During his vacation to Mexico for spring break, Chip Rosatti, the son of a prominent San Francisco businessman with a close friendship with the mayor, wins a free skydiving jump. Chip jumps from the plane and pulls the cord on the chute, but the chute fails to open. With two of his friends watching from the ground, Chip hits the ground. Sounds like a simple case, but when the Dr Madero, the local coroner discovers Chip died from drowning in mid-air, not from hitting the ground. With this interesting and baffling discovery, the mayor calls upon Monk to head to Mexico and solve the case.
With 18 suitcases packed with pillowcases and backup pillowcases, packaged food and Sierra Springs water, Monk and Sharona drive down to San Marcos, Mexico. Upon their arrival, they meet Mexico’s Stottlemeyer and Disher, Captain Alameda and Lt. Plato who insist the case is drug related.
After checking into the motel, Monk learns that all 18 of his suitcases were stolen, leaving him without food and water. Monk puts aside this catastrophe, and makes a trip to the medical examiner’s office. He then goes to talk to the two friend’s that saw Chip’s jump. The two both declare Chip was alive when he left the plane though Monk isn’t paying much attention. He’s beginning to suffer from dehydration since the only water he will drink is Sierra Springs, the only brand that no one seems to carry. During this interview, Monk notices a man wearing what looked like Monk’s clothes. He follows the man, and in the process, is almost run over by a speeding truck.
The pilot of the plane in which Chip jumped from is the next witness Monk speaks with. The pilot, who also swore Chip was alive when he jumped, had some other helpful information. He said that the certificate for a free jump was fake and that Chip’s parachute had been tampered with, that anyone could have easy access to it. He also mentioned that there was a third friend, one who dropped Chip off.
While talking with this third friend, Monk gets a hold of a bus station locker key that belonged to Chip. While on his way to the bus station, Monk is yet again almost run down by a mysterious driver. Monk definitely has an enemy in Mexico. Upon learning of a case a year ago, where a man was mauled to death by a wild tiger, Monk begins to figure out the case.
It’s not until after another attempt on Monk’s life that he knows for sure what happened. A bomb was place behind a painting in Monk’s motel room, and the painting was left tilted. When Monk entered the room and fixed the painting, BANG! Monk was saved by his attention to detail. The painting was tilted the wrong way and the three-way light was on high, not low, so Monk knew something was wrong before fixing the painting. Monk also smelled menthol, which Dr. Madero used to help with the smell in the morgue.
He now had his suspect and knew what happened. The rip cord on the parachute had been cut by Dr. Madero, who also gave Chip the certificate, and the fall is what killed him. When the body arrived in the morgue, Dr. Madero filled the boys lung’s with water and declared that the boy drowned, an impossible case of course.
The reason for Dr. Madero doing all this was to get a chance at killing Monk. Madero once had a medical career in the US until Monk’s testimony would convict the doctor putting him behind bars. While out on bail, Madero fled to Mexico wanting revenge but unable to return to the US. The two bizarre deaths were Madero’s plan to get Monk into Mexico, though the first murder failed to get Monk’s attention. Some close calls for Monk, but he survived. |
