In the vil­lage of Axley, under a pale moon at three a.m., Steve Wheel­er reflects on his life while sit­ting on a famil­iar bench, rem­i­nisc­ing about his late wife, Deb­bie. He con­vers­es with Amy, who rests her head on his shoul­der and express­es pride in him. Rosie D’Antonio, anoth­er com­pan­ion, humor­ous­ly cri­tiques their sen­ti­men­tal­i­ty, engag­ing in play­ful ban­ter about her “men­tor­ing” rela­tion­ship with a younger man named Eddie.

The con­ver­sa­tion shifts when Steve inquires about Amy’s future plans now that Mick­ey Moody and Susan Knox are in cus­tody. Amy reveals she feels done with her cur­rent line of work, echo­ing the sen­ti­ment that Jeff and Henk sug­gest­ed she take time off. While Rosie jok­ing­ly pro­pos­es a switch to assas­sin work, Steve chimes in with con­cern over Rosie’s recy­cling habits, which she dis­miss­es non­cha­lant­ly.

Amy shares her ambi­tion to start a detec­tive agency focused on solv­ing unsolved mur­ders, empha­siz­ing her desire to address cas­es that oth­ers over­look. Steve, skep­ti­cal about the via­bil­i­ty of such a ven­ture, sup­ports Amy’s idea but under­scores the finan­cial impli­ca­tions and logis­tics involved, includ­ing office space and adver­tis­ing. Despite her friend’s doubts, Amy states she has a wealthy friend will­ing to invest in her plan.

Rosie cheek­i­ly offers to back Amy for a larg­er share than her friend, but Amy insists on stick­ing with her orig­i­nal deal. Steve appears reluc­tant and express­es a pref­er­ence for his cur­rent lifestyle, filled with mun­dane com­forts and small-town activ­i­ties. He finds ful­fill­ment in his rou­tine and con­nec­tion to Deb­bie, who he feels has been with him in spir­it.

After a humor­ous exchange about busi­ness plans, they find them­selves dis­cussing a pos­si­ble first case relat­ed to a news presenter’s sus­pi­cious death. Rosie is eager to get mov­ing. The chap­ter con­cludes with Steve propos­ing a name for their agency: “We Solve Mur­ders,” which, despite ini­tial resis­tance from Amy, she ulti­mate­ly accepts, find­ing humor in the name’s sim­plic­i­ty. As the chap­ter ends, owls hoot in the back­ground, encap­su­lat­ing the peace­ful yet piv­otal moment in their lives.

In Chap­ter 101 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the nar­ra­tive unfolds dur­ing a din­ner with Nor­ma, who pays lit­tle atten­tion to her grand­daugh­ter Saint and instead focus­es on her guest, Jim­my Wal­ters. As they eat pork steak and but­tered rolls, Jim­my shares details about his stud­ies and expe­ri­ences at Culpep­per Zoo, includ­ing his work with var­i­ous ani­mals suf­fer­ing from dis­eases. Nor­ma responds to his sto­ries with a casu­al remark while Saint, dis­tract­ed, push­es her pota­toes around and chuck­les at Jimmy’s jok­ing com­ment about sex­ing dormice.

After din­ner, they stroll togeth­er to Main Street, where they win­dow shop at Mon­ta Clare Antiques. Jim­my express­es his desire to spend his pay­check on var­i­ous items, reveal­ing his charm and enthu­si­asm for life, even as Saint con­sid­ers the finan­cial bur­dens of col­lege and work. Under the hard­ware store’s canopy, he reas­sures her that things will improve regard­ing their liv­ing sit­u­a­tion with her grand­moth­er. Their con­ver­sa­tion veers towards the future, with Jim­my sug­gest­ing Saint might need to pause her career for fam­i­ly when the time comes.

Jimmy’s moth­er has invit­ed Saint over for din­ner on Sat­ur­day, promis­ing her famous Slop­py Joes, an uncon­ven­tion­al treat that Saint strug­gles to appre­ci­ate. After he affec­tion­ate­ly kiss­es her cheek, she reflects on his ear­li­er sug­ges­tion to wear a green dress he bought her, which leads to play­ful ban­ter about her appear­ance when meet­ing his moth­er.

Lat­er that night, Saint retreats to her attic bed­room, deter­mined to delve into her work on the Joseph Macauley case file. She reviews her inves­ti­ga­tion into Eli Aaron and a series of rosary beads, link­ing them to var­i­ous church­es and loca­tions. Despite vis­it­ing numer­ous priests and search­ing dili­gent­ly, she grap­ples with the chal­lenge of iden­ti­fy­ing sev­er­al miss­ing girls from pho­tos, includ­ing Misty Mey­er and Cal­lie Mon­trose. As her thoughts swirl around the com­pli­cat­ed details of the case, she drifts off to sleep with the file clutched close, a night­ly rit­u­al that speaks to her obses­sion and desire to find the truth amidst the chaos.