Sex. Murder. Mystery. (80 page)

“I never said Vili was twenty-some years old… ” Mary Kay protested.

Michelle had processed so much her head was spinning. She thought of excuses, but her sense of duty won out. Among the items she carried onboard was a copy of
People
magazine with Mary Kay and baby Audrey on the cover and a note from her husband, Michael.

“Read it when you get onboard,” he said when he kissed her good-bye.

She and Michael had argued over the whole affair and whether it really was a good idea for Michelle to be a part of what was happening in Seattle. They had anguished over it for months. There had even been tears the morning of the flight. From where the Jarvises sat, Audrey's baptism looked more crafted for the camera than for God. Michael wondered if Michelle was simply being used.

“A lot of times,” Michael Jarvis said later, “Mary Kay wasn't really there for Michelle, but whenever she needed something or help with her problems, Michelle was there.”

Michelle got to her seat and unfolded her husband's note. No words ever rang more true:

“Mary Kay being the fine manipulator that she is, look where you 're sitting right now. I know you love your girlfriend regardless [of] how she feels about you—I know you are going to be there, because that's the kind of person that you are.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks and she stared out the little oval window, not focusing on anything but her thoughts. It was such a terrible mess and Michelle knew it was far from over. She knew that because she knew her friend better than anyone else in the world. She doubted that Mary Kay still loved Vili, but she had been boxed into such a corner that she had no choice but to continue the charade.

“Regardless of what she thinks about Vili,” she said later, “she's going to have to make the world believe that she's a victim, because that's the kind of person she is. She manipulates things to that extent. It doesn't matter what she thinks of Vili, she's going to let the world believe that she's in love with him until it is convenient for her to let go.”

Michelle flipped through the pages of the magazine and turned her thoughts to the baby, the reason for her two-hour flight north.

What will become of Audrey? she asked herself
.

It was to be the perfect baptism of Audrey Lokelani. Nothing short of perfect would do, because Mary Kay Letourneau expected nothing less for any of her children. She had instructed both Kate and Michelle from her prison cell to be sure the details were just so. The ceremony was set for the chapel at Seattle University. Officials from Seattle's St. James Cathedral had refused to allow the baptism to take place there because of concerns over publicity. Mary Kay was disappointed, but that the Jesuit priest who had worked with her and Steve on their “peaceful coexistence” contract was officiating lessened the blow. She had ordered a beautiful lace christening gown from an exclusive boutique in Redmond, Washington, during her weeks out with Vili in January.

She thought, of course, that she 'd be able to be there
.

That morning, Mary Kay looked out the window from the prison clinic where she was being monitored for some spotting during her ninth pregnancy and held the image of the spring sky in her mind. She wrote of the day in a journal that she kept for Audrey. Though she wasn't there, she wanted her daughter to know that she was a part of the sacred day in her heart, and spirit. She made out a list so that Audrey would know who had been present. She made special mention of Michelle, of course, as her baby's godmother; Favaae Fualaau, Vili's older brother, was the godfather.

The ceremony was lovely; Kate had seen to it. Mary Kay saw her friend as a stand-in for her taste and sensibilities.

“She is me as far as aesthetics go,” Mary Kay later said. “Making sure the crown for Audrey was perfect, the roses for the top of the cake, the details at the brunch.”

It was the brunch at the Marriott Hotel near SeaTac, however, that was not so perfect. Mary Kay had selected the venue because she thought that the garden theme of the dining area would be pretty, given the time of year and the love she had for flowers. Had she been there, she would have cringed at the scene.

It was not a typical baptism brunch, nor could it be. But the way the Fualaaus and representatives of their lawyers were acting, it was clear that the focus was not on the baby, but on the business deal that had become Audrey, Vili, and Mary Kay. Attendees had been sworn to secrecy so the media wouldn't intrude. A different name was used for the reservations at the Marriott.

