Chap­ter 73 of We Solve Mur­ders delves into a deeply engag­ing din­ner con­ver­sa­tion between Rosie and Derek Char­ters, blend­ing per­son­al anec­dotes with the weight of an inves­ti­ga­tion that has been inch­ing clos­er to dan­ger­ous ter­ri­to­ry. The pair, who ini­tial­ly engage in light ban­ter over their attire, soon find the con­ver­sa­tion veer­ing into dark­er, more press­ing mat­ters. Derek, using his back­ground in invest­ment bank­ing, remarks on the scale of finan­cial trans­ac­tions tied to Vivid Viral Media, a social media agency that has been linked to sig­nif­i­cant pay­ments to influ­encers. He high­lights the sum of £150,000 paid to Mark Gooch and £200,000 to Jack­son Lynch, amounts that point to larg­er, more shad­owy deal­ings behind the scenes. The size of these fig­ures rais­es red flags about the agency’s role in poten­tial mon­ey laun­der­ing, and Derek express­es his con­cern that the legit­i­ma­cy of these trans­ac­tions is high­ly ques­tion­able. Rosie, catch­ing the drift of his sus­pi­cion, probes deep­er into the sit­u­a­tion by ask­ing whether any con­nec­tions exist between the agency’s promi­nent fig­ure­head, Felic­i­ty Wool­las­ton, and the clients whose finan­cial ties have now come under scruti­ny.

As the con­ver­sa­tion devel­ops, Derek light­ens the mood by shift­ing to per­son­al anec­dotes. He casu­al­ly men­tions Car­ol, who now lives in Jamaica with a ski instruc­tor, adding a humor­ous twist to the evening. Rosie, in a bid to con­tin­ue the light­heart­ed theme, humor­ous­ly com­pares their dif­fer­ing life expe­ri­ences. How­ev­er, the mood quick­ly shifts back to the grim nature of the inves­ti­ga­tion at hand as they dis­cuss the recent mur­ders linked to Rosie’s close friend. Derek, sens­ing Rosie’s grow­ing ten­sion, voic­es his con­cerns for her safe­ty, but Rosie brush­es it off with a joke, ref­er­enc­ing a past threat from a Russ­ian bil­lion­aire who had once posed a dan­ger to her. Her casu­al approach hides an under­ly­ing reality—she’s no stranger to the risks she faces, but the con­stant threats have tak­en their toll, and her abil­i­ty to man­age the pres­sure is begin­ning to show. Even as she deflects with humor, the weight of the sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ues to hov­er over her, mak­ing her more acute­ly aware of the dan­gers lurk­ing around every cor­ner.

As Rosie’s focus shifts, her atten­tion is caught by a fig­ure sneak­ing up the stairs—Eddie Flood, a man with deep con­nec­tions to her past and present trou­bles. His pres­ence imme­di­ate­ly rais­es alarms, as Eddie’s asso­ci­a­tion with dan­ger­ous indi­vid­u­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly Vasiliy Karpin, adds lay­ers of uncer­tain­ty to the sit­u­a­tion. She begins to won­der whether Eddie is now tar­get­ing her instead of Amy, ques­tion­ing his true motives and whether his arrival sig­nals the next phase in an ever-wors­en­ing series of events. The dis­com­fort she feels in his pres­ence only grows, as Rosie con­tem­plates her next move. Is con­fronting Eddie the right deci­sion, or does it risk esca­lat­ing an already volatile sit­u­a­tion? The men­tal gears turn rapid­ly in her mind as she pre­pares for what­ev­er comes next, know­ing that every choice could have sig­nif­i­cant con­se­quences.

Derek, seem­ing­ly unaware of the shift in Rosie’s thoughts, offers her more wine, attempt­ing to light­en the mood with casu­al con­ver­sa­tion. How­ev­er, Rosie, now ful­ly alert and focused on the threat she feels in Eddie’s pres­ence, opts for water instead, sig­nal­ing a shift in her mind­set from relax­ation to readi­ness. The deci­sion is sub­tle but revealing—Rosie is no longer will­ing to indulge in dis­trac­tions or relax. She knows she needs to stay sharp, espe­cial­ly with the unknown threat loom­ing large in the form of Eddie. Derek, ever the light­heart­ed one, makes a joke about her new­found sobri­ety, but Rosie bare­ly reacts, her mind con­sumed with the poten­tial dan­ger that Eddie rep­re­sents. This deci­sion marks a clear turn­ing point for her—what should have been a relax­ing evening is now a stark reminder of the per­ilous world she’s nav­i­gat­ing. The chap­ter clos­es with a lin­ger­ing sense of unease, high­light­ing the fragili­ty of the sit­u­a­tion and the ever-present dan­ger sur­round­ing Rosie as she pre­pares for what may come next.