- Winnie stops at the parlor door. She's run from the blood, but now that she's away from it, she fully regains her wits (or what's left of them). She looks at her husband and realizes that he's no longer the man who murdered Stevie, just some dead guy. She realizes that there's only one murderer in the room now, and that it's her.
- Winnie, who's never been one to look deep into things, now has to look very deep into what she's just done. She realizes that she'll be hanged for killing her husband. She envisions the gallows in the middle of a prison yard, herself hanging in them, with a bunch of strangers in silk hats gathered around her. "It came with a cruel burning pain into her head, as if the words the drop given was fourteen feet had been scratched on her brain with a hot needle" (12.4).
- This thought continues to echo in her head, driving her nuts. She glances up at the clock and realizes that only a few minutes have passed since she killed Verloc. She feels as if time has almost stopped completely. Unable to deal with the idea of being hanged, she resolves to go to the Thames River and drown herself. But her movements are hesitant and slow.
- She "flounder[s] over the doorstep head forward, arms thrown out, like a person falling over the parapet of a bridge" (12.7). She's out on the street. She thinks of going to her mother, but feels that their bond is broken now that Stevie is dead. It seems that Stevie was the only thing connecting her to the world.
- She repeats to herself, "To the bridge—and over I go" (12.8). Dizziness overtakes her, and she realizes that shell never make it to a river before morning. She then entertains the idea of escaping to another country, like Spain maybe. But the kind of people who do that sort of thing "ha[ve] friends, relations, helpers—they ha[ve] knowledge" (12.12). Winnie, however, has no knowledge and no friends.
- As she continues down the street, Comrade Ossipon sees her, and figures he might strike up a conversation with a drunk woman. He helps her steady herself and hears her call his name. He's shocked that it's Mrs. Verloc, since he's hardly ever known her to leave her house, let alone go out drinking.
- Ossipon realizes that Winnie is sober, but very agitated. At this point, Winnie slips her hand under his arm, further confusing him. He walks with her for a while and lets her lead him.
- Winnie lies and says she was about to go find him, since she has realized that there's no one in the world more likely to help her than Ossipon, whom she thinks she can win over sexually.
- Ossipon says he's more than ready to help her in her trouble. Of course, Ossipon still thinks that Verloc was the man who blew himself up in Greenwich.
- Winnie, though, wants to know how Ossipon knows about her "trouble," thinking that he's referring to her murdering Verloc.
- At this point, Ossipon decides to confess directly that he's always had his eye on Winnie. He talks about how she was always so distant, and she says that she had to be, being a respectable, married woman.
- But now, she says she hates Verloc for what he's done to her. Ossipon says he thought she loved Verloc, and she says she hated him always. She goes on to explain her whole story to Ossipon, including how she had to give up her true love, the butcher's boy, in order to protect her brother and mother. Ossipon is stunned by all of this, but hey, he'll take it if it means getting Winnie to like him. He tells her not to worry because Verloc is dead now.
- When Winnie hears this, she exclaims, "You guessed what I had to do" (12.51), thinking once again that Ossipon knows about Verloc's murder. Ossipon, though, doesn't know what she's talking about, and chalks it up to her stress.
- He does start to wonder, though, how Winnie has found out about Verloc's death (which he still thinks was due to the bomb in Greenwich), since the papers could not have told her anything specific. He asks her how she first came to hear of "it," meaning Verloc's death.
- Winnie, though, thinks he's talking about Stevie's death, so she says that she first heard from Chief Inspector Heat, and explains how they had to scoop up the body with a shovel. Hearing this name makes Ossipon totally freak out, because it confirms that the police have already traced the bomb back to Verloc, which puts Ossipon in danger for hanging around Winnie.
- He wants to know exactly what Heat said to Winnie. She explains that he just told her about the incident, then went away. She also says that another man came that night. Ossipon wants to know who this other person was, and she explains that it might have been one of the people from the embassy.
- Now Ossipon really wonders what he's gotten himself into. All this stuff about bombs, the cops, and now embassies has shown him that this whole plot goes a lot deeper than he once thought. He demands more information, but Winnie tells him to stop asking questions and leave her alone on the matter.
