33Natalie rolled over in bed at the break of dawn and found Adrian's spot empty. Squinting, she sat up on one elbow and looked around the room. He was nowhere to be seen, so, she got out of bed, put on her robe and walked over to the bedroom door. Looking out into the hallway, she saw the glow of the under-cabinet lights in the kitchen along with Adrian's shadow moving back and forth and she heard Adrian quietly whispering. Moving forward a little further, she saw one of the most precious sights she had ever seen. Adrian was holding Seri in the crook of his arm and walking her back and forth feeding her a bottle that he had evidently made himself. She put her hand up to her mouth and smiled with misty eyes and savored the moment.
When it was clear that the baby was done drinking, he set down the bottle next to the open laptop which had on its screen "How to Prepare Baby Formula". He then began walking the baby back towards the bedroom and ran into his watching wife. Looking up, he smiled as Natalie was smiling back.
"She s-stirred a little bit, and seemed a little restless, so I was just feeding her." Adrian whispered. "She seems happy now."
"I see that." Natalie responded. "How was her diaper?"
Adrian's eyes shifted and he talked as he went to lay the baby down. "You see, it's like this…" he said. "Seri and I have a deal. I will feed her a bottle and put her through college and she doesn't make any messy diapers."
Natalie laughed, "Oh, that's the deal you have, huh?" Natalie walked up beside him and placed her fingers inside Seri's blanket and felt her diaper. "Well, it seems like someone is already reneging on that deal." She put out her arms to take the baby, and Adrian gently transferred the bundle to her arms.
"M-make sure you use wipes when you're…you know…" he suggested as she took the baby over to a changing table and began to change her diaper.
About ten minutes later, Natalie stood in the kitchen making some tea when Adrian walked by holding a change of clothes and heading towards the shower. He stopped to speak.
"I'm going to go get into the shower. Should be out in about a half hour. T.K. is coming by at 8:00 AM to watch the baby for us. Need you to get ready as soon as I'm out. I've laid out a change of clothes for you." He said
Natalie furrowed her brow and asked "Do you mind telling me where we're going?"
"It's a surprise." He said.
"A surprise?" she asked.
"Yeah." He answered.
"What is it?" she said.
He knew the drill because he had been through it before, himself. "Can't tell you. Or it wouldn't be a surprise."
"You hate surprises." Said Natalie.
Adrian stopped and smiled. "Only when they involve surprising me. Surprising you actually feels okay." He said with a wink.
Natalie rolled her eyes and shook her head as he went into the bathroom and shut the door.
As he turned on the faucet, she walked back into the bedroom and saw that he had laid out for her a well-tailored pin-striped business suit. Wherever they were heading, they were going to be dressed to make an impression. Curiosity flooded her mind, followed by aggravation. What is it that he couldn't tell her?
At precisely 8:00 AM, the doorbell rang. Natalie, now fully dressed, answered. She was surprised to see both Leland and T.K. standing at the door.
"Good morning!" Natalie said with a bit of surprise in her voice. "Come on in."
T.K. and Leland walked through the hallway and towards the living room.
"Can I take your jacket, Leland?" asked Natalie.
"No thank you." He said. "We're going to have to be going. They are expecting us at 8:30."
"Us?" she asked.
Adrian came walking into the room in navy blue suit pants with a crisp white dress shirt and neck tie. Adrian normally made a good appearance, but most of his clothes were still the same brown color that had become a signature style for him. Only recently had he purchased a couple of other suits in very conservative and business-appropriate colors. As he stood in front of the mirror, straightening his tie he began speaking cryptically to Leland.
"Now, you're sure he will be there this morning?" he asked.
"Yes. Absolutely. He said that he would bring everything with him so you can sign off on things and get the ball rolling." Leland responded.
"Get the ball rolling? Sign off? What is this Leland?" Natalie said through narrowed eyes.
Adrian grabbed his suit coat and touched the back of Natalie's back to lead her towards the door, "You'll find out soon." He said. "We need to go."
After a couple of short instructions to TK, the trio took off down the stairs, jumped into Leland's SUV and took off down the road.
Arriving at the compound at 8:25, they went through the same ritual that Adrian had gone through the day before. Natalie's biometric data was collected and she walked through the high-tech security facility holding on to Adrian's arm as much for comfort as for security. They then walked down the same long hallway, but instead of going to the conference room at the end, they stopped two doors away from it on the left. Leland typed in his code and used the iris scanner and had Adrian and Natalie do the same as they entered a room before a room. Leaving their cellphones in this outside room, they then repeated the security procedure to enter the next room. It was a large office with television monitors along the far wall, a small seating area, and an executive desk with a large leather chair behind it and two smaller leather chairs in front of it. A man was sitting in the chair reading a document. When he looked up, Natalie was as shocked as Adrian had been the first time he experienced "the big reveal". It was Judge Nigel Sallinger.