Bodyguards in dark glasses ran around looking in bushes, setting ground rules for photography, reminding people to keep their mouths shut to protect the Fualaaus' reported $50,000 deal with the
Globe
. It was assumed that the whole world would converge on the hotel if someone leaked news of it. And with all the money beginning to change hands, there was the incentive to keep a lid on it.

What is this?
Kate Stewart thought, put off by the whole attitude.
This is like having lunch with the Mafia
.

Kate brought her camera and had only needed one good shot. She had promised Mary Kay that she would get one to James Kent, the BBC producer. She ended up taking fourteen rolls of film.

“Soona took the negatives from me,” she said later. “So in fear that they might get out somehow and jeopardize her deal, or to protect the baby, I don't know.”

A bodyguard took the film to a nearby photo processor and waited in the back while the prints were being made to make sure that nobody stole any pictures.

Michelle was dumbfounded by the whole thing as she watched a few attendees knock back drinks in the bar.
This is a baptism, for God's sake
. When their eyes met, she could see that Kate was feeling the same way. What was going on here?

“It's all about money,” Michelle concluded later. “When it comes down to it, nothing else mattered in this whole scenario. Not the kids, not Mary Kay, not Vili, nothing, but for the money that could be made.”

Oddly—considering their roles in the case—the lawyers had not been invited. Susan Gehrke, David's wife, however, was present. When she saw Michelle Jarvis she went up to her to tell her that she and her husband had admired the way she stood her ground during an appearance on the
Sally Jessy Raphael
show.

“David and I were impressed with how well you did,” the schoolteacher said.

Michelle turned her back on Susan. “Well, if your husband hadn't done such a bad job that wouldn't have been necessary.”

“It almost reduced her to tears,” David Gehrke said later of his wife's reaction to the remark.

Paranoia and blame had settled in and a baby's baptism was somehow lost in the mire.

As David Gehrke saw it later: “The
Globe
article had just come out and the
Globe
representative was birddogging Soona to protect her and protect
Globe's
rights. BBC was around and there was talk that they had been invited in by the Chicago faction to surreptitiously videotape it. The Boston attorney was in town and was talking that it [the fact Mary Kay was in prison] was all my fault.”

Kate had, in fact, also promised to videotape Audrey's baptism with the idea that Mary Kay's parents and the BBC would get copies. One for love; one for money. But according to Kate and others, the video was confiscated moments after she shot it. The
Globe
was in town and had an exclusive on the story. That meant sentiments were shoved aside. No one was to take anything from the event. Nothing but memories.

“It felt like nothing must come in the way of the money that was being made from the Mary Kay Letourneau story,” James Kent said later. “There were people who saw this as a chance to make a lot of money, and I felt very disappointed by that.”

Lawyer Huff didn't deny that cash was being collected from the Letourneau story or from Audrey's baptism in particular. And, he said, if the air was tinged with paranoia at the blessed ceremony, there was good reason for it.

“I think Soona was worried about the pictures getting out,” Bob Huff said later. “Soona was trying to cool it on the baby pictures because she got reamed by the judge in selling photos. Also, I think she wanted to keep the photos because they were worth money. I think Mary's friend's sold some of those that Soona gave them later. Soona was real pissed about that.”

Meeting Vili and his family was eye-opening for Michelle. She and Mary Kay had spent hours in her Spyglass Hill bedroom dreaming of their lives and the men they would marry. Michelle had realized her dreams of a loving husband and three children. Sure, it wasn't exactly as she had planned, but it was close. But Mary Kay and this boy and his family seemed so far off the mark. It wasn't that Michelle didn't like or accept Vili. There was a side to him that she could see Mary Kay might have found appealing in her loneliness. Michelle's heart was touched when the fourteen-year-old put a white rose on a chair to symbolize Mary Kay's presence at what was to be a holy gathering. The three rings he had also moved her: one from Mary to him, his to her, and one for their baby, Audrey.

Michelle looked at his artwork back at the house, and like Kate, thought he was a talented artist, and some of his writings were “quite deep.” She could see how a woman falling apart might romanticize the boy and his abilities and what it all could mean to her.

