A Deadly Game (37 page)

"But Peterson knows at this moment police have focused their investigation on him. And when he arrived for the interview, before any tears, he said he wanted to address the questions about the girlfriend and himself first."

Sawyer's first question to Scott was direct: "I think everybody sitting at home wants the answer to the same question: Did you murder your wife?"

"No, no ah, I did not," Scott said. "And I had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance. And you use the word murder, um, and right now everyone's looking for a body and that's the hardest thing because that is not a possible resolution for us. And you use the word murder and yeah, that is a, a possibility. Um, it's not one we're ready to accept and it creeps in my mind late at night and early in the morning and during the day all we can think about is the right resolution is to find her, well."

"Did you ever hit her?" asked Sawyer. "Did you ever injure her?" "No, no, oh God no. Um, violence towards women is unapproachable. It is the most disgusting act, to me. I know that suspicion has turned [to] me, one, because I'm her husband and that's a natural thing, and, um, I, I answered your question because of suspicion it, it's been turned to me of the inappropriate romantic, um, that I had with Amber Frey then."

Sawyer asked Scott about the affair with Amber. "Why were you doing it?"

"I, I can't answer that. I don't know. That's a, a, question you should have an answer to. Definitely, and I don't know." "Were you in love with her?"

"No, I'd have to say that I respect her as, as I imagine everyone does after seeing her come out and do the press conference and [what an] amazing character she has," Scott said.

"Was this the first time? Are there others out there?" "No," Scott replied. "Our romantic relationship and that is ah, it's inappropriate and it was inappropriate and I owe a tremendous apology to, to everyone. Obviously, including Amber and her family and her friends and our families. Ah, it should have been, it should have been brought forth by me, immediately, the romantic relationship."

"Had you told anyone? Did you tell police?" "I told the police immediately." "When?"

"That was ah, the first night we were together with the police, I spent ah, with the police," Scott said. It was another amazing example of Scott's willingness to lie at a moment's notice-even when he knew the lie would be exposed immediately. Did he truly believe he could con the world, or was it simply that he didn't care about long-term consequences?

"You told them about her?"

"Yeah, from December twenty-fourth on." "Did your wife find out?" "I told my wife." "When?"

"In um, early December." "Did it cause a rupture in the marriage?"

"It was not um, a positive, obviously. It's ah, inappropriate, but, it was not something that we weren't um dealing with." "A lot of arguing?"

"No, no, um, I, I ya know, I can't say that, that even, ya know, she was okay with the idea, but it wasn't anything that would break us apart."

"There wasn't a lot of anger?" "No."

Sawyer was dubious. "Do you really expect people to believe that an eight-and-a-half-month pregnant woman learns her husband has had an affair and . . . [is] casual about it? Accommodating? Makes a peace with it?"

"Well, I, yeah, you don't know, no one knows our relationship but us. Um, and that's at peace with it, not happy about it." "Why did you tell her?"

"It was the right thing. There's no other reason than that." "And did you see her again after you told Laci?" "Yes."

"You saw Amber again?" "I did."

"But didn't tell her?" Sawyer asked. "Didn't tell Laci?" "Didn't tell Amber."

"No, no, no, yeah, that was definitely not the right thing." "Because again you know that people sitting at home have imagined that either you were in love with someone else, therefore you decided to get rid of this entanglement, namely your wife and your child, or, there was just an angry confrontation."

"Neither of those was the case. It is, it's that simple."

"What about Laci's family?" Sawyer asked.

"They're wonderful people. They're obviously um, upset with me about the romantic relationship with Amber. Um, and they have little trust as they've expressed in the media to date. Um, but I believe that they're still looking for Laci and I would like to work with them and I think it, we'll be together on this effort. . . continue to look for Laci."

The investigators were astounded by Scott's performance-from his claim that he immediately told the police about the affair, to the ridiculous assertion that he'd told Laci about Amber in early December, yet it caused "no real conflict" between the two of them. "Based on my knowledge of Laci through other family members and individuals close to her," Grogan deadpanned in his report, "I found this to be very unlikely."

After the segment aired, Scott received a call from Amber, who confronted him about his claim on the show that he didn't love her. Scott explained that the media had cut out the part about him caring for her. "Obviously, I care about you," he said.

Amber brought up the polygraph exam he had promised to take. Scott told her that he intended to find an examiner near her home. Amber asked about the cost of the test. Scott said about $750.

"The police do it for free," she replied.

Scott chuckled, then told her that his phone was cutting out.

Next Scott called a company called Expert Polygraph Services of Fresno, and spoke to a polygrapher named Melvin King. Without identifying himself, he questioned King about the testing process.

"Primarily of interest to me, currently, is confidentiality," Scott told him.

King assured him that everything was done in the strictest confidence. The polygrapher asked Scott why he was calling, and what he was looking to accomplish.

Scott told him it was personal.

"I'm gonna guess it has something to do with infidelity," King said.

"You're probably right on there," Scott replied.

That day, Scott scheduled a meeting with his friend Brian Argain about selling his home. He also set up an interview with America's Most Wanted for later that evening. Next, he rang his parents. Jackie answered the phone.

Scott told her that his lawyer, Kirk McAllister, and the Stanislaus County district attorney had met for dinner earlier in the week. During the meal, he said, the district attorney told McAllister that they were going to make Scott an offer. "The DA said 'If Scott tells us where the body is, we won't kill him,'" Scott added.

"Oh, my God," Jackie Peterson replied.

"Yeah, the DA thinks I'm guilty, too."

Lee Peterson grabbed the receiver. "What were you saying about the DA?"

"Oh, he made me an offer. If I tell him where the body is, they won't put me to death."

"Oh geesh," Lee responded.

