In Chap­ter 89 of “We Solve Mur­ders,” the scene unfolds in a high-rise board­room in the City of Lon­don where Amy, Jeff Nolan, and Susan Knox, Jef­f’s HR head, are exam­in­ing a crit­i­cal file. Dawn breaks, illu­mi­nat­ing the dust par­ti­cles sus­pend­ed in the air. Amy indi­cates that they are deal­ing with thir­ty-five clients who all have con­nec­tions to Vivid Viral and were intro­duced to Max­i­mum Impact by Max High­field, with evi­dence of ten thou­sand-dol­lar pay­ments direct­ed to his account for each client.

Susan reveals the time­frame of their inves­ti­ga­tion, span­ning just over two years, dur­ing which numer­ous names emerge, includ­ing Court­ney Lewis, a key fig­ure in their unrav­el­ing case. Jeff inquires about the work done by these clients, but Susan explains they are low-val­ue clients who would not have required their assis­tance dur­ing trav­els, thus lack­ing sig­nif­i­cant leads. The file con­sists sole­ly of names, num­bers, and address­es, imply­ing that any use­ful infor­ma­tion must have passed through Vivid Viral, leav­ing them frus­trat­ed in their pur­suit of François Lou­bet.

Jeff sud­den­ly con­tem­plates that Max must have received assis­tance, lead­ing Amy to ques­tion who would sup­port some­one as reck­less as Max High­field. Jeff hints at an inti­mate con­nec­tion through the file. He men­tions that the first name list­ed was intro­duced to him short­ly after Max returned from San Fran­cis­co, where Amy Wheel­er was serv­ing as the close-pro­tec­tion offi­cer. The grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion dawns on Amy as Jeff revis­its the time­line of intro­duc­tions, con­nect­ing it to Amy’s pre­vi­ous work for François Lou­bet.

The ten­sion esca­lates as the impli­ca­tions of these con­nec­tions become appar­ent. Jeff and Susan rec­og­nize the trou­bling nature of the evi­dence, while Amy grap­ples with the unfold­ing real­iza­tion of her involve­ment at dif­fer­ent lev­els of the case. As the chap­ter clos­es, it leaves read­ers on edge, hint­ing at deep­er con­spir­a­cies tied to the char­ac­ters’ inter­twined lives.

In Chap­ter 89 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Saint is deeply immersed in play­ing “Liebe­straum No. 3” on the piano. Her small hands move rapid­ly over the keys, show­cas­ing her ded­i­ca­tion and con­cen­tra­tion. The ambiance is enhanced by the spring rain out­side, cre­at­ing a reflec­tive, almost sur­re­al atmos­phere as the street becomes a mir­ror of water, punc­tu­at­ed by the bloom­ing white tril­li­um.

As she approach­es a chal­leng­ing sec­tion of the piece, her grand­moth­er, Nor­ma, unex­pect­ed­ly enters the room and stands beside her. This intru­sion is unusu­al dur­ing Sain­t’s prac­tice ses­sions, high­light­ing the impor­tance of the moment. Saint notices a large enve­lope in her grand­moth­er’s hands, which bore a Hanover post­mark, piquing her curios­i­ty. Adjust­ing her glass­es, Nor­ma, evi­dent­ly anx­ious, informs Saint of the envelope’s sig­nif­i­cance.

Saint com­pos­es her­self, encour­ag­ing her grand­moth­er to open the let­ter. Norma’s trem­bling hands reveal her ner­vous­ness rather than mere excite­ment, and the toll of retire­ment is evi­dent in her rapid aging. When Nor­ma reads the accep­tance noti­fi­ca­tion for Dart­mouth, her joy erupts. Mean­while, Saint plays the piano with even more pas­sion, unleash­ing her emo­tions through thun­der­ous key strikes.

Nor­ma express­es her admi­ra­tion for Sain­t’s per­for­mance, though Saint is crit­i­cal of her own play­ing, feel­ing she lost her “coun­ter­weight” dur­ing the song. The emo­tion­al weight of the news set­tles in as Saint grap­ples with the real­i­ty of leav­ing her grand­moth­er. Nor­ma reas­sures her with affec­tion, call­ing her a “sil­ly girl,” indi­cat­ing that she’ll always sup­port Saint’s dreams.

Despite the moment of tri­umph, Saint con­fess­es her reluc­tance to leave, express­ing that her grand­moth­er is all she ever had. Nor­ma coun­ters the sad­ness with a promise of cel­e­bra­tion, sug­gest­ing ice cream at Lacey’s Din­er. Saint turns back to the piano deter­mined­ly, ready to try once more, embody­ing an unyield­ing spir­it and an unwill­ing­ness to give up, encap­su­lat­ing the chapter’s themes of ambi­tion, love, and the bit­ter­sweet nature of growth.