Ransom
- A neighbor named Grandmother Miss Lacy Thornton shows up and invites everyone on a picnic. Even the mayor drops by to join them, and eventually half the town is eating in Miss Rose's yard.
- Skeeter stops by and Mo asks her to check the serial number from Mr. Jesse's hundred-dollar bill and from the five-dollar bill that the Colonel gave her.
- Every time the phone rings, everyone stops and freezes. They are obviously expecting it to be Robert Slate again.
- Anna Celeste is there and she's even kind of nice to Dale and Mo. She tells Mo that she's always been jealous of the fact that Mo has two mothers—Miss Lana and her biological mother.
- Then the phone rings again and Detective Starr comes over to Mo. Apparently Robert Slate is on the phone and he's asking for her, so they want her to stay on the line with him until they can trace the call.
- Mo tries to stay calm but she starts freaking out and screaming at Robert Slate to tell her where Miss Lana is. Detective Starr takes the phone away from her but Slate hangs up and Marla says that she couldn't trace the call in time.
- Detective Starr says that Slate is asking for a half a million dollars in ransom for the return of the Colonel and Miss Lana.
- Mo is completely flabbergasted—they don't have that kind of money—and she promptly throws up all over the place.