In Chap­ter 224 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the focus shifts entire­ly to Joseph Macauley as Saint momen­tar­i­ly sets aside the Mon­trose mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion. Through­out the day, she is inun­dat­ed with calls from Himes, the Alwyn Coun­ty Sheriff’s Depart­ment, and sur­round­ing police forces, grap­pling with the fact that Patch, Macauley’s known fig­ure, has gone miss­ing. His dis­ap­pear­ance has gar­nered wide­spread atten­tion, fea­tur­ing promi­nent­ly in local and nation­al news reports, includ­ing an arti­cle in *The New York Times* high­light­ing his artis­tic back­ground and noto­ri­ous rep­u­ta­tion as a pirate.

Michaels express­es con­cern over Patch’s noto­ri­ety, sug­gest­ing that giv­en his eye patch, he’s unlike­ly to remain unno­ticed. Mean­while, War­den Riley attempts to reas­sure the pub­lic, adopt­ing a demeanor rem­i­nis­cent of an embat­tled politi­cian. Riley insists res­i­dents should lock their doors but assures them that Patch will be recap­tured, while police can­vass neigh­bor­hoods with dogs in search of leads.

As evening arrives, Saint finds Sam­my on a bal­cony, cel­e­brat­ing with a bot­tle of Laphroaig. Their con­ver­sa­tion turns to Nix, a mutu­al acquain­tance whom Sam­my had seen the day before. Saint reflects on her own mem­o­ries of Nix, who had been reli­able in his com­mu­ni­ty deal­ings.

The atmos­phere shifts as Saint reveals to Sam­my that a con­struc­tion work­er inad­ver­tent­ly sev­ered a crit­i­cal cable feed­ing the prison, hint­ing at pos­si­ble foul play. Sam­my lis­tens as she lays out the sus­pi­cious cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Patch’s escape, dis­cussing the var­i­ous prison staff involved who may not be as inno­cent as they seem.

Despite Sammy’s denial of any wrong­do­ing, Saint push­es for the truth, fear­ing for Patch’s safe­ty due to the impli­ca­tions of mon­ey and cor­rup­tion poten­tial­ly sur­round­ing his escape. Sam­my’s defen­sive stance rais­es doubts, but Saint holds onto her hope, rec­og­niz­ing that both she and Sam­my share a deep affec­tion for Patch, com­pli­cat­ing their con­ver­sa­tion about guilt and respon­si­bil­i­ty.

Through this chap­ter, the ten­sion mounts around the unfold­ing events, inter­twin­ing per­son­al stakes with the broad­er inves­ti­ga­tion as Saint nav­i­gates her feel­ings for those involved in this har­row­ing sit­u­a­tion.