Chap­ter 70 of We Solve Mur­ders delves into Rob Kenna’s unset­tling reflec­tions on his pro­fes­sion, his shift­ing pri­or­i­ties, and the dan­gers that lie ahead. As he sits in a dim­ly lit Dubai apart­ment, he con­tem­plates how effort­less it is to elim­i­nate a per­son, par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in the prison sys­tem, where vio­lence is an every­day occur­rence. His lat­est assign­ment, the exe­cu­tion of Court­ney Lewis, a woman entan­gled in François Loubet’s finan­cial oper­a­tions, weighs heav­i­ly on his mind. While he has tak­en many lives before, this par­tic­u­lar task feels dif­fer­ent. It rais­es ques­tions he does not want to answer—questions about trust, betray­al, and whether he him­self is at risk of being dis­card­ed like so many before him. A real­iza­tion dawns on him: work­ing for Lou­bet is like danc­ing on a razor’s edge, and he might already be bleed­ing.

His para­noia begins to man­i­fest more vivid­ly as he shifts his atten­tion to Amy Wheel­er, some­one who, if left unchecked, could become a for­mi­da­ble adver­sary. He won­ders if she has start­ed con­nect­ing the dots, and if so, whether she will make a move against him. Amy is far from alone—she has allies like Rosie D’Antonio, a sharp-mind­ed writer, and Steve Wheel­er, a for­mer police offi­cer with enough expe­ri­ence to be dan­ger­ous. These thoughts send a chill through him. With Eddie Flood no longer in the pic­ture, Rob reach­es an unset­tling con­clu­sion: if Amy is tru­ly a threat, then it is up to him to neu­tral­ize her before she can act against him. The idea set­tles in his mind like an unde­ni­able truth, and for the first time in a long while, he feels the cold grip of fear at his throat.

In an effort to momen­tar­i­ly escape his trou­bling thoughts, Rob meets with Mick­ey Moody, a long­time acquain­tance who pro­vides a wel­come, albeit tem­po­rary, dis­trac­tion. Over two pints of beer, their con­ver­sa­tion shifts between casu­al rem­i­nisc­ing and dis­cus­sions about work. Rob tries to recruit Mick­ey, offer­ing him a lucra­tive role in track­ing Amy’s move­ments, but Mick­ey refus­es. He has seen too many peo­ple get swal­lowed up by the kind of world Rob inhab­its, and he has no desire to become anoth­er casu­al­ty. Rob respects his deci­sion, though deep down, he envies Mickey’s abil­i­ty to live a life untouched by con­stant blood­shed. Their brief exchange high­lights the stark con­trast between two men who start­ed in sim­i­lar places but chose vast­ly dif­fer­ent paths.

How­ev­er, Rob can­not afford to dwell on what-ifs. His sur­vival depends on infor­ma­tion and con­trol, both of which he has learned to wield with pre­ci­sion. He has set up alerts to mon­i­tor Amy’s social media inter­ac­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly through her asso­ci­a­tion with Rosie D’Antonio, whose pub­lic pres­ence makes track­ing eas­i­er. The fact that Amy remains with­in reach reas­sures him, rein­forc­ing his belief that he is always one step ahead. But the weight of his pro­fes­sion bears down on him, remind­ing him that in this line of work, trust is fleet­ing, and loy­al­ty is noth­ing more than a trans­ac­tion­al agree­ment. With this in mind, he con­sid­ers expand­ing his list of tar­gets, even con­tem­plat­ing the elim­i­na­tion of Amy’s father-in-law, Steve Wheel­er, to ensure no lin­ger­ing threats remain.

As the chap­ter draws to a close, Rob finds him­self star­ing out over the Dubai sky­line, absorb­ing the shim­mer­ing lights of a city built on wealth and decep­tion. He knows that despite his con­fi­dence, Lou­bet may not see him as an indis­pens­able asset for­ev­er. If his employ­er decides he is no longer use­ful, he will become just anoth­er expend­able name on a list. But for now, he refus­es to let fear dic­tate his actions. He will elim­i­nate his tar­gets, remove the threats, and prove his worth—at least, until the day comes when he finds him­self on the oth­er end of a gun.