Monk, Season 3

[Stottlemeyer makes a late night visit to Monk's apartment. Monk, carrying a container of light bulbs, answers]

Monk:
Captain.

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
Hey. Got a minute?

Monk:
Sure. [Stottlemeyer comes in and Monk closes the door]

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
What are you doing?

Monk:
Oh, nothing. I was just... polishing the light bulbs. What's going on?

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
Uhh, you remember that convention I went to in Atlanta about three years ago?

Monk:
Uhhhh....

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
Well, something happened there that I didn't tell you about: I landed, I hailed a cab, and, I recognized the cab driver. It was Harold Burnshaw.

Monk:
Burnshaw?

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
Burnshaw. He used to be a Fed, he was a real player. He used to head the FBI's field office in Atlanta until the 1996 Olympic Games.

Monk:
The Plaza bombing?

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
Exactly. They accused the wrong guy. Burnshaw booted it big-time on network television, instant career-killer. Now he's driving a cab. Monk, you should have seen his face. I'll never forget it.

Monk:
What does this have to do with-

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
Twenty years ago, Sonny Chow froze some of his own blood in the event that he needed surgery. So they've got bulletproof DNA for a comparison, and that's a prelim on the hair we found at the crime scene.

Monk:
[reads from the file] It's a match.

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
It's Sonny Chow's hair. No question about it. He's been dead for six years, and he's my primary suspect.

Monk:
Yeah...

Capt. Stottlemeyer:
Now if I go public with this, and I'm wrong, I'm gonna wind up at the airport, picking up cops who still have jobs! Can you help me with this? I mean, I've gotta know, I've gotta be certain. Is this guy alive or dead?