May felt a rush of disappointment.
"Really? Are you sure?" she asked forlornly.
She'd been certain that she'd been correct. And if Kerry said he was legit, that really didn't bode well. Where had they managed to miss the information, she wondered, feeling small all over again.
Then Kerry let out a splutter of laughter.
"I'm kidding you, sis. You were absolutely right. In fact, I'm super impressed that you looked back so far. I carried on the research on my side, and I must say, he was hard to find."
"He was?" May asked, feeling a surprising head rush at her sister's praise.
"I ended up using facial recognition software from the pics you sent, combined with a few other classified tools and programs we have available. And eventually I worked out who he was."
"Who was he?"
"Your Coach Adamson used to be known as Walter Deeney. That's his birth name. He lived in Minneapolis most of his life and he taught P.E. But then, he got arrested and he ended up doing six months' jail time."
"What was the arrest for?" May's heart was beating faster now, and not just because of the double strength coffee.
"For statutory rape. Which means, of course, he had an affair with an underage girl. I'm guessing he couldn't keep his hands off his students."
"What?" Now May practically choked on her brew.
"He obviously decided to make a fresh start and take on a new name. And he must have guessed that at a small country school they wouldn't do the correct reference checks. Which I guess they didn't, at any rate, not at the first one where I see he worked before moving to the high school four years ago. Clearly, people didn’t bother, and it never got picked up."
Kerry sounded annoyed by small town people who didn't do their job properly.
"So he changed his name and basically started again," May said, feeling stunned.
"Yep. And this time, his new name has no record of sexual misconduct associated with it."
May took a deep breath. She felt almost a bit dizzy.
"Thank you so much, Kerry, you're a superstar. This is such important news. I feel this is going to take us a lot further on the case."
"You're welcome, sis. I'm glad I could help."
It was all too much for her to take in at once. But May was feeling excited that she had been correct, and that they now had an extremely strong new suspect.
"Right, I have to go and jump in the shower. We're about to board the copter. You be careful out there."
"Thanks, Kerry, I appreciate all your help."
"Catch him, May. Go get him. I'll be thinking of you this morning."
"I owe you big time."
"You owe me nothing,” Kerry said kindly. “Except a few wedding venue visits, of course, once Mom's done the first pass of venue research. And also most likely, some help with the flowers, and some of the work on getting the catering organized. And there are a few pre- and post-wedding events that I have in mind where I'll definitely need your organizational expertise with invites, timing, menus and so on."
"No problem," May said, realizing that she was completely over a barrel on this one and could absolutely not argue back.
"Apart from that, you owe me nothing. We're family, right? We look out for each other."
"We do," May said, feeling strangely touched, even though the list of responsibilities Kerry had in mind for her was extremely concerning and seemed to be lengthening by the moment.
"Good luck."
Kerry cut the call.