Lim hired Tony..Part 1...Tony passed the test. (this story is dedicated to April)

Tony's mobile phone rang. It was listed as "unknown" and of course there was no phone number of the caller shown on Tony's phone. "Hello Tony here....who's that calling?" Tony answered.
"Sir, my name is Harry and I am calling on behalf of my boss Mr. Lim"...a voice on the other end was heard telling Tony. "Yes, Harry what can I do for ya?" Tony inquired.
"Tony, my boss wants to engage your service....can we meet at the BLU Bar Level 24, Tower Wing of Shangri-la hotel at 7pm tomorrow evening?"...." Will your boss Mr Lim be there?" asked Tony politely. " Yes Sir, just you, me and Mr Lim..." " Okay I will see you both tomorrow then" confirmed Tony.

Tony was at the BLU 10 minutes to 7 but there was no sign of Harry nor Lim. The place was a little quiet on this weekday evening except for a few Caucasians men and women drinking and chatting away, oblivious of Tony's presence.

Then, just a minute before 7, Tony's phone rang. It was listed as an "unknown" call. Tony answered the call and the already familiar voice of Harry's came on the line.
"Tony, we will be there in a minute or two, our apology for being a bit late.." Harry hurriedly told Tony.

At 7:10 pm, a burly, distinguished looking Chinese man of about 40 and a young tan and handsome tough man appeared at the entrance of BRU. The tan looking man looked as though he was  the Chinese man's bodyguard.

The tan looking man was Harry and he recognised Tony immediately. Harry had done his homework by studying and scrutinising anybody his boss wanted to hire.
The three shook hands and exchanged greetings.

Harry called for the bar waitress and ordered drinks for the three of them. Immediately after the drinks were served, Lim started to tell Tony about the reason for hiring him. Before Lim could explicitly explain the reason, Tony gestured to Lim not to continue. He wrote on the paper napkin of BLU, " This place is bugged don't say more". Lim and Harry nodded their heads, got up and moved away from the table. Harry gestured to Tony to leave the place.
They made their move and went outside the bar to talk. After some consideration, Lim invited Tony to his house which was a 3 minute drive from The Shangri-la to continue their business.

In his Jaguar, Lim told Harry he was truly impressed with Tony's sharpness and professionalism. "How on earth did he know that a bugging device was planted under the table at BLU?" Lim asked Harry. He, Harry did not reply to Lim's question. 

Before they met at BLU, Harry had recruited someone to plant the bugging device under
the table which they sat to test the Tony's acuteness and discernment. If Tony could tell that the place was bugged it goes to show that they had engaged a highly professional detective.
Tony passed the test with flying colour.

Part 2 

They arrived at Lim's sprawling house that had the ambiance of a castle in just under 4 minutes. It was situated at Nassim Road, the rich people's district 10 of Singapore.
Tony was invited into the formal living room which had six picture windows that span the entire room, a canopy ceiling and a hardwood floor. " Wow  I have never seen anything like this !" Tony exclaimed.

Harry served Tony and Lim each a drink of their choice. Harry had a glass of whisky. It was here that Lim explained to Tony why he was hired.

Lim's youngest son Steve had been abducted  two days ago after leaving his school by three men. The maid and a bodyguard who escorted Steve were knocked unconscious. The strange thing about the case, according to Lim was that he had not received any ransom demand for the release of his son. Perhaps, it was still early days, perhaps not, Lim told Tony.

Although the case was reported to the police, they could not find any trace of Steve nor his abductors. Why was Steve abducted and why was there no demand for ransom? 
The case puzzled an experienced former police inspector like Tony too.

Tony could not find any lead to work on. Was this a case of revenge on Lim or some sort, Tony asked himself ? The only thing Tony told Lim was to wait for Steve's abductors' phone call. Somehow, there would be some form of contact between the abductors and Lim in the next few days.

Tony left Lim's residence around midnight but not without asking Lim to notify him if the abductors were to contact him.

Part 3

Lim was a decent business man. He was not the type who was involved in shady businesses nor had bitter rivals. Tony couldn't understand why one would want to snatch Lim's son.

On the morning of the fourth day of Steve's disappearance, Lim received a phone call from the police. A few hours before, they had fished out the dead body of a boy around Steve's age off the shore of East Coast Park. Besides the dead boy, they also fished out some toys and a shoe.

Lim hurriedly left for the mortuary. He was asked to identify whether the dead boy was his son, Steve. Tony was informed of the situation.

