His Obsession

Chapter 4 - The Accidental Death

The man outside Nessa’s shop knew the watch’s owner was dead.

He also knew the police had called it an accident.

Nessa stood behind the counter, staring at the locked door. The stranger had stopped knocking, but she could still see his silhouette through the frosted glass.

“Who are you?” she called.

“Someone trying to keep you alive.”

“That’s a terrible way to introduce yourself.”

A pause.

“Then let me try again. The watch you’re holding belongs to a man who died three days ago. If you want to understand why someone sent it to you, find his daughter.”

Nessa’s grip tightened around the envelope she had received minutes earlier.

“What’s her name?”

“Elise Ward.”

“And yours?”

The silhouette shifted.

“Ask Lucien Veyr.”

Footsteps retreated from the door.

Nessa rushed to the window, but by the time she reached it, the street was empty. No black car. No waiting figure. Only wet pavement and the red glow of a traffic signal changing against the rain.

She returned to the counter and examined the envelope again.

The list inside contained twelve names. Lucien’s was the only one crossed out, and beside it, someone had written a date eleven years earlier. The remaining entries carried different dates, some recent, others several years old.

She didn’t recognize any of them.

Not yet.

She photographed the page, saved a copy to her laptop, and placed the original inside a file folder. Then she turned her attention to the watch.

Elise Ward.

The stranger had given her a name, but names were easy to invent. Nessa needed proof that the watch had belonged to Elise’s father before she risked involving another grieving family in a mystery she barely understood.

She began with the police notices.

Searching recent accidental deaths took longer than she expected. The public records were incomplete, and several men with similar names appeared in the results. She narrowed the search to reports published three days earlier and found a short notice about a man discovered at the bottom of a stairwell in an apartment building.

MARTIN WARD, 52, DIES IN SUSPECTED ACCIDENTAL FALL.

The report stated that investigators had found no immediate evidence of foul play. Ward had suffered fatal head injuries, and his death had been classified as accidental pending the completion of routine inquiries.

No mention of a witness.

No explanation of why he had fallen.

The building’s name appeared near the end of the report.

She searched it separately and found an address in a residential district across the city.

Then she checked Martin Ward’s public records.

He had worked as an accountant for a logistics company until his retirement two years earlier. He had no criminal record and no obvious connection to Lucien Veyr’s former organization.

His family information listed one daughter.

ELISE WARD.

Nessa sat back.

The connection was real.

She returned to the watch and examined its worn strap. The metal casing had been opened before, and the concealed notes made it clear that someone had used it to carry information. But nothing on the watch itself established that Martin Ward had owned it.

She needed the family to confirm that.

By eight the following morning, Nessa had found a telephone number listed under Elise’s name. She called twice before someone answered.

“Hello?”

The woman sounded exhausted.

“Is this Elise Ward?”

“Who’s asking?”

“My name is Nessa Calder. I run Calder Returns. I’m trying to reach you about some property that may have belonged to your father.”

Silence followed.

“Which property?”

“A wristwatch.”

Elise gave a short, humorless laugh.

“My father owned several watches. You’ll have to be more specific.”

Nessa described the silver casing, the dark leather strap, and the shattered glass.

The line went quiet.

When Elise spoke again, her voice had changed.

“Where did you get that?”

“It was delivered to my shop anonymously.”

“Did you say anonymously?”

“Yes.”

“Don't bring it to my house.”

Nessa frowned. “Why not?”

“Because my father is dead, and whatever you think you’ve found, I don't want strangers coming here with his things.”

“I understand. I’m not trying to upset you. I only want to make sure it reaches the right person.”

“You should have left it alone.”

The call ended.

Nessa stared at her phone.

Elise had recognized the watch before Nessa mentioned its unusual features. More importantly, she hadn't asked how Nessa knew her father was connected to it.

She had asked where it came from.

Nessa called back.

This time, the number went straight to voicemail.

She could have left the watch at the police station. It would have been the safest choice, especially with someone watching her shop and sending threats. But Martin Ward’s death had been ruled accidental after only three days, and his daughter sounded frightened rather than merely suspicious.

Nessa knew that fear.

It was the kind that made people reject the very thing they needed to understand.

She packed the watch securely, took copies of the documents she had found, and left the shop shortly after nine.

Elise lived on the second floor of a building with no elevator and a dead plant in the lobby. Nessa found the correct flat and knocked.

No answer.

She knocked again.

The door opened a few inches.

Elise Ward stood behind it, pale and hollow-eyed. She looked to be in her late twenties, with dark hair pulled into a careless knot. Her gaze moved from Nessa’s face to the parcel in her hands.

“You came anyway.”

“I thought you deserved to see it before I handed it to anyone else.”

“I told you not to bring it.”

“I know.”

Nessa held out the parcel without stepping closer.

Elise hesitated, then took it.

She opened the wrapping and stared at the watch.

For a moment, all the anger left her face.

“He wore this every day,” she whispered. “Even after the glass broke. I bought him a new one for his birthday, and he refused to wear it.”

She turned the watch over, running her thumb across the casing.

“This scratch happened when he was fixing the kitchen cupboard. He caught it against a screw and spent the rest of the afternoon complaining about how careless he'd become.”

Her fingers tightened around it.

“This is his.”

Nessa let her examine it before asking the question that had brought her there.

“Can you tell me what happened to him?”

Elise looked up sharply.

“The police said he fell.”

“Were you there?”

“No. I was at work. Someone found him in the stairwell.”

“Did he have any reason to be in that building?”

“He lived there.”

Nessa paused.

Elise looked down at the watch.

“My father wasn't a careless man. He knew those stairs better than anyone. The railing had been loose for months, and he'd complained to the landlord repeatedly.”

“That could explain the accident.”

“It could.”

But Elise didn't sound convinced.

She turned the watch over again, her expression tightening as she noticed something beneath the strap.

“What is that?”

Nessa leaned forward.

A tiny mark had been scratched into the metal near the clasp: a circle divided by a single line.

Nessa recognized it.

She had seen the same symbol in one of Mara’s notebooks.

Before she could ask Elise about it, a phone began ringing inside the apartment.

Elise flinched.

She glanced over her shoulder, then back at Nessa.

“Don't answer questions about my father,” she whispered. “Not to the police. Not to anyone.”

“Why?”

Elise's eyes filled with tears.

“Because the last time he tried to tell someone what he'd found, he said it would get him killed.”

The phone stopped ringing.

For several seconds, neither woman moved.

Then Elise stepped back and closed the door.

Nessa stood alone in the hallway, staring at the wood where the woman's face had been.

She had returned the watch to its rightful owner.

But Martin Ward hadn't simply left behind a broken possession.

He had left behind a warning.

And someone had already decided that Nessa was the next person who needed to hear it.