But that was a big, risky “if,” and Monk would have to live with the consequences.
“I’d let Adrian proceed,” Dr. Kroger said to Dr. Rahner. “He’ll never let go if you don’t.”
“Very well.” Dr. Rahner sighed and sat down on the arm of a chair. “This should be fascinating.”
“First, a little recap in case you missed our last episode,” Monk said. “Bruno Leupolz was a reporter who found out that you fudged your academic credentials and that you were swindling investors in your real estate venture—”
“Do you have any proof to substantiate that?” Dr. Rahner interrupted.
“None whatsoever,” Monk said. “You saw to that when you burned Leupolz’s notes and stole the hard drive from his laptop.”
“So this is merely libelous speculation on your part,” Dr. Rahner said.
Monk shrugged. “Well, Leupolz found the evidence, so I suppose that now that we know what to look for, we can find it, too.”
“In other words, this is all fiction,” Dr. Rahner said. “Please, go on. I love a good story.”
“Three nights ago, under the guise of taking your evening jog, you went to Leupolz’s duplex to find out what he knew, destroy the evidence, and scare him off the story. You used one of his pillows as a silencer and fired a gun into the wall to make your point. The pillow muffled the sound, but blew feathers all over you and the apartment. Even so, the gunshot scared Leupolz to death—literally—and killed the man in the next apartment.”
Monk went on to explain how Dr. Rahner staged things to make Vigg’s death look like a suicide, then returned to Leupolz’s apartment to erase any signs of foul play. He also recounted how Dr. Rahner hid the body in the shack and ditched the feathers, pillowcase, and laptop in the pond.
“And here they are,” Monk said, motioning to the bag like Bob Barker revealing a Price Is Right showcase. “Everything we need to convict you, tied up in a neat bow. The irony is, we might never have found it if you hadn’t tried to kill us tonight.”
“I’m curious,” Dr. Rahner said. “Do you have any evidence to support your claim that I attempted to kill you?”
“You’ve showered and undoubtedly put your clothes in the wash,” Monk said. “So, no, I don’t have any evidence of that. But I don’t need it.”
“You don’t?” Stoffmacher said.
“I have this trash bag,” Monk said and turned to Mildred. “Would you mind photographing the bag and its contents for the record?”
Mildred glanced at Stoffmacher, who nodded his consent. She took a few pictures of the trash bag.
“You’ll notice the drawstrings are tied in a Norwegian Reef Knot,” Monk said, making sure that Mildred got some pictures of it. “Just like the shoes that Dr. Rahner is wearing now.”
Mildred took a picture of the shoes, too, eliciting a scowl from Dr. Rahner.
“I’m sure there are millions of people who tie shoes the same way I do,” Dr. Rahner said.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Monk giggled. “Knot, not—get it?”
Nobody saw the joke. Even on drugs, Monk had a lousy sense of humor. He swallowed his giggles and cleared his throat.
“Okay, moving on.” Monk glanced at Stoffmacher. “Could I have a pair of rubber gloves, please?”
Stoffmacher reached into his coat pocket and gave Monk a pair.
Monk put on the gloves, untied the drawstring, and carefully opened the bag.
“Dr. Rahner didn’t expect anyone to dredge the pond looking for this stuff and he figured that if it was found later, nobody would connect it to Leupolz or understand the significance of what was inside, assuming it hadn’t rotted away.”
Monk reached into the bag and pulled out a laptop, which was covered in feathers and had an empty slot where the hard drive should be.
“How do you know Leupolz didn’t throw his own stuff in the pond?” Geshir asked.
“If Leupolz ditched his own laptop,” Monk said, “why did he take the hard drive out first?”
“To save sensitive information,” Geshir said. “Like passwords, financial information.”
“Then why throw out his laptop at all?” I countered. “It seems kind of pointless if you are keeping the component that actually has all the content on it.”
Stoffmacher and Geshir obviously didn’t have an answer for that.
Next Monk pulled out the remains of the pillowcase and then the vacuum cleaner bag, everything covered with feathers and down.
“I’m sure your forensics experts will find gunshot residue all over this pillowcase. Assuming I am right, and you still don’t believe me, I have a couple of questions for you,” Monk said. “Why would Leupolz shoot his pillow and then try to hide the fact that he did it? Is shooting a pillow a crime in Lohr?”
Stoffmacher stroked his mustache. Geshir doodled in his notebook. But they couldn’t hide that they didn’t have an answer for those questions either.
“All of that might be suspicious, Adrian, and it might even indicate the poor man was murdered,” Dr. Kroger said, “but it doesn’t prove that Dr. Rahner was the killer.”
“Exactly what I was thinking, Charles,” Dr. Rahner said.
“His extra finger does,” Monk said.
“There you go again,” Dr. Rahner exclaimed, then rose from his seat and pointed accusingly at Monk. “Now we’re getting to what this is really all about. This entire delusional episode arises from his irrational fear of people with physical anomalies. He pegged me as a killer from the moment he saw me in the town square!”
“That’s true,” Monk said. “And I was right.”
“You haven’t proven it yet,” Stoffmacher said.
“I’m not done. One of the