Scott told his father that Kirk had to relay the offer because it is was part of his legal responsibility.

"He said they're just struggling to find anything, you know that's why they [the police] call me and all that weird stuff they've done, like go down and meet with you. They call me and say, 'We're searching the Bay again, Scott.' They're just trying to, you know, crack people. He [Kirk McAllister] said that if they had the stuff that they say they have, I would be hooked up right now."

"Kirk is pretty confident you're in good shape, though?"

"Yeah, I mean, Kirk tells me I'm playing a deadly game here. But he is pretty confident."

"Kirk says you're playing a deadly game?" Jackie Peterson repeated.

"Yup."

"Geez," Jackie sighed.

"Kirk knows if the DA thinks they have enough to arrest me and they arrest me, there's no bail, it's a capital case," Scott said.

"Can you handle that with no bail?" Jackie asked.

"God, I can't imagine being in prison, you know, for who knows how long. . . . But they have to have something credible to go on,"

Scott said. "They won't and they can't, so I'm not really worried about it."

"I don't think they have anything, they couldn't have," Lee Peterson said.

"No, there's nothing to have," Scott replied.

"No, that's what I mean," Lee said.

"Yeah, okay, there's hair and, you know, skin in our cars," Scott chuckled. "You know, but if that's what they think they have ..."

"I just wonder if Brocchini wouldn't plant something because he's so intent about solving this," Jackie Peterson chimed in.

"There's a possibility . . . there's no question," Scott said.

"What could he plant? He doesn't have anything." Lee Peterson asked.

"Oh, that's true," Scott agreed.

Then Scott started talking about arrangements for his dog, McKenzie. To them, it sounded as though Scott intended to give the golden retriever away. When Jackie Peterson asked her son if he would miss McKenzie, Scott choked up and said he was going to cry.

In a prior conversation, Jackie Peterson indicated that she had deposited $50,000 into her son's bank account. The two had also talked about a trip to Mexico. During that same call, Scott had also told his mother that he had spoken to the producer of America's Most Wanted and had "kicked the guy's ass around." He wished he'd dealt with this producer before he'd appeared on the show with Diane Sawyer. The two agreed that Scott would become more skilled doing TV interviews as he gained more experience on camera.

"Why would a grieving husband be so proud of kicking a producer's ass?" police wondered. "For a grieving husband who should be showing appreciation for such a show that has the desire to keep his wife's face fresh in the minds of millions of viewers," Investigator Jacobson noted, this was odd behavior indeed.

Jackie asked Scott if "this guy from America's Most Wanted was going to help with the search." Scott said he thought the upcoming show would generate more tips on the case, and said his interview went well.

"People are more likely to call in tips to the show than to the police," Jackie said, adding that the host said he passes on the tips to police. But Jackie said she was not sure she wanted to do that because "you'll never hear them again."

Scott told his mother that when the program aired an earlier story about Laci, Brocchini went to the studio to help take calls himself.

"Huh, then what did he do with them?" Jackie asked.

"I don't know," Scott chuckled. "He probably threw out the ones he didn't like."

"Yeah, that's what I feel about him. I wish he didn't have such an agenda."

As their conversation continued, Jackie and Scott lashed out at Kim Peterson, referring to her as that "little witch" and insinuating that she had discouraged the family from appearing on the show for a long time.

As part of the investigation, Detective Brocchini had contacted the producer of America's Most Wanted. The producer told him that Scott had refused to answer a number of his questions, and had wanted a chance to edit the interview. When the program aired later in the week, it was highly critical of Scott.

The police also contacted District Attorney James Brazelton about the alleged offer to McAllister. Again, Scott was lying. There was never an "offer." Instead, Brazelton recalled that he'd run into Kirk McAllister in the parking lot of the courthouse several days prior, and in what he recalled as a fifteen-second conversation he told McAllister "his boy might be able to avoid having the needle in his arm if he tells us where the body is so the family can have a decent burial."

McAllister replied, "That's an attractive offer, but Scott doesn't know where she's at." Brazelton said he'd never discussed the case with Scott's lawyer over dinner. In fact, he had never formally met with McAllister to discuss the case.

As the police noted, Scott reacted to all this talk of the death penalty with a startling lack of emotion.

The police were also puzzled by Lee Peterson's question to his son about whether his attorney thought he was in "good shape." "Apparently, there is more to know about Scott Peterson's involvement with Laci's disappearance, which would have prompted that question," Steve Jacobson wrote. "Scott responded back that his attorney told him he's 'playing a deadly game here.'

"I know that Kirk McAllister is a very respected, seasoned criminal defense attorney. If, in fact, he made this comment to Scott, it indicates the seriousness of what he knows Scott's involvement to be and the consequences of playing such a game with law enforcement," Jacobson continued. "In an effort to have his client stop 'playing the game' or to show him the seriousness of the 'game,' Kirk tells him it will have the ultimate consequence, that being death."

As Jacobson noted, McAllister's remarks elicited a series of "self-serving" statements from Scott. "Not once do you hear Scott becoming upset, or adamantly proclaiming his innocence," Jacobson wrote in the report. "Instead, what is heard is his concern for being in prison 'for who knows how long.' Scott even has to be reminded by his dad that the police would not plant any evidence because there is none. And Lee Peterson is right, the police would be unable to plant a body because one can't be found, and chances are, it never will be." Scott's comments about McKenzie "indicated that Scott and his dog would be parting ways." "There appeared to be a strong bond between Scott and his dog, one in which Scott says brings tears to his eyes as he watches him at the sliding glass door," Jacobson also noted. "Yet, while grieving from the loss of his wife, he will now be separated from his dog for an undetermined amount of time but will be afforded the opportunity later in life to get the dog back. I ask the question, where is Scott going?"