In Chap­ter 40 of We Solve Mur­ders, Amy, Rosie, and Steve find them­selves stand­ing in the park­ing lot of Emory Exec­u­tive Air­field, watch­ing as Eddie Flood’s plane ascends high into the bright blue sky above. Steve makes a com­ment about Eddie’s upcom­ing vaca­tion in Hawaii, but Rosie, with a know­ing smile, remarks that Eddie won’t have near­ly as much fun as Barb and her daugh­ter, who are also en route to the same des­ti­na­tion. At this moment, the team has gath­ered crit­i­cal infor­ma­tion about Eddie, includ­ing a scan of his pass­port, thanks to Car­los Moss. It’s now clear that Eddie, the man sent to kill Amy, is cur­rent­ly en route to Hawaii, unaware of the inves­ti­ga­tion unfold­ing around him. This flight, meant to be a get­away for Eddie, serves as the back­drop to their tense mis­sion. The trio, how­ev­er, isn’t focus­ing on vaca­tion­ing; they’re prepar­ing for their own jour­ney, with the full weight of their mis­sion push­ing them for­ward. The sense of urgency grows stronger as they make their way toward their next des­ti­na­tion.

As they pre­pare for depar­ture, Steve grabs his small ruck­sack, while Car­los is care­ful­ly han­dling Rosie’s design­er suit­case. With excite­ment in her voice, Rosie men­tions how she’s eager to head to St. Lucia for their next adven­ture. She’s plan­ning to dive into the research of local laws to fur­ther their inves­ti­ga­tion. Amy, always grate­ful for the assis­tance, thanks Car­los as he informs them that the Fal­con jet has been refu­eled and is ready for them. Steve, wear­ing gym shorts and a T‑shirt, seems to be strug­gling with the heat, beads of sweat form­ing on his face as the tem­per­a­ture ris­es. Rosie attempts to link arms with him in a sup­port­ive ges­ture, but Steve resists, clear­ly uncom­fort­able. His dis­com­fort with the heat is pal­pa­ble, yet the ten­sion of their sit­u­a­tion keeps his focus sharp. While Steve may be phys­i­cal­ly dis­tract­ed, their mis­sion remains at the fore­front of his mind, and he knows the impor­tance of stay­ing focused despite the minor incon­ve­nience.

Car­los, ever per­cep­tive, notices the sub­tle dynam­ic between Amy and Steve and com­ments on Steve’s appar­ent affec­tion for her. The remark leads Amy to reflect on her per­son­al strug­gles with accept­ing love and inti­ma­cy. She acknowl­edges her inner con­flict, reveal­ing the emo­tion­al lay­ers that have shaped her actions through­out the inves­ti­ga­tion. Carlos’s sug­ges­tion that she work on embrac­ing love more open­ly strikes a chord with Amy, prompt­ing her to con­sid­er the com­plex­i­ties of her emo­tion­al state amidst the chaos sur­round­ing them. As a porter arrives to help with the lug­gage, Car­los, try­ing to main­tain a sense of cama­raderie, reach­es out for a hug with Steve. How­ev­er, Steve, uncom­fort­able with the phys­i­cal con­tact, declines the offer. Despite the awk­ward moment, Car­los takes it in stride, giv­ing Steve a quick hug any­way. Steve, sweat­ing and feel­ing embar­rassed, apol­o­gizes for his con­di­tion, but Car­los reas­sures him with a light­heart­ed remark, attribut­ing the dis­com­fort to the heat rather than any per­son­al fault. This exchange, though seem­ing­ly triv­ial, adds a lay­er of human con­nec­tion to an oth­er­wise intense chap­ter, high­light­ing the con­trast between the seri­ous­ness of their mis­sion and the light-heart­ed moments that arise amidst the ten­sion.

After bid­ding them a casu­al farewell, Car­los wish­es them well, humor­ous­ly advis­ing them not to get killed. His part­ing words hang in the air as the trio heads toward the tar­mac, the weight of their next steps now press­ing on them. Amy, still reflect­ing on the inter­ac­tions, sug­gests that Car­los should be includ­ed in one of Rosie’s books as a token of thanks. Rosie, ever the pro­fes­sion­al, smiles and reveals that Car­los had already been a char­ac­ter in one of her nov­els, While You Were Dead. In the sto­ry, he’s por­trayed as an ex-Marine with whom the pro­tag­o­nist shares a com­plex rela­tion­ship. This rev­e­la­tion offers a glimpse into Rosie’s fic­tion­al world and brings a moment of lev­i­ty to the scene. It also deep­ens the con­nec­tion between the char­ac­ters, show­ing how Rosie’s cre­ative world has inter­twined with her real-life rela­tion­ships. With a light­heart­ed chuck­le, Rosie directs the porter to their char­tered plane as the chap­ter clos­es, sig­nal­ing the end of this par­tic­u­lar con­ver­sa­tion and the begin­ning of a new chap­ter in their inves­ti­ga­tion. The trio boards the plane, prepar­ing for the next phase of their jour­ney, with both excite­ment and uncer­tain­ty lin­ger­ing in the air. The com­plex­i­ties of their mis­sion con­tin­ue to unfold as they pre­pare for what lies ahead.