Mr. Monk Gets Even (18 page)

“I thought it was,” Stottlemeyer said. “Clearly I was wrong, and I take full responsibility for that.”

“As you should,” Fellows said. “We don’t think Biederback could have escaped without help.”

“That much is obvious,” Stottlemeyer said. “We know at least one of his accomplices was Stella Chaze, who—”

“Blew herself up when you went to question her,” Fellows said, interrupting him. “Taking what she knew with her to hell. From what I understand, you made her think we had more evidence against her than we actually had.”

“I might have exaggerated the strength of our case,” Stottlemeyer said.

“Exaggerated her right into suicide,” Fellows said. “Thus losing the best lead we appear to have.”

Monk spoke up, but he wouldn’t look directly at Fellows. “That isn’t an accurate chronology of events. Besides, she’d already set up the mechanism for the blast before we arrived.”

“But it was your questions that encouraged her to go into the kitchen, under the guise of getting cigarettes, and set her plan in motion,” Fellows said.

“We don’t know that,” Monk said.

“Here is what we do know,” Fellows said, turning his gaze back to Stottlemeyer. “You are upside down on your mortgage and have been desperately trying to renegotiate your loan without success. You are behind on your alimony and child support payments and your credit cards are maxed out.”

Monk looked at Stottlemeyer. “I didn’t know that.”

“And I wish you didn’t know, because it’s none of your business.” Stottlemeyer’s face reddened with anger and he turned to Fellows. “Are you insinuating that Dale paid me off?”

“I’m not insinuating a thing, Captain,” Fellows said. “I am stating a fact. One hundred thousand dollars was wired into your account from the Cayman Islands within hours of Biederback’s escape. We know that you are the inside man.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Mr. Monk and the Call

“H
ow dumb do you think I am?” Stottlemeyer asked.

“I suppose we’re about to find out,” Fellows said.

“This is so obviously a setup that it’s laughable,” Stottlemeyer said, shaking his head. “If I was on the take, do you really think I’d have Biederback put money in my account hours after his escape?”

Fellows shrugged. “Maybe you didn’t. Maybe you had some very clever plan to make sure we never discovered the payoff. Maybe this is Dale double-crossing you for putting him in prison in the first place.”

“Yes, I did. I put him there,” Stottlemeyer said. “So think about it. Why would I help Dale, a killer I put away and who once framed my friend Monk for murder, escape from prison?”

“For an end to your financial problems and a chance to give some misery to your so-called friend,” Fellows said, tipping his head toward Monk, “who has decisively proved, day after day, year after year, how brilliant a detective he is and how mediocre you are.”

Stottlemeyer took a step toward Fellows and immediately the two uniformed cops moved protectively to the deputy chief’s side.

“If my right arm weren’t in a cast,” Stottlemeyer said, “you’d be on the floor right now looking for your teeth.”

“And you would have thanked him later,” Monk said to Fellows. “Because then you could have had your teeth replaced. You still can, by the way. You don’t have to wait for someone to hit you.”

Fellows ignored Monk’s comment and addressed Stottlemeyer. “You’re suspended, pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation. Leave your badge and your gun on the desk, take your personal items, and go. These officers will escort you out of the building and to your car.”

“You can’t do this,” Monk said, talking to Fellows but looking at some indefinite point over the man’s shoulder. “Don’t you see? This is exactly what Dale wants. It’s another diversion, a blatant attempt to distract us from focusing our full attention on the hunt for him.”

“We aren’t distracted at all,” Fellows said. “I’m placing Lieutenant Devlin in charge as acting captain and putting all of the department’s resources on this, including you.”

“I work with Captain Stottlemeyer,” Monk said, “or I don’t work at all.”

“Your contract is with the San Francisco Police Department, so you work for me,” Fellows said. “Secondly, we both know you will obsess over this investigation until you find him, so you might as well get paid while you’re doing it.”

“He’s right, Monk,” Stottlemeyer said. “You walk, and Dale wins. Work with Devlin and bring the bastard in.”