"Ah! Good morning, Mr. Monk, Mrs. Monk, Leland. I'm very happy to see you. Won't you take a seat?" said the Judge as Leland grabbed a third chair from the seating area and sat it next to Natalie who had Adrian on her left.
"Good morning, Judge." said Adrian. "We're glad to be here. I haven't explained any of what is going on to Natalie, so I kinda hoped that you might start by cluing her in as to what this operation is about so that she will stop giving me the stink eye."
Natalie scrunched up her face. "Yeah, that's the face, right there…" he said, as she folded her arms and kicked him.
"Certainly, Adrian. I would be happy to. Mrs. Monk…may I call you Natalie?" Sallinger asked.
"You may." She said.
"Natalie. I am sure you are quite bewildered at what has happened over the past 24 hours." He began.
"That would be an understatement." She said.
"Let me explain. Yesterday, before our court appointment, I met with Adrian…" Sallinger said.
"He kidnapped me." Adrian interjected.
"Yes…well, there was that…" the judge chuckled. "We met so that we could brief Adrian on a specific case we are pursuing which as serendipity would have it, you stumbled right into."
She couldn't help but think of the baby when he used the word 'serendipity' and mused within herself, "Seri would definitely not approve of these proceedings."
"You see, the unfortunate murder of Mr. Valdez and the subsequent charges against Miss Jones and Adrian are all a part of a larger picture. What Miss Jones found at the rental facility was just the tip of glacier-sized network of illegally trafficked antiquities involving various cultures and several nations. The artifacts that Angel was trading, for example, were looted largely from Native American burial grounds and archaeological sites. Across town, there is another facility which sells goods from China and India – also illegally obtained, but worth tens of millions of dollars a quarter. We have been tracking this network for about three years…" he said.
"Who is we?" Natalie asked.
"We are 'The Alliance.' A small network of people from the justice system, government entities and antiquities experts, who are all pursuing the goal of stopping the flow of illegally gained artifacts around the world and cutting of the flow of money that they supply. For example, are you aware that one of the key avenues through which terrorist organizations fund their efforts is the sale of stolen artifacts?" he said.
"I was not." She replied.
"Yes, the videos where you see certain specific terrorist groups blowing up temples and knocking down monuments are real; but, they are also for propaganda sake – a kind of cultural terror. What they don't show you is that they do not necessarily destroy everything. Rather, they hold on to and even pursue the acquisition of archaeological artifacts to sell to investors and collectors at top dollar. Sometimes these items end up in museums, sometimes with private people. But it really is a big money game and few of the people who obtain an illegally-sold artifact actually ask questions concerning its origins. History is being destroyed and cultures stripped away throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East. The money gained from these sales is a real threat to innocent lives not only in their countries but also in our own."
"I see. So, what does this have to do with us?" Natalie asked.
The three men smiled at her as Sallinger continued.
"Natalie, we had been considering bringing your husband into The Alliance for several months. We weren't sure about Leland, given his position in the Commissioner's office, but have since checked out his record and realized what a wonderful asset he would be. Still, for obvious reasons, the existence of our organization is classified. Our operatives, both on the board and in the field, would be in real danger if some of the rogue elements in society knew who they were. Therefore, we are often slow to act when it comes to inviting fresh blood into the group.
But, your little murder case forced our hand. You see, Adrian had already discovered that there was antiquities trafficking going on. You just didn't know the scale.
We have been trying to find the kingpin for this region for quite some time and have been narrowing in. At this point, we have too much vested in the effort to allow a lackey like Sid Angel or a moron like Charles Keith to blow the whole case. We had to bring you in."
"Bring us in?" asked Natalie.
"Yes. What kicked it off was when Keith decided to file charges. We've had our eyes on him for a while, and while he is a collector of certain cultural artifacts, he's really nothing but an arrogant wanna-be who will never progress any higher than the seat he is currently in and frankly will be fortunate if he survives this without wearing stripes. Anyway, when we saw that he had filed charges against you, that was a little more light on the subject than we wanted to shed.
What!? The famous Detective Adrian Monk charged as an accessory to murder? The Scandal! The headlines. I can see them now, "The Trial of the Century" as the press starts sticking their pretty little noses in the middle of the case and begins probing exactly where we do not want them to probe.
So…we concocted a plan." He said.
"A plan? What sort of plan?"she asked.
"We would go ahead and allow the charges to go through.
It was a given that I would be the judge on the case, since I tend to deal with these sort of murder cases and have no tolerance for true criminality. So, when I received the charges, the plan was to bring Adrian's case first and then do everything we could, without drawing special attention, to get rid of the charges."
He continued. "What we did not want was a jury trial. Powell is a fabulous attorney, and I expect he will be outstanding for Josie as well. But, what he was proposing, that we just dismiss the case outright, might have caused Keith to go ballistic. We could foresee him leaking information to the press and trying to shape a narrative that we did not want to be presented. So... we met with Adrian…"
"Kidnapped." Adrian corrected.
