Chapter 4 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE BROKEN WATCH
“The emergency exits were locked from the outside?” Norah repeated.
Ethan nodded.
“That was never in the final investigation report.”
“Why not?”
“Because someone removed it.”
Norah stared at the old photograph between them.
Her father had written a warning about those doors.
Fifteen years earlier, he had known something terrible was going to happen.
And now someone had entered her apartment looking for the last thing he had left her.
“Did you remove that information?” she asked.
Ethan didn't look away.
“No.”
“Would you tell me if you had?”
“I'd like to think so.”
Norah shook her head.
“That's not an answer.”
He accepted the criticism.
“Then here's the truth. I ordered the warehouse's loading operations suspended that afternoon. I believed somebody was stealing cargo. I told Leon to secure the shipments until we could investigate.”
“And he locked the emergency exits?”
“I didn't authorize that.”
“But you didn't stop it.”
Ethan's expression tightened.
“No. I didn't.”
For the first time, Norah understood why the fire still seemed to haunt him.
He hadn't simply lost employees.
He had made a decision that might have helped kill them.
By the time Norah was discharged, it was almost eleven.
The doctor had given her treatment instructions, information about food assistance, and a warning about returning to physically demanding work before she recovered.
Ethan offered to arrange a hotel.
Norah refused twice.
On the third offer, he said something different.
“You can choose where you stay. I'll cover the expense for a week. No conditions.”
She studied him.
“Why?”
“Because someone connected to my business entered your home.”
“Your company didn't cause me to be poor.”
“No,” Ethan said. “But it's part of why you're afraid to go back there.”
She finally agreed to let him arrange a room near Mrs. Higgins's building.
The older woman would accompany her and Sam.
Norah insisted on keeping the reservation in her own name.
Ethan didn't object.
When they returned to the apartment to pack, Mrs. Higgins was waiting with Sam's stuffed rabbit.
She looked exhausted.
“Before you say anything, Norah, there's something I need to tell you.”
Norah set down her bag.
“What?”
“The maintenance man wasn't the first person to ask about your father's things.”
She looked at Ethan.
Then back at her neighbor.
“Who else?”
“Gregory came by last week.”
Norah felt her stomach sink.
“What did he want?”
“He said he was worried about you. Asked whether you'd sold any family jewelry.”
“I don't own jewelry.”
“I told him that.”
Mrs. Higgins hesitated.
“He asked about a watch.”
Norah pressed a hand to her mouth.
“He knew.”
The older woman's eyes filled.
“Today, when that man came into the bedroom, I saw him open your drawer. I didn't know what to do. Sam was sitting at the table, and I was afraid the man might hurt him.”
“So you let him search?”
“I distracted him. I said the superintendent was coming upstairs.”
Mrs. Higgins held out the stuffed rabbit.
“Before he arrived, I'd noticed your drawer was open. Something told me to move the watch. I hid it inside Mr. Bunny.”
Norah stared at her.
“You had it?”
“I was going to give it back. Then child services came, and everything happened so fast.”
She turned the toy over and opened a small repair seam.
A brass pocket watch slid into her hand.
Norah covered her mouth.
It was old and scratched, with a narrow crack across the glass.
The chain had been repaired with a tiny piece of copper wire.
Her father had fixed it himself.
She took the watch with shaking fingers.
For a moment, she was nine years old again, sitting on Daniel Davis's lap while he showed her how to wind it.
Every watch has a heartbeat, sweetheart. You just have to listen.
She hadn't heard that voice in fifteen years.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Mrs. Higgins began crying.
“I was scared, Norah. When Gregory called me yesterday and asked whether you were feeding the boy, I started wondering whether I should have done something.”
Norah looked up.
“He called you?”
The older woman nodded.
“He said you'd been acting strange. He offered to help if Sam ever needed somewhere to stay.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
Gregory hadn't simply reported his niece.
He had been preparing a story about her for days.
Norah sat at the kitchen table with the watch.
