purchase, witness statements confirm Natalie is Joe's lover (and therefore would know about the Jaws of Life), Webster's pizza receipt shows he got the Julie discount and therefore proves Natalie was in the same place as Webster within a half hour of his death, and forensics has evidence matching Natalie's car to clues found in Webster's apartment. Stottlemeyer arrests both women. Natalie and Sharona spend a night together in a holding cell, where they finally bond. The next day, Monk calls a meeting to present new evidence. He hypothesizes that Ludlow looked over Natalie's shoulder when she was entering her credit card number to purchase his books, used it to order the alligator head, and swiped it off Natalie's porch before Natalie got home. Ludlow claims that all of the events described happened before he arrived in San Francisco on Friday, but Monk says Ludlow's knowledge of the Julie discount suggested to him that Ludlow also was at Sorrento's Thursday night. He then found proof: the bookstore across the street from Sorrento's has a copy of Death Is the Last Word signed by Ludlow on Wednesday. Ludlow again could not pass a bookstore without doing a signing. Ludlow is arrested, and Trevor (along with five other convicts that were caught with Ludlow's assistance) is set free. Monk reveals that Ludlow also signed stock at two other bookstores in San Francisco - one in Washington Square and one out at Baker Beach. Exonerated, Sharona and Natalie reunite with their families. Sharona returns to Los Angeles with Trevor and Benjy, leaving Monk in Natalie's hands, and giving Monk the loving goodbye she never said the first time. Characters Characters from the television show Adrian Monk: the titular detective Natalie Teeger: Monk's loyal assistant, and the narrator of the book Dr. Charles Kroger: Monk's psychiatrist; played on the series by Stanley Kamel; Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: Captain of the San Francisco Police Department's Homicide Division; Monk's oldest friend and former partner Lieutenant Randy Disher: Stottlemeyer's right-hand man Julie Teeger: Natalie's teenaged daughter Benjy Fleming (mentioned only): Sharona's teenaged son Trevor Howe: Sharona's husband, whom she remarried and returned to New Jersey with (erroneously referred to as 'Trevor Fleming'); Gail Fleming (mentioned only): Sharona's younger sister Original characters Ian Ludlow: a prolific mystery author, in the same vein as J.B. Fletcher. He consults for the LAPD in the same way that Monk consults for the