The Attempted Kidnapping

Meanwhile Anita was orienting to the different culture of Singapore. The one in charge was a Singaporean national named Jun Long which Anita in researching the name noted referred to rulership and the Chinese national symbol of the dragon. In his higher education at Oxford and Harvard he’d achieved the highest distinctions and been approached by several multinationals based in England and America but chose to work with Deloitte on condition he’d be based in Singapore to head up their branch there. It was where his family and other connections were and he preferred working and living within the Asia setting. To foreigners seeking Deloitte services in Southeast Asia, he was known as John, and he invited Anita to call him by that name.

Indians had been part of the scene in Singapore from the earliest days of colonial rule, and some were highly regarded in business and politics speaking flawless Mandarin language now taught to unify all Chinese language groups prevalent there so Jun Long accepted Anita as one of that class rather than the class of temporary construction workers shipped in and kept isolated so they were not tempted to try and melt into the community. But the common language uniting Chinese, Malay and others was English and there was a sizable European population of temporary visa holders engaged in business there.

Anita was delighted to know there were multiple places around the city where she could get the food she loved. It was a food paradise packed with families and friends enjoying each other’s company daily. She was placed in a serviced apartment at Holland Village for her temporary stay and travelled to work each day by public transport. If it were not for the fact she was married to an Australian, she could easily have chosen to live there. Jun Long was the one to make final decisions on whether to take on a project around Southeast Asia and the first point of contact in a sizable staff to be approached by those seeking Deloitte Singapore services. Anita’s job would be to research all potential projects under his direction and provide that initial information for Jun Long to consider whether to take the project on and with multiple projects under initial consideration and determination if foreign experts should be bought in to share their expertise or it could be handled by existing staff it was a wonderful opportunity for her to get insights into the mindset of the top decision makers in the Deloitte world. He was a demanding taskmaster, and Anita was a willing worker. Jun Long observed her carefully noting her work ethic and respect for him and determined at the end of this temporary assignment filling in while his regular personal assistant was overseas on an upgrade to negotiate with Melbourne to keep her there permanently. He could not employ her husband because of the Deloitte rules but had contacts in the business community to entice her with a promise to see her husband was employed by one of the multinationals operating there.

At the end of her temporary assignment to Singapore Jun Long took her to an appreciation dinner with a selection of the senior staff she’d liaised with during her time there. When Jun Long put the proposal to Anita at the end of the dinner and speeches of appreciation enthusiastically supported by the seniors present. Anita was so surprised at the invitation she sat stunned for a moment considering her response. Finally, she gave Jun Long her thanks for the confidence expressed and the support of seniors present but stated she’d have to consult with her husband and William her current boss in Melbourne before she could respond to this kind expression of confidence in the offer made.

Next morning she was on a flight back to Melbourne and looking forward to a happy reunion with Robert. They’d been in regular contact each day by video call and tears had been shed but she never wanted to be separated from him again. She could hardly wait until her obligations to Deloitte had been fairly repaid in service so she could be with her husband as they set up business together. She understood Robert would be tied up with the Carmichael project for many more months and then the reality of starting a business together without assurance of it being financially viable was a sobering thought. A lot of money would be needed to launch such a venture and between them they had their limitations financially to launch such a business.

With the Carmichael project in its final stages and work already commenced on system changes William sat with Robert to determine a date for Deloitte to supervise the feedback and adjust with the Carmichael team where necessary. They’d used their own team handling change management and it had been quite successful with minimum blow back from staff in the various affiliate hospitals and great progress in adopting much of world best practice benchmarks. While they’d paid millions for Deloitte input, they felt it had been worth money spent and were already back into profitability. There had to have been retrenchments of seniors in the hospitals resistant to change but retrenchments throughout the system were manageable and most had been content with the option of early retirement with a liberal settlement. Some had been picked up already by smaller hospitals. With the final financial settlement made to Deloitte by Carmichael Robert was well compensated for his work and with a promise of more subcontracting in future.

