- Meet the "lady patroness of Michaelis," an old wealthy woman who's decided to take care of the overweight ex-con in her country home. The narrator describes the woman as kind, but unwaveringly certain in her opinions. She's also good friends with the Assistant Commissioner's wife.
- Now that she's old, the woman tends to amuse herself by gathering interesting people around her and making her country home into a sort of social hub. The reason she does this is because she's very curious about the direction the world's heading in.
- The Assistant Commissioner is sitting with the woman in her house, unable to remember who first brought Michaelis to the lady's attention.
- The narrator explains the story behind Michaelis imprisonment, claiming that Michaelis was basically a young locksmith who didn't know what he was doing, but was brought in on a plan to rescue some prisoners from a police carriage.
- His buddies were supposed to shoot the horses pulling the carriage, but they accidentally shot a cop, and three of them got hanged.
- The public was really upset about the incident, so Michaelis got life in jail. This was back when Michaelis was "young and slim" (6.2). When he had to testify in court, he said he was very regretful that someone had died, but equally regretful that he wasn't able to save the prisoners. This made the court very angry, so he received life in prison.
- Michaelis is also sitting in the room with the Assistant Commissioner, totally confident in the truth of his ideas, but in a very peaceful way, conveying them to everyone around him with nothing more than "the sterling quality of his optimism" (6.3).
- After Michaelis leaves, the old lady waxes poetic on the injustice of keeping Michaelis locked up for twenty years. She and the Assistant Commissioner both know that Michaelis "is incapable of hurting a fly intentionally" (6.11).
- The Assistant Commissiner knows that it's very dangerous for Michaelis to have his name mixed up in the whole bomb affair at Greenwich. He also knows that the old lady (and therefore his wife) would never forgive him if he got Michaelis thrown back in jail.
- The book flashes forward to a conversation between the Assistant Commissioner and Inspector Heat. The Assistant Commissioner pushes Heat on the connection he's trying to make between Michaelis and the bomb affair. But now we know that this is because the Assistant Commissioner is personally invested in keeping Michaelis out of jail.
- Basically, Heat can make the connection easily because of Michaelis "criminal" past. The Assistant Commissioner knows it, but he acts like he wants more conclusive evidence. Heat doesn't quite understand the man's hesitation, and thinks that the Assistant Commissioner is just a young administrator who's trying to throw his weight around.
- At this point, Heat tells the Assistant Commissioner that Michaelis seems to spend most of his days at the old woman's country home working on a book that some London publisher has given him a bunch of cash to write. The book is supposed to be about Michaelis' experience as a political prisoner.
- Finally, the Assistant Commissioner asks Heat to talk about something other than Michaelis. He wants to know what other evidence Heat has discovered at the crime scene. With this, Heat pulls out the piece of cloth he took from the human remains of the crime scene, and announces, "I've brought away an address" (6.73). He explains that he took the fabric away from the overcoat of the person who blew himself up. On the piece of cloth, he's found a "square of calico with an address written on it in marking ink" (6.74).
- Heat is puzzled at why a person would walk around with his address sewn into his coat. He does remember a story, though, about an old man who did this because he was worried that he'd forget where he lived.
- The address on the cloth is No. 32 Brett Street, which Heat tells the A.C. is the location of Verloc's shop. Heat then tells the Assistant Commissioner that the police have no record on Verloc, but that he (Heat) sometimes makes use of Verloc to gather information.
- Because guess what? Heat already knows that Verloc's a spy! He's known it for years, and has been using Verloc as his own personal source of secret information. This is because seven years earlier, he threatened to blow Verloc's cover if the man didn't play ball.
- The A.C. wants to know how Verloc's address could be connected to the bomb affair, and Heat confesses that he's got no clue. Of course, neither of these men know that Verloc has been ordered to "make something happen" in London.
- Heat brings the convo back to Michaelis, and says again that he thinks Michaelis is their man. The Assistant Commissioner wants to know more about the second man who got away from the crime scene, but Heat argues that this man is probably long gone by this point.