A Deadly Game (40 page)

Yet just after 9:30, Scott came up to his unmarked car and startled him. "While watching the intersection, I saw someone walking up toward the back of my vehicle," Brocchini wrote in a report.

"I looked in my mirror and noticed it was Scott Peterson. Peterson was wearing blue sweatpants and a blue sweatshirt, and he was holding a spiral notebook. I immediately exited my vehicle and walked towards Peterson."

"I wanted to thank you for going to America's Most Wanted and answering the phones," Scott said.

Brocchini thought it odd that Scott did not ask how he found out about the test. "It's too bad you want to take a polygraph in private," the detective replied.

Scott told him that it was "not appropriate" for him to take one with the police, then turned and walked away. He entered the office complex and then emerged ten minutes later. As he was walking back toward his truck, Brocchini drove over to him and parked behind his vehicle.

"Scott," the detective yelled. "Is it true that Kirk McAllister fired you as a client?"

"That's news to me."

Brocchini told him that Gloria Gomez, a local reporter, had reported from outside McAllister's office last night that he had been fired.

"You mean the news reported it?" Scott replied.

"Yes."

Scott was silent.

Brocchini told Scott he had a lot of "explaining to do."

"You don't know, I just stop on the side of the road and break down for no apparent reason," Scott said. "I just really miss Laci."

Brocchini told Scott he "did not act like someone who missed his pregnant wife." As Scott walked away, he yelled after him that he had some explaining to do about "the other girlfriends I identified."

"Right, other girlfriends," Scott mumbled.

Brocchini said that he had a photo of Scott with another woman, but Scott ignored the statement. Instead he climbed into his truck and got on his cell phone. According to Brocchini, Scott remained "calm and emotionless" throughout the confrontation.

As he pulled out of the parking lot, Scott was dialing Amber Prey's number, ready to accuse her of telling police about the polygraph.

Amber didn't pick up his call, but a few minutes later she called him back. When he told her he'd found Detective Brocchini in the parking lot, she was nonplussed. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

Scott said he was heartbroken. He had "totally" trusted her, but now she couldn't be trusted. He'd given her the name and the place, and Brocchini showed up. "What does that say?" he demanded.

Amber insisted she hadn't spoken to Brocchini in weeks.

"Well, then how did he end up there?" Scott broke down in tears.

Amber said she'd nothing to do with it.

Scott admitted that he had done a terrible thing by lying to her, and now he knew how it must have felt.

Amber asked Scott if he intended to follow through with a test.

Scott said he'd still take one, as long as she met him there, and insisted that he had taken a "big risk" in going to the polygrapher's office.

Amber said she would feel safest with Scott taking the polygraph at the police department.

"That's not even an option," he told her.

"What did you tell the polygrapher?"

Scott said he paid him three hundred dollars and explained the situation.

"Can I call him?"

Scott gave her Melvin King's telephone number.

As the two argued, Jackie Peterson was anxiously leaving a message asking Scott if Kirk McAllister had really dropped him as a client.

A short time after the parking lot encounter, Detective Brocchini arrived at Amber's home to find her in her pajamas chatting on the phone with him. Once the two hung up, he discouraged her from having any further contact with Scott, explaining that it could be "detrimental" to the case.

Amber handed over more audiotapes to Brocchini, along with the recording of their conversation just after Scott discovered Brocchini in the parking lot. Brocchini reported that the tape captured Scott "acting" like he was crying. "Peterson encouraged Amber to meet him 'anywhere, anytime, in any public place as long as the police were not involved,'" Brocchini wrote. "Frey asked Peterson why he did not want to be with law enforcement and Peterson said law enforcement had 'systematically lied to his family and Laci's family' and we were trying to say he was involved in the case."

Later that day, without immediately identifying himself as a police officer, Brocchini contacted Melvin King. Through a series of questions, he learned that the polygraphs King performs are completely

confidential.

"When I asked if he was served with an FBI subpoena would he turn over records of polygraphs, . . . King said there is no requirement for him to keep records and it is not unusual for his polygraph records to be destroyed," Brocchini wrote. "King's answers indicated he was willing to work with someone regarding a confidential

polygraph."

