Chap­ter 86 of We Solve Mur­ders opens with Rosie enjoy­ing a peace­ful break­fast on a sun­lit ter­race in Dubai, prepar­ing for a meet­ing with Max High­field before the Dia­mond Con­fer­ence. She hopes to extract use­ful infor­ma­tion from him, pre­sent­ing her inter­est under the guise of dis­cussing a pro­pos­al for him to star in a movie based on her book, with Steve cast as a fic­tion­al movie pro­duc­er. Despite the calm set­ting, Rosie feels a sense of anx­i­ety, know­ing that until Max is locat­ed, Amy remains in grave dan­ger. This real­iza­tion rais­es the stakes of her mis­sion, as every moment spent wait­ing increas­es the pres­sure to act. The ten­sion in her mind height­ens as she plans her next steps, bal­anc­ing her per­son­al con­cerns with the urgency of her inves­ti­ga­tion.

Sud­den­ly, Rosie’s moment of calm is dis­rupt­ed by the pres­ence of a large fig­ure enter­ing her space. It’s Vasiliy Karpin, a well-known and impos­ing man, his wealth and pres­ence unmis­tak­able. He approach­es in swimwear, and Rosie imme­di­ate­ly feels vul­ner­a­ble in his pres­ence, espe­cial­ly with­out Amy’s pro­tec­tion. She rec­og­nizes Karpin, a man who has been close­ly pur­su­ing her, and instinc­tive­ly begins to assess the sit­u­a­tion. Cau­tious­ly, Rosie decides to engage with him, mak­ing it clear with a firm stance that she has one break­fast rule—she refus­es to dine with any­one who wish­es her harm. Karpin, seem­ing­ly unfazed by her dec­la­ra­tion, responds with indif­fer­ence, intro­duc­ing him­self with­out apol­o­gy, which only adds to Rosie’s wari­ness.

As the inter­ac­tion con­tin­ues, Rosie pre­pares for a con­fronta­tion that could turn dan­ger­ous. She sar­cas­ti­cal­ly asks Karpin if he’s there to offer an apol­o­gy or if there’s a more sin­is­ter rea­son for his pres­ence. In a sur­pris­ing twist, Karpin jokes about his appear­ance, ref­er­enc­ing a pre­vi­ous unflat­ter­ing com­par­i­son of him being a “bull­dog chew­ing a net­tle,” a com­ment that Rosie quick­ly deflects by claim­ing it was a mis­trans­la­tion. The light-heart­ed exchange momen­tar­i­ly breaks the ten­sion, but beneath the humor lies an under­cur­rent of dis­trust. Just as Rosie feels her­self gain­ing con­trol over the con­ver­sa­tion, Karpin pulls out a copy of her book, Dead Men & Dia­monds, ask­ing her to sign it for his sis­ter-in-law, Yev­dokiya-Ivanov­na. This unex­pect­ed turn shifts the atmos­phere once again, and Karpin’s casu­al demeanor only adds to the con­fu­sion sur­round­ing his true inten­tions.

The con­ver­sa­tion takes an even more sur­pris­ing turn when Karpin shares a humor­ous anec­dote about jok­ing­ly sug­gest­ing a hit on Rosie, only to assure her that he no longer intends to harm her. The mix of humor and seri­ous­ness adds lay­ers to his char­ac­ter, leav­ing Rosie unsure of whether to believe his words. As the con­ver­sa­tion pro­gress­es, Rosie’s sus­pi­cion grows, and she direct­ly asks if Karpin has hired some­one named Eddie Flood to car­ry out the hit on her. Karpin, appear­ing gen­uine­ly sur­prised, denies any knowl­edge of Eddie Flood, fur­ther cloud­ing the sit­u­a­tion. Rosie, though relieved by the lack of an imme­di­ate threat from Karpin, is left with an unset­tling feel­ing of con­fu­sion. The encounter ends with Karpin jok­ing­ly sug­gest­ing that he’s ready to car­ry out any future “hits” Rosie might need, an absurd remark that leaves Rosie both amused and per­turbed.

Once Karpin departs, Rosie is left alone with her thoughts, her mind rac­ing as she process­es the strange encounter. Her focus shifts to Eddie Flood, the sus­pi­cious fig­ure she believes may not pose an imme­di­ate threat, but whose true moti­va­tions remain unclear. This brief but intense exchange leaves Rosie with more ques­tions than answers, fuel­ing her sus­pi­cions about the true nature of the threats she faces. What seemed like a moment of lev­i­ty turns into a web of con­fu­sion, as Rosie is forced to recon­sid­er the alliances and threats that sur­round her. With a new lay­er of uncer­tain­ty added to the case, she braces her­self for the next steps in her inves­ti­ga­tion, know­ing that the sit­u­a­tion is far from resolved. The chap­ter ends with a sense of fore­bod­ing, as the com­plex­i­ties of the case deep­en, and Rosie’s next move becomes more crit­i­cal than ever.