In Chap­ter 174 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the scene begins with Saint enjoy­ing a meal of Brunswick stew pre­pared by Char­lotte. Their casu­al con­ver­sa­tion reveals a play­ful ten­sion, as Saint com­ments on the stew’s taste, hint­ing at the pres­sure Char­lotte felt while mak­ing it. After the meal, Char­lotte retreats to the base­ment to work on her bul­letin board, where she metic­u­lous­ly tracks miss­ing girls through a detailed map filled with col­ors rep­re­sent­ing their fates: blue for abduc­tions, green for run­aways, orange for dis­ap­pear­ances, and red for those who are dead.

Saint is drawn into the somber task at hand, study­ing the names and dates pinned on the board. As she writes Crys­tal Wright’s name in red, a sense of mourn­ing fills the air. Char­lotte, with her small nose crin­kled in con­cen­tra­tion, reveals her inti­mate knowl­edge of each name, high­light­ing the tragedy behind their sto­ries. The mood is heavy as Saint recalls oth­er names, such as Angela Rossi and Sum­mer Reynolds, fur­ther con­tribut­ing to the weight of their grim real­i­ty. They share the task of doc­u­ment­ing these lost lives, appre­ci­at­ing the his­to­ry and sto­ries behind them.

After indulging in two glass­es of wine, more stew, and dessert, Sain­t’s mind clears enough to make a con­nec­tion that had elud­ed her before. With her heart rac­ing, she pre­pares to leave, grap­pling with the emo­tion­al inten­si­ty of the evening and the bur­den of the knowl­edge she has gained. The chap­ter under­scores themes of loss, remem­brance, and the inter­play of per­son­al rela­tion­ships amid the dark­er aspects of their shared real­i­ty, leav­ing the char­ac­ters in a state of reflec­tion as Saint departs for her car.