- Mr. Verloc returns from his trip to the Continent after being gone for ten days, but doesn't seem to be any happier. He enters his shop "sombre and vexed" (9.1) and goes straight to the chair behind the counter to sit down.
- Stevie is in the shop dusting a few things, and he stares at Verloc "with reverence and awe" (9.1). Mr. Verloc kicks his bag on the floor and Stevie pounces on it to take it away for him. The motion is "so prompt that Mr. Verloc [is] directly surprised" (9.2).
- Several people have come to visit Winnie during Verloc's absence, including Michaelis, who came to tell her that he was going to go live "in a cottage in the country" (9.6). While this doesn't sound like a major statement, it drastically affects the timeline of the book, because at this moment, you realize that everything that's been happening since the beginning of chapter eight (Winnie's mother's decision to leave) has happened before the bomb goes off in Greenwich Park. Without telling you, Conrad has thrown you back a few weeks in time in the shift from chapter seven to chapter eight.
- Winnie tells Verloc that Stevie has moped a great deal since his mother left. Verloc doesn't want to hear about Stevie, but keeps silent out of generosity. At this point, Winnie makes a point of telling Verloc, "you could do anything with that boy, Adolph […] [Stevie] would go through fire for you" (9.10).
- Winnie turns her ear to the door of the kitchen and hears Mrs. Neale complaining to Stevie about what a hard life she has with all of her children to feed. Mrs. Neale does this because she's discovered that Stevie will hand over his allowance to her. Winnie knows that Mrs. Neale doesn't spend this money on her kids at all, but just drinks it away at a bar.
- Winnie can hear Stevie striking the kitchen table out of anger at the injustice of the world. She goes in to calm him down and to tell Mrs. Neale to stop being such a jerk.
- Later that day, Verloc says he's going to head out for a walk, and Winnie asks him to bring Stevie along, since Stevie's been in such horrible moods lately. Mr. Verloc says he doesn't want to be responsible if Stevie wanders away. But Winnie assures him that Stevie will find his way home eventually. More foreshadowing…
- Verloc agrees to take Stevie with him, and Winnie watches as the two of them walk away together. They both wear similar hats and coats, and seeing them from behind, Winnie muses that they even look a little bit like father and son. She congratulates herself on getting Verloc to take such good care of Stevie.
- Winnie even notices that even though Verloc is still a little bit quiet, he's not so depressed as he was before. Stevie, though, starts coming home angry and "mutter[ing] to himself in corners" (9.30). Winnie asks him what's the matter, but Stevie keeps it tight. He stops drawing his circles and instead walks around the house with his fists clenched. Winnie begins to fear that Stevie is hearing too much of Mr. Verloc's conversations with his anarchist friends.
- Winnie talks to Verloc about not letting Stevie hear too much of his radical friend's beliefs. Verloc counters by suggesting that Stevie should spend some time in the country to calm down. He suggests that Stevie should go stay with Michaelis, since "There [are] no visitors and no talk there" (9.33).
- Winnie agrees, and the next day, Verloc takes Stevie out into the country. At this point, your dread might be starting to build, since you know that the person who blew himself up at Greenwich boarded a train at the rural town where Michaelis is staying.
- The next day, Stevie agrees to go without any hassle. Winnie tells him not to get his clothes dirty in the country, and Stevie gives her a look he's never given her before: a "don't treat me like a kid" sort of look.
- While Stevie's gone, Winnie is often at the shop alone, since Mr. Verloc still takes his long walks. This eventually brings us to the day of "the attempted bomb outrage in Greenwich Park" (9.40), a day when Winnie spends all of her time alone, since Stevie is in the country and Mr. Verloc "went out early that morning and did not come back till nearly dusk" (9.40). She sits and sews until Mr. Verloc finally comes in.
- She asks him if he's been to see Stevie, and Mr. Verloc softly slams the parlor door and says he hasn't. Winnie gets ready to make Verloc some tea, but finds him sitting by the fire and shaking all over.
- She's worried that he's catching a cold from being out on such a wet day. She asks where he's been, but he says "Nowhere" (9.53). Then Verloc adds that he's been to the bank to withdraw all of their savings.
- Winnie is dumbstruck at this news and wants to know why he took out their money. She gets out knives and forks and starts setting the table to give Verloc some food to feed his cold.
- Verloc tells her she can trust him, and she agrees as she calls him to the dinner table for some grub. His eyes are bloodshot, his hair ruffled. She tells him he can't go out again that evening, and he answers that he's not thinking about going out, but only of going to maybe France or California.
- Winnie is dumbstruck again, having no clue about what's going on. She tries to blame Verloc's cold for his crazy thinking, but he keeps going on and on about how they'll have to leave the country. Winnie tells him to stop being stupid, and suddenly wishes she had Stevie back around the house.
