Sex. Murder. Mystery(158)

“How could it be wrong, if it feels so right?”

Rumors percolated through the Shorewood neighborhood that something bad was brewing at the elementary school. Real bad. A teacher there was in big trouble. Word around the area was that soon “everyone was going to know some shocking news.”

Danelle Johnson didn't need anyone to tell her who was in trouble.

“God, I know it is going to be Mary Letourneau. I just know it,” she told her husband. “All those seventh-graders going down there. It's gonna be her.”

As the hours ticked closer to the disclosure of “something big breaking at Shorewood” Danelle saw something in her son that suggested he knew a bit more about what might be happening.

She remembered later a time just before the news broke when her son, Drew, was out in the yard sobbing uncontrollably. It was as if his heart had been thrashed. He refused to say what it was that was hurting him so. After much prodding from his mother, Drew finally gave a lame excuse that some girl had dumped him.

Then they all learned what so many had suspected. It was Mary and Vili.

Danelle was dazed—not that it was Mary, but that it was Vili. She loved Soona Fualaau's son. He was a wonderful and talented boy. But she couldn't fathom what people were saying Mary Letourneau had done.

“I just couldn't imagine a grown woman having an affair with him. I couldn't even imagine the concept of what she could have possibly been thinking.”

There's a little break area on the ramp at SeaTac International Airport where Alaska Air employees can escape the wintry chill of the tarmac and catch a cup of coffee—Starbucks, of course—and share the latest in passenger horror stories and, if there was any, a little airport gossip. If anyone had heard what was happening at the Letourneau house in Normandy Park, they kept it to themselves. It was so ugly that no one dared bring it up.

Finally, Steve Letourneau approached some employees shortly after he had been contacted by Pat Maley of the King County Police.

Usually a somewhat affable presence, Steve was apparently upset about something and wanted to talk. Joe Bendix, the flight attendant and former neighbor from Carriage Row condominiums later described him as “just heartbroken and freaking out.”

The look in his eyes telegraphed that he was in great pain.

“I want to tell you something before you read about it in the paper,” Steve said, choosing his words carefully. “Mary's been having an affair with one of her students.”

“Oh, well, you know things happen,” Joe said. While he heard the word “student” he hadn't considered the idea of age. In his mind, he thought that the affair involved a young man, maybe one she had taught who was now in high school or maybe even older. Mary had been teaching for some time and it was possible, Joe Bendix thought, that the student was nearly grown. “Student” didn't mean a child.

Steve was taken aback. Embarrassed as he seemed, it was clear that his message wasn't getting through to Joe.

“This kid is like a year older than Steven,” he said, to hammer the point home. “She was arrested for having sex with one of her students.”

Joe didn't know how to respond. He said he was sorry and he hoped everything would be all right. Though Steve hadn't said anything about the depth or duration of the affair, Joe concluded that it had been a fling, a one-time transgression. A fluke.

“Things will work out,” he said. “Things will be okay.”

Later when Joe told Fran what he had heard, the two of them could make no headway in understanding what Steve had disclosed and what they would later read in their newspaper. Fran had never really cared for Mary Kay. She thought she was snooty. So Steve's revelations naturally brought forth some disdain and, very surprisingly to Fran, a measure of unexpected sympathy.

She didn't think what Mary had done was okay by any stretch.

“Even if you are unhappy with your spouse it's not grounds for having a relationship with a child—even if you think you might be in love with him. Or are you just grasping for attention? I really think she has a problem,” Fran said.

Her husband didn't disagree. And while neither of the Letourneaus' flight-attendant former neighbors knew what was going to happen with what they had once considered “the perfect family,” they hoped Steve would get custody of the four children.

The thought of the children brought a bittersweet smile.

“There's no doubt in my mind that Steve loves all of them. I think he was probably the most perfect father you could get. He doted over those kids and was proud of them,” Joe said.





Chapter 36

NONE COULD HAVE prepared for the emotions that the letter from the Highline School District would bring when children from Shorewood brought home word from the superintendent regarding allegations against Mary Letourneau. While many kids were teary and confused about what was going on, it was the reaction of the parents that brought the greatest wave of emotions. Lyle Mattson stood apart from many classmates. He was nonplussed about the whole thing. He merely had an apology for his mother when he handed her the envelope. He quietly announced it was about Mrs. Letourneau and Vili Fualaau.