To Lim's pleasant surprise, the dead boy was not Steve. However, the shoe that was found belonged to Steve. Was it a coincidence?  Was Steve dead too?  Lim was worried and couldn't eat his lunch that day.

Tony analysed the situation, about the shoes and the dead boy. He was a clever and experienced detective always looking things from many angles. Besides, he also has an analytical mind.
Looking at the time the corpse,toys and shoe were found in the seas of East Coast, Tony knew that the tide must have brought them into Singapore from the Java Sea. It might be from the island of Sulawesi or Bintan.


Tony using his secret satellite imagery system like the one Google Map is using started to zoomed into the Island of Bintan and Sulawesi. It may take a whole day to scan the two Indonesian islands for the whereabouts of Steve.

Part 4

Tony, with the help of TG and Angel scanned the whole of Bintan and Sulawesi but couldn't find any sign of the hideout or place whereby Steve was kept. These two islands with their huge vast land of forest and thick vegetation made it difficult for Tony to locate and pinpoint the whereabouts of Steve and his captors.

By late evening, Lim received a phone call listed as "unknown". There was so much anxiety on Lim's part. Who could it be..? Lim wondered. Could it be Steve's captors? With all these questions, Lim answered the call. Yessss! the call was from a man calling himself "H". He claimed he had Steve in his custody.
"Listen carefully now, don't make any silly mistake or else your little boy will die"..H, in his stern no nonsense voice told Lim. "Yes sir, I will do whatever you tell me and please I beg you not to harm the boy"...Lim pleaded with Steve's captor.
"Do not report or attempt to report to the police what my demand is or about this phone call....alright Lim?" demanded H. "Yes I will obey your instruction"...Lim was heard telling H.

The demand made by H was simple. Lim and everyone or occupiers of his huge house had to vacate the place and hand over the keys of the gates and house to someone whom H would appoint in the days to come. There was no demand of ransom payment nor anything else.
Lim's place would be occupied by H or his representatives for a week. The handover of the place must be done in a manner that would not arouse any suspicion.
If Lim carried out the instruction to the letter, he would have his house back as well as his son. Otherwise, Steve would be killed.

Immediately after the call from H, Lim, used his other mobile and phoned Tony. They met at the nearby Shangri-la Hotel. Lim handed his mobile, the one that H called earlier on to Tony.
Tony took the phone and together drove to his office.

Earlier, much earlier on, Tony had given a custom made special mobile phone to Lim. He had also transferred Lim's SIM card to this particular phone. Now Tony is going to decode the conversation and locate where H had made the call from.

It did not take long for Tony to find out that H had made the call from Batam, an Indonesian island 20 km away from Singapore.
Tony instructed Angela and TG to use his spying satellite scanner to zoom in on  Batam for H's whereabouts. Perhaps, Steve was held in the same place.

Tony was puzzled as to why Steve's captor wanted to occupy Lim's place instead of asking for a ransom. Would Lim's place be used as a springboard to assassinate a foreign dignitary living next door or would it be used for some other sinister or criminal purposes?

Part 5

Tony managed to pin point the place that housed Steve on the island of Batam.  Now Tony & Co sat down and planned the rescue operation to save Steve without any police involvement.
It was a day later that Tony, TG and Angel surrounded the house that Steve was kept. There was only 2 captors in the house.

An explosive was used to distract the captors. They were caught by surprise when the explosion occurred. Both ran out of the house to see what was happening. It was at this split second that Angel seized the opportunity to run into the house to free Steve. Outside, Tony and TG handled the 2 captors.  They opened fire at Tony and TG but the bullets from their revolvers missed the 2 PIs.
Tony and TG opened fire in self defence and killed the 2 captors.
They took Steve in their Land Rover and drove off to their high speed boat which was anchored at the shore less than a 20 minute drive away.

In less than one and the half hour, Tony,TG, Angel and Steve were back in Lim's house. The rescue operation was a success. Steve was unhurt and Lim's personal doctor was summoned to give Steve a thorough medical checkup. All went well without the police or press knowledge.

Next morning, Lim transferred a cool S$1 million into Tony's company's bank account.

Part 6









The head of Steve's captor, H was not apprehended. He was still at large. Lim felt uncomfortable living in his Nassim Road house and decided to sell it.
In less than a month, Lim managed to sell his house to a foreign buyer at the price of $50 million.

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