In Chap­ter 90 titled “We Solve Mur­ders,” Steve finds him­self in an unfa­mil­iar sce­nario as he enters a sauna for the first time—a deci­sion he made for inves­tiga­tive pur­pos­es, embrac­ing the sac­ri­fices that often come with his work. Sit­ting across from Mick­ey Moody, a bald­ing Cock­ney who had played golf with Rob Ken­na the pre­vi­ous day, Steve attempts to strike up a con­ver­sa­tion, cit­ing his own expe­ri­ence with saunas, albeit humor­ous­ly admit­ting he’s not a golfer.

Mick­ey, with an air of sus­pi­cion, ques­tions Steve about his con­nec­tions to Rob Kenna—Steve’s way of prob­ing deep­er into Ken­na’s world while main­tain­ing an air of casu­al­ness. Mick­ey claims not to know much about Ken­na, sug­gest­ing that in their cir­cle, it’s pru­dent not to pry too much into oth­ers’ lives. Their con­ver­sa­tion shifts as Steve fab­ri­cates a back­ground in scent­ed can­dles, try­ing to fit in with­out arous­ing sus­pi­cion about his ulte­ri­or motive.

Mick­ey shares his past in the scrap busi­ness, men­tion­ing the strange char­ac­ters he encountered—a stark con­trast to the can­dle indus­try Steve depicts. Their dia­logue reveals Mickey’s cau­tious approach to life, high­light­ing how he avoid­ed trou­ble even dur­ing chal­leng­ing times, which res­onates with Steve’s own life and loss­es.

As the con­ver­sa­tion deep­ens, Mick­ey shares his thoughts on Rob Ken­na, label­ing him a “wide boy” and urg­ing Steve to keep his dis­tance. This prompts Steve to reflect on his own con­nec­tion to his deceased wife, Deb­bie, find­ing solace in their shared expe­ri­ences and mem­o­ries of loss. The dia­logue between Steve and Mick­ey offers both humor and melan­choly, illus­trat­ing their cop­ing mech­a­nisms.

Ulti­mate­ly, the chap­ter cul­mi­nates with Steve hav­ing an epiphany about his investigation—realizing the sig­nif­i­cance of François Lou­bet and the evi­dence he needs to gath­er. In a phys­i­cal act of accep­tance, he kicks off his shoes and removes his socks, sym­bol­iz­ing a new­found com­mit­ment to the task at hand, while Mick­ey encour­ages this small moment of liberation—a fit­ting end in a sauna set­ting, empha­siz­ing the dual themes of inves­ti­ga­tion and per­son­al reflec­tion.

In Chap­ter 90 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Saint ded­i­cates her week­ends to work­ing at the pub­lic library in Pano­ra, pas­sion­ate­ly engag­ing in its tasks like a swan glid­ing over water. While han­dling inquiries, loans, and main­tain­ing the anti­quat­ed card cat­a­log, she seizes the qui­et moments to con­duct a metic­u­lous search for infor­ma­tion about a girl depict­ed in a paint­ing.

Saint writes let­ters to coro­ners across var­i­ous juris­dic­tions and con­tacts hos­pi­tal recep­tion­ists with­in a sig­nif­i­cant dis­tance from the Eli Aaron house. Despite her inner doubts and the protests from her grand­moth­er, she per­sists in shar­ing her inquiry. Her friend Nor­ma voic­es skep­ti­cism, claim­ing, “He can’t know what she looks like,” while they share lemon muffins at a café, just as Saint observes Patch arriv­ing to embrace Misty from the bus.

Deter­mined, Saint learns that Patch pur­sues the par­ents of miss­ing teens, mak­ing detailed notes dur­ing his morn­ing rides. Through­out a year, she dili­gent­ly combs through pub­lic and state records, con­cen­trat­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly on death cer­tifi­cates and con­sid­er­ing the poten­tial for Grace to be three years old­er than her assumed age, expand­ing her search para­me­ters. Her painstak­ing efforts result in near­ly three hun­dred calls to per­plexed rel­a­tives of poten­tial match­es, alter­ing her approach as she leads with the prob­ing ques­tion, “Do you know a boy named Patch?”

Though she con­tem­plates obtain­ing fed­er­al records, the lack of a last name dis­cour­ages her. After a year of observ­ing Dr. Tooms, her inter­est wanes, con­vinced that he does not har­bor Grace. Mean­while, Patch con­tin­ues to call her at odd hours, fill­ing cas­sette tapes with a mix of fran­tic ram­blings and vivid mem­o­ries of Grace. He reflects on her scent, rem­i­nis­cent of lemon and pep­per­mint, and their time at a loca­tion near Baldy Point.

Despite the chaos in her life, Saint excels in school, choos­ing to dis­tance her­self from the excite­ment of prom and col­lege dis­cus­sions, alter­ing her appear­ance by tying back her long hair and adopt­ing a sim­ple style. Her momen­tary dis­trac­tion comes in the form of ros­es deliv­ered by Jim­my Wal­ters, who wish­es to invite her to prom. Nor­ma encour­ages her to con­sid­er him, remind­ing her about Patch’s rumored date with Misty. As Saint con­tem­plates the invi­ta­tion, she is caught between her mem­o­ries of Patch and fresh pos­si­bil­i­ties, high­light­ing her inter­nal con­flict and growth amidst a world of uncer­tain­ty .