William also made a further commitment. Deloitte’s having a huge overhead to cover in salaries of employees and maintenance of buildings and systems only accepted projects that took an extended period to complete to ensure constant employment and a lucrative payout for the expertise available to clients from Deloitte world connections. Businesses approaching them for smaller jobs were rejected and William would direct them to those operating on a smaller scale. William offered to refer those with smaller projects to Robert if he’d be happy with that on the understanding that Robert would make himself available to Deloitte’s on contract when they needed his services. Robert gratefully accepted that offer but with the proviso he wanted to spend time locally with his wife from that point forward so would appreciate jobs within Australia and inquired when Deloitte’s would be willing to release Anita after they felt she’d fulfilled her obligations to them. William studied Robert smiling and spoke.

“Did you know Singapore wants Anita to relocate to Singapore full time as well as London showing an interest and Deloitte there has guaranteed to find you work within the multinationals operating there.”

William studied Robert as he enjoyed a moment of laughter inside at the shock of what had been revealed.

Robert shook his head in disbelief. Anita had not shared this with him, and he’d have to talk with her. Was this something she wanted and yet did not want to spoil his vision for their future together? She must have said no as it had now been months since she’d returned from Singapore. He turned to look at William who was smiling now.

“She said no Robert. She wants to work with you now and I think you two owe Deloitte and we need to have her for at least another year.”

Robert nodded.

“You’ve been very good to us William and we are aware of the fact you’ve facilitated our accumulation of valuable knowledge base in consultancy. We need to show our appreciation in whatever way we can but I’m anxious to have her with me full time as soon as you can arrange it with the partners.”

The newly marrieds were enjoying their new home with small yard at the back where Robert was putting in a stone patio with barbecue and a jacuzzi with rain and sunroof protection over the unit. They were limiting garden areas to what they could manage together with their intensive programs. The front yard had a medium sized driveway leading to a double garage and a hedge marked their boundary line at the front street with cement pathways on each side of the house leading to the back yard and metal fences separating them from their neighbours. It was a reasonably secure house in the suburbs with easy access to government transportation as they’d decided not to purchase a car yet. That would eventually become a necessity if they planned for a family. Anita loved spending time in the gardens when in Melbourne as a recreational pursuit and they loved spending time together whenever business made that possible, but Anita was getting anxious to join her husband in business and begin to have children.

It was a Sunday and they were working in the gardens together. Robert ever alert noticed a van park just past his driveway blocking his neighbour’s entrance and assumed the neighbour must have called for emergency repairs. But why didn’t they just drive in and park rather than block the driveway. Anita glanced up but went back to weeding the garden. Robert smiled as he viewed his partner with pride. He was so lucky to have discovered her on that assignment in New Zealand. He turned to pick up a bag of mulch to spread around when she was finished with that section. Then he heard a scream and looked around in shock. Two men had grabbed his wife and were attempting to take her to the van. Robert grabbed a shovel and rushed the short distance to protect her swinging at the men as he approached.

They paused and one of them spoke to the other urgently in a heavy accented English then pulled out a knife and stabbed her before they both rushed to the van where the driver was already beginning to pull away from the curb. Robert grabbed his phone and quickly selected camera and clicked on the number plate as they sped off. Then he quickly dialled the emergency number calling for ambulance service. There was an immediate response, and he screamed details of the emergency, and the reply came back they’d identified his address based on his cell number and position phoned from. Anita was quickly losing consciousness while he shouted for her to stay awake and tore away her tank top to see what damage had been done trying to plug the huge wound that was bleeding profusely. He wept loudly and neighbours from across the street came across to see what was causing this distress. They gasped as they saw the amount of blood around the now unconscious Anita. There was the sound of sirens approaching and an ambulance skidded to a stop scattering onlookers gathering. This was followed by a police car and police ordered neighbours back to their premises. The ambulance crew spoke to Robert trying to construct events while police listened as they worked on Anita. Within minutes they had her ready for transport. They knew there was limited time to save this woman now and refused Robert passage telling him to follow them to the nominated hospital emergency rooms.