Once Brocchini identified himself as a police officer, King revealed that he was a retired lieutenant for the Fresno Police Department. A thirty-five year law enforcement veteran, King had been conducting polygraphs for twenty-eight years.

In response to questions, King said that he didn't know the identity of the man who was scheduled to take a polygraph that morning, and that the man had canceled the exam after his girlfriend refused to go with him. King said that Scott had been told that he needed to bring someone with him to the polygraph, and that otherwise the test would be of little value, "as the result had to matter to someone in order to add pressure to the exam."

King also said that he'd received two calls from a woman asking whether the person who had an appointment that morning had completed the test. Citing confidentiality, King had declined to answer her questions. This contradicts the account Amber recalls in her recent book. According to her, she asked King, "Is Scott Peterson scheduled to come in for a polygraph?" and King answered, "Yes. He said he was just waiting to hear from the person who would be coming with him."

In any event, King told Brocchini that he would not polygraph Scott Peterson. He later advised Scott to take the test with law enforcement. He told Scott how Congressman Gary Condit had taken a private polygraph test after the disappearance of Chandra Levy in 2001, and how useless the test had been in proving his innocence.

"Peterson never told King why he didn't want to take a police polygraph," Brocchini wrote.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

FEBRUARY 2003

In Modesto, detectives continued refining their profile of Scott. After profiler Sharon Hagan identified Scott as a "narcissist," police psychiatrist Phil Trumpeter met with investigators at police headquarters to offer guidance on how best to interview Scott and the people close to him.

At no time did the members of law enforcement officially label Scott a sociopath. But narcissism is a major trait of sociopathy; such individuals care for no one but themselves, tending to their personal needs and desires to the exclusion of all else. Egocentric and selfish, the sociopath exhibits an absence of conscience, an ability to lie at will with no guilt or remorse. The sociopath often has a flat affect, displaying none of the emotions a normal human being would in the same circumstances-for the sociopath simply doesn't feel the same things others do.

Though it would still be several weeks before the case was publicly classified as a homicide, after hearing Sharon Hagan's interpretation of the evidence, the Modesto police were confirmed in their conviction that Scott was the leading suspect in the murder of his wife. The investigators believed that the motive might have stemmed from one or more factors that were converging in Scott's life: his failing business; the pressure of becoming a parent when he did not really want a child; his wife's "expensive" tastes and high expectations, including her desire for a new car and a new home; and, of course, Scott's relationship with Amber Frey.

The absence of evidence at the Peterson house suggested that Laci was the victim of what is termed a "soft kill," a death from strangulation, poisoning, or suffocation, which might not leave behind a great deal of blood or other forensic material. The two drops of blood present on the couple's duvet cover suggested that Laci might have been killed on the bed; the fact that Scott had no significant injuries, aside from a scuffed knuckle, led police to suspect that Laci did little to defend herself. She "may have been drugged prior to suffocation or poisoning or otherwise incapacitated without a struggle," officials speculated in one internal report.

The detectives believed that after killing Laci in the bedroom, Scott had wrapped her body in a tarp inside the house, then dragged her out through the back door, wadding up the throw rug in the process. It was likely Scott-not Laci, as he later claimed-who had mopped the floor on the day of her disappearance. Scott was later observed vacuuming around the couch, coffee table, and washer and dryer, possibly attempting to rid the home of potential evidence. Scott admitted to placing umbrellas wrapped in a tarp in the back of his truck at 9:30 on Christmas Eve morning. They theorized that he loaded Laci's tarp-encased body into the truck and then transported it to the warehouse after releasing McKenzie with his leash attached.

Once he reached the warehouse, police believed that Scott had attached homemade anchors to Laci's body, and that he may also have wrapped her body in chicken wire and plastic wrap-both of which were found in the warehouse during the search. He may have replaced the boat cover on the Gamefisher after putting Laci's body inside. Police believed he then drove to the San Francisco Bay, where he dumped her weighted body.

Scott told police that several people had observed him attempting to back the boat down the ramp at the marina. While no such witnesses were ever located, the fear that he'd been sighted may have explained why Scott had changed his alibi from golfing to fishing near Brooks Island.