- Winnie asks him to hide her until the morning. He says its no good, since there'll be cops at every train station in the morning.
- Ossipon says he can't take her anywhere else, because he doesn't have enough money for a room. Winnie, however, reveals that she has all of her husband's savings on her.
- Now she hugs him again and asks him to save her. Finally, he manages to ask her what she's so afraid of, since she presumably doesn't have anything to do with Verloc's bomb scheme. She asks him if he hasn't guessed yet what she's been forced to do. He still doesn't quite get it. And at this moment, he remembers that there's a boat that can get them away from England before the morning.
- He starts to move with her toward their destination, but she yanks him back to Brett Street. He wants to know what's up, but she just says she's forgotten to shut the door of the shop. Ossipon doesn't care about this, but she forces him, and besides, he thinks there might be some more cash in the shops register.
- Winnie points out to him that the light is on in the parlor, and she can't stand the idea of leaving it on. Ossipon goes into the parlor and finds Verloc's body. Only now does he realize what has actually happened. Now he thinks he's walked into some sort of trap, since he is now close enough to the body to be framed for the murder.
- From the shop, he hears Winnie say that a policeman is coming. The policeman comes by the shop, while Winnie and Ossipon stay just inside, she hugging him so that he can't get away from her. After a tense moment, the policeman moves on. Winnie keeps telling Ossipon to kill her if the cop catches them, and now Ossipon is completely freaked out with what he's gotten himself into.
- As if sensing his hesitation, Winnie tells Ossipon that shell do anything for him if he gets her out of this mess alive. She even agrees to be his mistress, and says she won't ask him to marry her. She goes on to explain how Verloc started blaming her for Stevie's fate, and how he'd tried to get her to have sex with him.
- At this point, Ossipon also realizes that Stevie is the one who has died in the park. He becomes more convinced with every passing second that Winnie "[is] not deadly. She [is] death itself" (12.134).
- Winnie threatens Ossipon by saying that she won't let him leave her now. She might be implying that she'll drag him into Verloc's murder if he tries to leave her.
- Finally, Ossipon tells her that they have to go before they miss their train. He flags down a hansom cab and gets in with her, then explains how they'll have to enter the train station looking like they don't know each other. Hell buy both of their tickets and pass her hers as they walk past one another in the station. They'll board separately, and then meet up inside the train. He says that there might already be men at the station who'd know him by sight.
- When they reach the train station, they execute their plan. Ossipon asks Winnie for the money to buy the tickets, and she reaches into her dress and hands him all the money she has.
- After they're on the train, Ossipon takes a moment to really look Winnie over. He "gaze[s] scientifically at the woman, the sister of a degenerate, a degenerate herself—of a murdering type" (12.186).
- As you might recall, Ossipon subscribes to the ideas of a guy named Lombroso, who says you can scientifically figure out if a person is a natural born murderer just by looking at his or her skull. Without affection, and with every bit of self-preservation he has in him, Ossipon "gaze[s] at her cheeks, at her nose, at her eyes, at her ears… Bad!... Fatal!" (12.186).
- He realizes that there's no way he can trust her. He believes that based on clear scientific evidence (which is ridiculous), he has a complete idea of Winnie's nature. Basically, he's terrified that as soon as Winnie's done with him, she'll just kill him the way she killed Verloc.
- Ossipon takes a moment to remark on the similarity between Winnie and her brother. Winnie answers that Ossipon always took notice of Stevie, and that she loved him (Ossipon) for it.
- Ossipon tells Winnie to sit at the opposite end of the train car, and then checks the clock. Soon, he feels the train beginning to roll, and just when it reaches the end of the platform, he throws open the trains door and jumps out. He smacks the platform and tumbles "like a shot rabbit" (12.198) for a while, then gets up and dusts himself off. He's totally hung Winnie out to dry, and has escaped with all of the money she had on her.
- A bunch of people crowd around him, and he makes up an excuse for needing to get off the train. Everyone has a good laugh, and he walks away. He goes back to his apartment and sits on his bed, clutching his knees until morning.