Corinne (Book One of The Red Diamond Saga)

by Jennifer Janne

  He spoke into the radio on his shoulder. “We're going to need forensics and a child abduction alert, now.” He commanded. When the other officers heard his words they joined him on the side of the house.

  “Did you even look?” Daniel asked the first officers who had arrived with a sharp tone. “Is it that difficult to do your job and check out the scene?” His fury was growing with every word he spoke. “You realize that you might have just killed this kid because you were lazy. It's been twenty minutes now. Every minute counts in a child abduction.” It took all of his will power to restrain from knocking the officers’ heads together. They could only stare down at the grass with fearful expressions.

  “Oh no!” The woman wailed as she walked up behind them and caught sight of what had drawn their attention. “Oh no, please no!” She wailed and collapsed on to the ground beside the pool of blood that had collected, the carmine contrasting the emerald green of the grass she so carefully tended.

  Daniel eased her up into his arms and half-led, half-carried her away from the crime scene. He did his best not to get emotionally involved in the crimes he investigated, but there was no way to shield yourself from the potential murder of a child.

  45

  By the time Daniel made it back to Corinne's apartment that night he was too exhausted to even remember her words from earlier. When he stepped into her room, she opened her arms to him the instant she saw the anguish in his expression. He crumpled into her embrace and she simply held him for a long time as he relished the warmth of her arms around him. She was his reward; no matter how difficult of a day he had, as long as he had Corinne to look forward to, nothing could defeat him.

  When he was finally able to speak, he shared what he could about the kidnapping. They had not found any evidence beyond the blood. They had no leads as to who had taken the boy and so far there had not been any ransom calls. To Daniel, as sad as it was to think, there was only one possibility. A stranger abduction. They never ended well. Kyle's age worked against him as well. It was unlikely anyone would abduct an eight year old, as children were more difficult to brainwash at that age. He feared that by the time he woke up in the morning, the boy’s body would have already been found.

  “I am sure he will be okay.” Corinne said firmly. She needed to say it to reassure herself. She did not want to imagine a beautiful little boy simply disappearing. It crossed her mind that perhaps her mother had felt that way. Had she felt as if her babies were stolen from her, even though she abandoned them? Daniel shook his head.

  He was not convinced. With a subtle kiss he left her to take a shower. Maybe he could wash off some of the anger and frustration that were building within him.

  Corinne lay back on the bed and stared aimlessly at the air before her. She did not even know her mother's real name. She guessed that Conner did. In fact he should know exactly who she was. This led her to the next question.

  What had happened to her mother after she had escaped with her babies and abandoned them? What must have happened to her to cause her to leave Aaron as she had on the side of the road? If she had gone to all the effort to save them, why hadn't she simply run with them rather than leaving them behind?

  Corinne groaned as each question led to another question. She buried her face in her pillow and tried to block out an endless stream of unknowns. As she began to drift off to sleep, she was abruptly startled by the face of a little boy with dark brown hair and chubby cheeks. He was weeping, soundlessly. He lifted his hands, his small fingers outstretched, and reached for Corinne.

  Corinne tried to reach out in return, but when her mind focused in on the boy, he suddenly disappeared. She tried to resurface from her sleep, but she could only drift deeper. She saw dark corridors. She could smell dirt. She was certain she was underground. In the distance she could hear men talking to each other. They were light in tone, but she could not understand their words. They were speaking a different language that she could not place.

  She began to follow one of the men when she saw him walk past. He did not notice her. He turned down another corridor and then climbed up a set of stairs that were built into the wall of the tunnel. Rung by rung he went higher, and she drifted up behind him. When he reached the top, he opened a hatch, and climbed out into the sunlight. He closed the hatch right on top of Corinne, but that did not slow her down. She drifted right through it.

  They were surrounded by woods. When she turned back to get an idea of what the building they came out of looked like, there was no building. In fact she could not even see the hatch the man had opened. It was as if there had never been anything there to begin with. The man lit a cigarette and began pacing back and forth as he smoked.

  Corinne watched him the entire time. He dropped his cigarette and squashed it with his dirty boot. Then he opened the hatch which was disguised by foliage and dead leaves and climbed back down the ladder. The hatch closed behind him. Corinne tried to drift back through but she could not. She tried opening the hatch but it would not budge. She was still yanking at it when she heard Daniel's voice.

  “Corinne, it's okay.” He said as she blinked a few times and slowly awakened. She found her hands were wrapped around the post of the bed and tugging as hard she could.

  “Kyle.” She breathed as her mind slipped from dream state to reality. Daniel's gaze sharpened as he studied her.

  “What about him?”

  Corinne glanced warily at Daniel. She did not want to confess the full extent of her abilities. She was afraid that if she did, he might rethink his desire to spend the rest of his life with her. She was happy to have Aaron and Lisa in her life again but she could not imagine being without Daniel.

  He had not bargained for all of this, and was already so patient with her. How could she throw another wrench into their relationship? Would he even believe her?

