September Book Club: The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett's book The Maltese Falcon inspired one of Hollywood's most famous examples of film noir.  Join the book club this September in reading this mysterious tale of double-crossing dames, hard-boiled detectives, and a treasure worth killing for.  As usual, we'll be meeting at 4.00 PM in the Flint River Library on Thursday, September 27th.

Technology Tuesday: Looking for Jobs on Twitter

At first glance, Twitter can seem like little more than a way to tell your friends what you had for breakfast.  In reality, though, Twitter can be a powerful searching tool, connecting you to possible employers and giving you a wider range of options than you might find on a traditional job search website.

We've collected a list of websites that will help you sift through Twitter to find the best job postings for you.

Tweet My Jobs
http://www.tweetmyjobs.com/
Search for jobs by position, industry and location.  Tweet My Jobs is one of the best Twitter job filters out there, with connections to large companies like Starbucks and Geico that pay to get their job openings featured.

Tweet My Jobs for Veterans
http://veterans.tweetmyjobs.com/
Receive instant updates from employers in your field specifically looking to hire veterans.

JobTweet.me
http://jobtweet.de/en/
A simple search like "LPN Atlanta" will pull links to job postings that have the keywords you're looking for.

TwitJobSearch
http://www.twitjobsearch.com/
A keyword search will pull up results and map out exactly where the postings are coming from on a Googlemap. 

Student Spotlight: A Detective's Tale, Part 3

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

A Detective’s Tale: Part 3

I ran into Dottie few days later as she was leaving a salon. She had drastically changed her hair color and style.  This intrigued me.  Something told me she was up to something.  When I said hi she acted as if she had never seen me before in her life.  I decided to follow her as I was off for a few days and had nothing better to do.  Instead of going home, she went to a restaurant on South Beach.  It was sort of run down and not the type of place she would normally frequent.  She sat at an outside table and ordered a frozen daiquiri as if waiting for someone.  She kept looking around every way except toward the beach that everyone else was looking at.  The clouds over the water were the prettiest shade of pink and purple, as it was nearing sunset and it made me wonder why she hadn’t noticed. 

I didn’t have to wait long for my answer.  All of a sudden, who shows up with a new haircut and clean shaven, but Mr. Undercover?  Now they really had my attention.  How did they know each other?  Had they met during the murder investigation?  I doubted that - after all that would have jeopardized his operation.  I tried to move close enough to hear their conversation.  What I heard would totally turn this whole story around.  I approached the detectives working the case and they were interested enough to arrange to watch and record both Dottie and Mr. Undercover.  After all, no one likes a dirty cop.  They hoped I was wrong, but I wasn’t.

It seems that Dottie had met Mr. Undercover during a domestic dispute before her divorce.  They had been attracted to each other from the start.  After her divorce they started dating.  When Jake had gotten into financial trouble, knowing he liked to gamble they plotted to set him up.  Mr. Undercover met him at Jai Lai, and told him about a bookie he knew that understood about gambling addiction.  Introductions were made and Jake fell into the dangerous world of bookies and loan sharks.  When he had gotten in deep enough, Mr. Undercover told Mike about Jake’s ex-wife wearing some very expensive jewels at some fundraisers he had seen in the paper.  Arrangements were made for Jake to steal the necklace and bring it to Mike.  Unbeknownst to Jake and Mike, another plot was also in the making.  Mr. Undercover would find out where and when Jake was supposed to turn over the necklace and would beat Mike’s man there.  Unfortunately, Jake had changed his mind.  So, Mr. Undercover went to Jake’s house in the middle of the night, and tortured him until he turned over the key to a locker where the necklace was.  Knowing Mike was sending someone to Jake’s house in the morning, he couldn’t leave Jake alive.  So he killed him and got to Mike’s house at his normal time.  In the morning he acted surprised to find out Mike had been crossed.  He volunteered to help Mike find out who had gotten to Jake first.  In the meantime he turned over all his information on racketeering to the RICO squad and Mike was busted. 

Mr. Undercover took a few weeks off and during this time he and Dottie applied for passports.  Supposedly to go to the Bahamas on a much needed vacation. I was lucky enough to be there when they were surrounded at the marina as they were about to set sail.  They even had the necklace on them. It seems they had contacted the original owners and had negotiated a very profitable deal for its return.  After all, the insurance company had paid her over $75,000.00 twenty years ago.  The daughter wanted her necklace back but didn’t want to reimburse the insurance company.  So it was worth it to her to pay these people $100,000.00 to give her the necklace and move to some island far away and start life over.  I just wonder if both of them would have made it to the Bahamas.  After all, the brutality I saw in the way Jake died made me wonder if Dottie would have become shark bait.  One can live a lot better on $100,000.00 than two. 

