Chap­ter 2 of We Solve Mur­ders intro­duces read­ers to a cap­ti­vat­ing con­ver­sa­tion between Amy Wheel­er and Rosie D’Antonio, two women whose con­trast­ing per­son­al­i­ties unfold as they spend time togeth­er by the pool­side. Rosie lounges with ease, com­fort­ably nes­tled in her chair, while Amy is more guard­ed, a gun placed near her as a reminder of the dan­gers she faces. The set­ting is relaxed, but a deep and prob­ing ques­tion from Rosie—“What don’t you like about yourself?”—opens up a space for hon­est self-reflec­tion. Amy admits to dis­sat­is­fac­tion with var­i­ous parts of her appear­ance, list­ing her nose, ears, and legs as flaws that trou­ble her. This seem­ing­ly casu­al exchange about self-image quick­ly evolves into a deep­er explo­ration of Amy’s inner thoughts and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, pro­vid­ing insight into her inse­cu­ri­ties. While the con­ver­sa­tion starts light­heart­ed­ly, it under­scores the themes of iden­ti­ty, self-worth, and the con­nec­tion form­ing between the two women.

Rosie, con­fi­dent and seem­ing­ly care­free, sug­gests pos­si­ble changes to help Amy feel bet­ter about her­self, advis­ing on how to “fix” her flaws. How­ev­er, as the con­ver­sa­tion pro­gress­es, it takes a more mean­ing­ful turn. Rosie encour­ages Amy to think about what she does like about her­self, prompt­ing Amy to reflect on her core strengths. After some con­sid­er­a­tion, Amy acknowl­edges her loy­al­ty and her abil­i­ty to fight for the peo­ple she cares about. This moment is piv­otal, reveal­ing that while Amy may strug­gle with self-image, she finds strength in her loy­al­ty and her pro­tec­tive instincts. The con­trast between the two women—Rosie’s nat­ur­al con­fi­dence and Amy’s more reserved, self-con­scious nature—adds lay­ers to their evolv­ing rela­tion­ship. Through their exchange, Amy begins to see her­self in a new light, real­iz­ing that her worth goes beyond phys­i­cal appear­ance, embrac­ing the parts of her­self that make her resilient and deter­mined.

As their con­ver­sa­tion moves for­ward, the tone shifts to one of admi­ra­tion as Amy lis­tens to Rosie talk about her career as a best­selling nov­el­ist. Amy recalls how she has always looked up to strong, inde­pen­dent women like Rosie, find­ing inspi­ra­tion in their strength and suc­cess. While Amy grap­ples with her own inse­cu­ri­ties, she can’t help but admire Rosie’s unshak­able con­fi­dence, which only grows as they talk. How­ev­er, despite the admi­ra­tion, there is an under­cur­rent of con­cern, as the loom­ing threat against Rosie’s life from a wealthy adver­sary remains in the back­ground. Amy, who has expe­ri­enced her own brush­es with dan­ger, feels an unwa­ver­ing sense of duty to pro­tect Rosie, even if it means plac­ing her­self in harm’s way. The exchange shows how deep their bond has become, with Amy will­ing to put her own fears aside to ensure Rosie’s safe­ty, espe­cial­ly when Rosie jokes about not want­i­ng Amy to jump in front of a bul­let for her. Amy’s response reveals her inner resolve, under­stand­ing that the threat against Rosie is very real and that she will do any­thing to pro­tect her.

The chap­ter con­tin­ues to blend humor with grav­i­ty as the two women nav­i­gate their com­plex feel­ings and the sit­u­a­tion at hand. Amy’s inner tur­moil is high­light­ed as she tries to bal­ance her past expe­ri­ences with her cur­rent role as a body­guard. While she tries to remain calm and col­lect­ed, her past weighs heav­i­ly on her, with each dan­ger she faces push­ing her to con­front her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. Rosie, on the oth­er hand, main­tains a light­heart­ed tone, using humor as a defense mech­a­nism against the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. Their con­trast­ing approach­es to dan­ger and life in gen­er­al are what makes their rela­tion­ship so com­pelling. Despite the loom­ing threat from Rosie’s adver­sary, the time spent togeth­er in their seclud­ed island hide­away allows for a moment of reflec­tion. This tem­po­rary escape gives Amy the chance to con­sid­er her next steps while reassert­ing her role as pro­tec­tor. At the same time, she faces the chal­lenge of defin­ing who she is beyond her past trau­ma. The chap­ter ends with an over­whelm­ing sense of duty in Amy, along­side a deep need for per­son­al growth, as she con­fronts the com­plex­i­ties of her role in Rosie’s life and the dan­gers they face togeth­er. Through this poignant yet humor­ous dia­logue, the sto­ry not only explores self-image and iden­ti­ty but also sets the stage for the deep­er emo­tion­al stakes that lie ahead in the nar­ra­tive.