Chap­ter 7 of We Solve Mur­ders reveals Steve Wheel­er’s ongo­ing engage­ment with crim­i­nal cas­es despite his retire­ment. Although no longer active­ly solv­ing crimes, he main­tains an inter­est in cer­tain cas­es that cap­ture his atten­tion, such as the recent mur­der of Andrew Fair­banks in South Car­oli­na. This case, in par­tic­u­lar, intrigues him because of its con­nec­tion to his acquain­tance, Amy. Fairbanks’s mur­der was hor­rif­ic and involved mul­ti­ple vio­lent acts, spark­ing Steve’s curios­i­ty. How­ev­er, despite his pro­fes­sion­al instincts being piqued, Steve is forced to focus on per­son­al mat­ters that demand his atten­tion.

Steve’s cur­rent focus is an inves­ti­ga­tion involv­ing Mol­lie Bright, a young woman who has been steal­ing from her mother’s shop. Despite her emo­tion­al protests, Steve presents Mol­lie with video evi­dence, forc­ing her to admit her guilt. Dur­ing their con­ver­sa­tion, it becomes clear that Mol­lie is being threat­ened by a school bul­ly named Lau­ren Gough, who extorts mon­ey from her. Steve sym­pa­thizes with Mollie’s sit­u­a­tion, real­iz­ing that her actions stem from fear rather than greed. The bul­ly­ing and social pres­sure weigh heav­i­ly on Mol­lie, and Steve’s heart goes out to her as he sees the dam­age caused by intim­i­da­tion.

As Steve delves deep­er into Mollie’s sit­u­a­tion, he reflects on how social media and peer pres­sure play piv­otal roles in the lives of young peo­ple today. He also begins to ques­tion the nature of parental rela­tion­ships, par­tic­u­lar­ly after see­ing how hard Jen­ny Bright, Mollie’s moth­er, works to pro­tect her daugh­ter. Despite Jenny’s con­cerns, Steve reas­sures her that there is no evi­dence of her involve­ment in the theft, offer­ing some peace of mind. In a lighter moment, Steve men­tions receiv­ing an unex­pect­ed enve­lope of mon­ey from an anony­mous client, which fur­ther com­pli­cates his already mys­te­ri­ous day. The pres­ence of such small, enig­mat­ic moments helps break the ten­sion, but Steve’s focus soon shifts back to the big­ger con­cerns at hand.

The chap­ter also delves into Steve’s lin­ger­ing thoughts about the unsolved mur­der of Andrew Fair­banks. As he reflects on the medi­a’s cov­er­age of the case, Steve becomes increas­ing­ly dis­il­lu­sioned with the lack of trans­paren­cy from local law enforce­ment. He recalls his impres­sion of Sher­iff Justin Scrog­gie, whose pol­ished exte­ri­or and for­mal demeanor only height­en Steve’s skep­ti­cism regard­ing the sher­if­f’s com­pe­tence. The reluc­tance of the police to pro­vide infor­ma­tion fuels Steve’s grow­ing con­cern that the case will remain unsolved for longer than antic­i­pat­ed.

In the midst of these per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al chal­lenges, Steve shows com­pas­sion and under­stand­ing when he offers Mol­lie the chance to walk a dog he found ear­li­er. This small ges­ture offers Mol­lie a brief moment of peace and high­lights Steve’s nat­ur­al pro­tec­tive instincts. Their exchange, filled with mutu­al respect and empa­thy, under­scores a cen­tral theme of the chapter—how bul­ly­ing and soci­etal pres­sures can harm indi­vid­u­als. While Steve’s pro­fes­sion­al life remains entan­gled with unre­solved cas­es, his inter­ac­tions with those around him reveal the depth of his char­ac­ter and the impor­tance of per­son­al con­nec­tions in nav­i­gat­ing life’s more com­pli­cat­ed moments.

Through­out Chap­ter 7, we wit­ness Steve’s ongo­ing inter­nal strug­gle between engag­ing with the world of crime he once knew and deal­ing with the more imme­di­ate con­cerns that come with car­ing for those around him. His com­plex rela­tion­ship with Mol­lie, his frus­tra­tion with the local law enforce­men­t’s han­dling of the Fair­banks case, and his deep-seat­ed belief in stand­ing up against bul­ly­ing offer read­ers a nuanced explo­ration of jus­tice, com­pas­sion, and per­son­al respon­si­bil­i­ty. These themes res­onate deeply, encour­ag­ing the read­er to reflect on their own reac­tions to sim­i­lar soci­etal issues and per­son­al dilem­mas. Steve’s nar­ra­tive con­tin­ues to be one of emo­tion­al depth, bal­anc­ing pro­fes­sion­al intrigue with per­son­al growth and a desire to do the right thing.