Captain Stottlemeyer: Mr. Norfleet, you're under arrest for the murder of Gladys Aquino, your wife's housekeeper.
[flashback:]
Principal Thicket: Son, this'll be a lot easier on everyone if you just confess. I know you took the money.
Leo: That's crazy. It was in her locker. Nobody else could've opened it.
Young Monk: The cash box was in her locker because you put it there. And I know how you did it.
[present:]
Adrian Monk: Here's what happened. You hired two men, Travis Baptiste and his brother, to break into Sherry's house.
Michael Norfleet: Ridiculous.
Natalie: We found this in Travis' wallet.
Michael Norfleet: Anyone could've written that.
Adrian Monk: It's true. The letters are printed. There's nothing special about them. But look at the house number. Look at the zero. There's a little line through it.
[flashback:]
Young Monk: I noticed something yesterday. When you were stuffing me into my locker. Which, by the way, wasn't very cool. My locker was set to zero. I remember that Sherry always set her lock to zero as well. But the day before, when principal Thicket found the cash box, her lock was not set to zero.
[present:]
Adrian Monk: This was all about the zeroes. You don't see a zero written like this very often. But I saw four of them the day before when you were writing Sherry's alimony check.
Michael Norfleet: I've seen other people write zeroes like that.
Adrian Monk: True, but how many of them also know the floor plan to your wife's house?
[flashback:]
Young Monk: Here's what happened. When you pretended to help her with her books, you pocketed her lock and replaced it with yours. It was a perfect plan. You took out the money. Then, when nobody was watching, you came back and planted the cash box. Then you put her lock back on the locker.
[present:]
Michael Norfleet: Why would I hire somebody to break into her house? There's nothing in there that I want.
Adrian Monk: Ah, yes, the motive. I knew it had something to do with this painting. But I just couldn't figure out what. Then I remembered how you resented paying all that alimony. I believe you called it your monthly pound of flesh.
Michael Norfleet: Her alimony?
Adrian Monk: You'd be paying her alimony forever unless she got remarried. This wasn't about stealing anything or hurting anybody. This was about them. You were fixing them up.
Sherry Judd: He knew about Jimmy. I talked about him all the time.
Lieutenant Disher: You tracked him down, and you got lucky. He was single and still living right here in the city.
Adrian Monk: But you had a problem. How were you gonna get them together? You couldn't just call her. You and Sherry were barely speaking. And she would have resented any suggestion you made. So you played cupid. You hired Travis and his brother to break into her house, and to deface the painting. A painting she loved. One you knew she would want restored. You were betting that eventually she'd bring it to James. He is the best art restorer in the city. They would discover that they still had feelings for each other. And you were right.
Michael Norfleet: Nice story. You can't prove any of it.