In Chap­ter 218 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Saint dri­ves twen­ty miles from Mon­ta Clare, nav­i­gat­ing through pic­turesque vine­yards and fruit stands, final­ly reach­ing the Shaw house, a place rem­i­nis­cent of her child­hood piano lessons. The Nix house, mod­est yet well-kept, stands across the street with its fresh white paint and a pol­ished porch. Tak­ing in her sur­round­ings, Saint feels the heavy sum­mer air, paus­es to admire an untouched okame cher­ry tree, and pre­pares her­self with a deep breath before draw­ing her gun.

As she inspects the area, she heads toward the back of the house, crunch­ing grav­el beneath her feet. The land­scape unfolds beau­ti­ful­ly, show­cas­ing dis­tant canola fields, emp­ty sta­bles, and a rid­ing mow­er rest­ing in the shade. Find­ing the kitchen door sur­pris­ing­ly unlocked, she ven­tures inside, momen­tar­i­ly for­get­ting her role as she calls out for the Chief, momen­tar­i­ly dis­ori­ent­ed by her own title.

The kitchen’s dat­ed decor con­trasts sharply with its clean­li­ness, prompt­ing her to move instinc­tive­ly down a hall­way. She enters a bright den, cush­ioned by deep syn­thet­ic shag car­pet and adorned with vas­es filled with wild­flow­ers col­lect­ed from the prop­er­ty. Despite see­ing three guest-ready, unoc­cu­pied bed­rooms, an unset­tling sen­sa­tion emerges as she hears water flow­ing in the bath­room. Main­tain­ing her readi­ness, she gen­tly push­es the bath­room door open.

After exit­ing, she takes a moment under the sun to walk towards the sta­bles, where she catch­es sight of Nix, who is cheer­i­ly wield­ing a shov­el and bear­ing a smile. Near­by, there are bags of hay by the door and hors­es graz­ing in the dis­tance. Hold­ing her gun steady on him, she hears him remark, “Just like I taught you,” indi­cat­ing their shared past. Despite the dis­tance between them, his immo­bil­i­ty elic­its a pro­found love with­in her—love root­ed in their intri­cate his­to­ry and the com­plex­i­ties of their rela­tion­ship.