  All of the anger Daniel had felt over Corinne keeping things from him surged through him and then collapsed into pure hurt. He stood from the bed and ran his hands through his silky brown hair as he walked toward the door.

  “You once told me you trusted me.” He said as he paused by the bed room door. “I told you, you did not have to say it.” He turned back to face her, but did not take a step closer. “You said you meant it.” He grasped the knob on the door and turned it. “You let me know when you actually mean it.”

  He ignored Corinne's attempt to speak and thrust the door open. He closed it behind him with such force that the wall shook around it. Corinne had no words to offer that could explain why she could not simply tell him everything. She stared at the back of the door where he had once been standing and realized that whether she told him the truth or kept her secret, she was going to lose him.

  46

  Aaron had pretended to be asleep as Daniel stormed past him on the couch and out of the apartment. He sat up slowly and glanced toward Corinne's room. He did not understand her relationship with Daniel, or really any relationship. All he knew was that Daniel was very important to Corinne. When he knocked softly on the door, he could hear Corinne moving around in her room. She opened the door, fully dressed, her expression stoic.

  “We have work to do.” She declared and avoided Aaron's intrusive gaze. Lisa woke up on her couch and offered breakfast, but Corinne shook her head firmly.

  “Just grab something. A little boy needs our help, and I am sure he is not getting to eat breakfast today.”

  “What little boy?” Aaron asked as he began to pull on a loose t-shirt that Daniel had supplied him. Corinne knew it well. For a moment her resolve faltered as she wished she could simply run to Daniel, confess everything and make everything perfect again. She forced her mind to focus on Kyle instead. She shared the details of her dream with Aaron and Lisa as they finished getting ready for their day.

  “How do you think we can find him?” Lisa asked. “There are many different woods around here.”

  Corinne shrugged. “I say we start from the one closest to his house and work our way out fr
om there. It is likely that they did not travel far.”

  As they left the apartment Lisa grabbed Corinne's arm and looked up at her with genuine concern. “Corinne, what do you think will happen to Kyle if we cannot find him?”

  Corinne studied Lisa for a moment, but she could not bring herself to answer her. She had felt in the dream exactly what was going to happen to him, and what had happened to many other children before him.

  47

  Corinne parked a few blocks away from the house. She did not want to risk running into Daniel or another police officer. She held the image of the little boy in her mind and hoped that something else would surface that might lead her to where he was being held. All she could see was the woods. It was an underground bunker of some kind, that she was certain of.

  “Kyle.” She murmured into the air around her. “Kyle, please tell me where you are.” Lisa and Aaron were pouring over a map of the area and circling wooded spots that might be locations of the bunker. None of them noticed the woman approaching them, until her hands were on Corinne's shoulders, forcing her attention.

  “Why are you saying my son's name?” She demanded, her hands tightening their grasp on Corinne's shoulders. “Tell me now, why?! Do you have him?”

  When Corinne's eyes sprung open, not only was she being glared at by Kyle's mother, but behind her was Daniel in full uniform, his face pale with a mixture of fury and confusion.

  “Corinne what are you doing here?” He asked with authority.

  “I was just trying to help.” She said nervously as she tried to wriggle out of the woman's grasp. When Kyle's mother met her eyes directly, she was suddenly thrown into a different world. Here she was a little boy being pushed on the swing by a doting mother. She could feel how much she as Kyle, adored her.

  “I don't understand, how could you help?” Daniel questioned, but his voice drifted to her from a distance.

  “Where are you?” She muttered beneath her breath as her mind flipped through Kyle's memories. She suddenly saw an image of him in a Boy Scout uniform. He and several other boys were huddled around a small fire. There were tents around them. They were camping in the woods.

  She drew a sharp breath as her senses belonged to her once more. She reached up and grasped the woman's hands. Gently she drew them off of her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes.

  “Where did he go camping?” She asked desperately. “With the Boy Scouts, where did they go camping?”

  Daniel was silenced by the tone of Corinne's voice. He could tell that she was passionate about whatever it was she was doing. He did not understand it and he did not like that it involved the mother of his kidnapping victim, but he was willing to let it play out.

  “The state park.” She said with widened eyes, as she was surprised that Corinne would ask such a question. “It's about an hour from here.”

  Corinne swung her gaze toward Daniel as Aaron and Lisa found the park on their map. “He's there!” She said with certainty. “Kyle's in the state park.”

  His mother gasped as she heard Corinne's words. She was running back to her house when Daniel stepped in front of Corinne and scrutinized her.

  “What are you talking about Corinne? Do you realize you are interfering in a police investigation?”

  Corinne nodded shakily. She licked her lips and tentatively reached out to touch his folded arms.

  “Daniel, I can't explain everything now. If you ever trusted me at all, trust me about this.”

  Daniel was swayed by her touch. He was swayed by her presence, by her scent. He was intoxicated by Corinne without her having to manipulate his energy or control him in any way.

