Chap­ter 90 of We Solve Mur­ders begins with Steve step­ping into an unfa­mil­iar world as he enters a sauna for the first time. He has cho­sen this set­ting for inves­tiga­tive pur­pos­es, a nec­es­sary sac­ri­fice that often accom­pa­nies his work. Sit­ting across from Mick­ey Moody, a bald­ing Cock­ney who had golfed with Rob Ken­na the pre­vi­ous day, Steve attempts to break the ice by start­ing a con­ver­sa­tion. He casu­al­ly men­tions his lim­it­ed expe­ri­ence with saunas, admit­ting with a sense of humor that he’s not a golfer, hop­ing to keep the con­ver­sa­tion light. Despite his attempt at casu­al­ness, he’s keen to learn more about Mickey’s con­nec­tions to Rob Ken­na and the world he inhab­its. The sauna, an unlike­ly but strate­gic loca­tion for this encounter, serves as a set­ting for Steve’s sub­tle prob­ing, mix­ing both humor and inves­ti­ga­tion in a del­i­cate bal­ance.

Mick­ey, how­ev­er, doesn’t seem entire­ly com­fort­able with Steve’s approach. He ques­tions Steve’s ties to Rob Ken­na, sens­ing that Steve is try­ing to dig deep­er into Kenna’s world while main­tain­ing a facade of non­cha­lance. In response, Mick­ey claims to know lit­tle about Ken­na, hint­ing that it’s wis­er not to ask too many ques­tions in their cir­cle. Their con­ver­sa­tion takes a turn as Steve, seek­ing to blend in, fab­ri­cates a back­sto­ry involv­ing his sup­posed exper­tise in scent­ed can­dles. This fab­ri­cat­ed nar­ra­tive is a clever attempt to appear incon­spic­u­ous, but it also reflects Steve’s knack for fit­ting into uncom­fort­able sit­u­a­tions while hid­ing his true inten­tions. His attempt at cre­at­ing a com­mon bond, while humor­ous, under­scores the ten­sion that Steve must con­stant­ly nav­i­gate as he seeks the infor­ma­tion he needs with­out rais­ing sus­pi­cion.

As the dia­logue con­tin­ues, Mick­ey shares insights into his past, reveal­ing his time spent in the scrap busi­ness. He talks about the unusu­al char­ac­ters he encoun­tered, pro­vid­ing a stark con­trast to the seem­ing­ly more mun­dane world of can­dle-mak­ing that Steve describes. Mickey’s anec­dotes hint at the rough, unpre­dictable nature of his for­mer busi­ness, which, while ground­ed in phys­i­cal labor, was filled with its own dan­gers and com­pli­ca­tions. His cau­tious approach to life becomes clear as he talks about avoid­ing trou­ble even dur­ing the tough­est moments, a mind­set that res­onates deeply with Steve. Hav­ing also faced sig­nif­i­cant loss­es and chal­lenges in his own life, Steve can relate to Mickey’s approach to nav­i­gat­ing a world filled with uncer­tain­ty. Their con­ver­sa­tion, bal­anc­ing humor with a reflec­tion on hard­ship, offers both men a chance to share their per­son­al cop­ing mech­a­nisms, despite the dif­fer­ences in their back­grounds.

As the con­ver­sa­tion shifts, Mick­ey begins to offer his opin­ion on Rob Ken­na, call­ing him a “wide boy,” and advis­ing Steve to keep his dis­tance from him. This com­ment makes Steve pause, as he starts to reflect on his own life, par­tic­u­lar­ly his con­nec­tion to his late wife, Deb­bie. He finds solace in the shared expe­ri­ences of loss, under­stand­ing how grief shapes a person’s choic­es and inter­ac­tions. The dia­logue between Steve and Mick­ey, though filled with humor and light ban­ter, also car­ries an under­cur­rent of melan­choly. It is in these moments of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and shared under­stand­ing that Steve begins to make con­nec­tions not only in his inves­ti­ga­tion but in his own per­son­al jour­ney of heal­ing and accep­tance. The real­iza­tion that both men are shaped by their pasts pro­vides a deep­er lay­er of con­nec­tion, even if unspo­ken, between them.

The chap­ter reach­es its piv­otal moment when Steve expe­ri­ences an epiphany regard­ing his inves­ti­ga­tion. The pieces of the puz­zle start to fall into place, and he rec­og­nizes the sig­nif­i­cance of François Lou­bet and the crit­i­cal evi­dence he needs to gath­er to move for­ward. In an act of phys­i­cal accep­tance, Steve kicks off his shoes and removes his socks, sym­bol­iz­ing a new­found clar­i­ty and com­mit­ment to the task at hand. This small, yet pro­found ges­ture marks a turn­ing point for Steve, a moment where he sheds the weight of his past and embraces the chal­lenges of his inves­ti­ga­tion. Mick­ey, observ­ing Steve’s actions, encour­ages this small act of lib­er­a­tion, offer­ing an unspo­ken acknowl­edg­ment of the sig­nif­i­cance of the moment. In the con­text of the sauna, this sim­ple yet pow­er­ful act encap­su­lates the dual themes of per­son­al reflec­tion and relent­less pur­suit of the truth, set­ting the stage for what’s to come in the inves­ti­ga­tion. The scene leaves read­ers with a sense of antic­i­pa­tion, as Steve’s clar­i­ty now dri­ves him toward the next chap­ter of his jour­ney, both pro­fes­sion­al­ly and per­son­al­ly.