It seemed apparent that Scott didn't want anyone to know about his boat. In another change from his normal behavior, he also stopped using his cell phone after 10:06 A.M., including the entire time he was at the bay. He did not make a single call until after he was convinced witnesses saw him around the marina. When Scott learned of a planned bloodhound search, he moved the boat cover to a shed in the rear of his home. There he placed a leaking, gasoline-powered leaf blower on top of the tarp, which would obliterate any other odors. As police noted, there was no sign that Scott was otherwise careless with his equipment. This looked like a deliberate act.

With their working theory in place, detectives on F Street began preparing a case for the district attorney. By mid-month, however, it became clear that they needed more evidence. The police did not have a body; nor was there sufficient physical evidence to link Scott to the crime. DNA evidence collected during the search warrant had not yet returned any results. The case, thus far, was entirely circumstantial.

At headquarters, Grogan was investigating the possibility that Scott had intended to flee the country. On February 1, Scott's employee Rob Weaver alerted investigators that his boss had just advised him to "pack his bags," telling him that they were flying to Guadalajara in two days.

A surveillance team had followed Scott (with McKenzie in tow) to his parents' home in San Diego. During the surveillance operation, police again planted a tracking device on Scott's vehicle. They learned that he was scheduled to depart from LAX International Airport on February 3, on a United Airlines flight to Guadalajara, and Weaver was expected to meet him at the airport and join him on the flight. Weaver promised to contact police if it became apparent that Scott didn't intend to return to the States.

Before Scott was scheduled to depart, he called polygrapher Melvin King to ask if anyone had inquired about the February 1 appointment he had cancelled. King advised Scott that a woman had phoned but did not identify herself. In a second call to King, Scott explained that he had encountered an undesirable third party in the parking lot just before the meeting. King, in turn, informed Scott that a detective from the Modesto Police Department had phoned and wanted to know what was going on. The rest of the call was lost. Later that day, Scott spoke with Amber. After speaking with King, she said, she would be willing to reschedule the examination for another day. She also told Scott about a surprise phone call she'd received from Al Brocchini, offering to accompany her to the appointment with Scott.

"It's not a possibility," Scott replied. "I will meet you anywhere [but not] with the police, especially Al Brocchini."

Amber said she wanted to do the polygraph where she felt protected and safe because he had been so dishonest with her.

"Then there is no future between us," Scott said. "That kills me, but that is a decision you will have to make."

By now, accusations of bad faith were volleying back and forth between Scott and Amber on a regular basis. In a later conversation, Scott complained to Amber that the cops had lied to his family, friends, and "everyone else."

"It's not like you've been honest," Amber retorted. As if to defend himself, Scott insisted she was the only person he'd ever lied to.

There was one thing he wasn't lying about, though. Though the agents had been deeply suspicious of Scott's plans to travel to Mexico-watching as he boarded the plane and monitoring his calls while he was in Mexico-once he arrived they may have been surprised to discover that he was, in fact, conducting business there. Scott Peterson, it seemed, would be returning to Modesto after all.

Deputy District Attorney Rick DiStaso met Amber Frey for the first time at the Modesto police headquarters in mid-February, where they spent much of the time discussing Scott. Amber also expressed an interest in being interviewed by TV news personality

Connie Chung, saying that she was upset at the way she was being portrayed in the media. She was told that no one could prevent her from giving an interview, but she was cautioned not to release any information about the case when speaking to reporters. Amber later phoned Sharon Rocha to get her feedback; ultimately, she would decide against granting an interview to Chung or anyone else until the case was resolved.

Throughout the month, Detective Grogan found Sharon Rocha a consistent source of important information. At one meeting, while the two were watching a crime scene video from December 26, Grogan asked Sharon to look for anything that appeared to be misplaced, reorganized, or missing. She pointed to a pair of men's tennis shoes near the French doors, the usual entrance to the home from the back yard. The sneakers, she assumed, belonged to Scott; normally, she said, Laci kept a pair of shoes there, too. Sharon also noticed that her daughter's pocketbook, which had been hanging in the closet, was now hanging on a hat rack in the dining room area.

