"I don't know. It's so big," Prudence said.
"They won't go too far. He'll want to hit something soon, before a lot of people start looking for them. He'll want something close by that's about the same size as the one here so he won't have to alter the plan too much."
Prudence pointed to a tiny spot on the map within a fingernail of Seabrooke. Pinecrest. "How about this one?"
Wendell considered the suggestion and then nodded. "That looks like it would do."
"What if we're wrong?"
"Then they're lost to us," he said. He gave her hand another squeeze. "It won't come to that. They'll be there. Now for our next problem: how do we stop them?"
Neither of them said anything for a while. Wendell couldn't imagine any way of incapacitating Samantha without hurting her. He couldn't bring himself to do that. "Let's get some breakfast," he said. "Food for thought."
Prudence's hand went down to her stomach. "I'm not hungry," she said. "I don't think I can eat ever again after what happened. After that terrible-" She jumped up to her feet. "That's it, Wendell! That's what we have to do."
"What?"
"They gave us and Mr. Pryde and Mrs. Schulman some kind of potion, right? Maybe we can turn the tables on them."
"That's brilliant," Wendell said. He kissed Prudence for coming up with the idea and then followed her up the stairs to Joseph's bedroom. The door was locked, but yielded to Prudence's shoulder after three tries.
"Where do you suppose he keeps them?" Prudence asked.
Wendell looked around the room and shook his head. "He'll have taken them with him if he's not coming back. I should have thought of that sooner. I'm sorry. It was a good idea."
He started for the door, reaching the doorway before Prudence yanked him back by the collar. She held up a stack of papers she'd found in the desk drawer. "Look at this," she said. "It's his cookbook."
Wendell took the papers from her and saw she was right. The notes detailed the makeup of the various potions and their effects on the body. He found the one that must have been used on he and Prudence-"causes temporary unconsciousness with hallucinations"-along with a dozen others. "Do you think you can make one of these?" she asked.
"I'll try," he said. Even with the list of ingredients, creating a whole new compound in twelve hours would be difficult. Not to mention he didn't know much about modern chemistry. Still, what choice did they have?
"You can do it. I believe in you," Prudence said. She kissed him again, this time for luck.