But in reality, she knew, the boy with the stubby ponytail and shaved sides of his head was also a typical teenager.

“Then he turns on rap music where every other word is rap music with the F word.”

Michelle could see the family was doing the best that they could, or at least they seemed to be trying. Audrey was getting a lot of attention, a lot of love. But what common ground did Mary Kay share with those people? None that Michelle could see.

“They weren't raised at the same social level as Mary Kay was. We're talking poor people. There is a huge difference. This is not against the family. It is just the facts.”

A shopping trip for Doc Martens at the mall became a kind of bonding experience for Kate and Vili. But he was still so young, so awkward, that Kate could never find the right moment to ask the question that lingered in the back of her mind.

Will you wait for Mary Kay?

Finally, she broached the subject to Soona.

“I want him to be happy,” Vili's mother said with great conviction. “I want whatever is right for my son. Just because he has two children with Mary does not obligate him to marry her.”

Kate understood. If it had been her son who had been caught up in the turmoil of such an affair, she'd have felt the same way. She might have hoped for a more positive response from Soona Fualaau, but Kate knew that only time would tell anyway. And there was a lot of time. Seven years, to be sure.

Vili's grandmother was less “let's wait and see.”

“Don't you look at another girl,” she said to Vili as Kate looked on. “You've got those babies… you marry that girl. You wait for her.”

Even before there was a second baby on the way, Mary Kay and her friends worried about whether she'd ever get Audrey back from Soona. It wasn't that she thought Soona was unfit, but simply that Mary Kay wanted to raise her own daughter herself. She had lost her first four to Steve and it would be a battle on the order of a world war to get them back. For a woman who often defined herself by the children she bore, Mary Kay was desperate to retain the bond that she had tried to forge between herself, her infant daughter, and Vili.

“Mary's parental rights are definitely at stake here,” said a close friend. “As more time goes by, the more attached Soona is to Audrey. And there ain't no parting of the ways with that woman and that child, I'll tell you now.”

When Soona referred to Audrey, it wasn't as her granddaughter, but her own infant.

“She says that's 'my baby.'
My baby
.”

But there was also another possible reason. By keeping Audrey, they kept the tabloid and book money, too.

“She's like the little Vanderbilt child in that family,” claimed the friend.

Chapter 74

THE DAY OF Audrey's baptism, April 26, four women made the drive from south Seattle to Tacoma and across the Narrows Bridge to the women's prison near Gig Harbor. They came with the hope they could see Mary Kay Letourneau. Abby Campbell drove, and Kate Stewart, Michelle Jarvis, and a TV tabloid reporter for
American Journal
accompanied her. The reporter was along “doing background,” but at least Michelle suspected that she was still after a Mary Kay interview and knew that hanging out with her three best friends couldn't hurt her chances. By then, the three women were old hands at the tabloid game. Abby and Kate had been interviewed, but they'd kept their names and faces out of the news. Only Michelle had gone on camera.

The women met with disappointment when, after filling out the requisite forms, they were denied the opportunity to see Mary Kay. The guards said Mary Kay was in the infirmary and could not have any visitors. One of the friends asked if they could have a tour of the prison, but that was also denied.

“For security reasons,” the guard said. “And no picture-taking on prison grounds, either.”

When they got outside, one of the women suggested taking a group picture in front of the prison flagpole.

“Let's just stand together and hold hands and send Mary Kay our energy and hope that she knows that we've been here.”

The television tabloid reporter took the photograph and the four started to walk over to their car when a voice called out.

“Hey! Hey!”

“Run!” Abby started to yell and the other three sprinted for the car. Michelle was unclear why they were running, but like a member of some kind of herd her feet started to move.

What's going on?
she thought.

Just as Michelle jumped into the backseat, Abby Campbell pushed the gas pedal to the floor and threw the car into reverse. The dark blur of a uniformed officer moved in their direction and a little meter-maid-type cart was also revved up and headed their way.