It had stopped at 8:17.
She remembered her father coming home from work with grease on his fingers and a smile that made the whole apartment feel warm.
He'd never worn expensive jewelry.
But that watch went everywhere with him.
On Sundays, he let her hold it while they watched baseball.
After the funeral, her mother had put it away.
When Norah turned eighteen, she'd received it with a note.
Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough to understand how much he loved you.
Now Ethan examined it carefully.
“May I?”
Norah hesitated, then handed it over.
He noticed a thin line around the back casing.
“The cover's been opened before.”
“My mother had it repaired.”
“Do you know when?”
“A few months after the fire. But the repairman couldn't make it work.”
Ethan turned the watch under the kitchen light.
A tiny indentation appeared beside the hinge.
Using the edge of a thin card, he gently lifted the loosened inner cover.
Something lay beneath it.
A narrow strip of folded paper.
Norah caught her breath.
Ethan put the watch down.
“You should open it.”
Her fingers trembled as she unfolded the paper.
The handwriting was small.
But she knew it immediately.
Daniel Davis.
The message contained four lines.
B-17 was locked at 8:11.
The shipment was never stolen.
Look at the insurance records.
Gregory kept the key.
Norah read the last sentence again.
“My uncle?”
Ethan's face darkened.
“He was a night-shift supervisor that year.”
Norah looked at the photograph.
Her father had stood beside Gregory smiling.
Had Daniel known his own brother was responsible?
Or had he written the warning because he was afraid?
The next morning, Ethan confronted Leon Mercer at the Hayes Shipping headquarters.
Leon was reading a report when Ethan entered.
“Tell me about Warehouse B-17.”
Leon slowly closed the folder.
“That was fifteen years ago.”
“I remember.”
“Then you remember how dangerous that investigation became.”
Ethan placed a copy of the photograph on the desk.
“My father never told me the emergency exits were locked.”
Leon examined it.
“Your father didn't know everything.”
“Did you?”
For the first time, Leon's calm expression slipped.
“Be careful, Ethan.”
“That's an unusual thing to say to your employer.”
“I've worked for this family longer than you've been in charge of it.”
“And you think that gives you permission to threaten me?”
Leon leaned back.
“Your father understood that some mistakes are expensive to correct.”
Ethan studied him.
“What mistakes?”
“Ones involving men who have already lost everything.”
Leon pushed the photograph back across the desk.
“Let the dead rest.”
Ethan didn't move.
“No.”
That afternoon, Norah met Mara Ellis at the hotel.
Sam was playing on the carpet with a little red truck.
Mara explained that Gregory's report contained several claims she hadn't been able to verify.
She also confirmed that the agency had received information describing Norah as mentally unstable before the restaurant incident.
“He was setting me up,” Norah whispered.
“We're documenting the discrepancies. I still need to complete the assessment, but Sam is safe with you here.”
Norah finally allowed herself a small breath of relief.
Then Mara showed her something troubling.
Gregory had listed himself as a willing temporary caregiver for Sam.
Norah stared at the address.
L'Osteria's owner had offered to take her son into his home.
The same man who had withheld her wages.
The same man who had helped send her father to work on the night he died.
And according to Daniel's last message, the same man who had kept the key to a locked emergency exit.
Norah folded the paper carefully.
She knew where she had to go.
Gregory was closing his restaurant office when Norah entered.
Ethan stood behind her.
Gregory looked from one face to the other.
“What is this?”
Norah placed the broken pocket watch on his desk.
“Tell me about Door B-17.”
Gregory's face went white.
For several seconds, he couldn't speak.
Then he reached for the watch.
Ethan caught his wrist.
“Answer her.”
Gregory slowly sat down.
His eyes filled with something that looked frighteningly like grief.
“Daniel was supposed to leave before eight.”
Norah's voice barely worked.
“What did you do?”
Gregory covered his face.
May you like
Then he said the words that would change everything.
“I was the one who locked the door.”
