Lt. Randall Disher, Nikolai Petroff and others in “Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus”

Nikolai Petroff?

Who's asking? [Disher flashes his badge]

This shiny little piece of metal's asking. Are you Nikolai Petroff?

Are you trying to scare me, huh? This pussycat weighs a couple of hundred pounds. It could rip me apart in a heartbeat! I ain't scared of her. [laughs] You think I'm scared of you? [Stottlemeyer steps in front of Randy]

Excuse me. You may not be scared of the Lieutenant, but you've got plenty of reason to be scared of me, 'cause I got a little cage like that downtown. It's not much bigger than that, actually, and it's not a whole lot friendlier, and if you obstruct my investigation, sir, for one moment further, you're going to spend some time in it. What's your name?

Yeah, okay. I'm Nikolai Petroff. Can we make this fast? I have a show in thirty minutes.

You're not going to cancel the show after what happened?

Most people around here are celebrating.

Really? I take it Sergei wasn't very well-liked?

Not by me. Well, it's no secret. You're going to find out anyway. Until last week, I was with Ariana.

The woman he was with last night.

To hell with both of them.

What is it you do around here?

I'm a wrangler. Anton the Great goes into the cage. I watch his back.

You watch his back, so you've got a gun in case there's a problem.

That's right.

And that gun's a .454 Ruger Casull?

That's right.

Can we see it, please?

What happened?

You don't know?

I swear to God I checked it last night. [He goes for the trunk, but Randy steps in and takes over. He bends down, and with an orchestrated manuever to barely touch the sides to avoid prints, he pops the trunk]

Sir, sir, just step back, please. [The spot for the gun is empty. All that is present is an indentation in the shape of a revolver]

Where is it?

I was hoping you could tell me. Phone it in, get S.I.D. down here right away. You, sir, are going to have to find somebody else to feed your kitty cat. You're coming with me.