Chap­ter 4 of We Solve Mur­ders delves deep­er into Jeff Nolan’s ongo­ing strug­gle with the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of the recent mur­ders that have deeply affect­ed his busi­ness, Max­i­mum Impact Solu­tions. The high-pro­file mur­der of Andrew Fair­banks, a fit­ness influ­encer and for­mer client of Jeff’s, has attract­ed sig­nif­i­cant media atten­tion, which is rapid­ly dam­ag­ing Jef­f’s rep­u­ta­tion and his stand­ing with­in his indus­try. Despite the ongo­ing police inves­ti­ga­tion, Jeff remains pri­mar­i­ly con­cerned about the ero­sion of trust among his clients, a loss of con­fi­dence that could lead to sig­nif­i­cant can­cel­la­tions of vital con­tracts. As Jeff jug­gles these mount­ing pres­sures, his usu­al con­fi­dence is shak­en, and he real­izes that his business’s suc­cess is increas­ing­ly at risk.

Max High­field, a key con­sul­tant who works close­ly with Jeff, soon arrives at the office to dis­cuss the grow­ing fall­out from the mur­ders. Max, clear­ly frus­trat­ed with the state of affairs, express­es his con­cern over how these inci­dents are dam­ag­ing their busi­ness rela­tion­ship and rep­u­ta­tion. While Jeff reas­sures Max that the mur­der of Fair­banks isn’t cat­a­stroph­ic for their clients, the con­ver­sa­tion soon shifts to their shared involve­ment in the enter­tain­ment world. Max, in his usu­al dry wit, points out the vast pay dis­par­i­ty between their roles in con­sul­tan­cy and the enter­tain­ment indus­try, par­tic­u­lar­ly in regard to pres­ti­gious awards like the Oscars. This dis­cus­sion adds an extra lay­er of ten­sion, as the per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al rival­ries between the two men become more evi­dent, high­light­ing the under­ly­ing com­plex­i­ties of their work­ing rela­tion­ship.

Amidst this exchange, Jeff reveals that Amy Wheel­er, an oper­a­tive work­ing for him, is cur­rent­ly inves­ti­gat­ing the mur­ders in South Car­oli­na. Max, who has inter­act­ed with Amy in the past, hints at a deep­er con­nec­tion between them, though the full extent of their rela­tion­ship remains unclear. The dynam­ic shifts fur­ther when Max men­tions the pos­si­bil­i­ty of join­ing Jeff’s rival, Henk, which instant­ly rais­es the stakes of their part­ner­ship and injects a com­pet­i­tive ten­sion into the con­ver­sa­tion. This men­tion of betray­al under­scores the pre­car­i­ous­ness of their pro­fes­sion­al alliance, sug­gest­ing that the bal­ance between trust and rival­ry is always frag­ile in their world. Their inter­ac­tions in this chap­ter offer a mix of casu­al ban­ter and seri­ous under­cur­rents, reveal­ing that despite their years of col­lab­o­ra­tion, nei­ther man ful­ly trusts the oth­er.

After Max leaves, Jeff turns his focus to Susan Knox, the head of HR at Max­i­mum Impact Solu­tions. Their brief con­ver­sa­tion touch­es on work­place dynam­ics, par­tic­u­lar­ly the impact that Max’s actions have had on the morale of their staff. Susan’s dry humor con­trasts with the ongo­ing chaos sur­round­ing the com­pa­ny, but beneath her wit, the grow­ing ten­sions with­in the busi­ness are appar­ent. The men­tion of François Lou­bet, a noto­ri­ous crim­i­nal fig­ure with ties to their indus­try, adds anoth­er lay­er of exter­nal dan­ger to the sit­u­a­tion. Loubet’s shad­ow looms large over the com­pa­ny, and Jeff is acute­ly aware that the prob­lems he faces now are just the tip of the ice­berg. As Susan leaves, the weight of the prob­lems becomes even more appar­ent, and Jeff’s real­iza­tion that things are spi­ral­ing out of con­trol begins to set in.

The chap­ter takes a dark­er turn as Jeff reflects on the loom­ing threat posed by Lou­bet. He pulls up an email he had writ­ten in a des­per­ate attempt to get advice on how to han­dle the dan­ger­ous crim­i­nal. This moment high­lights Jeff’s grow­ing sense of urgency as he faces the com­bined threats of the mur­ders, his crum­bling rep­u­ta­tion, and the dan­ger­ous fig­ure of Lou­bet. The chap­ter clos­es with Jeff pon­der­ing his strained part­ner­ship with Henk, acknowl­edg­ing that their rela­tion­ship is fraught with com­plex­i­ties and risks. As the chap­ter ends, read­ers are left with a sense of fore­bod­ing, know­ing that the chal­lenges Jeff faces will only inten­si­fy as the sto­ry unfolds. This chap­ter is a turn­ing point, mark­ing a deep­er dive into the rela­tion­ships, threats, and chal­lenges that will define the course of the nar­ra­tive mov­ing for­ward.