In Chap­ter 45 of We Solve Mur­ders, Steve finds him­self in a lav­ish hotel suite, a stark con­trast to his usu­al mod­est accom­mo­da­tions. The suite boasts a stun­ning swim­ming pool with sap­phire blue water, posi­tioned per­fect­ly to pro­vide an unob­struct­ed view of twin vol­ca­noes in the dis­tance. The pic­turesque Caribbean land­scape out­side adds to the suit­e’s grandeur, height­en­ing Steve’s sense of awe and dis­com­fort at the lux­u­ri­ous sur­round­ings. As he set­tles into the space, Steve takes a moment to reflect on his past, reach­ing for his Dic­ta­phone to speak with Deb­bie. He recalls their long-held dream of trav­el­ing to the Caribbean togeth­er, but with a heavy heart, he admits that they nev­er made that dream a real­i­ty. Regret con­sumes him as he con­tem­plates the missed oppor­tu­ni­ties in his life, par­tic­u­lar­ly the times when he hes­i­tat­ed to embrace adven­ture and the unknown, choos­ing instead to stay with­in the safe­ty of rou­tine. In his reflec­tion, Steve real­izes how his reluc­tance to ful­ly engage with life’s pos­si­bil­i­ties has shaped the path he’s tak­en.

Shift­ing his focus, Steve recounts the pur­pose of his trip to St. Lucia, where he and his col­leagues are set to meet Nel­son Nunez, a man with rumored ties to drug deal­ing oper­a­tions. Steve sus­pects that Nunez is more involved in crim­i­nal activ­i­ties than any­one real­izes, and he feels an increas­ing sense of unease as he delves deep­er into the con­nec­tions between Nunez and his inves­ti­ga­tion into Bel­la Sanchez’s death. Bella’s finan­cial ties seem to be lead­ing Steve down a com­plex path, one that links her to dan­ger­ous indi­vid­u­als like Nunez. As he con­tem­plates these con­nec­tions, his mind returns to the grow­ing com­pli­ca­tions sur­round­ing Vivid Viral Agency and the enig­mat­ic fig­ure of Henk, who has recent­ly set up a close-pro­tec­tion busi­ness. Henk’s sus­pi­cious activ­i­ties only add to the tan­gled web Steve is try­ing to untan­gle, and the real­iza­tion that he may not be return­ing to Eng­land soon looms over him. This under­stand­ing ampli­fies Steve’s feel­ings of iso­la­tion and regret, rein­forc­ing the sense that his life is increas­ing­ly defined by a series of dif­fi­cult choic­es and pro­fes­sion­al oblig­a­tions that may keep him in this sit­u­a­tion longer than he antic­i­pat­ed.

The nar­ra­tive takes a more light­heart­ed turn when Rosie D’Antonio sends Steve a black suit intend­ed for an upscale din­ner with the own­er of Emer­ald Bay, an event that requires a more for­mal dress code. Steve, who prefers casu­al attire, is ini­tial­ly caught off guard by this request and protests the need for such for­mal cloth­ing. How­ev­er, the young man who deliv­ers the suit points out that the out­fit would also be appro­pri­ate for Steve’s upcom­ing meet­ing with Nunez, fur­ther empha­siz­ing its impor­tance. As Steve con­tem­plates the sig­nif­i­cance of his new attire, he gazes out at the Caribbean Sea, feel­ing an over­whelm­ing sense of long­ing for Debbie’s com­pa­ny. The expan­sive view of the ocean only deep­ens his sense of iso­la­tion, high­light­ing the emo­tion­al dis­tance between him­self and the life he once envi­sioned. This moment of reflec­tion brings a wave of nos­tal­gia for the life he could have had, and the lux­u­ry of his sur­round­ings does lit­tle to com­fort him as he grap­ples with his per­son­al regrets and emo­tion­al strug­gles. The lux­u­ry of the hotel only serves as a reminder of how far he’s come and how much he’s left behind in the pur­suit of his career.

Rosie soon arrives to check on Steve, sug­gest­ing a walk along the beach as a way to talk through some of the mur­der mys­ter­ies they’ve been inves­ti­gat­ing. As they stroll along the shore­line, their con­ver­sa­tion nat­u­ral­ly shifts to Steve’s per­son­al life, and he begins to open up about the emo­tion­al con­flicts that have been weigh­ing on him. Rosie’s ques­tions force Steve to con­front the real­i­ty of how much he has con­fined him­self to rou­tine and safe­ty, avoid­ing the risks that come with liv­ing life to its fullest. Although Steve tries to main­tain a façade of com­po­sure, it becomes increas­ing­ly clear that Rosie’s prob­ing hits a deep­er, more vul­ner­a­ble part of him. Her ques­tions make Steve real­ize that his ten­den­cy to avoid tak­ing risks has been a bar­ri­er to his per­son­al growth, and he’s forced to con­sid­er the con­se­quences of his actions and inac­tions. Despite his ini­tial resis­tance to the for­mal suit, Steve agrees to walk with Rosie, see­ing it as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with her on a deep­er lev­el. The walk becomes more than just a casu­al con­ver­sa­tion; it’s an acknowl­edg­ment of his emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty and the per­son­al growth he is begin­ning to real­ize. The chap­ter ends with Steve and Rosie walk­ing side by side, each of them reflect­ing on the bal­ance between pro­fes­sion­al duties and per­son­al ful­fill­ment, sym­bol­iz­ing the emo­tion­al jour­ney Steve has yet to ful­ly embark on.