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No Celebrity Endorsement Implied

After the phone call, Kevin does his show, and it’s a disaster.  He can’t get any of his tricks right, and the only applause comes from Monk and Natalie.  After the show, Monk tries to find the dressing room to console Kevin, and is pointed in the right direction by a maintenance man.  When Monk arrives backstage, he sees Kevin lying on the ground.  He feels for a pulse, but gets nothing – Kevin Dorfman’s been murdered!

At the funeral, Monk runs into Torini.  While they’re talking, Monk recognizes Torini as the maintenance man who pointed him towards the dressing room the night of Kevin’s murder.  But Torini claims he was out of town the whole time, and has a room full of people who heard him on the phone call from Reno as an alibi.  When Monk visits Torini’s house and accuses him of murder, the magician smugly hands Monk a written confession – which promptly burns up in Monk’s hand.  Torini’s the guy, but Monk can’t figure out how or why he did it.

As Monk and Natalie sort through Kevin’s belongings, Monk has a breakthrough.  He remembers Kevin talking about Torini’s equipment weighing more on his return trips.  Monk suspects that Torini has been smuggling drugs and killed Kevin when he started asking questions.  Monk volunteers at Torini’s next performance, and battles his claustrophobia to enter Torini’s magic, zig-zag cabinet, where he uses a chemical test strip to swab the inside of a secret compartment.  While still inside the box, Monk tells Torini and his audience that the test has turned up positive for heroin.  Torini shuts him up and spins the cabinet.  When he opens it again, Monk is gone!

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