When things became more relaxed and she felt she could pry a little, Linda asked her houseguest why he didn't just boot his wife out the door when he confirmed the involvement with the boy.
Steve said he just couldn't. Too many people were involved and he was afraid. He didn't know what to do, how to handle it. He knew she'd go to prison.
“She's the mother of my children,” he repeated.
That didn't wash with Linda.
“When she started having sex with someone the same age as her son, she gave up the right to be the mother of your children,” she retorted.
Later, when Linda would try to describe Steve's state of mind at the time, he was so wishy-washy, so noncommittal, that it was impossible.
“I think that he thought that possibly this would go away and they would be living their lives,” she said.
Over the course of the next few days and weeks, the story would unfold and Linda would become increasingly satisfied that she had done the right thing. Steve said Mary Kay had admonished their children to keep quiet about Vili's overnight visits.
“If you tell anybody, Mommy will go to prison”
He showed copies of the love letters he had found.
“So here we are. We had a dream—it was a once upon a time—fairy tale story about two people that were meant to become one—and did.”
In one missive, Mary Kay lamented how she couldn't show her love for Vili in public, couldn't call him, couldn't show off their devotion to each other…
“But each day something new happens to me and I always want to tell you… ”
Linda later described some of the letters as depicting Mary Kay and Vili as lovers from another plane, another dimension, and another time. God, they believed, had a plan for them and that plan included a baby. Linda thought the notes were “twisted” and “sick.”
“I also told them that this wasn't just sex and an accidental baby.”
Later, Linda fumed about the letters: “She knew that this baby would keep them together forever. They set out to make this love child. He was talking about how he loved her, how they were destined to be together and her letters were the same.”
Steve talked about phoning Mary and John Schmitz to tell them what was going on with their daughter long before she was arrested.
“They wanted to get Mary Kay out of Washington and moved to Washington, D.C., but she wouldn't do it,” Linda recalled Steve telling her. “Her mother wouldn't talk to her—totally wrote her off. The dad came out and brought her a car. Then he went back and the parents were not supportive of her at all.”
In time, Linda would piece together what she thought was the real reason why Steve passively sat by as his wife got involved with a student. He was busy with his own affairs. He even fathered a child with one of his flings. And Linda in her best Secret Squirrel mind-set figured that Mary Kay hung that over his head and threatened him.
“If you tell, if you leave, I will let everybody know about all this stuff.”
And there was Kelly Whalen, too. Kelly, the flight attendant from Alaska Airlines, was the woman with whom Steve was planning his post-Mary Kay future. He talked about Kelly and how wonderful she was and how he couldn't have made it through the ordeal without her. He told Linda they had met on a trip to Puerto Vallarta. He didn't tell her what was going on with his wife, but he wanted out of his loveless marriage.
“I don't agree with him having an affair,” Linda said later. “If my husband ever had one, I'd pull a Lorena Bobbitt on him.”
A girlfriend of Mary Kay Letourneau's who went to the Shorewood open house in the fall of 1996 witnessed a slightly hostile exchange between a man—possibly another teacher—and Mary Kay. She told Linda about it later. According to the friend, she was in the classroom when the man walked up to Mary Kay and said, “You are getting way too close to Vili.”
Then he walked off.
* * *
Whenever they met at his Tacoma office or talked on the phone, divorce lawyer Greg Grahn always found Steve Letourneau to be true to form in one critical regard. Steve remained entrenched in his position that he wouldn't get caught up in the blame game that had been a part of the Mary Kay Letourneau saga from day one. Yes, he was pissed off at his wife for dumping him for a kid. Without a doubt, he was humiliated and bitter, but deep down there was some guilt. Pointing the finger at his dewy-eyed wife was not a good strategy. It only made Steve Letourneau look like a bully kicking her when she was down.
“He couldn't exempt himself from it one hundred percent, anyway,” Greg Grahn said later. “So rather than trying to figure out what percentage is his and what percentage is Mary Kay's, he doesn't want to blame Mary Kay in public.”