“You can’t just give up, Leland,” Monk said.

“Who said anything about giving up?” Stottlemeyer said, then looked at Fellows. “You’ll catch Dale and I’ll sue the department.”

“Good luck with that,” Fellows said. “You’ll be doing it from prison.”

Stottlemeyer shook his head and went into his office, followed closely by the two officers.

Devlin watched as Stottlemeyer put his gun and badge on the desk, grabbed his jacket, and walked out, accompanied by the officers. Monk shook his head.

“You’re making a big mistake, sir,” Devlin said to Fellows. “Captain Stottlemeyer is right. It’s an obvious frame.”

“You let me worry about that. You find Dale Biederback,” Fellows said and then looked at Monk, who wouldn’t look back at him. “What is your problem? Why won’t you look at me?”

“He can’t because your teeth are crooked and you are a pompous idiot,” Julie said. “What I want to know is how someone as dumb as you ever became a deputy chief.”

“I’ll have you know I have degrees in accounting and criminology,” Fellows said. He turned to Devlin. “Who is this kid?”

Julie snapped her fingers. “Over here, Chief. This kid is your boss, a taxpaying citizen of the city of San Francisco. Adrian Monk is going to find Dale Biederback and when he does, he’s going to hold a press conference telling the public how he did it and how you not only had nothing to do with it but aided and abetted Dale with your toxic stupidity. So if I were you, I’d start thinking about what your new career is going to be.”

Devlin bit her lower lip, holding back a laugh, but Monk was ashen, staring at Julie as if her head had spun completely around on her neck and she’d projectile vomited in the chief’s face.

Fellows glared at Julie and pursed his lips as he tried to think of something to say. Instead he looked back at Devlin, told her to keep him informed on her progress, and then walked out.

Monk faced Julie. “That was disrespectful and rude.”

“It was wonderful,” Devlin said. “You’re my new hero.”

I wasn’t there to hear it myself, but I wish I had been. Because at that moment, she became my hero, too. I like to think I would have had the guts to say the same thing to Fellows if I’d been there, but I’m glad that my daughter did.

“I’m mortified,” Monk said. “The man has hideous teeth, and that deserves our pity, but he’s deputy chief of the San Francisco Police Department, and that demands our respect.”

“Respect is something that’s earned, and he hasn’t earned mine,” Julie said. “I don’t have to tolerate his ignorance.”

“Sadly, I do,” Devlin said.

“How could he have a degree in criminology and still think Leland is on the take?”

“I don’t know, but the best way to help the captain is to find Dale. I’m open to any ideas. What have you got, Monk? What have you deduced from a wrinkled shirt, a bread crumb, or a fleck of dandruff? I don’t care how wild, unsupportable, or outrageous your theory is. I’m ready to run with it.”

Monk lowered his head and slumped his shoulders. “I’ve got nothing.”

“Then I need you to pick up the slack on our open murder investigations while I concentrate on finding Dale,” she said. “What have you got on Cleve Dobbs and our three unsolved cases?”

In all the excitement, Julie had forgotten all about the murders and Dobbs and, from the look on Monk’s face, so had he. Then again, it had been only a day since their confrontation with Dobbs and a lot had happened since.

“I’ve got nothing,” Monk said.

“That is not the Adrian Monk that I know,” Devlin said.

“I feel the same way,” Monk said.

• • •

Monk was determined to make a discovery that would move the search forward, so while Devlin and the other detectives pursued all previously mentioned avenues of investigation, he rearranged all the things on the dry-erase board by subject, type of item (photo, diagram, blueprint, sketch, witness statement, et cetera), color, and size.

Devlin allowed him to do this for two reasons. One, she knew it might help him spot some obscure detail he’d missed before, and two, it kept him occupied while she not only tried to run the search for Dale but also absorb all of Stottlemeyer’s responsibilities as well.

Julie went out in the hall and tried to call me to bring me up to speed on the latest developments, but I was already en route to San Francisco, so she called Ellen Morse at her store and filled her in.