Sharon also reviewed the events of Christmas Eve with Detective Grogan. In hindsight, she found it telling that Scott wasn't alarmed when he first returned home to find McKenzie still wearing his leash and Laci's car parked in the driveway. Scott's claim that he didn't grow worried until after he showered and dressed for dinner made no sense to her. Her daughter was a "communicator," she said; Laci would have left a message on Scott's cell phone, or a note for him at home, if she'd gone out for some reason.

Laci's mother also told Grogan that Scott had left it up to her and Ron to call the police that night. Indeed, Scott never once suggested that the police should get involved. He didn't even know that Grantski had called the police until the officers arrived in the park that evening.

Grogan asked Sharon if Scott ever mentioned that he missed Laci. Sitting back in her chair, Sharon was thoughtful. "No," she replied. Scott never appeared genuinely upset. For the most part he appeared "nonchalant," unflappable. He answered most questions with a simple yes or no. He never elaborated when asked directly about events leading up to Laci's disappearance. When speaking about Laci, Scott had stock responses-insisting that they had to make sure Laci's picture was "out there," for instance, on the argument that someone was bound to call with information that would help locate Laci.

Sharon told Grogan that recently she'd received several messages from Scott's mother, Jackie. At first she had been reluctant to return the calls, worried that the conversation wouldn't go well if Jackie wanted her to support Scott. Eventually, though, Sharon had chosen to speak with her. Jackie told Sharon that Scott's family was praying for Laci's safe return. She offered her assistance, saying she thought it was "horrible" that police had shown Sharon the photos of Scott with another woman. Sharon believed that what police had done was appropriate, but said nothing.

When Jackie tried to excuse her son's affair, blaming it on a one-night stand or the fact that Scott had been "drunk or something," Sharon pointed to the fact that Scott had kept in touch with Amber after Laci disappeared. Jackie insisted that everything seemed normal between Scott and Laci at a baby shower everyone attended around Thanksgiving. At the shower Laci said that she was having trouble sleeping, and suggested that she and Scott get separate beds. Still, Laci didn't seem angry at Scott when she made the comment, Jackie recalled.

Jackie's remark didn't seem particularly significant to Sharon. She had heard Laci complain about difficulty sleeping because of the pregnancy, and heard her worry that she was keeping Scott awake at night. Laci told her mom that she'd offered to sleep on the couch, but Scott would not allow it.

Later in the week, Sharon contacted Grogan to alert him to an e-mail she had received from Scott in response to her request that he return Laci's belongings.

Mom,

I have never taken the opportunity to apologize to either Ron or yourself for lying to you about my infidelity to Laci. I am truly sorry that I was not forthcoming with you immediately. I know that both our goals is to find Laci and Conner, I am hoping together we can do more than separate.

I understand you are organizing a search this coming weekend, and you know that we are trying to put together a national search day this Sunday (I have attached a rough draft of the press release). I am wondering if you want to keep the two separate or try to combine them? ... I am hoping that any search is one that directs people's efforts towards finding her safely, targeting medical institutions, houses and the like, the only possible end to this is them back in our arms.. . .

For all of us, and more important for Laci we need to find her and bring her back where she belongs, among us, we can do this if we can communicate and work together.

Scott

Attached to the e-mail was a flyer promoting a "National Search for Laci Day, Sunday, February 9, 2:00 P.M." It listed two phone numbers, one for the Modesto Police Department and a second for a "non-police tip line." This was the first Sharon heard about the private number, and she worried that calls might bypass police and go directly to Scott.

Grogan also met with Amy Rocha at headquarters to try to settle the question of Laci's jewelry. The detective was still trying to determine if any pieces were missing. Scott had initially told police that Laci was wearing a necklace, a wristwatch, earrings, and possibly a blue sapphire and diamond ring when he left her on Christmas Eve morning. In a follow-up conversation with Grogan on December 30, Scott described the items as diamond earrings, a diamond solitaire necklace, and one of two diamond-encrusted watches that Laci owned.

