It was nearly daybreak. Wrapped in a coverlet, Fagin crouched over a cold hearth in the kitchen of his lair. Bolter was stretched out upon a mattress on the floor, fast asleep.
Fagin was thinking about Nancy. She had talked to strangers! She still loved Bill Sikes! Fagin was full of rage and full of fear that he might be arrested.
But his vengeful thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the front door. Fagin crept upstairs and soon returned with a man hidden under a large coat and scarf. Sitting down and throwing off his outer garments, the man revealed himself as Sikes.
"There!" said Sikes, laying a bundle on the table. "Take care of that. It’s been trouble enough to get."
Fagin took the bundle of stolen goods and locked them up in a cupboard.
"I’m glad to see you’re well enough to be working again, Bill. I only hope you’re well enough to hear a bit of news."
"What news?" Sikes was instantly suspicious.
Fagin gestured toward the sleeping Bolter. "Let’s say that this lad here was ready to inform on all of us. That first he sought out the right folks and then he described us to them. That no one forced him to do this, but he did it because he wanted to. What would you do?"
"Why, I’d beat him to death!" Sikes responded immediately.
"And what if Charley or the Dodger did it?" Fagin pressed on. "What if I did it?"
"It doesn’t matter who did it," replied Sikes, clenching his teeth. "I’d kill them in an instant. I promise you that."
Fagin looked at Bolter, still slumbering on the floor.
"Poor lad. He’s worn out from watching her so long."
"What do you mean?" Sikes demanded.
Fagin did not answer but shook Bolter awake. "Tell me again what you told me before. Tell me so Bill can hear."
Bolter stretched and yawned.
"Tell us how Nancy went to London Bridge and met a gentleman and a lady," Fagin prompted.
"That’s right. That’s what she did."
"Tell us how she’d met the lady before. How the gentleman asked her to give up Monks and she did. Tell us how she described him and the pub where we meet. Tell us how she gave up everything without a threat!" cried Fagin, half mad with fury.
"All right." Bolter scratched his head. "That’s just what she did."
"And what did she say about last Sunday?" asked Fagin.
"She said she couldn’t meet them last Sunday because she’d been forcibly kept at home by Bill, the man she’d described to the lady before."
"What else did she say about Bill?"
"That she couldn’t go outside unless he knew where she was going," Bolter said. "So the first time she went to see the lady, she put a sleeping potion in his drink."
Sikes went white. "That woman!" he cried.
Pushing Fagin aside, he rushed from the room and ran upstairs to the front door. Once out on the street, he did not stop until he was back at his own house. There he found Nancy asleep. Before she could cry out, he carried out the horrible promise he had made to Fagin.
Then he called his dog, and the two of them left the house.
Sikes spent the whole day on the run. He wandered for miles and still wasn’t sure where he was going. At last he stopped to eat at a pub outside of London. But it was not a very restful meal.
"Did you hear about that London murder?" one man in the pub asked another.
"Such a dreadful murder," said the second man. "She was beaten to death."
"I hear the suspect ran north," said the first man.
"It doesn’t matter where he runs, the police will get him. Everyone is looking for him."
Overhearing this, Sikes quickly paid his bill and left with his dog. That night they took shelter in a barn, but Sikes had trouble sleeping. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Nancy.
The next morning he resolved to return to London. "At least there will be somebody to talk to.
"And a good hiding place too," he said to himself. "The police will never expect to find me there. I’ll hide for a week or so, get some money from Fagin, and go to France."
Sikes knew just where to go—a hideout near the river in a neighborhood where the warehouses stood empty. The houses there had long ago been abandoned by their owners too. But some of the houses were not empty because desperate people had broken in and were living there.
Two such people were Toby Crackit and Charley Bates. They sat in an upper room of one of these ruined houses.
"When was Fagin arrested?" asked Toby.
"This afternoon," said Charley. "The Dodger and Bolter were caught too."
Suddenly they heard a knock at the door. Charley peeked out the window and saw Sikes and his dog standing in the street below.
"Bill can’t be coming here!" he said.
Toby ran downstairs and let him in. When they came upstairs, Sikes laid his hands on Toby’s shoulders.
"Toby, will you turn me in to the police, or will you let me stay here until this hunt is over?"
"You may stay here if you think it’s safe," said Toby after some hesitation.
But Charley backed away. "I have to leave the room."
"Why, Charley!" Sikes stepped toward him. "Don’t you know me?"
"Don’t come any closer, you monster! You killed Nancy!" Charley clenched his fists. "If the police come after you, I’ll give you up. I’m not afraid of you."
And with that, Charley sprang at Sikes and knocked him to the ground. The contest was soon over as Sikes pinned Charley to the floor.
Suddenly there was a loud knocking at the front door. "Open up! It’s the police!" cried a voice.
"He’s in here!" shouted Charley. "Break down the door!"
Sikes picked up Charley and flung the boy over his shoulder. After depositing Charley in an empty room, Sikes locked the door.
Charley continued to yell for help from a window.
"Twenty pounds to the man who brings a ladder!" shouted a policeman outside.
"They’ll kill me!" Sikes was panic-stricken.
But then he spied a window at the back of the house. The police and a crowd of onlookers were focused on the front of the house. Sikes laughed.
He climbed onto the roof and walked to the edge. But in an instant, he lost his balance and fell to his death.