Three Times Lucky

Hurricane Amy is on its way toward North Carolina, and everyone starts preparing for the storm. Miss Rose heads into town to get supplies and tasks Dale with finding the transistor radio and securing the animals. The clouds quickly roll in. Dale and Mo go inside and see Deputy Marla sleeping on the couch. Just then, the Colonel calls, but the connection is weak, and Mo can only hear some of what he says. He mentions something about having escaped and planning to return to save Miss Lana. He tells Mo to go back to the house and find a package in his closet, and he also tells her not to trust anyone, especially Detective Starr.

Marla wakes up. Mo tells Dale about the call, and they head back to the house. They find the package in the closet but are then confronted by Marla, who pulls her gun out and points it at them. She accuses them of escaping police custody and interfering with a crime scene. She also claims that she saw Macon on her way over. Mo picks up one of the Colonel’s boots and throws it at her but misses; Marla slips and falls while dodging the boot, and Mo and Dale tie her up. On their way out, they hear Starr on Marla’s radio, and Mo pretends to be Marla. Starr tells her to watch the kids and stay safe from the storm.

Dale pedals with Mo on his bike as they try to outrun the storm. Mo insists that they stop at an old, abandoned house; she thinks that the metallic sound she heard when Slate called came from the water tower there. Mo and Dale look around and find empty pizza boxes, as well as blood on the walls and signs of a struggle. Dale thinks he sees someone moving inside the house and insists that they go home to get help.

Mo and Dale tell Miss Rose what they saw and what happened with Deputy Marla. She is shocked to find out that she was fooled but knows that not much can be done until the storm is over. She helps the kids relax for a while by playing cards and eating snacks. Then, Dale’s father suddenly appears.

Macon storms inside, inebriated and angry. He insults Dale and tells Mo to stop talking, and he hits Miss Rose when she tries to defend Mo. Mo uses what she learned in karate to defend Miss Rose and kicks Macon in the knee. Dale grabs a shotgun and points it at his father, but Macon knows he is bluffing. Out of nowhere, the Colonel arrives and takes the gun from Dale, pointing it right at Macon. Macon fakes an apology and tells the Colonel that Slate said something about going to Mr. Jesse’s place. Macon insults Mo again, telling her that her mother threw her away for a good reason. Mo replies by saying that Macon throws his family away every single day.

Mo writes a letter to Miss Lana, saying that she hopes she will come home safely. Mo insists on going with the Colonel to Mr. Jesse’s house. He tells the kids to wait while he looks around.

Mo sees Slate through the window breaking up floorboards. She and Dale sneak up on Slate, and Mo kicks him in the back, causing him to fall into the floor. They push a piece of furniture over him and sit on it until the Colonel arrives. Slate states that Miss Lana isn’t with him because she attacked him and ran.

Everyone waits out the storm and dissects the rest of the case. It turns out that Mr. Jesse’s cousin was killed by Slate and that Colonel was the lawyer who defended him. Slate had Deputy Marla kill the Colonel’s secretary, and the Colonel has hated lawyers ever since. Marla was in on it the entire time, which fooled everyone, including Detective Starr.

Two weeks later, the café opens, and everyone in town comes in for breakfast. Dale’s mother divorces his father and opens a tobacco farm touring business, while Slate and Deputy Marla are tried for murder and kidnapping. Lavender sells the car he fixed, and it wins the race; he shares the earnings with Dale, Mo, and his mother. The Colonel goes into the hospital to be checked out, and Miss Lana explains to everyone in the café that she always knew the Colonel was Slate’s lawyer. The hurricane that destroyed the Colonel’s memory occurred shortly after. Later, Dale and Mo go looking for Thes’s cat again, and Mo comes across a message in a bottle. With her heart pounding, she opens it but finds that it’s just one of her own. Instead of being disappointed, Mo is relieved because she already has a family in Miss Lana and the Colonel.