When Julie was finished, Ellen was quiet for a long moment before speaking. “Can I talk you out of quitting for a couple of weeks, at least until Dale Biederback and Cleve Dobbs are behind bars?”

“No, you can’t. I think quitting when Mom arrives for the wedding is perfect timing,” Julie said. “Having his old assistant back, even temporarily, will soften the blow.”

“And what happens when Natalie leaves again next week?”

“Monk will have to adapt.”

“To your leaving, his brother’s leaving, and Natalie’s leaving. He’ll be all alone.”

“You’ll be here.”

“But I represent a change, a big one, and he’s going to have to deal with plenty of that as it is.”

“He has a good shrink.”

“That’s cold,” Ellen said.

“My mom always put his needs first, before her own, sometimes even before mine. I love her, but I am not going to be like that. I am not his wife, his daughter, or his caregiver. I love Mr. Monk, but I have to look out for myself, too.”

“I know and I’m sorry for what I said. It’s just that I’m worried about him.”

“There’s a good side to what happened today.”

“I don’t see it,” she said.

“Leland is free now, so I’ll talk to him and see if he’s willing to fill in as Mr. Monk’s temporary associate. It will do them both some good.”

“That’s a great idea.”

“Yeah, to you and me,” Julie said. “I don’t know how Leland and Mr. Monk will feel about it.”

That’s when Julie’s phone beeped, indicating another incoming call. She took the phone away from her ear to look at the caller ID on the screen.

It was Cleve Dobbs.

That was a call she’d never have dreamed she’d get.

She put the phone back to her ear. “I have a call I have to take. Can you pick up Mr. Monk for me at his shrink’s office this afternoon? I have to pick up my mom.”

“No problem,” she said. “I look forward to seeing you both tonight.”

Julie hung up on Ellen, took a deep breath, and answered the call from Dobbs.

“Hello, Mr. Dobbs. I take it you’re not calling to see if I’m a satisfied Peach customer.”

She knew she was being a smart-ass, an unenviable trait that she got from me, but it was the best way she knew not to sound nervous. He was, after all, superrich, internationally famous, and quite possibly a serial killer.

“Are you?” he asked.

“I am. It’s terrific. How did you get this number?”

“It wasn’t hard,” he said. “You can find anything on the Web these days. I ought to know. Where do you think Google and Facebook got a big chunk of their start-up money?”

“I didn’t know that,” she said.

“I need to see Mr. Monk on a personal matter,” he said. “Do you think that’s possible?”

She opened the door to the squad room and saw Monk emptying the garbage cans at each desk into a large black Hefty bag. It was sad and it was a waste, no pun intended. Another encounter with Dobbs, and the chance to confront a man he was convinced was a killer, might kick him out of his funk and reenergize him.

Or get them both killed.

“Yes, I think it is,” she said. “Where would you like to meet?”

“My house,” he said.

“We’ll be there, but we’re at police headquarters now, so we’ll have to get out of what we’re doing and tell them where we’re going in case they need to reach us.”

In other words, she was telling him that the police would know where they were going and who they were going to see, just in case he was planning to kill Monk.

Then again, if his plan was to strip naked and blow up his house with them in it, this warning wouldn’t make much of a difference.

“That’s fine,” he said. “I’ll be here all day. But please hurry.”

• • •

Julie was right. Just the idea of seeing Dobbs allowed Monk to focus in a way that he hadn’t been able to since, well, his last encounter with Dobbs.

But in the car ride over, they didn’t talk about Peach’s founder. They discussed what had happened that morning at the station.

“I had no idea Leland was in such financial trouble,” Monk said.

“I’m not surprised. The bottom fell out of the housing market and hasn’t recovered. He’s been complaining about his mortgage for years.”

“He has?” Monk said. “Not to me.”

Actually, Stottlemeyer had, several times, starting three years back when he brought Monk in to figure out how Mike Clasker, CEO of Big Country Mortgage, was strangled while driving alone to court in a locked car in broad daylight on a public street under police escort. But that’s a story I’ve already told.