I returned home after stopping at police headquarters where I had to make a statement.   No charges would be filed against the daughter from Star Island, but the insurance company was notified that the necklace had been recovered.  They took possession and she could have it back if she repaid the insurance company.  At this time the insurance company is loaning the necklace and its story to one of the museums here in Florida.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a TV movie about this one day - after all it has theft, deceit, and dirty cops - what more could you ask for? As for me, I think it’s time to find a small town, maybe in Georgia, to move to, as I have had enough of this big city life!!!

Student Spotlight: A Detective's Tale, Part 2

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

A Detective’s Tale: Part 2

            I started calling Jake’s phone numbers which she had supplied, and got no response.  I checked to see if any other numbers were registered to him as maybe he just didn’t want to talk to her.  No new numbers - and according to a friend of mine at the telephone company, no usage on his phones in about two weeks.  This seemed strange, as everyone gets some calls.  I decided to drive out to Surfside where he was last known to be living.  It was a small beach side bungalow set back from the road, and as I approached I knew something was wrong.  The closer I got to the house the stronger the stench got.  Having worked with animals for a while, I knew the smell of decay.  I called Surfside police and had an officer meet me there.  

           When they arrived I identified myself; one of the officers was familiar with my company and asked why I was looking for Jake.  I told him his ex-wife was worried as he hadn’t picked up the dog as scheduled and I was checking it out for her.  They asked if I had knocked at the door and I responded no; because of the smell I didn’t want to approach the house in case something was wrong.  To me it smelled like death.  I told them that Jake supposedly had been in financial trouble and if he was indeed dead which I expected, I didn’t want to contaminate the scene.  I was thinking depression leading to suicide.  Boy was I ever wrong.  The two officers approached the house and found the back door had been broken into.  Inside Jake was dead alright, but he had been beaten, tortured and then killed.  Crime scene was called out and I gave them my fingerprints to eliminate me as a suspect since I never entered or touched anything on the property.

            I called Dottie and told her she now had full custody of Aimee as Jake was dead.  I explained the police would probably want to talk to her since she was his ex.  I also told her not to worry, I had only told them she was concerned since she hadn’t heard from him and he had failed to pick up the dog.  I wasn’t going to bring up the necklace until I did some further investigating.  I returned to my office and started researching her ex-boyfriend.  Since he was famous, there had been quite a few books and articles about his days as the most famous cat burglar in the Miami, Miami Beach and Golden Beach area.  I found an interesting article about a Golden Beach robbery that has never been solved.  It occurred around twenty years ago, which put it near the time Dottie received her necklace.  Could this be the same necklace?  I was going to try and find out.  Meantime, the police were looking into the murder of Jake.  They were nice enough to keep me in the loop, as I think they knew I was looking for more than why he didn’t pick up the dog. 

I awoke one morning to find the detective at my door asking me to please come down to the station.  When we arrived they put me in a comfortable office and started asking why I was really looking for Jake.  I had a reputation to uphold and didn’t want Dottie hurt in case Jake had gotten into something, so I told them the whole truth.  After all, this is south Florida, and between the mob and the drug cartels anything is possible.      
One of the detectives showed me an empty jewelry box that had the outline of the missing necklace.  He asked me for a description of the necklace and I saw a glimmer in his eye.  He was an old timer and I think he had the same feeling I did about that necklace.  We looked at each other and then he said he had worked a case about twenty years ago and still had his notes somewhere.  He said although the case was never solved it intrigued him, because all of the other pieces had surfaced in the last twenty years.  However, there was never a trace of this piece.  He even had a picture of the necklace, and it was gorgeous.   
Later that day Dottie was brought in. They explained that she wasn’t in trouble and was not a suspect in Jake’s murder.  She was however, a person of interest in another case.  They showed her a picture of the necklace and her eyes got as big as a deer in the headlights.  Even though she tried to play dumb, she wasn’t fooling anyone.  She sat there for a while and I finally got permission to enter the room.  I had been observing from a connecting room via video cam.  She seemed relieved to see me and asked if she needed an attorney.  I told her cooperating with the police was her best option.  She explained that a boyfriend had given her the necklace twenty years ago and until he was arrested she had never even suspected that he hadn’t bought it.  After all he had a great address, pockets full of money and partied with the rich and famous.  She was young and in love.  She finally grew up got an education and changed her ways.  She had kept the necklace as a token of love from her first “True Love”.   They had a few more questions for her about who Jake hung out with and did he gamble.  She didn’t know much and they believed her.  She was driven home and told not to leave town. 

A search of Jake’s house revealed he indeed was in financial trouble.  He had kept email records on his computer of loans and gambling debts with an interesting IP address.  It turned out the IP address belonged to a loan shark and bookie that was being investigated for racketeering amongst other things.  The RICO squad had him under surveillance and had someone in his organization undercover.  It seems that people that did business with this person ended up in the hospital or vanished.  Being surrounded by ocean it wasn’t hard to completely disappear from Miami.  Contact was made with the undercover officer and a meet was set up.  During the meeting, the officer had a very interesting twist to add to the story.