Robert begged the police to take him to the hospital, and they agreed so he locked the home after grabbing his wallet and sped to the police car. The police quizzed him again to recheck the story already told to ambulance crew to rule him out as a suspect though his ordeal with police was only beginning as they’d interrogate him several times and Robert remembered the picture taken of the number plate and showed it to the one by his side. An immediate alert was sent to patrolling police to be on the lookout for that number plate and within an hour the van was found heading in the direction of the airport. Soon a helicopter was following to observe from the air, and patrols were heading from various directions to intercept. The helicopter observed the van pull into a side street and men rush around to change the number plates before resuming their journey.

They’d no sooner finished doing that when a police car screamed into the alley blocking their exit and the men scattered in all directions. A police dog was used to sniff out remaining human scent in the van and immediately headed off following a trail while an increasing police presence searched businesses and warehouses. The dog found one man hiding in a large bin at the back of a warehouse and took him into custody. The dog then went sniffing again and found a trail in another direction that took police up a staircase and the dog sat by the door. Police knocked and identified their presence demanding the door be opened. Some police had gone to the back of the building in case there was a way out at the back and found a man on the balcony beginning to access the fire escape ladder. They called him down protesting his innocence and knowing all was lost he complied. That left one man to find and after searching for the rest of the afternoon the search was called off. Robert was no longer a suspect when under separate interrogation the men telling conflicting stories eventually confessed they were at the scene but denied being the one who’d knifed Anita.

They were quizzed again for the motive for this attack and eventually concluded they had no motive apart from a substantial cash deal to kidnap Anita and if the attempt failed, they were to kill her. The criminals had no idea who the one was arranging this kidnap attempt as instructions came through multiple layers higher up and they only knew that Anita was to be kept at a certain location which they identified and a phone number given to advise when it was done. Instructions were clear they wanted her dead or alive but preferably alive to make an example to others. The missing man had that number. They were all illegals who’d come into Australia at different times on tourist or student visas and disappeared into the underworld where their only plan of survival was to do what they were told. They told the police in all probability the one in charge who’d escaped would be out of the country on a false passport and the missing man would have informed the one on the end of that number line who’d likely be out of the country within hours knowing the plot had gone wrong. They were a motley crew. One was from Central Europe, one from the Middle East and one from China and they worked for a secret organization where instructions were given, and money changed hands without any of the members at higher levels showing their face or volunteering their residency to the lower echelons of foot soldiers doing their criminal bidding. The police had a fairly good idea of who these kingpins could be and were conducting long term intelligence gathering through paid informers in the criminal world. They immediately made contacts with these informers to try and find out why Anita had been targeted. Word eventually filtered back that the interest in Anita was from overseas people operating in Australia.

So, police began a systematic investigation into all the places overseas Anita had been assigned to temporarily through Interpol to find out if any of those countries were aware of any incident involving her reported to local authorities. One lead came back from Singapore. During her time there one of the principals in the Gupta Import and Export company had been reported by Jun Long senior partner of Deloitte’s Singapore who’d told about harassment of one of his administrative staff serving them temporarily and they’d called for a restraining order on this man from any contact with Anita Hill while she was in Singapore.

This had been an embarrassment to the Gupta’s in India, and they’d recalled him from Singapore and replaced him with another member of the family. They questioned William if he was aware of this and he said he was aware but had been asked by Anita not to share this with Robert as it was an extended family member and she didn’t want Robert to have bad opinions of her family as she hoped for an eventual reconnection with them. Her marriage to a foreigner was unacceptable to her community and her family had come under pressure over that issue, but she did not believe her father would be involved in what had happened in Singapore or her brothers.

