Chap­ter 81 of We Solve Mur­ders unfolds with Steve’s grow­ing skep­ti­cism toward Max High­field as they trav­el from St. Lucia to Dublin. His doubts begin to sur­face when he reads an inter­view where Max claims that The Rose of Sara­so­ta is his best work yet. Dis­ap­point­ed by the film’s lack of acclaim, Steve finds him­self unable to endure more than eight min­utes of the movie, humor­ous­ly point­ing out that Max’s char­ac­ter is an army explo­sives expert called “Joe Blow.” Steve’s frus­tra­tion with Max only inten­si­fies as he reflects on how the film’s under­whelm­ing plot and char­ac­ters fail to live up to Max’s lofty self-assess­ment. As the flight con­tin­ues, Steve’s thoughts shift from the film to more per­son­al mem­o­ries, includ­ing his cat Trou­ble, whom he used to spoil with left­overs from his neighbor’s roast chick­en. Trou­ble, spoiled by this indul­gence, had grown accus­tomed to high-qual­i­ty food, refus­ing to set­tle for any­thing less, much like Steve’s own dis­com­fort in the lux­u­ri­ous pri­vate Lear­jet he now finds him­self in. Although the jet is unde­ni­ably fan­cy, its cramped space and lack of cer­tain com­forts remind Steve that even the most lav­ish things can fall short of expec­ta­tions.

Despite the Learjet’s lux­u­ry, Steve con­tin­ues to feel a sense of dis­sat­is­fac­tion, not­ing that it feels small­er com­pared to the larg­er pri­vate jets he has flown in before. His crav­ing for a bacon sand­wich, which remains unful­filled due to the lack of a pri­vate chef, adds to his grow­ing dis­con­tent. This moment of dis­com­fort leads him to resolve that once he and Rosie con­front Max and uncov­er the truth about François Lou­bet, he will avoid fly­ing in pri­vate jets again. Sit­ting with Rosie, Steve reflects on their inves­ti­ga­tion, acknowl­edg­ing that they have con­firmed Max’s iden­ti­ty as Joe Blow, thanks to the net­work of influ­encers con­nect­ed to him. In a rare moment of lev­i­ty, Rosie teas­es Steve about the jet’s size, and the two engage in light­heart­ed ban­ter about their encoun­ters with celebri­ties. These fleet­ing moments of humor pro­vide a tem­po­rary escape from the seri­ous­ness of their mis­sion, remind­ing them of the impor­tance of stay­ing ground­ed amid the ten­sion and chal­lenges that come with their inves­ti­ga­tion.

As their con­ver­sa­tion shifts to the more press­ing con­cerns of their inves­ti­ga­tion, Rosie voic­es her con­cerns about the poten­tial threats posed by Eddie Flood or Vasiliy Karpin, two men deeply tied to the crim­i­nal ele­ments they’re inves­ti­gat­ing. These indi­vid­u­als rep­re­sent a dan­ger­ous aspect of the world they’ve ven­tured into, and both Steve and Rosie under­stand the stakes have grown high­er. How­ev­er, the con­ver­sa­tion takes an unex­pect­ed turn as they momen­tar­i­ly dis­cuss a quiz com­pe­ti­tion, offer­ing a brief respite from the dark real­i­ties of their work. This light diver­sion high­lights the con­trasts in their lives—Rosie now liv­ing on a pri­vate island, while Steve finds solace in the com­pan­ion­ship of his cat, Trou­ble. As they reflect on their lives and the inevitabil­i­ty of aging and loss, the con­ver­sa­tion takes on a bit­ter­sweet tone. Despite the heav­i­ness of their inves­ti­ga­tion, there’s an under­cur­rent of humor that helps them cope with the weight of their cir­cum­stances. Steve then sug­gests that Rosie might lever­age her sta­tus as the sec­ond-biggest author to meet with Max, propos­ing a poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tion to advance their inves­ti­ga­tion. They both acknowl­edge their trust in their col­league Jeff, though they are still wary of Max’s involve­ment with Lou­bet. Rosie, not con­vinced of Max’s intel­lec­tu­al abil­i­ties, recalls his clue­less­ness in a Van­i­ty Fair inter­view, which fur­ther solid­i­fies her skep­ti­cism. The chap­ter ends with Steve con­tem­plat­ing the small incon­ve­niences of fly­ing pri­vate­ly, mark­ing a moment of qui­et reflec­tion. This casu­al thought con­trasts with the com­plex­i­ty of their inves­ti­ga­tion, sig­nal­ing that even amid the chaos, small, human moments con­tin­ue to shape their expe­ri­ence. The real­iza­tion that rela­tion­ships, even those forged through shared chal­lenges, bring a sense of mean­ing amidst the tur­moil, leav­ing Steve with a bit­ter­sweet under­stand­ing of what tru­ly mat­ters in the end.