Their arrival gave Coach Adamson a shock. He glanced from one to the other, looking confused, and then hastily lowered his weapon.
May felt a massive surge of relief. Her heart dropped back down to its normal place in her chest.
Edwards quickly moved forward and removed the gun from Adamson's hand, while May got out the handcuffs. Never had she heard such a welcome sound as when they clamped shut around his wrists. That stand-off had been terrifying.
"Thank you," she said to her colleagues, her voice hoarse. She looked at the coach, who was staring at them with a bewildered expression.
"I didn't want it to happen," he said, staring at his hands. "It just happened," he repeated.
"You can lower your weapons now," Edwards said, to his two colleagues. Then turning back to Adamson, he continued. "That's all for now, sir. The deputy will take it from here. You come along with us."
"I guess I'm finished," he said, sounding completely lost.
May reached over and took the gun from the floor, keeping her eyes fixed on its owner.
"You really need to tell us everything you can. We need to make sense of it all."
She hoped that she would be able to get a full confession out of him. Because this man, under his former grinning, tanned facade, was nothing more than an evil monster.
As the police were escorting Coach Adamson downstairs, May's phone rang again.
It was Owen.
“I just got here,” he said. “Are you okay?”
He still sounded grumpy, but not as much like a stranger as he had.
“I’m okay. We’ve just arrested him,” she said.
She hoped that they might be able to uncover more evidence that would allow them to put this case to rest for good. Adamson had kept a gun in his office filing cabinet on school premises, which was a felony, but it was not related to strangling young women to death. There was still a lot that she needed to prove regarding these crimes.
Suddenly, May had an idea.
"Owen, I’m going to have a quick look around his office. And while we’re both here, let’s seize his keys and search his car. There could be evidence there. Trace evidence, or some other links that might help to tie him to the crimes."
May felt hopeful about the car.
Getting into Coach Adamson's mind, she thought that if she had been him, that was where she would have kept her secrets. Close by and easily accessible, suiting his obsessive, criminal nature.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
May began a thorough search of Coach Adamson's office, carefully opening each drawer in that big filing cabinet, and looking in his desk drawers. She was hopeful to find any shred of evidence.
But to her disappointment, the filing cabinet didn't hold a treasure trove of papers it was a depository for sporting equipment. Old footballs, shin guards, baseball caps, and a few lighter dumbbells. The gun must have been in there, which May thought was unusual, but there was nothing else noteworthy to be seen.
How about the desk?
Here, too, she was disappointed. Only a few pens and pencils, a blank notepad, an old calculator, and a few till slips for sporting items were there. There was no sign of any untoward communication with students, and not even so much as a wilted rose petal to link him with the bodies.
Sighing, May left the office, locking it behind her, and headed downstairs. She walked down the corridor, where knots of students were staring curiously at her.
The school environment felt unfamiliar to her. It had been a long time since she’d been in a school.
She had never been a rebellious student and had spent most of her time buried in her books, encouraged by her mother to do better than Kerry and better than Lauren.
"I want you to beat your sisters and get the best grades of all," Mrs. Moore had harangued her.
Of course, she'd told Kerry and Lauren exactly the same thing, with the result that the sisters were endlessly pitted against each other in a competitive environment by their perfectionist, ex-schoolteacher mother.