To prove Linda guilty, Monk and Natalie carefully set up a sting operation that exposes how Linda created her airtight alibi for the murder (she talked to Stottlemeyer from a duplicate of her bedroom constructed in the back of a box rental truck that she had rented using her maiden name and previous address). Stottlemeyer reluctantly arrests her, and is left to ask himself whether his relationship with Linda was the real deal, or she just conceived it because she needed a cop to be her alibi for the murder, one question that will never be answered. Taking Disher to accompany him to Hawaii, he secretly throws the engagement ring into the ocean. When Randy asks what he did, Stottlemeyer responds, "That was nothing. That was just a rock," which indicates that he planned to propose to Linda while in Hawaii.