After meeting with members of Laci's family and a jewelry sales consultant, however, the police concluded that the gold-and-diamond watch and necklace Laci typically wore were the same items they had found in Laci's jewelry box. The only items that remained unaccounted for were the diamond earrings and one diamond-and-gold Croton watch that no one had seen her wear.

Amy told Grogan that Laci had recently tried using eBay to sell a Mickey Mouse watch with diamonds encircling the face. While the missing Croton watch had been videotaped for the eBay ad, the watch hadn't been sold there. Moreover, the videotape revealed that the watch was not running at the time, and there was no evidence that Laci had replaced the battery. Why would she be wearing a watch that wasn't working? Amy had no idea where the Croton watch might be.

At Grogan's request, Amy once again described Scott and Laci's visit to Salon Salon on December 23. The detective was especially interested in Laci's attire. Amy recalled that Laci was dressed in a cream-colored scarf with tassels and a black pea coat. Beneath the coat, she wore an off-white blouse with black flowers and a pair of beige slacks. Her shoes were black slip-on Mary Janes from Nine West. Other salon employees remembered the details of Laci's clothing differently, but as anyone who's examined many witnesses knows, this is not unusual. As much credence as eyewitness testimony is usually given, studies have demonstrated that it is not always reliable. If you place one person on each of four corners at an intersection and ask each of them to describe the same accident, you're likely to get four distinctly different stories. Recollection is not always reliable and police must account for this in any investigation.

Grogan also contacted local TV reporter Gloria Gomez of Channel 13 News, asking to view the raw footage of her interview with Scott at his home on January 29. Gomez agreed on the condition that they let her cameraman film them watching the video-allowing her to get her own news story out of the event.

Gomez told police that she conducted the twenty-five-minute interview with Scott in his living room. His only stipulation was that the program not air before six o'clock that evening, but he gave no reason for the request. Reporters from several other media outlets also sat down with Scott that day and they all had had to agree to the same stipulation.

In addition, Scott advised Gomez that the network could run no "teases" or "promos" before the interview. The reporter was surprised that Scott knew so much TV lingo. A final condition was that Gomez and the cameraman remove their shoes before entering Scott's house-yet another instance of Scott's inappropriate concern for his possessions, like his reaction to a possible scratch on his truck or his dining room table, when police searched the premises weeks before.

Once the two of them were inside the living room, Scott asked for a preview of every question Gomez would ask on-camera. She told him some of them, but not all.

At headquarters, police reviewed the raw video. While talking about his unborn son, they noticed, Scott simply referred to Conner simply as "baby," never referring to him as "his" or "ours." He declined to elaborate, saying only that "it was entirely too difficult to speak about."

"Do you go into the baby's room?" Gomez asked.

"No, that door's closed," Scott replied.

"How long will it remain closed?"

"Until there's a little guy in there ..." Scott's voice broke and he seemed to choke back tears as he spoke.

In his amazing performances, for Sawyer, Gomez, and others, Scott repeatedly demonstrated his belief that the public and press could be duped. Scott's cracking voice and ability to cry on cue became more apparent once the police wiretaps revealed how swiftly he was able to turn them on and off.

Gomez called Scott the following day to clarify some issues. Scott refused to expand on his answers, and simply said "no comment" when asked if he had put his house up for sale or had traded in the Land Rover.

Later, I rebroadcast portions of Gomez's interview with Scott on Catherine Crier Live. The footage showed Scott's cell phone ringing during the taping. Instead of answering the call-which could have been someone with information about Laci-he jumped up, turned it off, and then told Gomez "they could pick up" where they left off. That was an ah-hah moment for me-an unconscious signal that Scott knew Laci was not coming home. This observation was picked up quickly by other talk shows, and Scott's reaction became an element of the prosecution's trial presentation.

Meanwhile, officers continued their search efforts in the San Francisco Bay. Investigators had discovered what appeared to be a red paint transfer on the right, or starboard, side of Scott's boat. Red paint was also found on a black plastic fishing pole holder on the same side, as well as on bolts that protruded through the outside of the boat. Samples were collected to compare with red navigational buoys in the bay, which "would provide an area for both cover and to tie off the boat and avoid flipping it when putting the body over the side." However, a match was never made.