In Chap­ter 58, Henk van Veen finds him­self aboard a plane, indulging in the sim­ple plea­sure of a per­fect­ly poached egg. He shares his appre­ci­a­tion for the dish with Ash­ley, a young stew­ard, offer­ing his insights on what makes a poached egg tru­ly excep­tion­al. For Henk, the qual­i­ty of the egg begins with the source—only free-range eggs should be used, as he believes they pro­vide the rich­est taste and the most vibrant yolk. The col­or of the yolk, he insists, should be a deep orange, not the pale yel­low often seen in the British ver­sion. He likens the tex­ture of the yolk to that of molten lava, smooth and flow­ing slow­ly enough to allow the toast, his per­son­al ver­sion of Pom­peii, to absorb its warmth with­out quick­ly suc­cumb­ing to destruc­tion. This detailed descrip­tion show­cas­es Henk’s pas­sion for fine food, high­light­ing his refined tastes and the joy he takes in dis­cussing even the small­est details.

Henk goes on to crit­i­cize the cur­rent trend of sour­dough toast, pro­claim­ing that only seed­ed gra­nary toast should be paired with poached eggs. His cri­tique takes on a philo­soph­i­cal tone as he humor­ous­ly quotes Spin­oza, mak­ing a play­ful yet point­ed remark about mod­ern culi­nary choic­es. Henk’s phi­los­o­phy on food, while seem­ing­ly triv­ial to oth­ers, offers a glimpse into his character—he is some­one who approach­es life with a deep, some­times eccen­tric, lev­el of thought­ful­ness. As he con­tin­ues to savor the meal, he reflects on the rare but impres­sive feat of hav­ing such a care­ful­ly pre­pared dish served while in-flight. The expe­ri­ence sparks a thought in Henk’s mind: he should vis­it the chef after the flight to express his grat­i­tude and per­haps get their con­tact details for future occa­sions. Henk’s appre­ci­a­tion for good food goes beyond the act of eat­ing; it’s about build­ing con­nec­tions and rec­og­niz­ing qual­i­ty wher­ev­er it’s found, even in an unex­pect­ed set­ting like a plane.

While enjoy­ing his meal, Henk’s thoughts turn to the task at hand. He is cur­rent­ly track­ing a string of mur­ders that span from South Car­oli­na to St. Lucia, and now, he’s on his way to Ire­land. Mark Gooch, the next vic­tim in the chain of deaths, is expect­ed to be found in Cork, and Henk eager­ly antic­i­pates arriv­ing before Amy Wheel­er and her group. There’s a thrill in Henk’s mind as he thinks about the small joys in life, like the sen­sa­tion of stand­ing dur­ing the plane’s descent, which he com­pares to an adven­ture in itself. Despite Ashley’s insis­tence that he should buck­le up for safe­ty, Henk per­suades her to let him stand, rel­ish­ing in the slight risk of it all. This small act of rebel­lion against author­i­ty reflects Henk’s adven­tur­ous nature—he finds excite­ment and a sense of free­dom in the sim­plest of actions. In this moment, he is remind­ed that life isn’t just about the des­ti­na­tion; it’s about the lit­tle expe­ri­ences along the way, like stand­ing dur­ing a plane’s land­ing or savor­ing the per­fect poached egg.

The chap­ter reveals much about Henk’s char­ac­ter. He is a man who val­ues the fin­er things in life, from the per­fect poached egg to the thrill of a risky move on a plane. Yet, beneath this enjoy­ment of life’s plea­sures lies a deep­er, more com­plex pur­suit. Henk is also a man dri­ven by dark­er motives, track­ing a series of mur­ders that con­nect seem­ing­ly unre­lat­ed events across mul­ti­ple loca­tions. His jour­ney, while marked by small per­son­al vic­to­ries like enjoy­ing a meal or stand­ing dur­ing a flight, is ulti­mate­ly about a much larg­er and more dan­ger­ous mis­sion. As he reflects on his trav­els and the thrill of the chase, Henk is ever-con­scious of the larg­er context—his pur­suit of jus­tice and the con­se­quences of the actions he’s tak­ing. The chap­ter presents a mul­ti­fac­eted view of Henk, bal­anc­ing his love for life with his pur­suit of a high­er pur­pose, keep­ing read­ers intrigued by the inter­play of his pas­sions and dark­er under­tak­ings.