Read Online Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu by Lee Goldberg - Free Book Online Page B

reimagining astrology the same way the neighborhood itself, as personified by Madam Frost, was being gentrified and remodeled. Madam Frost and Allegra Doucet were the conflict between the past and future of Haight-Ashbury made human. At least, they were until Allegra Doucet was killed.
    Monk started to hyperventilate.
    “I can’t take it anymore,” Monk said, and hurried outside. We went out after him.
    He stood on the porch, swallowing air like a drowning man who’d finally reached the surface.
    “What’s wrong?” I said. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
    “You can get her to clean up that mess,” Monk said. “Nothing matches. There’s no organization. It’s anarchy.”
    “I’m sorry my eclectic decor isn’t to your liking,” Madame Frost said. “It’s a reflection of my years of studying the mystical realms of our existence.”
    “It’s insanity,” he said. “How can you live like that?”
    “I’m told my home has character, something I find sorely lacking in the world these days.”
    “Character is highly overrated,” Monk said. “Try cleanliness instead. You’ll thank me later.”
    “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Madam Frost said, an edge in her voice. I can’t say that I blamed her for being offended. Nobody likes to be told their house is a dump.
    “Did Allegra Doucet have any enemies?” Monk asked. “Besides you?”
    “Her biggest enemy was herself.”
    “She didn’t stab herself to death,” I said.
    “It was only a matter of time before someone discovered that the so-called personal chart and analysis they paid her so excessively for was only computer-generated gibberish,” Madam Frost said. “She was perpetuating a fraud. People don’t appreciate being suckered. The irony is, she could have prevented this. I warned her, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”
    “You knew someone wanted to kill her?” Monk said.
    “I did her chart. I knew that whatever happened last night would determine her fate.”
    “If her murder was in the stars,” I said, “what could she have done about it anyway?”
    “Astrology is like a weather report; it tells you what conditions you’re likely to face in the future. If the weatherman says it’s probably going to rain, you bring an umbrella. If you follow that advice, you won’t get wet. But if you choose to ignore it, you will get soaked,” Madam Frost said. “She had a choice to make last night, and clearly she made the wrong one. We have free will, and, used wisely, that’s more powerful than any force in the heavens.”
    “The stars and the planets move in a precise pattern of orbits according to the basic laws of physics,” Monk said. “Am I right?”
    “Yes,” Madam Frost said.
    “Then as an astrologer, don’t you think your belongings should be arranged in a precise pattern as well?”
    “Since you seem to have such an obvious appreciation for the alignment of the stars, perhaps you will allow me to do your chart,” Madam Frost said. “I can reveal to you what obstacles lie ahead in your investigation as well as your personal life.”
    “I don’t believe in astrology,” Monk said.
    “What do you believe in?”
    Monk thought about that for a long moment.
    “Order,” he said, and then walked away.
    Madam Frost looked at me. “What about you, dear? What do you believe in?”
    “Myself,” I said.
    “Does that work for you?”
    “Some days more than others.” I said good-bye to Madam Frost, thanked her for her time, and joined Monk in the middle of the street.
    “Where to now?” I asked.
    “Back to the headquarters,” he said. “I was just wondering how we were going to get there.”
    I turned to my car. Or, at least, where I thought my car would be. It wasn’t there. I looked around. It wasn’t anywhere. I approached the officer I’d given my keys to. With his square jaw, red cheeks, and flattop buzz cut, his head was like a moss-covered brick. His name tag read, KRUPP, and he was