Monk, Season 1

[Looking around the house, Monk spots the pried-open smoke alarm]

Monk:
What's-what's with this?

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
That's a smoke alarm. She was in the kitchen cooking something when he broke in. It started to burn.

Lt. Disher:
A little girl across the street saw the guy turning it off.

Adrian Monk:
So there was a witness?

Lt. Disher:
She's 10 years old. She didn't see much.

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
So the perp breaks in. He goes berserk in here. The victim runs upstairs and calls 911.

Monk:
It's strange.

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
What's strange?

Monk:
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?

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
Nope, nothing so far.

Monk:
So, she's here cooking. He breaks in. He's a big guy. Lot of noise.

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
He must've cornered her in here, and then chased her out and caught up with her in the bedroom?

Monk:
I would've grabbed a knife. [points to the knife rack] Why didn't she grab a knife?

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
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]

Monk:
Has this phone been touched?

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
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]

Monk:
The antenna has to be up to get a signal in here.

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
So?

Monk:
Somebody lowered it all the way after the call. You don't usually see that when someone's getting bludgeoned to death.