Sex. Murder. Mystery(144)

When Mary Claire was invited to a slumber party with assorted cousins at Grandmother Nadine's in Puyallup, Mary Kay said she was so swamped she wasn't certain she would have time to get her there. She was running here and there, one appointment after the next. Classes to attend. Shopping to take care of. To make matters even more difficult, the day Nadine wanted Mary Claire down in Puyallup was the same day mother and daughter were planning on heading up to Anchorage to join the rest of her children and her husband who were already up there visiting. Mary Kay altered her plans, and made arrangements to go as far as Auburn to meet one of Steve's aunts in a kind of relay race. The aunt agreed to take the little girl down to Nadine's for the slumber party.

When she arrived in Auburn, she not only had Mary Claire with her, but she also had Vili Fualaau along for the ride. She said she was going to fly up to Anchorage that afternoon, on a 4 P.M. flight. The women picking up Mary Claire thought it was strange that Mary Kay had the Samoan boy with her, and mentioned it to Nadine.

“Why did she have that boy with her?” Nadine wondered.

Sharon Hume called her mother the next day. Mary Kay hadn't made the 4 P.M. flight after all, she arrived five hours later than planned. But there was more. She was troubled by something else.

“Mother, she brought this kid, Vili, with her. This kid that she's supposedly teaching art and everything to.”

“What?” Nadine asked. “She had him with her when she dropped off Mary Claire, but she didn't say anything about bringing him to Alaska.”

Sharon, who was audibly upset, told her mother that something else was curious. When they arrived at the Letourneaus' Anchorage restaurant, Mary Kay asked Dick Letourneau for the keys to his new truck. She said she “wanted to show Vili the stars. They were gone for hours.”

What was going on? Mary Kay had left her kids, tired and cranky, at the restaurant for hours? What was she thinking? What was she doing? And all the while when they were in Alaska, Mary kept singing Vili's praises to Steve's family.

Nadine later recalled how her daughter Sharon felt about the thirteen-year-old.

“They didn't like Vili. They thought he was illiterate. Also she [Mary] kept saying, 'Isn't he wonderful? Isn't he something else?' Sharon thought, 'What is there about this kid that I'm supposed to think is so wonderful?' ”

Later, Nadine couldn't shake off the idea that so much had been going on right under Steve's nose. Right under everyone's noses. In Normandy Park, and in Alaska, too.

“She sat up til four A.M. holding his hand on the davenport downstairs. Steven was in the bedroom. It blows your mind. It was like Steven was hypnotized,” she said.

Other incidents raised an eyebrow or two among Steve's family. One family member was puzzled by Mary Kay's behavior at the last family gathering she attended. It was a wedding reception. She never once spoke to any adults. She was always hovering around the kids' table, conversing and playing with them as though they were her peer group. It was very peculiar and not like Mary Kay at all. Sure, she was attentive to her children, but she liked to be noticed and praised for her lovely outfits by the adults, too.

That night she was a child, too.

When Mary Kay and Vili returned to Seattle they brought with them some art photographs of a pair of puffins nuzzling each other.

“They mate for life, you know,” Mary Kay told a friend.

If Mary Kay Letourneau lived for the telephone and its link to the world outside her Normandy Park home, one of her favorite people to converse with was Michelle Jarvis. That had been true when they were teenagers and had continued into adulthood. A four-hour marathon was nothing out of the ordinary; and both women had phone bills to prove it. One particular phone call in late September 1996, however, had been on Michelle's dime. The childhood friend and mother of three hadn't heard from Mary Kay for a while, and assumed that her long distance service had been discontinued for lack of payment—a common occurrence.

They got on the phone at ten and didn't hang up until after 2 A.M.—on a day both had to work. Mary never needed as much sleep, but Michelle could always feel the residual drag the next day after an all-nighter with Mary Kay. Much of their conversation that night centered around Vili Fualaau, whom Mary Kay considered a particularly gifted student. She said she had realized his potential when she taught him in second grade and the ensuing years only verified his artistic ability. Mary Kay said she wanted to help develop his talent. They discussed everything from showing the boy's artwork in a gallery exhibition for students to finding a mentor among the local artists who lived in the area.

This is great, Michelle thought at the time. She's got this child that she recognizes this incredible talent in. What an awesome person she is for caring so much…