After arriving at Partageuse, Tom is arrested. Sergeant Spragg, an aggressive and unpleasant man, wants to transport him immediately to the city of Albany for questioning and thinks they should lock Isabel up, not believing she is innocent. Sergeant Knuckey, aware of the small-town dynamics, cautions Spragg to take matters one step at a time. After wondering for years if Hannah is delusional, he now wonders the same about Isabel.

Lucy is taken from Isabel, and Bill and Violet struggle to understand the loss of their granddaughter.

As she lies in bed, Isabel imagines that Tom has been lying to her, hiding previous lives and other wives he had deserted. She decides that she will make him suffer for what he has done when the police question her tomorrow.

After his arrest, Tom confronts new feelings of sadness:

He cannot reconcile the grief he feels at what he has done and the profound relief that runs through him. Two opposing physical forces, they create an inexplicable reaction overpowered by a third, stranger force—the knowledge of having deprived his wife of a child (264-65).