The narrative opens with a reflection on the town’s obsessive anxiety after the murder, noting that many residents could have acted but claimed honor as a shield. The newly graduated investigating magistrate arrives twelve days later, described in vivid detail: his black linen suit, gold ring, literary tastes, and his frantic search for witnesses in the town hall’s squalid office. He finds no concrete clue linking Santiago Nasar to the crime, but records marginal notes in red ink, including “Give me a prejudice and I will move the world,” “Fatality makes us invisible,” and a heart pierced by an arrow.

Several peripheral characters are recounted: Cristo Bedoya, who repeatedly looks for Santiago; Yamil Shaium, an Arab counselor and former card partner of Ibrahim Nasar, who tries to warn Santiago after hearing rumors; Indalecio Pardo, who is asked by the twins to alert Santiago but loses his nerve; Flora Miguel, Santiago’s fiancée, who receives him at her house, opens a chest of his letters, and refuses to let him in when he tries to enter her locked bedroom; her father Nahir Miguel, who intervenes with a rifle; her husband Poncho Lanao and daughter Argénida Lanao, who later see Santiago covered in blood; Sara Noriega, the shoe‑store owner frightened by Santiago’s pallor; Celeste Dangond, who offers him coffee to “gain time”; and Próspera Arango, who distracts Cristo Bedoya with her dying father.

The magistrate’s brief also records Angela Vicario’s cryptic statement that Santiago was “her perpetrator,” but she offers no details. The mayor and Colonel Lázaro Aponte are present, each making promises about confiscating the twins’ knives that never materialize.

The core of the chapter details the murder itself. After the twins shout for Santiago at Clotilde Armenta’s shop, they race to the square. Cristo Bedoya, having searched for Santiago in various houses, finally finds him near the riverbank and learns he entered Flora Miguel’s house. Santiago, unaware of the danger, walks into the house, drops a chest of letters, and is barred from the bedroom. Nahir Miguel forces the door open, confronts Santiago, and asks if he knows the Vicario brothers are hunting him; Santiago’s confused reply confirms his ignorance of the threat.

Santiago flees, runs toward his own home, and is seen by numerous townspeople. He is repeatedly shouted at, confused, and finally reaches his house’s main door. He is intercepted by Pedro and Pablo Vicario, who assault him: Pedro thrusts a knife into Santiago’s right palm and side repeatedly, while Pablo delivers a stab to the back. Santiago endures three wounds, cries out, and then collapses against his mother’s door. The twins continue stabbing, including a horizontal slash to his stomach that ejects his intestines.

Miraculously, Santiago rises, carrying his own entrails, and walks more than a hundred yards, entering a neighboring house and finally collapsing in the kitchen of Poncho Lanao’s home, still clutching his intestines. The Lanao family describes the scene: the “terrible smell of shit,” Santiago’s dignified walk, his Saracen features, and his final words, “They’ve killed me.” The chapter ends with his last, futile attempts to move toward the back door before he finally falls.