Sex. Murder. Mystery(100)

“Get out of the van, please,” Tschida said.

Niebush went around the van to open the driver's door and called to the boy in the back. But there was no answer. The light filled the interior and the officer could see that seats were folded down as if to form a kind of bed. The boy laid motionless, feigning sleep.

“What is going on here?” the officer asked.

The blond woman offered no answer. It was as if she didn't hear his words. After some prodding, she gave her name as Mary Letourneau. She was a schoolteacher from Shorewood Elementary in the Highline School District. There was no problem; there was no reason to interrogate her.

“Why were you in the back of the van with the boy?” Sergeant Collins asked.

Mary Kay said she was watching Vili overnight because his mother worked a late shift. She told the officers that she and her husband, Steve, had had an altercation less than an hour before and she and the boy left.

“I decided to teach him a lesson,” she said, “and not return until after he went to work in the morning.”

She explained that Steve left at 3:30 A.M. for a job handling baggage for Alaska Airlines.

“We're just trying to get some sleep before returning home after my husband leaves for work,” she said.

Sergeant Collins radioed for the Normandy Park Police to check the Letourneau residence to see if Steve Letourneau would be able to back up his wife's story. A bit later, Des Moines radioed back that no one answered the front door.

Next, the sergeant asked Mary Kay what she was wearing. His flashlight washed over her to reveal a layering of four T-shirts and a beige skirt. She had on a thin jacket, no socks, and sandals. (Later officers would differ on what the woman had on that night. Niebush thought she was only wearing a T-shirt. “I did not notice a skirt,” he wrote later in his report.)

Sergeant Collins told Mary Kay that they were taking Vili into protective custody.

“You're blowing this out of proportion,” she protested. She was a teacher, a friend of the family's. There was nothing improper going on in the back of the van. She told them she taught at Shorewood Elementary. She said she was thirty-two.

The officer didn't seem too concerned, telling her that her story made sense, but there was an appearance of impropriety. The woman was wearing a nightie or a T-shirt and, as far as Shields and the officers could see, nothing else.

What's she doing dressed like that coming down here? Shields wondered.

By then Dave Shields had moved closer to the van. Whatever was happening was not dangerous and, without a doubt, far more interesting than lingering back by the condos. The woman was very pretty. Even years later, Shields said he remembered thinking, “Boy, she's got great legs.”

It was Tschida who spoke to the marina security guard. The cop's dark eyes appeared mystified.

“This kid's like only twelve or thirteen years old,” he said, his voice trailing off. “And I think he was putting his clothes back on.”

Shields shook his head. “Oh, shit,” he said. Maybe they were having sex?

Niebush radioed for more help. Another sergeant arrived a few minutes later. Something was wrong.

“She wasn't really scared, but she seemed just a little nervous,” Shields said later.

The officers pressed for answers and grew more concerned the more evasive Mary Kay became. He wondered if she was being held captive by the boy or perhaps he was being held against his will.

“Who is back there?”

Mary Kay didn't answer.

“What's his name?”

Again, no answer. Finally she said it was Vili Fualaau, a student of hers.

“How old is the boy?” Tschida asked.

Mary Kay hesitated for a moment before answering, “Eighteen.”

The officer told her to wake him, but when she refused, he yelled at the boy to wake up. He wanted to talk with him, but the figure didn't stir.

What gives here?

The Des Moines officer called out again. He'd seen his share of fakers and it was clear the kid was awake. His dark eyes were open, though his head lay motionless. Finally, after another admonition, he lifted his head and climbed out from under the sleeping bag. A few moments later, Vili Fualaau told the officer that he was fourteen years old, but when asked for proof, he came up short. Of course, he had no driver's license and no Washington State ID card. He was only a kid.

Vili said he had been staying at the Letourneau house that night when a fight between Mary Kay and her husband Steve made him upset. He left the house and walked down the hill to the QFC store on Marine View Drive. It wasn't far from the Letourneau home in neighboring Normandy Park, which was on a ridge just above the shopping center. Mary Kay picked him up in the van and they drove to the marina for sleep.