Chap­ter 12 of We Solve Mur­ders deep­ens the nar­ra­tive by focus­ing on the cor­re­spon­dence between François Lou­bet and Rob Ken­na, where a sense of urgency and cal­cu­lat­ed pre­ci­sion per­me­ates their com­mu­ni­ca­tion. In this chap­ter, François reach­es out to Ken­na to con­firm whether all arrange­ments are in place for the exe­cu­tion of their covert oper­a­tion. While the lan­guage is direct, the tone is laden with sub­tle urgency, espe­cial­ly as François inquires about the sta­tus of Amy Wheel­er, whose life has already been marked for ter­mi­na­tion. His trust in Kenna’s abil­i­ties is clear, yet the under­cur­rent of ten­sion is pal­pa­ble, as the suc­cess of their plan hinges on Kenna’s exe­cu­tion of the task with­out fail. The neces­si­ty of com­plet­ing the job quick­ly and effi­cient­ly under­scores the high stakes involved and sets the scene for the moral and eth­i­cal dilem­mas François will con­tin­ue to face through­out the sto­ry.

François’s rela­tion­ship with Ken­na reflects a blend of pro­fes­sion­al­ism and dis­turb­ing non­cha­lance, as he refers to him as his “mur­der-bro­ker” in a tone that almost triv­i­al­izes the dark nature of their work. In this inter­ac­tion, François is depict­ed as a man who treats mur­der not as an aber­ra­tion but as part of the busi­ness of life. He indi­cates that he doesn’t need to know the details of how Amy will be dis­posed of, mere­ly that the job must be done effi­cient­ly and with no com­pli­ca­tions. This approach reveals a chill­ing detach­ment from human life, demon­strat­ing François’s capac­i­ty to com­part­men­tal­ize emo­tion and prac­ti­cal­i­ty. His will­ing­ness to treat the act of mur­der as just anoth­er busi­ness trans­ac­tion fur­ther high­lights his cold­ness, which is cen­tral to his char­ac­ter. While his role in the nar­ra­tive sug­gests manip­u­la­tion and con­trol, it is also reflec­tive of a deep­er, more sin­is­ter desire for pow­er that allows him to approach such moral­ly ambigu­ous tasks with ease.

Yet, despite his appar­ent cold­ness, François allows for a rare moment of empa­thy when he reflects on Amy Wheeler’s predica­ment. He acknowl­edges that she is sim­ply “the wrong per­son in the wrong place at the wrong time,” which sub­tly hints at a recog­ni­tion of the ran­dom­ness of her involve­ment in his schemes. This fleet­ing empa­thy sug­gests that François is not entire­ly devoid of human con­nec­tion but is rather some­one who com­part­men­tal­izes his emo­tions in order to main­tain con­trol over the sit­u­a­tion. The brief acknowl­edg­ment of Amy’s human­i­ty com­pli­cates his char­ac­ter, show­ing that while he can be ruth­less and strate­gic, he is not entire­ly immune to the weight of his deci­sions. How­ev­er, this moment of intro­spec­tion is short-lived, and the read­er is left with a lin­ger­ing sense of François’s indif­fer­ence to the fate of oth­ers, espe­cial­ly when they are mere­ly pawns in his larg­er game.

As the chap­ter draws to a close, François turns his atten­tion to the lay­ers of secu­ri­ty he has care­ful­ly imple­ment­ed around him­self. His reflec­tion on the numer­ous pre­cau­tions he has put in place demon­strates a man who is acute­ly aware of the risks that come with his line of work. Despite the impend­ing dan­ger, François remains unfazed, demon­strat­ing a lev­el of con­fi­dence that speaks to his con­trol over the sit­u­a­tion. His non­cha­lant approach to these threats, as well as his will­ing­ness to out­smart those who might oppose him, shows the depth of his ruth­less­ness. This intro­spec­tive moment con­trasts sharply with the impend­ing vio­lence and uncer­tain­ty sur­round­ing his actions, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing his char­ac­ter by high­light­ing his abil­i­ty to stay calm and col­lect­ed under pres­sure. His cal­cu­lat­ed demeanor, paired with his inter­nal acknowl­edg­ment of the risks involved, adds to the intrigue sur­round­ing his char­ac­ter and sets the stage for what’s to come.

This chap­ter effec­tive­ly builds ten­sion by pro­vid­ing read­ers with a deep­er under­stand­ing of François’s per­son­al­i­ty and his approach to the dan­ger­ous world he inhab­its. His actions, while delib­er­ate and con­trolled, are under­scored by a chill­ing detach­ment from the con­se­quences of his schemes. His empa­thy, when it appears, is fleet­ing and only serves to fur­ther high­light the con­trast between his cold, method­i­cal plan­ning and the unpre­dictable nature of human emo­tion. The under­ly­ing threat of vio­lence and the loom­ing sense of dan­ger pro­pel the sto­ry for­ward, leav­ing read­ers eager­ly antic­i­pat­ing the next steps in this tense nar­ra­tive. As François con­tin­ues his quest for con­trol, the bal­ance between his charm, cal­cu­lat­ed behav­ior, and occa­sion­al flash­es of human­i­ty will undoubt­ed­ly play a cru­cial role in the unfold­ing dra­ma, keep­ing the read­er on edge and curi­ous about what lies ahead.