The children's house creaks and Mr. Sowerby tries to talk to the children, but they won't listen to him. They look at him as if he's seeing someone else, and he can't figure out why they're looking at him that way. He says he hasn't tried anything to change the situation, but that's because he didn't ask why they looked at him the way they did. He feels like he is being punished for the way he covered up the deaths of the children. He's not proud to know that they look the same, he says, but he doesn't want to be known as the one who tried to cover it up. He also points out that only once did the authorities start looking for the culprit, and that was only after the Christmas holidays. Mr. Snodgrass tries to get the children to listen to his story, but the children are too scared to listen. He asks the children if they have any mental or physical illnesses, and the children say they don't have any. The distress rescue team comes in, and they tell him that two people are dead.