Chapter 3
Fenton Hardy stepped into Izzie Sandel's second-floor bedroom. The place was messy, but he could see as he stepped closer to the closet and opened the half-closed door that indeed, all the clothes were gone. It looked as though she had been in a rush.
He opened the drawers in her desk one by one, looking under all the papers that were stuffed in each of them. Then he peeked under her bed. He stood up and sneezed three times in a row.
He turned once again to the desk. While he had been on the floor, looking under the bed, something shiny had caught his attention. He discovered a digital camera wedged in between the desk and the wall. He gently pulled it out and turned it on. The message on the screen read that her memory card was full.
He perused through the pictures.
"Find anything?"
Fenton Hardy turned and saw Mrs. Sandel watching him from the doorway.
"Do you recognize anyone in these pictures?" the detective asked, holding out the camera to her. The woman stared at the picture of the young man with her daughter.
"Yes, that's Dyllan."
"There are several others of him."
The mother of the missing girl shook her head as she looked at each picture. "I guess she still was seeing him." She looked up at the tall detective. "We told her that we didn't want her seeing him. We fought over it for days. Then she told us that she wouldn't."
"And she was very angry about it?"
"Yes, very much so. She told us that we didn't know him and that he really was a great person and that she loved him and he loved her." But Luke and I could see that he was not that person. We told her so but she wouldn't listen."
Fenton Hardy nodded as Mr. Sandel came up the stairs and looked over his wife's shoulder at the photographs.
Armed with the photos of Izzie and Dyllan, Fenton was ushered into the office of Bayport Police Chief Ezra Collig.
"What can I do for you today Fenton?" the chief greeted the detective genially.
"I'm tracking a missing girl – Izzie Sandel."
"I see."
"I have a picture of a young man named Dyllan Rycroft. I believe Izzie is with him. I was wondering if you could see if he has a record."
"Certainly. How old is the missing girl?"
"Fourteen. Mr. Rycroft is twenty."
Collig whistled. "I'll be back."