Corinne (Book One of The Red Diamond Saga) (4 page)

Corinne had taken some time away from her classes to recover from the assault and to process Sam's betrayal. She was able to have some free time, only working part time to support herself. She thought she might take up painting as a way to soothe her mind, but instead she found herself staying up late each night searching the Internet for any hints of her past.

Each time she thought she found a crumb it led to another dead end. The only thing the search offered her was more frustration.

One late afternoon she was at Daniel’s house hunting the Internet for information as she heard a soft sound from behind her.

She glanced up to see Daniel peering over her shoulder at the screen. He frowned as he noticed the subject of the search.

“You know if this is something that you really want to find out, I might be able to help you.” He pulled up a chair beside the computer and sat down beside her without being invited.

Corinne studied him for a moment as she had never considered asking for his help. “How?”

He smiled faintly. “I am a cop you know, I do have connections.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay, if you really don't mind.”

Daniel sighed as he stared deeply into her eyes. No matter how he tried to convince her she never believed that he cared about her as much as he said he did.

“I would do anything in my power to help you Corinne.” He murmured as he reached up and brushed a tendril of her blonde hair back behind her ear.

“Please, trust me.”

Corinne lowered her gaze as she heard those familiar words. Her trust was the only thing he ever requested of her, and it was the one thing she could not give.

The next morning as they were eating breakfast, Daniel left the house with a promise to keep her apprised of any information he was able to find. Corinne chose an outfit from the clothes she kept at Daniel's house and dressed for the day. She had to work for about five hours at the local courthouse. She was doing some court reporting while she studied to become a judge. It gave her the chance to get inside of the courtroom occasionally and rub elbows with those who were more seasoned in their profession.

On the drive to the courthouse her mind was still occupied with the possibility of discovering who she truly was. Perhaps she had a whole history that she would be able to claim. It had never really crossed her mind before that her life could stretch beyond her own skin.

She was about to pull into the parking lot of the courthouse when another car cut her off. It forced her to turn down a small side road to keep from striking it. With a gasp, she slammed on her brakes, and just avoided striking another car that was parked in the middle of the road. She slammed on the horn and started to back up, when the first car turned around and pulled up behind her, blocking her in. She started to become frightened as she realized this was more than poor driving. She was certain that these cars had pinned her in for a reason.

Quickly she jumped out of her car, hoping to make it to one of the houses on the street. Before she could do so, a large man stepped out of one of the cars. He towered much taller than her, and his frame was thick with what she suspected was the augmentation of steroids. She turned away from him in time to find a second man emerging from the second car, armed with a pistol small enough to be disguised by his hand, but still lethal enough to kill her were she to try to run.

As she stared at the man with the weapon, her face was growing paler by the moment. Her heart was slamming against her chest, and she did not even notice the first man stepping up behind her. The smell of whatever the rag was soaked in was sickly sweet. That was the last thing she remembered as it covered her mouth and nose, and instantly knocked her out.

Her body collapsed into the arms of the larger man who eased her into the backseat of his car. A third man climbed out of the second car and hopped into Corinne's. Then all three cars drove away.

When Daniel arrived at work he was a man on a mission. He wanted to be able to find out everything he could for Corinne. She deserved to at least know who her parents were, even if she might never know why they had abandoned her. He was between cases at the moment, so he had nothing to distract him from his purpose. He started first with the abandoned infant reports during the time when Corinne was abandoned.

There were three infants abandoned on the same day. One was Corinne, left at a local hospital. Another was found in the back of a car that had simply been left for scrap. The third was rather strange, as the infant was found right out in the open on the side of one of the major highways that ran through the small town.

Corinne was a few days old when she was found, as was the baby boy who was found on the side of the road. He was brought to the same hospital she was, but information about him ended there. Perhaps he had been claimed by a family member, or perhaps his death record was simply not accessible.

Daniel was able to access Corinne's hospital records and discover her blood type and that she had no outstanding health issues. The nurse's notes were that the child appeared to be healthy and well cared for until being abandoned. There were no birth injuries and no evidence of malnourishment. She did not have any drugs in her system and there were no visible signs of abuse.

All of the information, though expected from most newborns, was not normal for a baby who was abandoned. Usually if an infant was left at a hospital there would be a story that could be told just from its physical state. In Corinne's case, there was only a blanket, and unsoiled clothing.

