[first lines]
[A call comes in to the 911 dispatch center]
9O911 Operator
911 emergency.
JLJudge Lavinio's voice
Oh, God! He's in the house. You've got to help me! He's going to kill me!
9O911 Operator
Okay, ma'am, now just calm down. Who is in the house?
JLJudge Lavinio's voice
It's Dale Biederbeck! Dale Biederbeck!
9O911 Operator
[types] "Dale... Biederbeck." Ma'am what is your address?
JLJudge Lavinio's voice
It's 415 Vinton! For God's sakes, hurry!
9O911 Operator
Okay, stay with me. Is he armed? Ma'am? [heavy breathing is heard on the phone] Does he have a weapon? Are you being threatened?
JLJudge Lavinio's voice
He doesn't need a weapon! He's Dale Biederbeck! [growling is heard on the line as a dispatch call is broadcast]
9O911 Operator #2
All units, possible 556 in progress.
9O911 Operator #1
Ma'am, can you get to a safe place?
JLJudge Lavinio's voice
No, I'm upstairs! I'm trapped!
9O911 Operator
Okay, ma'am. Just stay by the phone.
JLJudge Lavinio's voice
Here he comes! Oh, my God! [screams, and the line disconnects]
[Looking around the house, Monk spots the pried-open smoke alarm]
What's--what's with this?
That's a smoke alarm. She was in the kitchen cooking something when he broke in. It started to burn.
A little girl across the street saw the guy turning it off.
She's 10 years old. She didn't see much.
So the perp breaks in. He goes berserk in here. The victim runs upstairs and calls 911.
The phone. He didn't take the phone off the hook. So, what? He just let her call 911? [Monk inspects the kitchen. He finds a few leftovers in the fridge] Any prints?
So, she's here cooking. He breaks in. He's a big guy. Lot of noise.
He must've cornered her in here, and then chased her out and caught up with her in the bedroom?
I would've grabbed a knife. [points to the knife rack] Why didn't she grab a knife?
I don't know. [Monk observes the bedroom] She was over here on the phone. Severe blunt trauma to the head with a baseball bat. [Monk eyes one of the phones]
Has this phone been touched?
No, no. The scene's intact. [Monk holds the phone with a handkerchief to avoid contaminating fingerprints; he punches a button on the receiver but only gets static until he pulls up the antenna]
The antenna has to be up to get a signal in here.
Somebody lowered it all the way after the call. You don't usually see that when someone's getting bludgeoned to death.
[Dale is on the phone]
MOMan on phone
I'm sorry, Mr. Biederbeck, that's out of the question.
DBDale "The Whale" Biederbeck
Hold on. Hold on. Now is it Danny or Daniel?
MOMan on phone
Danny, sir.
DBDale "The Whale" Biederbeck
Fine, Danny. If you screw with me. I'll eat your heart on a stick. Now the SEC--
MOMan on phone
My boss is busy right now, sir.
DBDale "The Whale" Biederbeck
I know your boss is busy, Danny! I'm watching him. Tell him Dale Biederbeck wants an answer now, not later. Now! Is he in or out? If he's in, tell him to... clean his glasses. [At a conference on the TV, an aide whispers to a congressman and the congressman quickly removes his glasses and cleans them] Congratulate the congressman, he's just been reelected to a fifth term. [He chuckles, turns off his phone and reaches for a plate of corndogs] Oh, it's better than the Home Shopping Network. [Dr. Vezza takes the plate away from him]
DBDale "The Whale" Biederbeck
Oh, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! I'm not finished!
This stuff will kill you.
DBDale "The Whale" Biederbeck
I'm not gonna die. You won't let me, will you, Doctor?
[riding up to meet Dale the Whale for the first time]
They call him Dale the Whale.