"We…borrowed some of Mr. Monk's time and briefed him to the situation and told him of the plan." He said.
Adrian picked up from there. "I was to go and plead guilty to all charges. This would immediately take the case out of the hands of a jury and make Keith think he had won something. The press would be satisfied because they got their headline, but not the kind of long drawn out headlines that last days and weeks and months. They would have a short-term blip that would last for a day or two and then be revisited at sentencing."
"Sentencing, which, I suspended." said Sallinger.
He explained. "Pending the trial of Miss Jones. I obviously can't sentence someone on obstruction or complicity until I know the seriousness of the underlying crime they are alleged to have obstructed against or have been complicit in. Of course, as long as I have not sentenced the defendant, he is free to withdraw his guilty plea at any time. At the appropriate moment, I will accept that withdrawal and in due course exonerate him of all charges. I have actually already drawn up the papers, which Adrian will sign, just in case something were to happen to me. Your husband will not be prosecuted for anything he has done."
"But, in the meantime," said Leland. "Monk is free on his own recognizance, with no real restrictions, and will be able to help us tie the bow on this package so we can finally nab 'the guy'. Whoever that is."
Natalie sat and thought for a moment as she tried to take it all in. Then, she asked "where do I fit in?"
Sallinger smiled. "Natalie, your husband spoke very highly of your detective skills and your professionalism. And, frankly, he told us that if we wanted him to work on the case that you came together as a team. He will not work without you."
Natalie looked over at Adrian and smiled, taking his hand.
"What is it that we are going to do?" she asked.
Sallinger said, "You and Adrian will be boots on the ground investigating leads and visiting the various storage facilities of those who sell these items. We are finding that the sellers are the one area we can home in on, and perhaps get the links we need in order to find who is organizing the efforts and who sets up the networks. Buyers are easy to find, but, they are hard to convict because by the time we catch them with the goods, the chain of custody has so convoluted that it is difficult to prove that they knew they were purchasing stolen merchandise. The dealers, however, can be a more fruitful avenue of pursuit.
We have accumulated this list of facilities that we believe are involved in some sort of trafficking." He said as he handed Natalie a piece of paper. "We need for you and Adrian to go and somehow analyze these places to see which ones hold the most promise at linking the source to the kingpin.
Leland will be working the kingpin angle. We have watched with frustration as certain people we know were dealing in these goods were suddenly tipped off just before we were to swoop in on them. So, we believe that there is an inside source somewhere in the criminal justice system that may be just the resource we are looking for. Leland is positioned perfectly to pursue that investigation."
He concluded, "So…that's about it…This assignment is not without danger, but you all have come recommended by our sources within the FBI, CIA, and the Executive branch – plus, I have watched you solve cases for years and am frankly a fan."
Natalie smiled as the whole thing finally made sense, then she thanked him for explaining the whole situation and for bringing her in.
After Adrian signed the papers withdrawing his guilty pleas, to be used at a later date, the trio left the building. Natalie clung to Adrian's arm with love and pride as they walked. Looking up at him, she noticed he was smiling.
"You're pretty proud of yourself, aren't you?" she asked with a smile.
"As a matter of fact, I am." He said smugly.
"Well, you said it would make sense. I didn't believe you. But, you were right." She replied.
"I always am." He said.
"Oh boy." said Leland, rolling his eyes. "You realize you're becoming a little monster here, don't you Monk?"
"Just stating the obvious, Leland." said Adrian.
"I suppose you're right. You may not always be right, but your darn seldom wrong." Leland replied.
"And what else am I?" asked Adrian with his head held high in the air.
"What?" asked Leland.
"That was for Natalie. What else am I, Natalie?" he said as he touched every parking meter along the block.
"What? I don't understand." She said.
He stopped and looked at her and put on his goofiest grin, mugging for her.
"I don't know? What are you?" she asked.
The smile suddenly became a bit of a frown as they walked into the parking lot. Shrugging her hand off of his arm, Adrian decided he was going to pout his way back to the car. As he walked, Leland asked, "Monk, what is the matter with you?"
Adrian turned to answer and didn't realize he was just about to walk into a large pothole filled with muddy water. Stepping into the puddle, he stopped, contorted his face, and began flailing his arms. Natalie rushed over to him and helped to calm him.
"Wipe!" Wipe!" he said, as she reached into her purse and grabbed a wipe for him.
"Ohhhhhh….I've got it!" She exclaimed.
"What?!" He huffed.
"Cute! You're cute!" she said as she pinched the side of his face and kissed his cheek.
Leland looked at the two lovebirds and shook his head. "Get a room!" he said jokingly. "On second thought, get in the SUV. We have a lot of work to do."