Chap­ter 84 of We Solve Mur­ders opens with a rare and poignant moment between Adam and Steve, where the two are seat­ed in qui­et reflec­tion, attempt­ing to bridge the emo­tion­al gap that has grown between them. In their younger years, their con­ver­sa­tions were filled with shared inter­ests, par­tic­u­lar­ly their fas­ci­na­tion with dinosaurs, but now, these dis­cus­sions have devolved into uncom­fort­able silences. As the chap­ter begins, they start by dis­cussing Adam’s recent flight and Steve’s dis­com­fort with the house’s bath­room loca­tion, a seem­ing­ly triv­ial top­ic that high­lights the strain in their com­mu­ni­ca­tion. These mun­dane exchanges fur­ther under­score the change in their rela­tion­ship, from the ease of past con­ver­sa­tions to the awk­ward­ness of the present. Despite their prox­im­i­ty, they both strug­gle to find a way back to the bond they once shared, and the ten­sion in the room is pal­pa­ble as they attempt, unsuc­cess­ful­ly, to con­nect on any mean­ing­ful lev­el.

Adam, sens­ing the need to shift the con­ver­sa­tion to some­thing more press­ing, brings up the top­ic of the recent mur­ders that have been dis­turb­ing their lives. Steve, in turn, shares trou­bling news with Adam, reveal­ing that Amy is in imme­di­ate dan­ger due to a man named Rob Ken­na, whom François Lou­bet has hired to intim­i­date her. This rev­e­la­tion serves to fur­ther entan­gle Adam, as the impli­ca­tions of the threat against Amy become clear. Steve recounts a bizarre encounter with Rob Ken­na at a golf club, where he was tak­en aback by the man’s pro­fes­sion as a DJ—an incon­gruity that Adam finds hard to believe at first. The absur­di­ty of the sit­u­a­tion pro­vides a dark comedic ele­ment as both men try to grap­ple with the grav­i­ty of the dan­ger that has sud­den­ly entered their lives. In this moment, they are forced to con­front the harsh real­i­ty of their cir­cum­stances, even as they strug­gle to com­pre­hend the events unfold­ing around them. The seri­ous­ness of the con­ver­sa­tion con­trasts with the absur­di­ties of their per­cep­tions, high­light­ing the com­plex­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion.

As the con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­ues, both Adam and Steve try to move past the dis­com­fort that has set­tled between them. They touch on more per­son­al top­ics, such as the mem­o­ry of Steve’s late part­ner, Deb­bie, but nei­ther man can ful­ly open up to the oth­er. This inabil­i­ty to dis­cuss their shared his­to­ry adds to the emo­tion­al dis­tance between them, mak­ing it clear that, although they are phys­i­cal­ly close, they remain emo­tion­al­ly worlds apart. After a while, Adam decides that he needs to rest, sig­nal­ing an end to the tense con­ver­sa­tion. The lack of any com­fort­ing phys­i­cal ges­tures, like a hug or even a hand­shake, leaves an awk­ward­ness hang­ing in the air, mak­ing it evi­dent that the con­nec­tion they once had is still bro­ken. The chap­ter sub­tly cap­tures the pain of father and son try­ing to recon­nect, but find­ing them­selves unable to bridge the emo­tion­al gap that has widened over time.

In a sur­pris­ing turn, just as Adam is about to leave, Steve unex­pect­ed­ly recalls Adam’s child­hood love for dinosaurs, a moment of warmth in the oth­er­wise chilly exchange. This men­tion, although brief, evokes a flick­er of the close­ness they once shared, bring­ing them back to a time when their bond was strong and uncom­pli­cat­ed. They briefly rem­i­nisce about their favorite dinosaurs, mark­ing a small but sig­nif­i­cant moment of con­nec­tion in the midst of the ten­sion. Steve’s attempt to rekin­dle their rela­tion­ship, though clum­sy, reveals his desire to re-estab­lish some form of con­nec­tion with his son. Before Adam departs, Steve asks a seem­ing­ly triv­ial ques­tion about sauna eti­quette, sig­nal­ing his ongo­ing effort to find com­mon ground, despite his awk­ward approach. Adam, though per­haps not ful­ly under­stand­ing the motive behind the ques­tion, responds affir­ma­tive­ly, affirm­ing the rou­tine of their home life. This final exchange, while seem­ing­ly insignif­i­cant, under­scores the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of their rela­tion­ship, high­light­ing the ongo­ing strug­gle between phys­i­cal prox­im­i­ty and the emo­tion­al dis­tance that still remains. The chap­ter con­cludes on a note of uncer­tain­ty, leav­ing read­ers reflect­ing on the fragili­ty of famil­ial con­nec­tions, the weight of past loss, and the dif­fi­cul­ty of nav­i­gat­ing emo­tion­al waters.