their rental car and drove off, Brandon and Julie following after them. Adrian smiled to watch them go. "It's a load off my chest to know Julie forgives her," he confessed to Sharona and Francis, "Hopefully nothing will come between them again after this."
"Here's hoping," Sharona crossed her fingers, "In the meantime, we still have Charlotte's killer to find-do you think Harvey did it himself to discredit Natalie...?"
"No," Adrian shook his head, "He loved Charlotte more than anything; he'd never pull the trigger on her like that. It was something else-and I do have a theory..."
"What?" Francis grilled him.
"I'd like to hold off until we get more proof," Adrian told him, "I guess, then, we should go set up at Ambrose's for tonight, then?"
"Show me how you switch this thing on again?" Ambrose asked Brandon that evening in his living room.
"You need to take a few steps into the 21st Century," Brandon teased him. He bent down over the laptop that had been set up on Ambrose's writing table and typed in a few instructions that brought up a screen showing Stottlemeyer, Disher, and Francis inside the latter's car in front of the Teegers' house. "We're here," the younger man declared.
"We see you, hello," Disher waved to him.
"All quiet so far, Randy?" Adrian leaned close to the screen, as did the rest of his inner circle, who'd gathered to watch the proposed operation go down.
"Gail called that she was leaving Levi's Stadium twenty minutes ago. She'll call again when she's just about here, and then we'll switch her camera on," the Summit chief informed him.
"And you have cops all around the block, right?" Cheryl grilled him, "Not that I want to sound like a worrier, but I want my girl safe..."
"Two units are ready to move in at a moment's notice, Mrs. Fleming. Nothing's going to happen to your daughter," Francis assured her.
"Are you sure I can't pack bigger heat for this, Charlie!?" a disappointed Gladys Francis leaned over the back seat, clutching her skeet rifle.
"Much as I'd love for you to, Ma, you're still technically on suspension for that incident with the land mine all those years ago; we'd both end up in hot water," her son shook his head, "You're important enough as it is, though, as the emergency backup; if he makes a break for it and gets past the officers on duty, you tackle him or detain him until we can arrest him."
"Don't worry, Charlie," Mrs. Francis gave him a thumbs-up, "He's not getting past me if it comes to that."
"So you all know," Alice Courtright, whom Francis had asked to come as well to officially oversee the operation, also leaned forward with a frown, "I am taking a big risk authorizing this. If anything goes wrong, it could be my career, as well as those of everyone here, particularly with several participants here not active San Francisco police officers. So I hope you're all right about this."
"So do we," Stottlemeyer nodded softly. "This should be her now," he noticed a pair of headlights pulling into a spot up the street. With a clicking sound, another screen popped up on the laptop, showing the view out the windshield of that car. "I'm here," Gail announced climbing out of the car, "I think he took the bait."
"How did it go?" Jonathan asked her.
"Oh, Seymour Harvey, I think you're, like, the totally coolest politician in the whole world, and I totally love everything about you," Gail declared in a fake Valley girl accent that cracked half of the laptop's viewers up, "I felt looking like a loyal ditz would lure him to me, and I think from his expression that he bought it."
"No issues getting here?" Cheryl asked her daughter as Gail withdrew Natalie's keys from her pocket and unlocked the Teegers' front door.
"Nope. If he does bite, he'll probably be here in about a half hour-do you usually leave your closet wide open like that, Teeger?" Gail asked in confusion as she turned on the lights. For the closet door was wide open-suspiciously so, Adrian thought.
"No, I don't," Natalie frowned, "That must be how my coat got out there-check the rest of the house to see if somebody broke in..."
Gail bustled into the kitchen and switched on the lights there. "Right there," she pointed at the back window, where Adrian could see the glass shattered, "And it looks like they cut themselves going in and out; there's a good amount of blood here."
"Right, once we're done with this, we'll have to check that out," Stottlemeyer said firmly, "OK, I guess we wait and see if Harvey comes."
