The only solution then would be to track down Joseph and make him confess what he'd done to Samantha. Going after Joseph Pryde would be difficult. The brute had Samantha under his control; Wendell would have to incapacitate her somehow before going after her boyfriend. Even then, Joseph could break Wendell in half with the ease of snapping a twig. This required someone with more strength, like Mr. Pryde. As for Prudence, let her stay and fill her face. This wasn't a job for girls.

He burst out of Joseph's bedroom and ran into Prudence, her bulk knocking him to the floor. She yelped in pain and clutched her left arm. "What's wrong with you?" he asked.

"My arm hurts. I'm going to wake Mr. Pryde up so he can help me find Samantha," she said.

"No, I'm going to wake him up so he can help me find Samantha," Wendell said.

"Let's go in together and we can both wake him up." Prudence took a step forward, but then stopped. "Don't you think it's odd Mr. Pryde isn't up yet? I thought he usually went out early to check on his boat."

"Maybe he decided to sleep in after last night."

"I don't know. Something isn't right about this."

"Let's go inside and find out," Wendell said. He squeezed past Prudence in the hallway to reach the door first. He threw open the door and reached for the light switch.

Mr. Pryde lay in bed, sleeping fully dressed. "Mr. Pryde, wake up. It's Wendell and Prudence. We need your help, sir. Something terrible has happened," Wendell said. Mr. Pryde didn't move at all.

"Mr. Pryde, please, get up," Prudence shouted. "This is important. Samantha and Joseph have gone."

When Mr. Pryde still didn't move, Wendell stepped forward to shake the man's shoulder. Nothing happened. He shook him again with an identical result. Finally, Wendell slapped Mr. Pryde across the face as hard as he could. Mr. Pryde didn't even twitch. "Someone's drugged him," Wendell said. "It must be Joseph. First Samantha and now his own father."

"We've got to get help," Prudence said.

"From who? The police? They'll never believe us. They'll think we're making it up."

"Then what are we supposed to do? We can't go after them by ourselves."

"We don't have a choice," Wendell said. "There isn't anyone else who can help us."

"We can go back to Eternity and ask David and Rebecca for help. With four of us-"

"They'll be gone by then and we'll never find them." Wendell shook his head. "We don't have any more time for arguing. I'm going into town and see if I can find them. You can do whatever you want."




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