“He knew what would happen,” Linda said later. “They all knew.”
Stacey explained that her brother had seen an attorney.
“They got a lawyer. They were trying to get him a quick divorce, but it cost too much for Steve to do it, so he backed out.”
She also disclosed that the boy was Hispanic or Asian—family members had met him when Mary Kay brought him to Alaska that summer.
Linda could barely take it. She spoke up and told Stacey that Mary Kay had to be stopped.
“Stacey, I'm going to give your dad one week to do it. If he doesn't do it, I'm going to turn her in.”
Stacey understood. She had been tortured over the whole thing, too. Mary Kay was a sick woman. Stacey hated what she did, but her hands were tied.
Kyle and Linda got into their hot tub and talked about what had happened. The shock of it all. What could be done? Several hours and glasses of wine passed. Linda didn't think she could wait for Dick Letourneau to do the right thing. He had known about it for months and hadn't taken care of it. Why would he do it now?
“Kyle, I have to turn her in,” she said finally.
Her husband understood, but he was reticent about getting too involved. Not because he approved of what Mary Kay had done, but because his family had made it so clear that loyalty demanded silence.
“If you do it” he said finally, “just don't tell me.”
Linda Gardner couldn't keep it inside. After a sleepless night she phoned her brother and told him what they had learned about Mary Kay.
“Linda,” her brother said, “if you don't tell, I'm going to. She has to be turned in.”
“I waited,” she said later. “I stayed awake all night sick to my stomach. I knew what I had to do.”
Linda Gardner kept her promise to her husband. She didn't tell Kyle Gardner the morning of February 25, 1997, that she was going to report Mary Kay to the authorities after their grade-school-aged daughter was out the door. She was scared. She felt sorry for Steve and the Letourneau children. She knew Mary Kay would lose her job and that prison was a possibility. She had separated Mary Kay the wife and mother from Mary Kay the woman who was having sex with a boy.
She's going to keep doing it, she reminded herself in an effort to bolster her resolve. She's got to be stopped.
She checked on her toddler son before working up the nerve to pick up the phone. The image of her sweet little boy was all the courage she needed. Linda Gardner never wanted anyone to harm a child. She was a mother, too. She couldn't understand how anyone could take a child's innocence, as she believed Mary Kay had.
She dialed the number for Child Protective Services, gave her name and phone number, and told her story.
“You're going to have to call the school district,” the woman said. “You have to talk to them because she's a teacher.”
Linda was flabbergasted and she hung up.
Hello? she thought. I just told you that a teacher is having sex with one of her students and you want me to call the school district?
She didn't think she could do it again, but knew she had no choice.
She called Highline School District offices in Burien. A secretary answered.
“I need to talk to somebody,” Linda said. “The superintendent. I need to talk to somebody high up. This is not a minor thing.”
When the secretary pressed her for the urgency of the call, Linda told her.
“This is regarding a teacher that has been having sex with one of her students.”
“I'll take your name and phone number,” the secretary said. “Someone will call you back.”
A little while later, Dick Cvitanich, area administrator for the district, phoned Linda and calmly listened as she nervously spat out her story. She wasn't certain of all of the facts and said so. She wasn't even sure of the kid's identity, or even the name of the school where Mary Kay taught. But the man didn't ask many questions. He was strangely brief considering the subject.
“I'll check it out,” he said.
And that was it.
This is weird, Secret Squirrel thought.
BOOK III
Rapist
Having fun with me was risky. One time you got hurt. Sometimes you were just yelled at or questioned. Then Steve found out and you gave up on us.
—Mary Kay Letourneau, in a note to Vili Fualaau, fall 1996
Call me as soon as it's safe. I know for sure you don't want me calling you at the wrong time. So you call. You are allowed to. He said you can. Anyway he's going back to work so he goes to sleep at 9:00.
—Mary Kay Letourneau, in another note to Vili Fualaau, fall 1996
I think what I've done is horrible and I wouldn't want anyone to think I believe it's acceptable. It's not.
—Mary Kay Letourneau, in a July 1997 interview with the Seattle Times.