"OK," Gail plopped down on the sofa and turned on the TV. Adrian sighed to see it was another episode of Incredibly Stupid Celebrity Stunts, with the current participant now driving a car off a cliff into a river filled with alligators for reasons beyond comprehension. He blocked out the TV and gazed at the rest of the Teegers' living room, hoping Harvey would show up.
Time passed. And passed. And passed some more. No one showed up. The ten o'clock news ran, followed by a sitcom rerun, and then the news at eleven. Snoring soon filled Ambrose's house as Becky and Connor, who at first had been quite interested in the police work going on, fell asleep on the couch. Many of the rest of the attendees were visibly getting bored, Adrian noted, and under the circumstances, he couldn't blame them. Finally, at quarter after eleven, Courtright checked her watch and shook her head. "All right, Lieutenant, I don't think he's coming," she informed Francis on the laptop, "Time to pack it in. We tried."
"I guess so," Francis seemed resigned to this, "It was a bit of a long shot anyway. OK boys, time to pack up," he radioed the rest of his men, "We gave the..."
"Hold it, wait," Disher pointed up the street. What was clearly a limousine was pulling into another open space. "This might be him," Francis realized. "Scratch that, guys; hold your position for now. Looks like the rooster's entering the hen house."
"That's him all right," Natalie pointed at the screen. And indeed, it was Seymour Harvey, striding towards the Teeger house now. "Get ready, Gail, here he comes. You all set?"
"I am," Gail assured her, fiddling with the collar to her turtleneck, which shook the picture on the camera in her necklace. She got up and walked towards the door when it rang. "Wow, Senator Harvey, this is like, totally a surprise," she exclaimed in her Valley girl accent upon seeing him outside.
"I'm sure it is, but lately, I've taken to traveling around after rallies to meet the voters, to get to know them better, and since your name was on my list, I figured I'd drop in. It's...Harvey pulled out a paper and stared at it, "...Jennifer Ryan, I guess?"
"Jennifer Ryan's my name all right; don't go around overusing it," Gail told him with a grin. Adrian grinned himself. It was just like Gail to get back at Jenna Ryan for trying to set her up by using her name for this; if the senator was to attack her, he would thus in effect be attacking Jenna herself.
"Well, Jennifer, is it OK if I come in for a moment? I'd like to ask you a few things about my policies and how I'm going to make California better as governor," Harvey asked her.
"Fabuloso. Come on in, Mr. Future Governor," Gail waved him inside.
"Good. Wait outside, Ted," Harvey called to his bodyguard-a man Adrian could see was basically the same height and build as the senator. A grin crossed his face. He had an idea how the previous murder had been carried out now. The senator's face furled as he examined the living room. "Have you lived here long, Mrs. Ryan?" he asked Gail.
"About ten years, why?"
"Oh nothing, it's just...I knew someone who lived in a house just like this once. It was pretty close to this address too, I think. Oh well," Harvey shrugged, "Would it be OK if I had a drink and snack, if you have anything, Mrs. Ryan? I actually didn't eat before the rally."
"Oh certainly. Let me see what I have," Gail bustled into the kitchen. "I've got sodas, sandwiches, crackers, a slice of cake. Any of that sound good?"
"Actually, I've changed my mind; I'll skip the meal, Jennifer," Harvey said with a sinister edge. When Gail turned back around the face him, Adrian saw a dark look had come into the senator's eyes, as if an entirely new persona had risen into place inside his head. "Here it comes," he said worriedly, "Everyone get ready to move in..."
"Is something wrong, Senator? You look like totally possessed," Gail asked him innocently, although Adrian could hear the nervousness in her voice.
"Oh, everything's going to be just fine in a minute, Jennifer," Harvey drew a wrench-one Adrian could see was stained with fresh blood, which gave him a strong suspicion about why Harvey had been late arriving-from under his coat. In a flash, he rushed Gail, seized her by the throat, and hurled her to the floor. "That's it! Execute! Execute!" a horrified Courtright shouted to the police.
