King Me

Twenty-One

"It all comes down to knowing how to not be found," he said, running the soft cloth over the blade of his knife, "and our father was a master who happened to teach me what he knew. Trust me, no one will find me—or you if you stick with me—unless I want them to."

Standing in line at the grocery store, Adrienne replayed the last words her brother had said to her in person before she hopped across the country for college. At the time she had considered it to be a load of nonsense. After all, Raymond had started to talk about random things in the days leading up to her departure. Honestly, she'd been concerned enough by such a minor thing that she'd almost changed her mind about going. Things would be very different now if only she had.

She remembered now, that she had tried to say a proper goodbye to him. She had even attempted to hug him but all the while he sat there polishing and re-polishing the knives one by one and talking about how he would be just fine. Somehow, this lead into the fact that all he needed was an advanced ability to hide from anyone. She recalled wondering, and almost asking, what he felt he needed to hide from but as she didn't know what to say, she had bid him a last farewell and left the house.

Several months ago, she had sat in Marshall's car being dramatic about the woes of her search for Raymond. It probably wasn't all true, what she had said. She didn't have nothing to go off of and she could have kept searching at least for a little while but something had been urging her to stop. It wasn't until later that these words of her brother's had come back to her and she realized that maybe this was the reason she was opposed to continuing the search with nothing concrete to lead her. Raymond said some crazy things, but this one she believed. Still, as time went on she wondered every day if she had made the right decision to stall her search. She wondered if she had made the wrong decision yet again.

At least she had made sure the detective wouldn't be on his trail. She knew in her heart that if the cops caught up to Raymond he would profess to killing their father in cold blood and be headed straight for prison—never mind the fact that he would be lying through his teeth. Besides, even if he went with the true version of events he might have to face consequences for having lied during the first investigation.

"That'll be $23.50," the cashier chirped, breaking Adrienne's train of thought. She was pretty and polite, not showing the slightest irritation that her customer had been temporarily on another planet. Adrienne glanced at the nameplate out of habit. The woman's name was Jenna.

"Alright," Adrienne said, fishing around in her wallet for the correct amount.

"Hey..." the cashier said slowly as she took the money."Do I know you?"

"I don't think so," Adrienne said. Actually, she knew for a fact that—as common as the name was—she had never met a Jenna in her life.

"Oh, you just look familiar," the cashier apologized. "Wait—do you have a brother?"

"I'm sorry?"

"A brother. Do you have one? Because you look a lot like this guy I knew. You could almost be twins. But nah, that can't be right, Raymond never mentioned any siblings."

"Did you say Raymond?" Adrienne repeated, handing over the cash. "Raymond King?"

"Oh, you do know him," the cashier said, surprised. "How are you related?"

"I'm his sister," she said. "Although evidently he never spoke of me."

"Sorry to say he didn't." The cashier shook her head as she handed over the receipt. "But he didn't talk about his personal life much at all to be honest. Closed book, you know? I guess that comes natural for a guy like him doing what he does."