Chap­ter 82 of We Solve Mur­ders begins with Bonnie’s jour­ney to Heathrow Air­port, a trip that, despite its ini­tial smooth­ness, brings a blend of relief and appre­hen­sion. As she nav­i­gates the ear­ly morn­ing rush, Bon­nie is thank­ful for her neighbor’s hus­band, who helps her car­ry her leather holdall while she man­ages her rolling suit­case. Arriv­ing ear­ly gives her a sense of pre­pared­ness, even though the daunt­ing check-in lines and secu­ri­ty pro­ce­dures still lie ahead. The emo­tion­al weight of the good­byes from her fam­i­ly is still fresh in her mind, par­tic­u­lar­ly her mother’s tear­ful farewell and her plea for Bon­nie to return safe­ly. This mix­ture of excite­ment and sad­ness makes Bon­nie reflect on the emo­tion­al con­nec­tions she’s leav­ing behind, while also feel­ing the thrill of ven­tur­ing off into the unknown. As she approach­es the ter­mi­nal, there’s a sense of ner­vous antic­i­pa­tion, ampli­fied by the uncer­tain­ty of what awaits her in São Paulo, but also the sense of hope that this trip will bring new oppor­tu­ni­ties.

While wait­ing in line for check-in, Bonnie’s thoughts become more focused on the weight of the bag she’s car­ry­ing. What ini­tial­ly felt like a man­age­able load now seems unex­pect­ed­ly heavy, and her mind starts to spi­ral with con­cerns about what might be inside. For a brief moment, the worst-case sce­nario cross­es her mind—what if there’s some­thing dan­ger­ous hid­den in the bag, per­haps even a bomb? The thought sends a shiv­er down her spine, though she quick­ly dis­miss­es it as an over­re­ac­tion. Despite calm­ing her­self, Bon­nie can’t shake the anx­i­ety, lead­ing her to con­sid­er email­ing Felic­i­ty about her sit­u­a­tion to ease her mind. She drafts the mes­sage, describ­ing the mys­te­ri­ous locked bag and her thoughts about it, but then hes­i­tates. The fear of sound­ing over­ly dra­mat­ic or embar­rass­ing her­self in front of Felic­i­ty and the team holds her back, leav­ing her to wres­tle with the thoughts alone, with­out shar­ing them with any­one else. This inter­nal strug­gle high­lights her reluc­tance to bur­den oth­ers with her anx­i­eties, even if they’re entire­ly unwar­rant­ed.

Upon reach­ing the check-in counter, Bon­nie is greet­ed by a friend­ly clerk, who polite­ly inquires about her trav­el plans. With new­found con­fi­dence, Bon­nie responds proud­ly that she is trav­el­ing to São Paulo on busi­ness, a state­ment that brings a brief sense of accom­plish­ment. How­ev­er, her momen­tary pride is inter­rupt­ed when the clerk informs her that she’s arrived too ear­ly and that her check-in time isn’t until the after­noon. Embar­rassed by her eager­ness, Bon­nie decides to make the most of the sit­u­a­tion by wait­ing at the air­port café. Although it’s an unnec­es­sary expense, she reminds her­self that it’s bet­ter to be over­ly pre­pared than caught off guard. The brief incon­ve­nience gives her time to reflect on the impor­tance of man­ag­ing her emo­tions and expec­ta­tions in unfa­mil­iar set­tings. Even though she feels a lit­tle fool­ish for arriv­ing too ear­ly, Bon­nie main­tains an opti­mistic out­look and rec­og­nizes that the expe­ri­ence, though frus­trat­ing, is an inevitable part of trav­el­ing. Her abil­i­ty to roll with the minor set­backs reflects her resilience and deter­mi­na­tion to con­tin­ue mov­ing for­ward, despite the uncer­tain­ties.

The chap­ter con­cludes with Bonnie’s inter­nal mono­logue, a mix of humor­ous self-doubt and antic­i­pa­tion for the future. As she reflects on her actions, Bon­nie reveals her personality—a blend of ambi­tion and anx­i­ety, where small set­backs take on out­sized sig­nif­i­cance, yet they nev­er deter her from pur­su­ing her goals. The nar­ra­tive offers a deep dive into her thoughts, show­cas­ing how she han­dles the mun­dane moments of life while try­ing to nav­i­gate the larg­er chal­lenges ahead. In the moments lead­ing up to her depar­ture, Bonnie’s fears and doubts mir­ror the expe­ri­ences of any­one step­ping into the unknown, bal­anc­ing the excite­ment of new oppor­tu­ni­ties with the nat­ur­al ner­vous­ness of the jour­ney. The light-heart­ed nature of her reflec­tions offers a sense of relata­bil­i­ty, as read­ers are giv­en insight into her char­ac­ter, which is com­plex and mul­ti­fac­eted. Her aspi­ra­tions and wor­ries are uni­ver­sal­ly human, show­ing how even the small­est inter­ac­tions, like wait­ing in line or deal­ing with unex­pect­ed sit­u­a­tions, shape the path of one’s jour­ney. This chap­ter illus­trates not only the logis­ti­cal chal­lenges of trav­el but also the emo­tion­al and men­tal hur­dles that accom­pa­ny big life changes.