Gloria goes to Miss Anne Powell’s kitchen before anyone else is awake and asks to use the telephone to arrange a visit with Robbie at the Gracetown School for Boys. The woman who answers the Reformatory line refuses to let Gloria book a visit for the next day, claims the appointments are full, and then says Gloria must come in person on Monday just to get on the list for the following week. Gloria realizes this is meant to keep her away, especially when she urgently needs to warn Robbie that help may be coming. Miss Anne, already upset over the violence on Lower Spruce and Fred’s role in it, tries to advise Gloria to be careful, then offers more concrete help when she recognizes the name of social worker David Loehmann.

Miss Anne calls Loehmann and explains that Gloria has been blocked from seeing her twelve-year-old brother. Loehmann is alarmed, both because he has heard rumors of Klan violence in Gracetown and because he already doubts the justice of Robert’s case and the brutality of the Reformatory. Speaking with Miss Anne strengthens his resolve: he reflects on segregation, his own fear of being labeled a radical, and his guilt over having delivered Robert to such a place. Deciding that inaction is no longer defensible, Loehmann telephones the Reformatory himself.

Instead of speaking to the secretary, Loehmann reaches Fenton Haddock, who deliberately unsettles him. Loehmann presses for a favor on behalf of the state and asks that Gloria Stephens be added to the visitors’ log despite the stated deadline. Haddock finally agrees to a two o’clock visit after church, but his tone leaves Loehmann chilled, reminding him how dangerous and powerful Haddock is. Gloria barely has time to absorb the good news before someone knocks at Miss Anne’s front door.

The visitor is Sheriff Bird, who says other lawmen are demanding answers after the previous night and that he wants Gloria questioned about her father’s whereabouts. Miss Anne immediately hides Gloria, lies that Gloria no longer works for her and has not been there, and then boldly challenges the entire case against the Stephens family. She argues that Robert’s punishment is excessive, that Red McCormack’s money is driving the campaign, and that Tad, not Robert Stephens Sr., abused his wife. After the sheriff leaves, Miss Anne reveals that he warned her, “Remember what happened to your father,” which she understands as a threat tied to her father’s anti-lynching stance. The chapter ends with Miss Anne and Gloria recognizing how serious the danger has become, while Fred appears on the stairs, sees their alliance, and contemptuously calls them fools.