autopsy is completed: Webster was attacked by an alligator, but drowned in bath water, with his body moved to the beach post mortem. Natalie asks if the alligator bite could be faked, and Disher mentions that a character in Death Is the Last Word tried to make murder look like an alligator attack. Webster had his last meal (pizza) less than a half hour before he was killed. They check out Webster's apartment. Monk notices streaks on the floor, hydraulic fluid, and a drop of blood in the bathtub, suggesting this is where Webster was killed. Natalie gets a call from Joe Cochran. Monk presses her for information, and when she reveals the theft that happened at Joe's firehouse on Wednesday, he insists on investigating. At the firehouse, Joe and Fire Captain Mantooth explain that while their crew was at a car fire in Washington Square, someone stole one of their Jaws of Life kits. The power unit is powered by gasoline, and the Jaws have a cutting force of 18,000 pounds per square inch. Monk concludes that Ian Ludlow started the car fire to lure the firemen out of the firehouse so that he could steal the Jaws of Life. Ludlow attached alligator jaws to the inside of the spreader to make the alligator bite look authentic. He claims Ludlow also murdered Cole, believing that Ludlow murders random people he meets at book signings and frames someone else for the crime just to get ideas for his novels. Stottlemeyer dismisses this theory as ludicrous (apart from the fake alligator attack), and Sharona and Natalie are outright furious at Monk for not taking the case seriously. Minutes later Stottlemeyer brings Monk, Natalie and Sharona to Natalie's house, which is being searched by police. Ludlow accuses Sharona of murdering Ellen Cole and Natalie of murdering Ronald Webster. Sharona wanted to rid herself of her ne'er-do-well husband, and pressured Natalie to kill Webster as a distraction by threatening to take her job as Monk's assistant. The one person who could set up an eBay account in Trevor's name and plant the stolen goods in his truck was Sharona. Sharona never called Monk in to investigate, because Monk would have inevitably discovered she was the killer. Inspired by Death Is the Last Word, Natalie ordered an alligator jaw online the day before stealing the Jaws of Life. Natalie's credit card record proves the