Arizona Inn is the setting for the lunch at which Ralph Ames offers Brandon Walker a place in The Last Chance. More than a meeting point, it becomes the scene of Brandon’s return to purposeful work: an invitation accepted after a period of doubt leads, months later, to a case he feels responsible for seeing through.

Setting and Arrival

Ames arranged to meet Brandon in the inn’s dining room at about eleven-thirty, with the table under his name. Brandon accepted despite his misgivings. Bored, lonely, tired of his own cooking, and then displeased with himself for agreeing, he spent the rest of the morning second-guessing the decision. He dressed carefully, in a starched white shirt, a spotted tie, and a sports coat that felt too snug.

Brandon arrived at eleven-fifteen, hoping to get there before Ames. The spacious dining room had linen-covered tables; at a table for two in the far corner, partly screened by a large vase of flowers, one diner was already seated. The impeccably dressed man’s striking pink tie looked expensive enough for Brandon to identify him as Ames from across the room. Brandon, meanwhile, worried that his own tie would show its spot unless he kept his jacket buttoned.

The Meeting

Over lunch, Ames raised the possibility of Brandon joining The Last Chance. The proposal was connected to G. T. Farrell, a founding member who had been a young campus police officer when Ursula Brinker was murdered and had remained in contact with Hedda Brinker and Toby Brinker. Brandon reacted decisively, telling Ames he was in and asking him to pass on that he owed Farrell a great deal. Ames said the next meeting would be held two weeks later at a hotel in Denver and that The Last Chance’s travel agent would arrange Brandon’s flight.

The offer met Brandon at a moment when he felt cast aside and uncertain of his own value. He later wondered whether his quick acceptance had made him seem desperate, but the lunch marked a concrete change: he had been invited to put his experience to use again.

Narrative Significance

Six months later, Brandon judged that joining Ames and The Last Chance had not been a mistake. It had restored both his life and his sense of purpose. At that later point, Fat Crack Ortiz had entrusted him with a case to bring into and through the organization, giving the renewed purpose a demanding practical form.

The inn therefore anchors a reversal rather than a resolution. Brandon leaves the meeting with a new professional commitment, but the happiness it brings is shadowed by the suffering behind the case he is taking on. The lunch’s ordinary details—a reserved table, a conspicuous tie, Brandon’s anxious attention to his own clothes—frame the moment when a man who had felt discarded is asked to matter again.