In Chap­ter 78 of “We Solve Mur­ders,” the ten­sion esca­lates as Felic­i­ty defends Max’s char­ac­ter, assert­ing he could­n’t have act­ed mali­cious­ly. Mean­while, a knock at the door shifts the mood, prompt­ing Amy, Jeff, and Henk to bran­dish their weapons, while Steve pre­pares to con­front the unknown vis­i­tor. Upon open­ing the door, they find two Hamp­shire Police offi­cers inquir­ing about Amy Wheel­er being present. Steve, reflect­ing on Amy’s advice to scout escape routes, denies her pres­ence, sug­gest­ing she returned to Lon­don.

The offi­cers request to check inside, and Steve, momen­tar­i­ly relieved to see they are indeed legit­i­mate police, invites them in. Inside the liv­ing room, the group quick­ly resumes a sense of nor­mal­cy, engag­ing in var­i­ous activ­i­ties, with no sign of Amy. An air of secre­cy sur­rounds them, marked by Steve’s con­cern over the hid­den firearms.

The old­er detec­tive reveals they pos­sess a war­rant for Amy’s arrest on mur­der charges. The unex­pect­ed nature of the accu­sa­tion rais­es eye­brows, par­tic­u­lar­ly from Rosie, who remarks on Amy’s rep­u­ta­tion. Jeff cov­ers for Amy, claim­ing she left ear­li­er that day, though the offi­cers probe fur­ther, seek­ing to gath­er a clear­er under­stand­ing.

A play­ful ban­ter ensues when Jeff and Henk sug­gest the younger detec­tive might find a role in their cir­cle, light­en­ing the atmos­phere despite the seri­ous sit­u­a­tion. The old­er detec­tive requests Steve’s assis­tance if Amy con­tacts him, and Steve, assur­ing coop­er­a­tion, solid­i­fies the grav­i­ty of the inves­ti­ga­tion. Acknowl­edg­ing Steve’s noto­ri­ety, the detec­tive empha­sizes their probe into three mur­ders, catch­ing the group’s atten­tion. Rosie’s sud­den recog­ni­tion by the younger offi­cer adds an under­ly­ing lay­er of intrigue. The chap­ter con­cludes with an author­i­ta­tive note from the detec­tive, ask­ing every­one to remain in the coun­try, leav­ing the char­ac­ters mind­ful of the pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion they find them­selves in.

In Chap­ter 78 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the scene opens with a poignant exchange between Grace and Patch. Grace pos­es a ques­tion about being found, and Patch reas­sures her they will leave togeth­er and no one will under­stand their bond as they do. Grace reflects on how oth­ers might respond—thinking they com­pre­hend the depth of their expe­ri­ences, yet sim­pli­fy­ing it through aca­d­e­m­ic lens­es and the­o­ries from notable fig­ures like Char­cot and Freud. She warns Patch that they exist in a per­pet­u­al cri­sis, pre­dict­ing they might suc­cumb to unhealthy habits and strug­gle to form gen­uine con­nec­tions due to their past.

The con­ver­sa­tion lingers in Patch’s mind as he awak­ens from a light sleep, feel­ing hol­low and exhaust­ed. Real­iz­ing he can­not endure the weight of his sit­u­a­tion much longer, he arrives at his apart­ment with­out trig­ger­ing the alarm. Inside, he engages with his art—a restored indus­tri­al lock­er hous­ing oils and brush­es, along­side an easel and an await­ing can­vas. He dons log­ger boots, too large yet prefer­able for the task at hand, adjust­ing them with news­pa­per for fit.

With a sense of urgency, Patch sketch­es, his hand trem­bling as he clutch­es the brush. Sam­my unex­pect­ed­ly appears, offer­ing silent sup­port while observ­ing Patch’s strug­gle to chan­nel his thoughts onto the can­vas. After­ward, a woman, pre­sum­ably the Samp­son wid­ow, catch­es Patch’s atten­tion, and he engages in a light­heart­ed exchange with Sam­my regard­ing rumors sur­round­ing her.

As Patch pours his emo­tions into his paint­ing, using earthy tones to depict Grace, the dark­ness of the room envelops him, sug­gest­ing a retreat into his inner tur­moil. He steals glances out­side at the weath­ered sur­round­ings, draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from the mun­dane yet bleak scenery. Despite the mad­ness of his situation—a mix of cre­ativ­i­ty and desperation—Patch remains focused on his art, even as Sam­my advis­es him to exer­cise patience.

This chap­ter encap­su­lates themes of con­nec­tion, exis­ten­tial cri­sis, and the ther­a­peu­tic or tor­tur­ous real­i­ties of artis­tic expres­sion, high­light­ing both the intri­ca­cies of human rela­tion­ships and the strug­gles of indi­vid­ual exis­tence.