In Chap­ter 96 of “We Solve Mur­ders,” a tense con­ver­sa­tion unfolds between Steve and Mick­ey in a pub. Steve direct­ly accus­es Mick­ey of being François Lou­bet, a noto­ri­ous mon­ey-smug­gler, not­ing the absur­di­ty of Mickey’s claim to be just a scrap-met­al deal­er. Mick­ey laughs off the accu­sa­tion and implies he has elud­ed any incrim­i­nat­ing evi­dence for years. Their exchange hints at a deep­er, dark­er past, with Steve prob­ing Mick­ey about the recent mur­der of Rob Ken­na, sug­gest­ing Mick­ey might be involved.

As they rem­i­nisce, Mick­ey recounts his child­hood thefts of milk, show­cas­ing both a sense of nos­tal­gia and a com­plex rela­tion­ship with the law. Despite his crim­i­nal past, he claims he has nev­er been arrest­ed beyond a minor cau­tion. Their con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­ues to oscil­late between light ban­ter and dark­er impli­ca­tions, with Steve push­ing Mick­ey to reveal his true self amidst the veil of lies he typ­i­cal­ly presents.

Steve makes a bold claim about the con­nec­tions between their fam­i­lies, touch­ing on the influ­ence of Mick­ey’s grand­moth­ers, Lou and Bet. While Mick­ey ini­tial­ly dis­miss­es Steve’s inquiries, he becomes increas­ing­ly riled when Steve press­es on about the impli­ca­tions of his actions, par­tic­u­lar­ly regard­ing fam­i­ly loy­al­ty and vio­lence. Mick­ey insists that his endeav­ors are mere­ly “busi­ness” despite the chill­ing under­tones of the word.

As the dis­cus­sion spi­rals deep­er into the moral­i­ty of their actions, Steve out­lines the evi­dence he has against Mick­ey, hint­ing at video proof of a con­nec­tion to Kenna’s murder—an accu­sa­tion Mick­ey vehe­ment­ly denies, ques­tion­ing the fea­si­bil­i­ty of sur­veil­lance and procla­ma­tion of inno­cence. Ulti­mate­ly, the chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a cryp­tic ques­tion about Mickey’s door­bell, leav­ing read­ers in sus­pense about Steve’s inten­tions, as it could reveal a piv­otal clue tying Mick­ey to the crime. The nuanced back-and-forth encap­su­lates a fierce explo­ration of guilt, fam­i­ly, and the lengths to which indi­vid­u­als will go to pro­tect their secrets.

In Chap­ter 96 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the nar­ra­tive opens with Nix help­ing a dis­tressed Saint after a trau­mat­ic encounter. Saint, dressed in a torn dress, is des­per­ate­ly search­ing through a house, dri­ven by the haunt­ing mem­o­ries of a friend, Jim­my Wal­ters. The emo­tion­al tur­moil she expe­ri­ences man­i­fests in frus­tra­tion and grief as she rum­mages through the home, attempt­ing to find clo­sure.

Nix tries to restrain her phys­i­cal­ly while emo­tion­al­ly sup­port­ing her, despite her protests. This moment high­lights the con­trast between her chaot­ic state and Nix’s com­posed demeanor. As Saint grap­ples with tears that reveal her long-stand­ing pain—over the loss of her friend and her feel­ings of isolation—Nix’s silence pro­vides a poignant com­fort.

Their con­ver­sa­tion takes a deep­er turn as they dis­cuss faith and promis­es. Saint recalls a vow made to God, pledg­ing not to sin in exchange for the return of her friend, Patch. Nix acknowl­edges her feel­ings with­out ridicule and reas­sures her that despite the hard path ahead, she has a future, includ­ing col­lege at Dart­mouth.

The scene shifts when Deputy Hark­ness arrives. Saint, por­tray­ing des­per­a­tion, implores the offi­cers to con­sid­er the pos­si­bil­i­ty of anoth­er miss­ing girl, reveal­ing her com­mit­ment to seek­ing the truth and jus­tice for those who have van­ished. Nix and Hark­ness dis­cuss a child­hood mem­o­ry of a hid­den stor­age cel­lar, indi­cat­ing their shared knowl­edge of the land.

Despite the lack of a war­rant, Hark­ness is dri­ven by empa­thy, and soon all three find them­selves dig­ging through wood piles, search­ing for pos­si­ble evi­dence. As frus­tra­tion builds, Saint impa­tient­ly races against time, pulling away rot­ten tim­ber to reveal what lies beneath: a set of steps descend­ing into dark­ness.

The chapter’s cli­max arrives as Saint ven­tures down the steps, lead­ing to a grim dis­cov­ery illu­mi­nat­ed by Hark­ness’s flashlight—a sin­gle mat­tress soaked in blood, evok­ing hor­ror and despair, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in the nar­ra­tive as the char­ac­ters con­front the stark real­i­ty of their search for answers.