Mr. and Mrs. Sandel seated themselves in the comfortable wing chairs in Fenton Hardy’s study.

“This is our daughter Izzie,” Mrs. Sandel said, pulling a photograph out of her purse and handing it to Fenton. He looked into the smiling face of a pretty young, blond-haired girl, who very much resembled her mother.

“We discovered that she skipped school yesterday afternoon,” Mr. Sandel informed the detective. “She sometimes does so with some of her friends. She usually comes home a bit after school is over so we waited. But she didn’t come back. We called her friends and none of them had seen her that day. We then discovered that her clothes, shoes, and several of her other belongings were gone from her bedroom. She hasn’t called or e-mailed or anything.”

Fenton sat looking at the picture for a minute. “Have you had any arguments with her over something lately?”

The couple exchanged glances.

“Actually we have,” Mr. Sandel replied slowly. “She insists on going out with a certain boy but we don’t think he is someone she should get involved with and besides, she’s much to young.

“How old is she?”

“Fourteen.”

“And is this boy the same age-“

“He’s twenty.”

Fenton whistled. “I see. I take it she didn’t agree.”

“No, she didn’t. I thought that we had come to an understanding though,” Mr. Sandel sighed. “We thought that she wasn’t seeing him anymore. Do you think she might be with him?”

“I think that it is a possibility,” the detective replied. “What is the name of this young man?”

“Dyllan Rycroft.”

“Do you have any pictures of him? His phone number? Address?”

Mr. Sandel shook his head. “Sorry, no. All we know is that he lives out of town. We met him once and we didn’t think Izzie should be hanging around with him.”

“Will you take our case?” asked Mrs. Sandel. “We know that it’s a few days until Christmas –“

“That’s alright. I'll certainly do my best to find your daughter. Now, if I could take a look at her room…”

“Certainly, certainly,” Mr. Sandel said.