In Chap­ter 194 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the pro­tag­o­nist main­tains a month­ly check-in with Himes after her res­ig­na­tion, which he accept­ed calm­ly, express­ing his belief in her future suc­cess. As she gazes out at the dim­ming street, she inquires about any updates, to which he responds cyn­i­cal­ly that he would have called if there were news.

Their con­ver­sa­tion shifts focus to mun­dane top­ics, such as Himes’s meal of a whole egg, which prompts a play­ful com­ment from her about it resem­bling a snake. The dia­logue is lay­ered with ten­sion as Saint, the pro­tag­o­nist, reflects on her ongo­ing unease regard­ing Eli Aaron, the focus of their dis­cus­sions. She har­bors a per­sis­tent anx­i­ety about his poten­tial for chang­ing his behav­ior, feel­ing a weighty oblig­a­tion to pro­tect her grand­moth­er, Char­lotte, from any lurk­ing threats.

Amidst their con­ver­sa­tion, ref­er­ences to Carl Eugene Watts instill fur­ther dis­com­fort, with Saint recit­ing the grue­some details of his crimes in a detached man­ner. Himes acknowl­edges her knowl­edge, remind­ing her of their pre­vi­ous exchanges and her ana­lyt­i­cal nature. As their call con­tin­ues, the humor­ous aspect of their rela­tion­ship emerges when Himes men­tions Sis­ter Isabelle’s tri­fo­cals, which Saint appre­ci­ates, indi­cat­ing a bond that mix­es per­son­al insight with pro­fes­sion­al oblig­a­tions.

Saint requests the case file, to which Himes pre­dictably responds that it would not serve her, a state­ment he reit­er­ates with each con­ver­sa­tion. The chap­ter blends seri­ous top­ics of crime and per­son­al safe­ty with lighter exchanges that show­case their famil­iar­i­ty. Saint’s desk holds both a cof­fee cup filled with warm milk and a romance nov­el, sym­bol­iz­ing the inter­play between her pro­fes­sion­al life and per­son­al solace. The chap­ter cap­tures the essence of their com­plex rela­tion­ship and the dark­er under­tones of Saint’s real­i­ty.