A Deadly Game (39 page)

Kim also recalled Scott asking her then-boyfriend whether a father could expect to have sex again after a child is born. The boyfriend said that it wouldn't be the same. Scott seemed concerned about how the arrival of the baby would change his sex life, in terms of frequency and quality.

At one point, Kim asked Laci if she and her husband were still having sex. Laci told her "no," but confided that she still "pleasured" her husband.

As the interview drew to a close, Buehler asked the women if they'd ever seen Laci react under stress. They recalled Laci's relationship with her longtime boyfriend Kent Gain. They knew the relationship had an element of "domestic violence" to it, they said, because Laci spoke freely about the situation. Stacey Boyers told Buehler that when she found out that her own boyfriend, Brian Argain, was cheating on her, both Scott and Laci were very supportive throughout their breakup. From things Laci told her, Stacey believed that Laci wouldn't have tolerated Scott cheating on her.

In the end, Laci's friends agreed that she would have told at least one of them if Scott had confessed to his relationship with Amber Frey-even though she hadn't done so with Janet Use.

In the days that followed, Buehler met with two female employees of the real estate firm where Scott's friend, Brian Argain, was employed. The women told police that when they mentioned Scott, Argain made it clear that he was standing by his friend. According to the employees, Argain had said something to the effect that "Even if he did it, he's still my friend."

For Grogan, a second interview with Laci's aunt Robin "Marie" Rocha reinforced Scott's discomfort around children. She recalled an incident at a birthday party with Scott and Laci in September 2001. At one point, she needed to put her infant daughter down so she could use the restroom. Marie approached Scott and asked if he would hold the child for just a moment. As she recalled, he leaned back in his chair, held his hands up in the air, and said "no." She came away from the incident convinced that Scott never wanted a child.

Marie also told the detective that her niece could be headstrong at times. Laci often talked about babies, and "If Laci wanted to have a baby, she would have a baby whether Scott wanted one or not," she said. Marie described Laci as a loving and kind person, but also stubborn and accustomed to getting her way. Yet she was "totally in love with Scott" and never said a derogatory word about her husband.

On January 30, Scott received a phone call from the Fox News Channel's Rita Cosby, asking if he had heard about a possible Laci sighting in Washington State. Scott said he had but didn't sound I very optimistic about it. Excitedly, Cosby recited the details, explaining that a woman who appeared to be pregnant had come into a convenience store with no jacket on. When the clerk asked her why she wasn't wearing one, the woman allegedly told her she'd been kidnapped and the guy had a gun. The clerk did not call police immediately.

"Police are now looking at the video," Cosby said.

"Definitely, when did she see them?" Scott asked.

"Apparently last week."

"Wow, okay. Do you know who is looking at it [the video]?"

"It's the local police there in Longview, Washington State."

The call ended abruptly.

A little while later, Scott's friend Heidi Fritz called about the same sighting. Scott confirmed what Cosby had said.

"Oh my God, that's great!" Heidi exclaimed. "Where is it?"

"I don't know," Scott said flatly. He explained that he'd called the Longview Police and they were getting the tapes together to view.

Heidi asked Scott if he could drive up there. "Oh definitely, yeah, if it's even close I'll get up there. . . . We're hoping it's her." Scott said he'd phoned the Longview Police and was waiting for a call back.

Heidi said she was so excited because Scott had said all along that he knew in his heart that Laci was still alive and now this woman [the clerk] was reporting that she saw her.

For a moment, Scott didn't respond. Then he said he was hopeful. "We're praying it's her."

Heidi's husband Aaron picked up the line and asked Scott how he was feeling.

Scott hesitated, then remarked, "Um, I'm hopeful on this, I am feeling really good right now. I just want to know." He promised to let the couple know as soon he heard back from the Longview Police.

"Hey, stop cutting your hands, all right?" Aaron said. "I'll try."

The following morning, Scott's friend Mike Reed called about the incident in Washington. Scott told him he hoped it was true, so he'd know where to look. While the two were speaking, Scott's mother was leaving a message on Scott's voice mail, excitedly asking her son if he wanted to hop on a plane and go to Washington. She indicated that she was ready, and mentioned a friend named Rachel who lived nearby so they would have a place to stay. Jackie said that she'd called the Modesto PD, but the chief was in a meeting. She choked up and began to cry, saying that she hoped the sighting would come to something.

Hanging up with Reed, Scott checked his voice mail. He laughed when he heard his mother describing Rachel putting up fliers, and he did not return her call. It was another telling moment that would be played for the jury at trial.

About thirty minutes passed before Jackie called her son again and asked if he'd heard about the Longview report. "Yeah," he said, "is there any more news?" "According to today's paper, they are going to view the video," Jackie replied. "I [asked] Dad, are they capable of viewing the video?" "Yeah, I know, I want to see the damn thing. How can they ID her?" "Why don't you hop on a plane?"

"Well, I'll definitely [go], you know, I called up there and talked to one of them."

"Oh, good for you." "Hopefully we'll see what's ..." "God, at least that 's a lead," Jackie said. "Yeah."

"I didn't take much credence in it until I heard [the clerk] was forty-five, but she is still a ditz if she didn't remember" the incident earlier.

"Yeah, when was it she last saw her?" Scott said, laughing.

"The end of December, which is [enough] time to get there, you know," Jackie said. "And then I hope they have video on the border," she added, referring to the Canadian border.

"Yeah, it's the end of January."

"Yeah, I know, sweetie."

"The report said she waited a week or something, but now [they're saying] she waited a month."

"Chief said, yeah, it's a month." (Jackie and Scott often called Lee Peterson "Chief.")

"The woman only saw the pictures of Laci on CNN recently,"

Jackie added.