  “You are going to explain all of it to me.” He said without leaving room for any doubt. He ran after the woman, and left Corinne, Aaron and Lisa behind.

  “We have to get there first.” Aaron said firmly. “If the police block off the park, we won't be able to find Kyle.”

  Corinne nodded, though she was still shuddering from her encounter with Kyle's mother. She knew if she did not get to Kyle in time, all of the love she had felt between the two of them, love that she had never been given the chance to experience herself would transform into torturous grief. She could not let that happen.

  She drove as fast as she could, led by Lisa's calm navigation that found them back roads to avoid the traffic. It took Daniel some convincing to get the lead investigator to agree to search the state park. If it were not for the pressure of Kyle's mother it probably would not have happened. When she told the lead investigator about Corinne's prediction, the older man rolled his eyes with impatience. He knew that the crazies would come out some time.

  “So you want us to waste our time on some psychic's vision?” He asked both of them with a shake of his head. Daniel had not thought of it that way before. Was that what Corinne was hiding from him? She had dreamed about Kyle and then come up with a location where he might be being held. When that notion clicked, he recalled her description of the powers that Conner and Aaron had displayed when she was being held captive by them.

  He recalled how he had ended up sitting in his car when his intention had been to stay by Corinne's side. To this day he could not figure out how that had happened. When the investigator finally agreed to shift some of their resources to the park, Daniel was too lost in his own thoughts to even be relieved. Was it possible that Corinne and her family really did posses some kind of supernatural powers?

  48

  Corinne pulled her car into a parking space at the state park and immediately closed her eyes. She held an image of Kyle in her mind. Lisa quietly pointed out that the state park was huge, and it would be impossible to walk the entire length of the woods. Aaron shushed her, and let Corinne concentrate on trying to pick up Kyle's location.

  Instead, she was overwhelmed by a horrible sensation. She felt sickened by a sense of cold detachment. Images of children fluttered through her mind, but they were not like children to her. They were like cattle, there to make her a profit. Her stomach lurched as she felt a rush of greed run through her. She no longer cared what happened to Kyle as long as he brought a good price.

  It made her skin crawl to feel such a way, and yet it seemed natural at the same time. She was certain that those who were holding Kyle were hardened criminals. They would not think twice about harming him if they needed to.

  “We have to find him fast.” She said as she began to move toward the emanation of dark emotion. Lisa and Aaron followed close behind her. They did not find Corinne's abilities strange. They had grown up with their own, and it had been normal for them. Aaron could not understand why Corinne would not just tell Daniel the truth, to him; it seemed the same as telling someone he had a talent for art or music.

  It was a part of their natural makeup to have intuition, to be able to compel their bodies to serve as a tool for them, rather than a limitation. However, he was beginning to learn that in Corinne's world, people did not consider their instincts an asset. They did not trust themselves and often relied on the acceptance and approval of others to validate their choices. It was very strange to him, but no matter the confusion it caused him, it was worth it, to be free.

  Corinne moved through the woods without hesitation. She did not hear the sirens as police cars approached. They brought dogs with them to search the woods, but Corinne was already following her own version of a scent.

  The deeper she moved into the woods the more intense the sensation of possession she felt. The men that were holding Kyle owned him. She searched for Kyle, but she could not feel him through the cloud of darkness that grew thicker the further she went.

  Lisa was analyzing their location in her mind as she considered the potential best locations for a bunker. Aaron was distracted by the beauty of the woods. He had spent a lot of time in nature since being set free, and he still savored every aspect of it.

  Corinne stopped in the middle of a small clearing. There was nothing special about the place. In the distance they could hea
r officers shouting and dogs barking on and off.

  “This is it.” Corinne said firmly as she finally felt Kyle's emotions wash over her. He was so frightened and desperate that she wished she could shut off the sensations. Her own heart raced as fast as Kyle's was beating. Her body shivered with fear, and also with the cold temperature of where he was being held.

  She could smell the scent of dirt again, and taste blood in her mouth. They had already hurt him. It crossed Corinne's mind that perhaps she was feeling Kyle's emotions, but that did not mean that he was still alive. She forced the thought of her mind and glanced around the clearing. She could not see any disturbed ground. There was no sign of a hatch anywhere. Aaron and Lisa started from separate sides of the clearing and moved in slowly, searching the ground as they went.

  Corinne tried to let herself be led. Unfortunately her skills were based on emotion, not on pure knowledge. She knew that she was standing right over the bunker, but had no idea how to narrow down the location of the hatch. Until a scent wafted through her memory. The scent launched her into the emotions of one of the criminals. It was his release. It helped him to relax.

  “A cigarette.” She whispered. She recalled the man from her dream. She watched him crush a cigarette butt beneath his dirty boot. Corinne dropped down to her knees and began searching the ground inch by inch.

  “Look for cigarettes!” She called to Aaron and Lisa who immediately dropped to the ground also. In the distance the officers were drawing closer. If they arrived before they found the hatch, they would force Corinne, Aaron, and Lisa to leave.