Student Spotlight: A Detective's Tale, Part 1

Written by student Michelle Silver, this mystery will be posted in three parts over the next week.  

A Detective’s Tale: Part 1

From a young age I wanted to be a detective.  I grew up watching Dragnet, Police Women, and Dick Tracy and still like programs such as Law and Order, Criminal Minds and NCIS.  Around 1978, I applied to the Dade County sheriff’s department and passed my civil service exam with flying colors.  I made my appointment for my police physical and hoped to attend the academy in about three months, when the next class started.  One week before my physical, all my plans would change forever.  I was on my way home from the grocery store when I was struck by a hit and run driver forcing me down an embankment and overturning my car.  I ended up in traction in the hospital and therefore had to cancel my physical. 

After rehab and release from the hospital I found a job with a company that trained dual personality dogs, supplied security guards and did light surveillance.  I started out feeding and cleaning kennels, transporting guards and dogs to jobs and answering phones.  The owner was a retired police detective and on occasion took private investigation jobs.  I took to the job and he offered to train me to help out more in the office and maybe do some surveillance.  After about two years he decided to expand to West Palm Beach and I was made manager and partner at our Pembroke Park office.

I was now pretty much on my own and able to sign contracts, accept jobs and handle most anything - or so I thought.  Most of our work was patrolling construction sites, with or without human guards.  Some places just wanted the K-9’s which we supplied by dropping them off at closing, changing company lock to one of our red locks and picking the dogs up before the company opened in the morning.  Only our employees had keys to the red locks so we had someone on call 24/7.  In an emergency the police or company owner could always get in touch with me or one of the employees to remove the dogs.  It was an interesting job and we even provided security at the coliseum for some interesting concerts.  We were there to keep kids from jumping fences and sneaking into concerts.  Once or twice someone would want a cheating spouse followed to document the cheating for a divorce.  Although this didn’t happen too often, it was during this time that Dottie entered the picture.

She came into the office a little hesitantly and seemed troubled.  I asked her how I could help her; did she need a dog trained, boarded or security for her business?  She stated that she needed help locating an object and needed to be discreet.  I was intrigued, so I offered some coffee and listened to her story.  It seems that she was a teacher at a preschool and divorced.  She and her ex-husband Jake shared custody of a seven year old Rottweiler named Aimee.  The arrangement was that Aimee spent every other month with her.  Her ex didn’t come to pick up the dog last week when he was scheduled to be there Thursday.  She told me he has not missed picking up the dog once in over two years.  She couldn’t find him and he wasn’t answering either of his phones.  I explained she needed to file a missing persons report with the police.  She said that was not why she was here.  It seemed as though she was invited to a benefit for a charity she believed in.  When she was getting dressed for the benefit, she opened her safe to take out a very sentimental necklace and found it was gone!  

I asked her if she called the police, and she said she didn’t want them involved.  She was certain that her ex-husband had taken it since he was in financial trouble.  After all, why else didn’t he pick up the dog?  I then asked her to describe the necklace and what she told me gave me a funny feeling.  She described a Victoria graduated diamond necklace about 20 inches long set with round and marquise cut diamonds and a black 5ct. opal pendant in the center all in a platinum setting.  In the back of my mind red flags started going off.  I did a little research online and found out a necklace like that at Tiffany’s would run about $75,000.00.  My next question was who held the insurance on the necklace and had she contacted them.  I was informed the insurance had lapsed - more red flags.  How did she acquire the necklace - was it an heirloom, a gift from Jake - because I knew she hadn’t bought it.  When construction was booming her ex could have possibly bought it, but something in my instincts told me there was a lot more to this than met the eye.  

She explained that when she was in her 20s, she dated a gentleman who has since become famous.  She claims she didn’t know at the time, but he was a renowned cat burglar.  In fact, he gained world recognition when he stole one of the biggest sapphires in the world.  Apparently he had given her the necklace on their second anniversary.  After he went to prison she started wondering if he really bought the necklace as he had led her to believe.  That is partly why she didn’t want to go to the police; she also had been pretty wild as a young adult and didn’t think they would believe her.  I said I would try and find Jake and see if he had the necklace or if he knew where it was.  I explained my rates and said I couldn’t guarantee the results but I would try my best.

To be continued...