Chap­ter 97 of We Solve Mur­ders opens with an intense­ly dra­mat­ic moment as Archer, a man on the brink of death, lies on the cold, wet pave­ment, feel­ing the life slow­ly drain­ing from him. The fog­gy dark­ness of Soho sur­rounds him, where the weak glow from the gas lamps seems unable to pen­e­trate the thick, oppres­sive black­ness that cloaks the streets. Archer’s thoughts flick­er back to a life­time spent chas­ing a shad­ow, the fig­ure he’s been pur­su­ing for years—an elu­sive man, seen by many but under­stood by none. Known for his dis­tinc­tive elec­tric-blue suit and a col­lec­tion of women who fol­low him, this fig­ure has remained a mys­tery, one that Archer has been des­per­ate to solve. Despite oth­er sight­ings of the man, it is only in this final, fleet­ing moment that Archer tru­ly rec­og­nizes him, and with that recog­ni­tion comes a piv­otal real­iza­tion, one that ties togeth­er years of pur­suit.

As Archer’s body grows weak­er, his thoughts are inter­rupt­ed by a woman in a red dress who approach­es, offer­ing him help. Her voice, calm and sooth­ing, stands in stark con­trast to the dis­tant wail of sirens sig­nal­ing the approach­ing emer­gency response. Her pres­ence is almost sur­re­al, offer­ing a fleet­ing moment of solace in the midst of Archer’s ago­niz­ing decline. As he strug­gles to stay con­scious, Archer’s eyes catch one last glimpse of the mys­te­ri­ous man, who walks away from the scene, a knife slip­ping from his grip and clat­ter­ing to the ground. In that moment, Archer notices some­thing crucial—a detail that had elud­ed him until now: the sole of the killer’s left shoe. This obser­va­tion, seem­ing­ly triv­ial, encap­su­lates the rea­son why the killer had always remained one step ahead of the author­i­ties, out of reach despite all efforts to cap­ture him. The real­iza­tion stirs a sense of final­i­ty in Archer’s mind as he faces the painful truth that this ghost­ly fig­ure had always been just beyond his grasp. As his life slips away, Archer’s thoughts turn to his son, Eric Junior, who is now two years into his career with the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police. The young offi­cer is still unaware of the inevitable reck­on­ing that awaits him—the truth about his father’s knowl­edge and the long-hid­den mys­ter­ies that will one day unfold before him.

The nar­ra­tive then shifts to a qui­eter moment, mov­ing to Eddie, a writer who is grap­pling with his own inse­cu­ri­ties about his lit­er­ary career. As Eddie seeks val­i­da­tion from Rosie D’Antonio, who lounges across from him, their con­ver­sa­tion takes on a light, yet intro­spec­tive tone. Eddie opens up about his strug­gles with writ­ing, admit­ting that while his roman­tic sto­ries may be well-craft­ed, they lack the abil­i­ty to tru­ly cap­ti­vate and draw read­ers in. Rosie, with her sharp wit, encour­ages him to hook her into the sto­ry, acknowl­edg­ing his tal­ent but sug­gest­ing that he could do more to make his writ­ing tru­ly com­pelling. Their exchange, though light-heart­ed, under­scores Eddie’s deep­er uncer­tain­ties about his work and the pres­sure to cre­ate some­thing more engag­ing. As the con­ver­sa­tion pro­gress­es, Eddie begins to con­sid­er the pos­si­bil­i­ty of nam­ing his book after the mys­te­ri­ous man with the shoe, a ref­er­ence to the elu­sive fig­ure who has haunt­ed Archer’s thoughts and now looms in Eddie’s own nar­ra­tive. Rosie, rec­og­niz­ing the poten­tial for a cap­ti­vat­ing sto­ry, pro­pos­es the title A Cat Called Trou­ble, a sug­ges­tion that imme­di­ate­ly intrigues Eddie. The title not only evokes the dan­ger­ous and elu­sive fig­ure from Archer’s past but also hints at the intrigue and sus­pense that could draw read­ers into the sto­ry. It presents an intrigu­ing par­al­lel between the sto­ry Eddie is try­ing to tell and the haunt­ing mys­tery that has shaped so many lives. This sug­ges­tion by Rosie sparks Eddie’s imag­i­na­tion, hint­ing that per­haps he can find a way to weave the dark and com­plex themes of Archer’s pur­suit into his own work, mak­ing it some­thing tru­ly worth read­ing.

The two char­ac­ters’ dia­logue high­lights the del­i­cate bal­ance between per­son­al strug­gles and pro­fes­sion­al chal­lenges. Eddie’s con­cerns about his writ­ing mir­ror Archer’s deep­er, more com­plex fight against his own fate, blend­ing themes of cre­ation, recog­ni­tion, and the search for truth. It also hints at the broad­er con­nec­tions between the per­son­al and the soci­etal, as Eddie and Rosie unknow­ing­ly echo the ten­sions of Archer’s own life and death strug­gle. As Eddie begins to con­sid­er the title and the direc­tion of his book, there’s a sense that his nar­ra­tive might inter­twine with the larg­er, unre­solved mys­ter­ies sur­round­ing Archer, the elu­sive killer, and the dan­ger­ous games of pow­er and decep­tion. The chap­ter thus not only advances the plot but deep­ens the emo­tion­al and the­mat­ic lay­ers of the sto­ry, blend­ing sus­pense with intro­spec­tion and offer­ing a glimpse into the ways in which lives and sto­ries inter­sect. The mix of per­son­al ambi­tion, lit­er­ary uncer­tain­ty, and dark secrets cre­ates a mul­ti­fac­eted nar­ra­tive that invites read­ers to look deep­er, reflect­ing on the com­plex inter­play of iden­ti­ty, fate, and the pur­suit of truth.