Next Daniel found what he could from her state records. There was not too much information he could access other than the fact that Corinne had been declared a ward of the state. The thing that bothered Daniel was that a perfectly healthy newborn baby girl, very desirable on the adoption market, was not offered for adoption.

The only explanation for this was a notation in her file that stated she did not qualify to be adopted. There was no explanation as to why she did not qualify, but there was a name listed as the doctor who had made the assessment. He was not a doctor that worked in the local hospital, but a private physician. This also was odd, as someone would have had to pay him for his services, as opposed to the government providing the medical assessment.

Daniel grew more suspicious when he did a records search on the doctor himself, Dr. Graham Harn. His medical license had been revoked due to fraud and medical malpractice. Daniel scribbled down his last known address, and decided to pay the doctor an official visit.

When Corinne began to awaken from whatever drug was used to subdue her, her head was aching with pain. She could not bring herself to open her eyes, as just the faint light that filtered through her eyelashes was causing her mind to spin and the pain to surge. It took her a few moments to realize what had happened, but when she felt the rope biting into her wrists, she knew for certain that she had been abducted. What she could not figure out was why.

She did not feel any other pain, so she assumed she had not been otherwise harmed. Her hands were bound behind her back, and she was lying on a cold concrete floor. Her feet were bound also, but rather than with rope, they were shackled.

Hesitantly she opened her eyes. The moment the dim light in the room struck her eyes, she winced in pain. Still she forced them to open all the way so that she could take in the sight of the room. It was a small space, perhaps a room, perhaps a garage. Its walls were bare and white. The only light in the room came from a small lamp in the corner that was set atop the only piece of furniture that she could see, a squat wooden table.

There were no windows. The only door was steel, and it appeared to have no knob on the inside. She noticed an electronic keypad on one side of the door. Everything about her environment was strange. She struggled to sit up without losing her balance, as she was still very dizzy. It struck her that she had no real idea of how long she had been unconscious.

She blinked her eyes a few time as they burned with tears. She was terrified of what was going to happen to her next. She had been through enough in her life to know that people could do some very terrible things to each other, things much worse than death.

When she heard the sound of someone on the other side of the door she drew a sharp breath and held it. The keypad on the inside of the door lit up as the door slid into the wall rather than opening in either direction. She was startled by that, and more so by the person who entered the room dressed in medical scrubs. A woman in her mid-forties with her dark hair tied back in a severe pony tail and her emotionless expression arranged in a stern manner settled her gaze upon Corinne.

She did not speak as she appeared to assess Corinne from where she stood. Then she slowly approached her and withdrew something that appeared to be a pen.

Corinne shoved back against the floor to try to wriggle away from the woman, but the chain she was shackled to, that was in torn bolted to the floor, did not allow her to get very far.

The woman rolled her eyes as she sighed. “Settle down. I just need to check your vitals.” She seized Corinne's bound wrists and checked her pulse, which was racing.

Then she held up the pen, which was actually a tiny flashlight, and shone it into one of her dark green eyes. Corinne shied back from the light as it caused a burst of pain to flood her head.

“It's okay,” The woman reassured her though there was no warmth in her tone. “The pain will ease up in about a half hour.” She shone the light into her other eye and frowned. “You really have to try to calm down, or we will have to sedate you.” She spoke as if she were explaining something to a small child. “As long as you don't try anything funny, you will not be harmed.”

Corinne laughed at that as her eyes fell shut against the searing pain that still haunted her. “Just bound and shackled, but not harmed.”

The woman smirked as she stood and walked over to the keypad. She punched a few numbers and then placed her thumb against a small open area on the keypad. It beeped, and the door slid into the wall again. She glanced back over her shoulder at Corinne and shook her head lightly.

“You're the one who wanted to know.”

With a growl of frustration Daniel tossed his cell phone on to the seat beside him as he pulled his car to a stop in front of the address he had written down. He had been trying to reach Corinne for the past half hour with no response, not even a text. He knew she was working today, but he expected that she would be eager to know what he had found so far.

Daniel glanced out the window at the house he was parked in front of. The grass in the front yard was unruly and the home itself looked as if it were slowly rotting away. He doubted that anyone lived there, but he decided to take a look. Maybe there would be personal possessions left behind that would give him some idea as to where the good doctor might have moved.

When he stepped on to the wood of the porch, it groaned beneath his feet, and he worried that it might fall through. He reached for the knob on the door, and when he turned it, he found that it was locked. He knocked lightly, not really expecting anyone to answer.