"Hmm," Scott sighed.

Before he hung up, Scott asked about McKenzie. "When I come down there, I'm going to give the dog a bath," he said.

"The gardeners are afraid to come in," said Jackie, as McKenzie barked in the backyard.

Scott dialed the Longview Police Department-having told his mother and friends he'd already done so. "I think you are the police department that's looking at tapes of her [Laci] at a grocery store," Scott told the officer who took the call. He asked to speak to a detective or whoever was helping in the investigation. There was no indication that Scott had ever spoken with the department before.

"What's your name again?" the officer asked.

"Scott Peterson."

Scott was placed on hold. While he waited, a call was coming in to his line and the call to Longview police was lost. It was Scott's mom again.

Scott claimed he'd just spoken to the Longview police "again," and they had fifty or sixty hours of tape to view. "They seem really nice up there," he said.

"Well, you know, you're the only one who can truly identify her," Jackie said.

"Yeah, I know, that's what I told them. That I would be up there in a minute if there was even a possibility."

"Maybe she is in Canada by now," Jackie said. "You might ask if the Canadians have tapes at their borders." "Yeah."

Jackie said she was going to ask Rachel to "plaster the place with posters," and suggested that Scott should give her a call.

"Definitely," Scott replied. He mentioned that he intended to pick up some "peanut butter slices" for the dog. Jackie told him he was welcome to come home anytime.

While Scott and his mother talked, Rita Cosby was leaving him a message saying that it was important to get word of that sighting out to people. Scott deleted the call before it was finished. He also had a message from his former employee, Eric Olsen, and this call he returned. After some business talk, the conversation turned to the Washington sighting. Scott told Olsen he intended to "hang around the airport" in case he had to go up there.

Just before noon, Jackie phoned back to ask Scott where he was. He said he was in San Juan Bautista-not waiting at the airport, as he had told Eric Olsen. Jackie asked her son if he'd read the local paper. He said he hadn't.

Jackie then mentioned Mark Geragos, "the high-priced lawyer, the one you pay a fortune to have him." She'd apparently seen Geragos quoted in an article in the local press, and his words were directed at Scott: "He would tell you that you have been caught up in something larger than you ever thought of and you have to weather the storm." Scott chuckled.

Jackie then admonished him not to talk to anyone. At four o'clock that afternoon, Jackie called her son once more. She had just heard on The Abrams Report that Laci wasn't the one on the video. She was sorry.

Scott erased her call, along with several others from the media, including one from a representative for Larry King Live.

As January came to a close, investigators were focused on a single individual. "This is an ongoing investigation with only one known suspect at this time, that being Scott Peterson," they concluded in an ongoing report filed at the end of the month.

By this point, Detective Craig Grogan was in an odd and somewhat uncomfortable position. The Rocha family was asking him to act as a go-between in the battle between them and Scott. Sharon was worried that Scott was going to throw away or sell items of sentimental value to the family, and she implored him to contact Scott and ask him to return her daughter's belongings to her family.

Grogan reported that Scott had already sold Laci's Land Rover, but the news didn't upset her. (Later, the dealer who purchased the car would return it to the family for the token sum of one dollar, to ensure that the donation could be listed as a gift on the family's tax return.) Sharon wanted personal items, things that had a direct link to Laci. She was unwilling to speak with Scott directly, and wanted Grogan to mediate.

"Hi Scott, it's Craig Grogan," the detective said in a phone message he left on January 31. "I'm calling at the request of the Rocha family. Sharon would like to see if you have any photographs of Laci when she was a child or photos of her that you would part with. Ah, she's also asking about some Tiffany lamps which apparently were Laci's grandmother's. I'm just asking for them and we're not trying to make you do anything but if you'd be willing to do that, I'd be willing to be an intermediary for you guys." Sharon had also asked for some other items from the nursery.

As the detective prepared to leave the office that day, he was told that Amber and Scott were speaking on the phone. Scott was telling Amber to let her know that he had scheduled a polygraph exam. He wanted her to meet him at the polygrapher's office at eleven o'clock the following morning. Replaying Scott's calls, Grogan learned that Scott had actually made the appointment for nine o'clock. Yet Amber believed that she was going to accompany Scott to the test, and called police to ask if an undercover officer could escort her there.

The police later instructed Amber not to meet him at the office. No undercover operation was planned.

In a follow-up call, Scott asked Amber if she believed their relationship would continue. He saw no reason to take the polygraph if she saw no possibility of the two of them going forward together. He explained that he was taking a risk by agreeing to the test because if the media learned of his intent to take one, it would be "bad."

The two got into an argument when Amber asked Scott to use her name during the examination. He insisted on replacing it with another name. He was worried that the polygrapher would go to the media with the results of the test if he realized who his client was.

Scott next advised Amber to take precautions so that she wasn't followed to the office the next day. He also told her that he'd been thinking about her, and that he was nervous about their meeting.

The following morning was February 1. Just before nine o'clock, Scott dialed Amber and asked her to meet him in thirty minutes. "Are you kidding?" Amber asked. "It's real close to you," Scott her.

Amber asked if Scott was just now contacting the polygrapher. He said yes, then gave her directions to Expert Polygraph Services, on the corner of Palm and Browning Streets, and told her the examiner would meet them in the lobby. When Scott declined to reveal the polygrapher's name, the two started arguing again.

Amber asked if he would be there whether or not she came. "I will be waiting there at nine thirty. I hope to see you there," he told her.

It's unclear whether Detective Brocchini acted on his own when he decided to stake out the location that morning. What is clear is that he parked a discreet distance away from the polygrapher's office, in a school parking lot about two hundred yards away. He was hidden among eight other cars.