"Go, go, go!" Francis barked to his fellow cops, who swarmed out of their cars and rushed the Teeger house, pushing Ted aside when the bodyguard tried to block them. The lead cops battered the door down in a flash-and not a moment too soon, for Harvey was smashing the wrench hard into Gail's throat now. "Police, freeze!" the lead officer bellowed out loud. Harvey turned pale, dropped the wrench, and raced for the back door, throwing it open...
"DON'T MOVE, DIRTBAG!" Gladys Francis screeched, shoving her skeet gun into the senator's face, bringing him to an abrupt stop. Francis, who had apparently been dragged along by his mother to the back door, stared down at her in wonder, then grinned and turn his expression to Harvey. "What can I say, Senator? Stop, or my mom will shoot," he told Harvey.
"This, this isn't what it looks like...!" Harvey stammered.
"Seymour Harvey, you're under arrest for attempted first degree murder," Francis seized the senator's arms and handcuffed him, "You have the right to remain silent; if you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..."
He led Harvey away, his mother trailing behind with her skeet gun still leveled at the senator's back. Disher raced into and made a beeline for Gail. "Gail, are you are right!?" he dove down to her level.
"Just stunned; he swung that thing a little harder than I thought, but the protection worked," Gaill pulled down the turtleneck, revealing a large protective padded collar around her neck. "You can rest easy now, Teeger," she took off her camera and held it up to her face, "We got him."
"Yeah," Natalie nodded, looking quite relieved, "This should be the beginning of the end if everything goes right..."
"I demand to speak to my lawyer right now!" Harvey raged down at the police station a half hour later.
"Turn to the side, please," the police photographer demanded to him. Scowling, Harvey obliged. The photographer snapped his side shot. "OK, we're good," he told the policemen in the room, who hustled the senator out. "I know you're out there, Courtright!" he bellowed to the district attorney, who was indeed standing with Adrian and the rest of his core team behind the two-way mirror looking into the photography room, "I'm going to have your job in a heartbeat for this, and Monk's head on a plate, because this is harassment pure and simple...!"
He was carried away to be fingerprinted. "Good job, everyone," Courtright congratulated "Team Monk," "We've got him pretty much red-handed."
"Of course, there's the matter of overcoming his very good attorney now," Disher pointed out with a frown as they exited back into the precinct.
"Well Monk here says he knows how the senator did it before, didn't you?" Courtright asked the former detective.
"I believe I do," Adrian nodded, "And I can prove it in court. I'll just need a few more..."
The precinct door slammed open, and a furious Powell stormed in, April his aide trailing behind him, half-dressed and looking frustrated to be up that late. "All right, let me just say all of you have stooped lower tonight than I thought you ever could," Powell snarled icily at Adrian and his team, "First of all, you blatantly all disregarded the crystal-clear restraining orders against you..."
"You must have really missed the boat today, Harrison. Those orders were overturned this morning. Read it and weep," Stottlemeyer triumphantly held up his copy of the overturning order. Powell snatched it off him, scanned it over, scowled, and flung it away practically into April's face. "OK, even with this brief respite, the fact still is, you arrested Seymour Harvey in a textbook case of entrapment, you hear me, textbook entrapment!" he practically spat at them all, "And no court in the civilized world is going to hold up this arrest once I point this out..."
"Al the warrants were fully signed, Powell; the operation was done within the full legality of the law," Courtright told him firmly, "You have no case for entrapment."
"And you have no case to hold my client at all. April!" Powell gestured at her. April fumbled around in her purse for a sheet of paper, which she thrust into his hand-too rapidly, and thus slicing it open. "Ow! Damn it, April, can't you do anything right!?" Powell raged at her, grabbed several tissues off a nearby desk and pressing them against his hand to stop the bleeding, "I swear you're the most useless aide I've ever hired! I should have fired you weeks ago...!"
"Hey stop yelling at me! I've done everything you asked for since you hired me!" April shouted back, her face stuck between rage and tears.
