Chap­ter 75 of We Solve Mur­ders fol­lows Bon­nie Gre­gor as she lies in her child­hood bed, star­ing at the ceil­ing paint­ed to resem­ble a star­ry night sky. The del­i­cate brush­strokes of con­stel­la­tions, once a source of child­hood won­der, now evoke bit­ter­sweet mem­o­ries of her father, who had metic­u­lous­ly cre­at­ed this celes­tial scene when she was young. She remem­bers the nights she spent mar­veling at the lumi­nous stars above her, feel­ing as though she could reach out and touch the uni­verse. Her father’s steady hands had paint­ed each detail with care, want­i­ng to give her some­thing mag­i­cal to fall asleep to. But after his pass­ing, the paint­ed sky became some­thing more—a reminder of absence, of time slip­ping away, and of the love that still lin­gered despite the loss. Tonight, as she lies in that same bed, prepar­ing for a jour­ney that will take her far from home, she allows her­self a few moments to rev­el in nos­tal­gia before fac­ing the excite­ment and uncer­tain­ties of the next day.

Her flight from Heathrow is set for ear­ly morn­ing, and Bon­nie, nev­er one to leave things to chance, has metic­u­lous­ly planned every detail of her depar­ture. She has made arrange­ments with her neigh­bor, who has gen­er­ous­ly agreed to dri­ve her to the air­port in exchange for petrol mon­ey. The two had shared a brief but enthu­si­as­tic con­ver­sa­tion about her upcom­ing trip, with her neigh­bor express­ing gen­uine excite­ment on her behalf. Though Bon­nie appre­ci­ates the encour­age­ment, her mind remains fixed on her check­list, run­ning through each step to ensure she is ful­ly pre­pared. There is some­thing both thrilling and unnerv­ing about step­ping into the unknown, and she finds com­fort in hav­ing con­trol over the small details. As the rest of the house sleeps sound­ly, she takes a moment to rehearse her lines for an upcom­ing per­for­mance, fine-tun­ing the way she deliv­ers each phrase. Exper­i­ment­ing with dif­fer­ent words, she lingers on the idea that “a tin of paint is a tin of hap­pi­ness,” amused by how such a sim­ple thought can encap­su­late so much mean­ing.

Bon­nie finds her­self invig­o­rat­ed by the thought of cre­at­ing some­thing new, of bring­ing vibran­cy and joy into the world, just as her father had done for her as a child. A par­tial pay­ment from Vivid Viral Media has already been processed, adding anoth­er lay­er of excite­ment and curios­i­ty about how the com­pa­ny oper­ates. She still has ques­tions about the struc­ture of the pay­ments and the nature of the agree­ment, but for now, she allows her­self to bask in the feel­ing of progress. Near­by, the “Good Luck” cards from her loved ones sit stacked neat­ly, a reminder of the sup­port sys­tem cheer­ing her on from afar. Before she departs, she intends to rise ear­ly, pre­pare break­fast for her fam­i­ly, and soak in these last few qui­et moments before embark­ing on what she hopes will be a life-chang­ing expe­ri­ence. The thought of fly­ing above the stars her father had once paint­ed brings a poet­ic sym­me­try to the moment, almost as if he will be watch­ing over her jour­ney. With this com­fort­ing thought in mind, she exhales deeply, feel­ing the weight of antic­i­pa­tion set­tle as she drifts toward sleep.

Just as she begins to fade into dreams, Bonnie’s mind lingers on the mys­te­ri­ous leather holdall she packed ear­li­er in the day. It feels heav­ier than she remem­bers, and the thought briefly unset­tles her, though she quick­ly reas­sures her­self that it’s noth­ing more than trav­el essen­tials. She con­sid­ers dou­ble-check­ing its con­tents but ulti­mate­ly decides against it, trust­ing her orig­i­nal pack­ing process. Instead, she allows her imag­i­na­tion to take over, pic­tur­ing her­self step­ping into the bustling streets of a new city, sur­round­ed by unfa­mil­iar faces and end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties. She envi­sions the thrill of meet­ing new peo­ple, of immers­ing her­self in a world that is both for­eign and exhil­a­rat­ing. The mix­ture of ner­vous­ness and excite­ment lulls her into a deep slum­ber, where dreams of adven­ture inter­twine with mem­o­ries of her father’s gen­tle pres­ence. Tomor­row, she will step into the unknown, armed with deter­mi­na­tion, the encour­age­ment of those who believe in her, and the unwa­ver­ing hope that the path ahead holds some­thing tru­ly extra­or­di­nary.