One Night Changes Everything

"So let me see if I understand," Leland began in his deep voice,"You think that Nunn was ordered by Biderbeck to keep an eye on Carmen."

Monk nodded his head and couldn't stop the tic of his shoulder moving up and then down as he looked out the window.

Randy was sitting in the passenger seat and was trying to work out everything that they had uncovered. "But why after all this time? Why kill her now?"

Monk had been trying to work out that particular detail and still had major holes in his theory. Shaking his head he mumbled the words, "I don't know."

Leland continued to drive them back to the precinct, as his mind tried to form some kind of path through all the details.

"Do you think it's possible...that he actually fell in love with her?" Stottlemeyer asked as he turned the car down the road.

Monk had been thinking the same thoughts. While his mind had indeed been on the case...a sudden thought of Natalie popped into his brain at Leland's words. He said nothing as his mind turned to images of her. Moments throughout time that they had spent together.

He remembered the day that she had walked into his life...literally walking through his door to ask him for help.

He remembered how he had made her smile by telling her he was able to walk away from gambling because he had her.  He had her.

Memories continued to bombard him.  All of her.  Moments that he remembered each detail of.

Her smiling face. Her laugh. And recently her tear stained face.

Another tic of his shoulder happened as he thought about these not too proud moments...when he had made her cry.

"I mean..." Stottlemeyer continued at the lack of a response from Monk, "he obviously got close to her if he really was her boyfriend. And sometimes things happen. The more time you spend with someone, especially in a work place, the more likely it is that feelings develop."

Monk's thoughts had completely gone from the case to Natalie, and how it was possible that he could feel what he was feeling - even after finding out that this case was connected to Trudy.

Why was he constantly thinking of her? At a time like this no less?

"MONK!" Leland finally yelled startling Monk out of his thoughts. Whatever Monk was thinking, it had to be pretty important for him to zone out like that. For a moment Leland thought something had caused him to regress again.

"It's possible." Monk finally answered.

Randy shook his head. "Believe me. I know how it feels to have your girlfriend be your enemy. It's not a great feeling at all. Can you imagine if he had actually fallen in love with her? Dale the Whale would have made him kill his own girlfriend. I know I wouldn't have been able to do it."

It was then that both Monk and Stottlemeyer had the same thought.

"Wait. That actually makes sense," the Captain mumbled as he tried to gather all of the connections in his head, "If Nunn really is...was Carmen's boyfriend, that means that their relationship was happening for months if not years. Bidderbeck probably ordered him to take her out, but he couldn't do it. He probably did fall in love with her."

"So Biderbeck orders Carmen's hit. Nunn can't do it...so he leaves the country and goes to Brazil." Randy says as he's trying to follow what the Captain and Monk are talking about.

"He must have warned Carmen! She went into hiding..." The Captain continued as he grimaced as he realized what had likely happened.

"Until Biderbeck found her again." Monk concludes. "So he threatens him with the woman he loves...that's how he lured him back to the states. Frame me for the murder...get rid of all of the evidence that connects him to the crime in one fell swoop."

Monk whispered the last words, as they rang more than close to home.

"Do you think he's still around? I mean...do you think Biderbeck would get rid of whoever killed Carmen? Because If we can find out who killed Carmen, we could get him to roll over on Biderbeck." Randy being the only one to think of a plan of action.

"If he's still alive, it's going to take a miracle to actually find him. He probably already knows that Carmen's death means a life sentence for him, and if he knows Biderbeck is after him...he's going to hide to save his own life." Stottlemeyer put in his two cents.

"Or try to get revenge." Randy said as he continued to steer the car. His mind going to his favorite movies. His growing wide eyes telling Stottlemeyer that he was in his little happy place and not actually there.

"Randy! Pay attention to the road!" Stottlemeyer scolded.

The jerking of the car confirmed that Randy had indeed been in his little world. The guilty look he gave the captain only earned a glare.

"But there's not enough evidence. We need evidence that clearly links Biderbeck to Carmen's death…and we need to prove that the initials on those files are his." Leland reasoned out loud as he tried to think of a way to actually do such a thing. Right now all they were left with were theories and barely any evidence.

"We need to find the hitman. Eight years is a long time to stay away from someone you love, Nunn had to be in contact with Carmen in someway. We know Sheriff Rollins was hired to kill Nunn and frame you, If he wasn't in jail he would be the first person I'd look into... maybe Biderbeck found another person to kill Carmen after we captured Rollins." Monk was staring out the window with dead eyes as he thought about his Trudy. If he was right…he was finally going to have the answers he had been searching for 10 years.

He would finally have found her true killer.

Suddenly Natalie popped into his mind. The sight of her crying against Leland had made him suddenly have a surge of anger that he had rarely ever felt before. But it had been there.

Adrian shook his head. Why couldn't he stop thinking of her?

If he had been able to stop thinking about Natalie lately he might have been able to concentrate more on the case. It was too important for him to miss details that could lead to Trudy's killer.

But thoughts of Natalie wouldn't leave him. If anything he was thinking of her more and more as the day went on. After what Trudy Bakker had said to him, he kept thinking back to the last few months and what had 'not happened'.

That morning the way she had needed him.  The way her lips pulled and nipped at his.  The way she fit in his hand perfectly as she moved on him.  The feel of her wrapped around him tightly.

Urging him, pleading him, saying his name in such a provocative way that the rarity of her saying it made it sound all the more inticing.

His thoughts of her intimately joined with him and how it felt making him blush as he remembered how it felt each time, and how it didn't seem disgusting or perverted to have been with her like he had.

To...to have shared that part of himself to anyone other than Trudy had always seemed impossible.

But now...

Things had changed.

Thinking about Natalie in any way other than his assistant had been incomprehensible not so long ago. Now after he had talked about 'staying away from someone you loved', it not only made him think about Trudy - but Natalie's face almost immediately followed Trudy's when he thought about that word. The "L" word that should only be used as a friend towards Natalie, but somehow was correlated with the "L" word he felt for Trudy.

He had loved Trudy. With everything in him. The possibility that he could feel like that towards Natalie frightening him with what it meant.

"Where do we start looking?" Randy asked with a confused look on his face as he continued to navigate the streets of San Francisco.

At the moment Monk had been looking down at his wedding band in that moment.

Slowly a smile made it's way to his face, wide enough that Leland became nervous until he realized what it meant.

"I think Monk has an idea." Leland said as a smile of his own formed as his eyes locked with Monk's in the rear view mirror.

None of them knew just how very close they were to solving the biggest case of Monk's life.