The Australian Federal Police contacted their Indian counter parts filling them in on the story and asking for their cooperation in questioning the family to rule them out of being involved informing that if Anita died this would be a murder investigation. Because of the Gupta’s political connections, the Indian police decided to tread carefully on this case but sent word through their mutual contacts one of the higher up police would like to meet up with the senior Gupta in a neutral place so no embarrassment could be given so they could discuss the matter assuring them no charges were being made. Anita’s father was shocked and distressed when he learned his prodigal daughter was in hospital at death’s door. He was aware that one of the extended family assigned to manage Gupta interests in Singapore had embarrassed the family, but they’d recalled him and he was now working in the US. They couldn’t imagine he’d be capable of such a thing and while honour killing was still practiced for breaking caste, he’d never sanction such a thing no matter how angry he’d been with Anita at the time. The family had been estranged after her marriage to a foreigner but that was behind them now and he asked if it would be possible for his wife and other daughter Gita to be permitted to visit Australia to be with Anita through recovery and the police said they’d work on that for him. When Anita’s mother Shakuntala and Geeta her sister heard of what had happened, they didn’t wait for permission to be granted through political channels they with permission immediately arranged for tickets to Australia after visiting the Australian High Commission and explaining the need for them to be with their daughter during her recovery. They were granted visas.

Anita had been corresponding with Gita and while the parents had decided not to make contact when those letters first arrived, they didn’t prevent Gita from receiving them. They secretly hoped for a rapprochement someday but were aware of the irritation of their relatives over her marriage to a foreigner particularly seeing some were interested in Anita as a bride for their sons. Beside that Gita had gone through a horrific time with the husband they’d chosen for her. Gita had married Ramesh to seal the competing business families’ relationships and Ramesh had flown to Deli for the wedding to please his parents. But on the wedding night Ramesh had told Gita he’d only agreed to the wedding to seal the relationship between families, and his interest was in a Mexican woman he’d been living with in Los Angeles. He told her both families would lose face and become enemies if she ever reported the situation, but she’d have to accompany him to Los Angeles and live with them there, but he’d not consummate the marriage that night as he had no interest in her. This was a family transaction, and she Gita would have to live with the reality of the situation. Gita wept all night while Ramesh slept on the room lounge in the hotel room. She faked it when the family arrived to wish them well as Ramesh departed for the US saying he’d work on an appropriate visa for her. No letters were exchanged between the two newlyweds until Gita’s father contacted their new in-laws to inquire about the visa. They in turn inquired of their son Ramesh and that eventually got things moving. Two years after their marriage Gita was on her way to the US and soon to be living hell as a servant to the Mexican woman.

A year into Gita’s migration to the US the elder Gupta decided to travel to Texas to do some business in Huston. He suggested his wife Shakuntala should travel with him and go to visit Gita in Los Angeles while he was doing business, but it would be a surprise not communicated in advance. Shakuntala would stay in a hotel and visit her daughter during the day. Shakuntala arrived in Los Angelese and booked into a hotel. She was an experienced traveller, and this was not her first visit to the US, so she knew how to get around. She arrived at the address by taxi next day and made her way upstairs to the apartment indicated in letters written between them. She paused in excitement at the anticipation of a joyful daughter greeting her at the door and was shocked when the door opened to a sight she’d not anticipated. The woman answering the door was a shell of the one who’d departed Delhi and Shakuntala wept at the sight. A loud voice from within demanded who was at the door and shouted for Gita to get back to cleaning. Shakuntala sped in the direction of the voice and demanded who she was. The woman arrogantly shouted back she was Ramesh’s wife. Shakuntala turned to her daughter inquiring if this was true and Shakuntala turned back at the woman with fire in her eyes. She spied the broom Gita had been using and took it beating the Mexican woman repeatedly. The woman fled from the house phoning Ramesh. Shakuntala turned to her daughter. Pack some decent clothes and come with me. Gita rushed to pack a small bag with things she’d immediately need while Shakuntala waited at the door with the broom. The woman outside was shouting at Ramesh through the phone who advised her to leave until he could sort it out with his in-laws. Shakuntala was out on the street with Gita waiting for the taxi Gita called, and it arrived to pick them up as Ramesh entered his street by car as the taxi moved out to take them to the hotel. At the hotel Shakuntala demanded Gita shower and change into better clothes. Then she took her daughter to a facial and nails appointment while she did an online transaction buying airline tickets and found a hotel in Huston for them to spend the night making reservations for two. Then she booked out at the front desk and headed for the airport.

