Sikes Murders Nancy

Sikes returns to his room where Nancy is waiting. He confronts her with her betrayal. Nancy, realizing she is about to die, does not deny it but begs for her life and pleads with him to repent and escape with her. Sikes, in a frenzy of rage, beats her to death with a pistol. He then tries to cover up the crime, burning the club and washing the blood from his clothes, but the ghost of his victim haunts him. This is the most violent and tragic event in the novel, marking the point of no return for Sikes and the culmination of the gang's evil.