An instant later the door was thrust open, and rather than a person, Daniel was face to barrel with a very large rifle.

The man holding the rifle was wearing a sweat stained under shirt and a pair of suspenders that held up threadbare pants.

“Dr. Harn?” Daniel asked in a shaky tone as he slowly raised his hands into the air.

“Doctor?” The old man laughed at his words. “No one's called me that in a long time, boy.” He waved the gun in Daniel's face. “Go on, get out of here.”

Daniel shook his head, but kept his tone mild. He did not want to give the man any excuse to pull the trigger.

“I am not here to cause any trouble sir; I was just hoping you might answer a few questions for me.”

The man eyed Daniel suspiciously, his bushy white eyebrows nearly obscuring the small gray orbs beneath. “A reporter, eh?” He asked in a voice that was plagued with the sound of tobacco.

“No sir.” Daniel said carefully. He gestured to the pocket of his shirt. “I am a police officer, if you'll lower your gun, I can show you my badge.”

The man's brows lifted in shock and his ruddy cheeks grew pale. “Oh now I've done it.” He muttered as he quickly lowered his gun. “Are you here to arrest me?” He asked meekly.

“No sir.” Daniel repeated as he withdrew his badge and displayed it for the man, who reached down around his neck for a pair of reading glasses, which he promptly set on the bridge of his nose. “I am only here to find out some information.”

The man looked past him suspiciously, and then stepped aside to allow Daniel inside. “Alright then.”

When Daniel stepped inside he was overwhelmed by a cloud of dust and smoke. He covered his mouth to keep from coughing as the man waddled toward on oversized stuffed chair that was flanked by a large ash tray and a bottle of beer.

“Mind if I smoke?” He asked as he lit a cigarette and slumped down in the chair. He laid his rifle beside the chair.

Daniel shook his head as he knew the man would smoke whether he minded or not.

“You may not remember this, but you declared an infant as not qualifying for adoption, and gave no explanation as to why.”

The doctor laughed and coughed at the same time. “I did a lot of stupid things boy, I was greedy. I thought money would make me happy.” He smiled sadly at that.

“This would have been twenty-two years ago. It was a baby girl that was abandoned at the local hospital.”

The doctor sat forward a little.

“Oh, that one.” he muttered as he lowered his gaze to the floor. Daniel could tell that he was trouble by the memory. “Yeah, they paid me a lot for that one.”

“Who?” Daniel asked as he stepped closer to the man.

Dr. Harn took a long drag on his cigarette and coughed again. “Don't know exactly. This man showed up at my practice, and he said he would pay me ten thousand dollars just to evaluate her and declare her unfit for adoption.” He shrugged. “That was too much money to turn down. Besides, it was not like I did anything to hurt her.”

Daniel thought of the nightmares that often kept Corinne up at night and thought she might have a different opinion. Perhaps if she had the chance to live a life with a real family, she could have avoided all of that trauma.

“Tell me about the man.” Daniel persisted. “Did he write you a check, or give you a reason why?”

The old man shook his head. “No it was cash.” He thought a moment. “He said that he had plans for her.” He shook his head faintly. “I thought that was odd, but again, it was a lot of money.”

Daniel frowned as he stood beside the man. “Please, anything you can remember would be helpful.”

Dr. Harn sat back in his chair and rubbed his grizzled chin as he thought hard about a past he had done his best to forget.

“There was one other thing.” He tapped the table beside him lightly, knocking some of the ash piled in the ashtray up into a small cloud. “When I examined the baby she had a birthmark,”

“On her right hip.” Daniel supplied. He knew it well. It was the shape of a diamond and the color of a strawberry.

“Yes.” The doctor nodded. “And this man, he had the same mark, on the back of his hand.” He tapped his hand where he had seen the mark. “Only his looked more like a tattoo.”

Daniel furrowed his brows, his eyes shining with curiosity. Was it possible that the man had been Corinne's father? Was this somehow gang related because of the tattoo?

“You never knew his name?” He asked desperately.

“Conner!” The old man suddenly said. “His name was Conner, I remember now, because the baby girl, her name was Corinne. Almost the same letters, you know.” He shrugged and waved his hand. “That's all I know. I can't help you anymore.”

Daniel was disappointed but he nodded. As he started to turn away the man was lost in a coughing fit. Daniel hesitated, and reached into his wallet. He dropped a twenty beside the man's ashtray and then left the house. As soon as he returned to his car he tried Corinne's phone number again. Still, there was no answer.