He spends a fortune every year making sure nobody ever hears of him. He buys newspapers just to keep his name out of them. [they get off the elevator, their movements monitored by a camera] All right, I want everybody to be careful in there. This guy is smart. He's gonna try to bait you. Assume you're being videotaped. Do not accuse him of anything. Now, Monk, I don't have to remind you that this bastard's got deep pockets, and he's got a platoon of lawyers and he loves to use them.
You met him? What happened? [They are interrupted by Dr. Vezza's arrival]
Excuse me, Doctor. Now, if Biederbeck is too big to get out of the room, how'd he get there in the first place? He's like a ship in a bottle.
Well, when he first bought the apartment, he weighed a mere 422 pounds. He could still walk. On a good day, he could see his toes. Then his mother died, and he had a complete breakdown. He started bingeing. He would call restaurants and order everything on the menu. He topped out at 927 pounds. That was a decade ago. He has not left the room since.
Like I said, it's just not possible.
[Late at night, Stottlemeyer and Disher brainstorm on how the immobile Biederbeck could have killed the judge.]
[checks his watch] No, don't ask. [Randy looks at his watch and both policemen sigh.] Whew.
Oh-- [sniffs] Okay. Okay. Okay. Maybe we're looking at this all wrong. Maybe he killed her in his apartment, and then he somehow moved the body back to her house.
No. What about the 911 call? She made it from the house.
Liposuction, yeah! He... he lipo'd himself down to like, uh... I don't know, like 400 pounds. Down the elevator, across town... killed the judge.
Well, how did he gain all the weight back?
[Long pause]
Yeah, he just pumped it all back in.
You think that's possible?
I don't know. Should I call a doctor?
No. [chuckles] Let's keep our reverse liposuction theory to ourselves. Okay, Randy?
[Stottlemeyer arrives to arrest Dale for the murder, interrupting Dale's video-talk with another girl]
DBDale "The Whale" Biederbeck
Captain. I really wish you would've called. I'm a little busy at the moment.
I'm here to arrest you for the murder of Judge Kate Lavinio. [tosses Dale an envelope] That's a warrant. Duly sworn.
DBDale "The Whale" Biederbeck
[to the girl on TV] Sweetheart, I'm gonna have to call you back. [turns off the monitor] Doctor, will you call Howard Klein and tell him we're suing the city for malicious prosecution…again? [Stottlemeyer motions towards the French doors]
I have hired a local construction company to take out this door. We're gonna get a crane here and lower your fat ass down to the street.
DBDale "The Whale" Biederbeck
[laughs] A crane? Oh, that's rich. But would you mind explaining to me how I'm supposed to have killed the bitch? I can't leave this room, remember?
DBDale "the Whale" Biederbeck
Well, my, my, my. [Monk, Sharona, and a uniformed cop enter, carrying two chairs] It's the defective detective once more. Lay it on me, Einstein.
These two chairs are from the judge's house. The killer stood on one of them when he turned off the smoke alarm. A girl in the neighborhood saw, quote, a very, very fat man standing on it. But there's something funny about the chair. It's not broken. [refers to the uniform] This is Sergeant Cargill from the 14th Precinct. Sergeant, how much do you weigh?
Would you mind? [Cargill stands on top of the chair, which breaks under his weight] So, how could a very, very fat man have stood on it? There's only one explanation. He was a fat man, not a heavy man. Lieutenant? [Randy enters wearing Dr. Vezza's empathy suit] I visited your clinic today and borrowed one of your empathy suits. [Randy stands on the other chair, which does not break] Fat, but not heavy. I believe we have another warrant to serve.
[Monk and Sharona are walking down a pier.]
Adrian, can I ask you something? If it's none of my business, I promise I'll shut up.
[They smile and there is a pause as they keep walking.]
What did Trudy mean by "bread and butter"?
Whenever Trudy and I were walking somewhere, we would hold hands, and if there was a lamp post or somebody walked between us and we had to let go for a second, she'd always say "bread and butter".
Yeah, I think it was a message for me. She was saying, "I have to let go now for a little while, but it won't be forever."
[She takes his arm in hers and they continue walking.]
