Sex. Murder. Mystery(161)

Amber and Angie started to cry, too.

Mary Kay said she had just returned from “a meeting with the boy's mom.” They were trying to work things out. The boy's mother was very upset; she had just found out. It was a mess that she was trying to sort out.

“They say I can't see him until he is eighteen,” she said.

“That's a long time,” Amber said, offering the kind of remark used to soothe.

“Don't tell me that's a long time,” she said, almost as a wish that it wouldn't be so. Tears convulsed her once more. Mary Kay was coming undone and the Fish sisters didn't know how to make her feel better.

At one point, she turned around and said, “Steven actually asked me if I loved the boy more than I loved him. Can you believe that he would say that?”

“What did you say to him?” one asked.

“I explained to him, no, I just love you in different ways.”

Both sisters were sobbing at the thought of Steven and his brother and sisters dealing with the terrible allegation against their mother.

“Amber,” Mary said, almost teasingly. “I've never seen this side of Angie, this is so odd.”

The comment hurt. Angie had never been the “emotional” one, but she had always loved Mary Kay and her family. As much as her sister, though she didn't always show it. As the time flew by, the girls noticed that Steve Letourneau was home, peering out the window every so often. One asked if they could go inside. Mary Kay shook her head.

“Steve's really upset about this,” she said. “I don't want to bring any of this inside. He found some letters that say how I feel about the boy.”

“… sometimes I feel your kisses, but you're not there. I miss the sounds we make together. I want your arms around me holding me forever… ”

A couple of hours went by and Amber and Angie still felt as though they didn't know what had really happened. It was late, well past one A.M. They hugged Mary Kay good-bye and she asked them to keep in touch. She especially wanted to be informed on what the media was saying about her. The sisters agreed.

“I'll call you soon,” she said.

On their way back to Carriage Row, the sisters decompressed. They were confused and in shock. They believed the allegations were not true. Mary Kay hadn't come out and said there had been any inappropriate contact. If there hadn't been any inappropriate contact, then the whole thing would blow over.

“I don't think she touched him,” Angie said.

Amber wasn't so sure.

“No, they kissed, she said.”

“No way,” Angie said.

“Yeah, Mary Kay said they kissed.”

Angie disagreed. “I didn't hear her say that.”

“She did. She might have said it under her breath… 'All it was was a kiss… ' “

Mary Kay mentioned a “meeting with the boy's mom” that had taken place before the twins met her in her driveway, but she didn't elaborate on what had transpired. In fact, it had not gone well. As most would expect, Soona Fualaau was not a happy womaa How could she be? Her son's teacher, only three years younger than herself, was pregnant by her son Vili. Soona was overwhelmed and angry. She had seen her son go off with Mary, she had seen a closeness develop between the pair. But this? This was too much. She brought the director of the Boys and Girls Club at White Center to keep her from decking Mary Letourneau when they met at the Des Moines marina in front of Anthony's Homeport restaurant. Mary gave Vili's mother a letter explaining her feelings.

Soona recalled the encounter later: “She kept saying the sex was wrong, but I do not believe that she fully understands that she had crossed the boundary that should never have been crossed… She never said 'I'm really sorry.' And it goes back to that I think she's crazy.”

A caring woman who was smarter than her resume, Soona Fualaau was charitable toward the teacher carrying her grandchild.

“She really needs help because I think she's living in fantasy land.”





Chapter 38

IT SIMPLY COULDN'T be true. Normandy Park neighbor Tina Bernstein had hoped that whatever was unfolding at the Letourneau place next door was the result of a disgruntled student, an enemy, maybe even an off-the-wall mistake. She also considered the possibility that Mary Kay might have been framed, maybe even by Vili Fualaau. Tina struggled with what she'd gleaned from early news reports, because she had little recent firsthand knowledge of what Mary and Steve had been up to. She hadn't seen Mary much over the course of the past few months—not much since the summer when school closure meant the neighborhood was the center of activity for all moms and kids.

As she ran through the scenarios of what had happened—what she had allowed herself to take in—Tina felt there had to be an explanation for it.