- When the shop's bell rings, Verloc goes into the shop and comes back quickly after. Winnie notices that "He [has] gone in red [and come] out a strange papery white" (9.100). Winnie asks what's wrong, and he tells her that he needs to go out. Winnie decides to go into the shop to check out the customer who's messed up her husband. The man is tall and thin, and wears his mustache twisted up at the ends. He is a "dark man, with the ridge of the cheekbone well defined under the slightly hollow temple" (9.103). She does not recognize him, and knows that he's not a normal customer.
- She starts asking the dude questions about where he's come from, probably assuming he's some radical that Verloc is supposed to find a place for in England. The man keeps giving mysterious, annoying answers to her questions.
- Winnie gets impatient and goes back into the house, finding Verloc still leaning against the table and staring forward. She then asks if the man outside is one of the people from the Embassy who have been bothering Verloc.
- Verloc loses his mind and demands to know how Winnie knows about his connection with the Embassy. Winnie says that he's been talking in his sleep and revealing things, although she doesn't seem to know the exact nature of his connection with the Embassy.
- Verloc gets angry and rams his hat onto his head, saying "The Embassy people! I would cut their hearts out one after another. But let them look out. I've got a tongue in my head" (9.136). Winnie tells him to get rid of the man outside however he can, and to let her look after him. Just when he's about to leave, she calls him back and orders him to give her the savings he took out of the bank.
- After he gives it to her, she stuffs it "under the bodice of her dress" (9.143). Verloc leaves, but soon afterwards another person comes into the shop.
- The narrator informs us that the new dude is Chief Inspector Heat, who's also looking for Verloc. Winnie tells him that Verloc just went out with someone, and Heat gets angry when he realizes that the Assistant Commissioner has beaten him to the punch by just a few minutes.
- Heat tells Winnie he doesn't have time to wait for Verloc, but then asks Winnie about the bomb outrage at Greenwich Park. Winnie hasn't been out of the house all day and doesn't even know about any bomb yet.
- Heat then drops a total bomb (so to speak), and mentions that he's come into the possession of a stolen overcoat. He talks about the piece of cloth he took from the crime scene, and Winnie gets really nervous, saying that it belongs to her brother's coat.
- Heat asks where this brother is, and Winnie says he's been living out in the country with Michaelis. Now, you can really start to see Conrad's dreadful threads being drawn together.
- Heat asks why his address was sewn inside his coat, and Winnie explains that Stevie is mentally disabled and needs to be taken care of.
- Winnie asks how Stevie came to lose his coat, and Heat pulls out a newspaper from that day. He also plunges his hand into his pocket and pulls out the tattered piece of cloth. Winnie is alarmed by the piece of cloth, and asks why it's so mangled.
- Heat snatches the cloth back from her, having identified the victim of the bomb. At this moment, "he [has] a glimpse into the whole amazing truth. Verloc [is] the other man" (9.208). At this point, we're pretty certain that Verloc passed the bomb to Stevie after leaving the train at Greenwich, and Stevie somehow tripped and blew himself up. Good ol' gruesome Conrad does it again.
- Heat tries to explain the whole thing to Winnie, but just before he can, Verloc walks back into the shop. He's mad at seeing Heat there, and calls him into the parlor to talk. Winnie runs to the keyhole to listen as they speak.
- In a fragmented version, she hears about Verloc's involvement with the bomb at Greenwich Park. Heat tells Verloc he must have been crazy to hatch a plan like he did, and Verloc says it doesn't matter, because the whole truth is going to come out. He's going to sell out the embassy and tell everything he knows in court. It's the only way he can bring Mr. Vladimir down with him.
- Heat says if Verloc left the country, the police wouldn't come after him. All this time, Winnie is putting together the pieces of what her husband's done. She listens as Heat explains how the body had to be scooped up with a shovel. At this, she jumps up and plugs her ears, going insane with shock and grief. She notices the newspaper left by the Chief Inspector, tears it up, and throws it on the floor.
- On the other side of the door, Heat finally concedes that Verloc will make a full confession. Heat is not satisfied with this, since he wants to keep Verloc as a private resource and doesn't want to lose all of the secret information networks that this confession will tear down.
- Heat's also sorry that the whole affair will leave Michaelis free to go. The only people who will go down are the ones who're actually useful for fighting crime.
- Heat again advises Verloc to get out of town, saying that everyone probably already thinks that he's dead. Verloc is happy to hear this news, but he's got no clue where he'd flee to.
- Verloc then tries to argue that the court won't punish him for leading Stevie to his death, since "the lad was half-witted, irresponsible" (9.260). Heat interrupts him and says the boy may have been half-witted, but he (Verloc) must have been crazy for doing what he did.
- After this, Heat leaves. As he goes, the narrator's focus shifts to Winnie, who is now sitting behind the shop's counter. And in the final lines of this chapter, we learn of how "the gold circlet of wedding ring on Mrs Verloc's left hand […] dropped in a dust-bin" (9.265). There's no doubt now. Winnie knows what Verloc has done, and it turns out that murdering her brother is a total deal-breaker.