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The next day at police headquarters, Stottlemeyer shows Monk and Samuel a surveillance video that caught the van moments after the hit-and-run took place. Then, a few minutes later, the same van is seen on the video driving in the opposite direction. They go to interview some teenagers who saw the van on the night in question. They remember the driver talking on his cell phone, which would explain why he turned around – he didn't want his cell phone call to be cut off by the tunnel farther up the road.

After some detective work, Monk and Samuel figure out that the van belonged to an upscale restaurant, “Le Poisson Bleu.” The next day, Monk and Samuel go undercover as dishwashers in the restaurant. They learn that the owner, Kenneth Nichols, was driving the van on the day Ansara was killed. Nichols is an alcoholic with a previous record of drunk driving.

Then Monk notices the Buxtons – the couple whose maid was killed – enter the restaurant and greet Nichols. Monk approaches the couple, and learns that John Buxton and Kenneth Nichols are good friends who often talk on the phone, especially after baseball games. Monk has a breakthrough. He can't prove that Nichols killed Ansara, but he can prove that he killed the Buxtons' maid on the same night – the two cases are directly related! But before he can place a call to the Captain, Nichols holds him at gunpoint and leads Monk and Samuel outside and into the back of his van, which is filled with crates of fish.

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