Chapter Nine jumps eight years from events of the previous chapter, and presents Theo as an adult. Still living with Hobie, Theo has honed his antique restoration skills and is now a partner in Hobie’s business. Theo has assumed the role of a salesman, an area that Hobie is not talented in. He has since acquired substantial knowledge about antiques and has created a clever scam without Hobie’s knowledge. The scam involves selling Hobie’s restorations in addition to the genuine antiques that they sell, passing those restorations off as authentic work. Despite Theo’s salesmanship fooling even experts, one man — known as Lucius Reeve — catches Theo’s deceptiveness and decides to hound him. Meanwhile, Theo reunites with the Barbours after he learns that Mr. Barbour and Andy, his elementary school friend, had drowned in a sea accident while sailing. He visits Mrs. Barbour and stays in contact with her and the rest of the family.

Theo continues with his alcoholism and drug addiction, a behavior that began with Boris while he was in Las Vegas. He also spends a lot of his money on pills. One day, he visits his mother’s former favorite bench at Central Park and finds the inscription “Everything of Possibility”. Later, Theo meets Lucius Reeve and is shocked to learn that he wants them to discuss The Goldfinch. Unknown to Theo, Lucius has been piecing together clues from news articles that linked the disappearance of the painting to a crime ring that operates internationally and has reasons to believe that Theo is in possession of the masterpiece. Though he is confident that Lucius knows nothing about the masterpiece, Theo gets nervous and tells Hobie about The Goldfinch. But Theo cannot reveal the true extent of the scam, of which will make Hobie distraught.