Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, Sharona Fleming and others in “Mr. Monk and the Paperboy”

Listen to this: this is "News from Around the World," Paris, France. There is an unsolved murder; a woman was found strangled, and both of her hands were cut off.

Oh my God!

That happens all the time: no fingerprints. Makes it harder to ID the body.

Now here's the thing: they found the hands. They were a couple of meters away from the body in the grass.

The killer cut off both hands, but then left them near the body?

Yeah. She and her husband both worked as curators at the prison museum in the Bastille.

Prison museum?

[in French] Captain Dupres, there is a detective calling from America. He has solved the murder of Madame Beaudreau.

[in French] He solved it?

[in French] By reading a newspaper, from 9,000 kilometers away! [Dupres sighs and picks up the phone]

Captain Dupres, Prefecture de Police. [cuts to Monk's apartment]

Bonjour. Je m'appelle Captain Leland Stottlemeyer. Je travaille avec le department de police de San Francisco. Uhhhh, parlez vous English? ["Hello, my name is Captain Leland Stottlemeyer. I work for the department of police of San Francisco. Do you speak English"]

I speak enough. What can I do for you?

Uh, hi, I've got a friend. His name is Adrian Monk.

[into the phone] Bonjour.

He has a theory about an unsolved case of yours. Here, I'll put him on. [hands the phone to Monk] He speaks English well enough. [Monk wipes down the phone, pressing several of the other buttons]

Yes, yse, hello. I think I know who killed Madame Beaudreau.

[skeptically] Oui, Monsieur Monk, what is your theory?

I think her husband did it.

Well, we suspected him from the beginning. But why did he cut off her hands?

He must have used a pair of handcuffs from the museum to restrain her.

I do not follow you.

They were antique handcuffs, very distinctive, so they could easily have been traced back to him.

Mon Dieu...

He must have lost the key. So he was desperate, he had to get them off the body.

Well, that makes sense! Lafitte, why didn't I think of that? Monsieur Monk, you are a genius! Perhaps someday, you will come to Paris so I can thank you in person.