"You want that law degree, no more mistakes, any mistakes, period!" Powell threatened her, "In the meantime," he shoved a paper into Courtright's hand, "A writ directly from the attorney general ordering Seymour Harvey immediately be released now, under penalty of arrest. You have to abide by it."
"We'll abide by it, Powell, but the senator will be nonetheless kept under heavy watch until his trial date to prevent fleeing, and there's nothing you can do to change that," Courtright told him haughtily, "He was caught red-handed..."
"After you conspired with Monk to set him up," Powell pointed accusingly at Adrian, "All to burnish your career, right Alice? Latch on to the washed-up, has-been media hero, because that's all Monk is, and go after a big easy target while using his propaganda machine to bolster your so-called case. Well let me remind you, you are currently oh for eight against me, and about to go oh for nine, and when you lose this time, I'm pressing for you to be disbarred for violating my client's civil rights!"
"What's the matter, Powell? Scared that there's no way you can win when your client was caught in the act of attempted murder?" Sharona taunted him, "Afraid the rest of your so-called record will go right out the window?"
"I'd watch your attitude with me, Fleming! In a court of law, I'm God, and I can destroy anyone I want when I want," Powell threatened her, "So try using your head, otherwise known as the big lump about two inches above your...!"
"Hey, hey, don't you threaten my wife!" Disher shouted at Powell, stepping protectively in front of Sharona.
"And don't you dare threaten me either!" the attorney shouted back.
"Go ahead and do your worst, Powell," Sharona was not phased at all, "There may be no crying in baseball, but when we get through with you and Senator Harvey, you're going to be doing an awful lot of crying in that courtroom."
"I don't think so. Teeger," Powell spun to Natalie, "I'm giving you the last chance here. Either tell your boss to call it off right now and publicly admit before the cameras he set this whole thing up, or I destroy you, him, and everyone either of you has ever known in that courtroom. I am ten thousand percent dead serious. Your call, right now."
"Go to hell, Powell," she emphatically shot him down, "Your client sexually assaulted me two decades ago; he's going to face the music for that and his other sins whether you like it or not."
"I highly doubt he did, and even if he did, it's well past the statutes of limitations now. And if that's your call, so be it. But so you know, it's going to be open season in the courtroom," Powell thrust a finger into her face, "Every single solitary detail of the affair-which my sources tell me you willingly initiated-will be dragged out and paraded before the public. You won't be able to show your face in public again when I get through with you. But it won't matter, because you and Monk here are now going to jail for life. And my previous offer is no longer available; I'm going to settle for nothing less than destroying you, all of you, for good..."
"Lieutenant," Stan now came running up, "Thought you should know, we found another dead body on Ashbury, Mrs. Melanie Hazzard. She also attended the senator's rally tonight."
"I see," Francis nodded, "That explains why the senator had a bloody wrench; he made another 'house call' before he met up with us, right Monk?"
"I believe so," Adrian agreed, "Same manner of death as the other victims?" he asked Stan.
"Yep, seems to be."
"OK, you know the procedure, Stan, let's have a full and complete investigation..." Francis started to tell him.
"Yeah sure. You can't full me with another obvious setup," Powell snarled at them all, "You arranged all this right now to try and frame the senator. Well, it's not going to work. I'll see you all in court, where I'm going to enjoying completely destroying all of you. Let's go, April," he barked to his aide, who gave him a dark scowl, but turned and followed him out. Powell tossed the bloodied tissues into the nearest garbage can as he left...
...which clicked something in Adrian's mind. "I've got it," he declared, breaking into a large grin, "I think I know exactly how this whole case went down."
"You do? Great," Natalie commended him, "How?"
"First, somebody save those tissues," Adrian pointed to the garbage can, "Get them bagged and into storage..."
"Why?" Courtright asked him. Adrian leaned her close and whispered into her ear. Courtright broke into a large smile of her own. "I've been hoping to beat Powell conclusively for years; this just might be the way to do it. Thanks, Monk," she beamed. "Lieutenant," she turned to Francis, "see if you can get me video footage from the evidence room..."