It seemed that Jake had gotten in over his head with the gangster who we will call Mike.  Jake had told Mike about his wife’s necklace and that it was worth about $50,000 which was a little more than he owed Mike.  Jake was supposed to get the necklace and bring it to Mike and they would split the difference between what was owed and the value of the necklace that Mike had a buyer for.  Mike wasn’t dumb; he knew exactly where that necklace came from.  After all it had been custom designed at Tiffany’s for one of the wealthiest families on Star Island.  He also knew it had been stolen from the daughter’s Golden Beach apartment twenty years ago.  Poor Jake had no idea what that necklace was really worth.  

Mike sent one of his collectors to Jake’s house to pick up the necklace.  Jake had called earlier and was trying to renegotiate the deal.  Mike guessed he realized that the necklace was worth more than he originally speculated.  He refused to give up the stones.  Mike’s man had called and said Jake didn’t have the rocks with him, what should he do?  Mike told him “Find out where he put that necklace, whatever it takes, and then make sure he never crosses me again!”  It seemed like a lot of information until I saw the recording. Apparently the undercover had wired Mike’s house and because of new technology the tiniest mike picked up clear concise communication. The officer asked who the collector was but the undercover said he wasn’t sure.  He would get back to them as soon as he knew more.  In the meantime the RICO squad was reviewing their wire taps on Mike’s residence.  They were thinking maybe Mike called in outside talent to retrieve the necklace.  After all, the way Jake was tortured before he was killed had to be the work of a real sadist and none of Mike’s known associates had that type of reputation.  Reviewing the tape from the wiretap revealed a new twist to this already twisted story.

It seems Mike is looking to find somebody.  Whoever tortured and killed Jake was not the person authorized by Mike.  So now we have a missing necklace and a dead Jake and Mike’s man never saw Jake.  There was a taped conversation of the hit man stating that Jake is dead, the necklace was missing and the place was a mess.  Someone had beaten them to the scene!  According to the crime scene investigators other than Jake and a hooker or two, there were no prints at the house.  Which meant gloves must have been worn.  Would we ever find out who killed Jake? What happened to the necklace?  Who ripped off Mike?  What do I tell Dottie?

 I returned home and thought about it.  I would sleep on it and call her in the morning.  Didn’t sleep too well, something just didn’t seem right.  Next day I called Dottie and explained what I had found out.  Surprisingly, she didn’t have a lot of questions - she almost seemed relieved. Again I started getting that red flag feeling.  Oh well, I made up a bill and sent it to Dottie.  There was nothing more I could do as it was now a police matter.  She sent me a check with no questions asked and thanked me for my help.

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...

Educational E-books

Cramming for an Anatomy final?  Or searching for sources for an English paper?  Even if you can't make it to the SCTC Libraries, you have access to hundreds of e-books and articles online through Salem Press.  Covering health, history, literature and science, these books have an easy search interface that can help you find exactly what you're looking for. Check out our full catalog of resources below.


Salem Press - Health

• Cancer
• Genetics and Inherited Conditions
• Infectious Diseases and Conditions
• Magill's Medical Guide (6th edition)
• Psychology and Mental Health

Salem Press - History

• Great Lives from History: Ancient World
• Great Lives from History: Middle Ages
• Great Lives from History: Renaissance
• Great Lives from History: 17th Century
• Great Lives from History: 18th Century
• Great Lives from History: 19th Century
• Great Lives from History: 20th Century
• Great Events from History: Ancient World
• Great Events from History: Middle Ages
• Great Events from History: Renaissance
• Great Events from History: 17th Century
• Great Events from History: 18th Century
• Great Events from History: 19th Century
• Great Events from History: 20th Century
• Modern Scandals
• Encyclopedia of American Immigration
• Historical Encyclopedia of American Business
• Weapons and Warfare
• Great Athletes
• Inventors and Inventions
• Musicians and Composers of the 20th Century
• Milestone Documents in African American History
• Milestone Documents in American History
• Milestone Documents in World History

Salem Press - Literature

• Critical Insights: Death of a Salesman
• Critical Insights: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Critical Insights: The Joy Luck Club
• Critical Insights: A Streetcar Named Desire
• Critical Insights: Jane Austen
• Critical Insights: Benjamin Franklin
• Critical Insights: Barbara Kingsolver
• Critical Insights: Toni Morrison

Salem Press - Science

• Encyclopedia of Global Resources
• Encyclopedia of Global Warming
• Forensic Science
• The Solar System

June Book Club: Dracula

Book Club is meeting on the Flint River campus this Thursday to discuss one of literature's less sparkly, but more deadly vampires - Dracula!  We'll go over Jonathan Harker's trip to Transylvania and then home again to London - with some unexpectedly bloodsucking cargo in tow.  Join us for coffee and conversation at 4.00 on Thursday, June 28th!