Gita slept until 11am next day while Shakuntala hovered over her. She’d destroy Ramesh and his family when they returned to India and had been trying all morning to get into contact with her husband to inform him of this turn of events. Ram Gupta was furious when Shakuntala was eventually able to contact him, but he was tied up in meetings for the week so advised Shakuntala to arrange bookings for both wife and daughter to return immediately to Delhi. Shakuntala had a return ticket so purchased another and made sure they were seated together. In the meantime, Ramesh had contacted his parents to say Gita had become uncontrollable and left home, and he had no idea where and why she’d left.

So already having a traumatized daughter in Gita she was horrified to find out her remaining daughter Anita had been attacked, and police were looking for the international person responsible. She thought of the Gupta cousin who managed their interests in Singapore who’d been recalled after having a restraining order issued against his contacts with Anita and he one of the parents of a son interested in marrying Anita on her graduation in Melbourne. There’d been a considerable irritation among relatives when Anita married a foreigner. Surely this man could not inflict a wound that put her daughter at death’s door. Those sons had found other wives and the fuss had long since subsided among relatives.

Both Shakuntala and Gita arrived in Melbourne as police inquiries were in process. They were unaware of what was going on but nothing would prevent them from seeing to Anita’s recovery. No foreigner could match the love and encouragement of a mother and Gita was there for support. Robert had been given permission to take time off from the contracts given him by Deloitte and others quickly moved in to replace him for a while. William was very concerned about Anita’s situation as she was scheduled for some important work overseas, but he quickly arranged for substitutes. He knew this would be a long recovery after receiving word from doctors on the long-term problems this stabbing had caused. Anita was in a state of induced coma and on life support and doctors gave her only a fifty percent chance of survival. They’d had to do some major surgeries and were waiting for her to recover from that before more follow up surgery. Her hospitalization would be long term and after release she’d not be permitted to work until extensive rehab had been completed.

Robert was frustrated because the doctors had told him there was no point in him sitting at the hospital as he’d not be permitted into ICU and Anita was in a state of induced coma and couldn’t be communicated with. He needed to stay home or work, and they’d contact him when it would be possible for him to see his wife and converse with her.

So, he was at home frustrated and pacing when the doorbell chimed and he wondered who could be there. His parents had made a quick trip only to learn they wouldn’t be permitted to see their daughter in law so had departed under urgings from Robert as work required them to be at home. They’d return when Anita could be visited and were prepared to have Agnes sit with her while Robert went to work. Robert needed an income to support his wife’s medical needs and the mortgage and with contracts drying up they were living on their considerable savings now. He went to the door and two Indian women stood there looking at him appraisingly. Shakuntala spoke.

“We have not met but you are married to my daughter, and I’ve heard she’s in need of a mother’s nurturing care. I am Shakuntala Gupta and this is my daughter Gita. We want to visit my daughter and wondered if you could direct us to the hospital looking after her.”

Robert was in a state of shock. He had the impression the family were against his marriage to their daughter and was surprised to see them here caring about her situation. He finally realized he was being unhospitable. He smiled warily and invited them inside leading them to the lounge room indicating they should sit and asking if he could get any refreshments for them. Shakuntala shook her head repeating she wanted to go immediately to the hospital to see her daughter and imploring Robert to help them make that connection. Gita seeing Robert was surprised at their visit and realizing he’d probably be worried they were planning to take her away decided to set his mind at rest.

“Mr. Hill, I think we need to clarify our reasons for being here and assure you we are here to cooperate with you and acknowledge Anita my sister is rightfully yours to make decisions for. I’d really like to have a cup of chai if you have any in the home and then we can sit down and talk as family members if you’ll permit it. Anita has been in correspondence with me for a long time and she loves you dearly, so we accept that and want to get to know you now if you’ll permit it. If you’ll show me your kitchen, I’d be happy to make chai for all of us so we can talk. Would you permit me to do that?”

Robert took a moment to study Gita.

“You look almost identical to your sister. Please call me Robert seeing you accept me as a family member and I’m honoured to be accepted. Come to the kitchen and I’ll show you where I keep everything, but it should be me entertaining my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and I apologize for my lapse.”

To be continued.

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