Killer Dads (27 page)

Figure 13.3. Scott and Amber Frey get up close and personal in a car on their way to a night out on the town while a pregnant Laci spends the evening home alone.
Presented in evidence at Scott Peterson's murder trial.

Amber and Scott finally talked on the phone after Shawn helped arrange the conversation for “HB.” Scott used the same tender manner and careful attention to romantic, thoughtful detail that he had used to woo Laci. He joked about himself over the phone setting up the date, saying he was “not very tall, overweight, belly, long greasy hair, kind of jokingly telling me
about himself,” recalled Amber in her courtroom testimony, which elicited a laugh from the easily spooked, relationship-shy woman. He was thrilled to see her the evening they met at the Elephant Bar in in her hometown of Fresno before having dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant. He arranged for them to dine in a small private room, where they exchanged a litany of personal information. Scott presented an imaginary alter ego. He worked in Modesto, but lived in Sacramento, and had a condo in San Diego, he told Amber. He was spending the Thanksgiving holiday fly-fishing with his dad, brother, and uncle in Alaska, and would be spending Christmas with his parents at their compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. “He was easygoing,” Amber testified. “He was easy to talk to. He made me feel comfortable.” He pulled out a bottle of champagne and strawberries later in a Fresno hotel room. He poured the champagne, and dropped a single strawberry into each of their glasses—though Amber would testify that her strawberry was a “little bit sour.” They slept together that night. Scott continued to see Amber when he could, but there were so many demands on his time, he explained, like his adventure travels in Alaska, a sales trip to Paris—none of which actually occurred. He sent fake photos and pretended to be calling from far-off locales to support his tall tales.

In early December, Scott and Amber planned to hike Squaw's Leap in the mountains of Auberry with Amber's two-year-old daughter, Ayiana. Scott arrived at Amber's home with a potted amaryllis plant and a bag of groceries so he could prepare dinner. First they hiked to the peak, where Scott pulled out a blanket and baby carrots, almonds, cookies, drinks, Frey testified.

 

Frey: He lay back, we talked. We were all munching a little bit, watching a helicopter that kept flying by overhead.

Prosecutor David Harris: Was that a nice afternoon?

Frey: It was chilly.

 

As it became colder, the three headed back down the hill, Scott carrying Ayiana, and they sat in his truck.

Figure 13.4. A dressed-up Scott and Amber pose together at a Christmas party just weeks before Laci was due to give birth to Scott's son. Amber had no idea Scott was married or that he had a baby on the way.
Presented in evidence at Scott Peterson's murder trial.

Frey: We sat on the back of his truck bed, and we're looking at stars.

Harris: It was dark at this point in time? Sitting in the back of the pickup truck, and you are looking at the stars, did you have some kind of contest at that time?

Frey: Who could find the first star. Seeing who could find the first star.

Harris: Who found the first star?

Frey: Scott.

 

The three returned home, where Scott cooked seafood lasagna and spent the night. The following afternoon, Scott picked up Ayiana from daycare, and Amber came home from work that day to find her daughter happily ensconced in her high chair, eating, and Scott fixing lasagna leftovers and pouring wine. The three traveled after dinner to buy a Christmas tree, which they set up and decorated. During pillow talk that night, Amber asked Scott if “he had any children, or if he ever was close to having children. And he said no,” she testified. Then the issue of trust came up.

 

Frey: I was talking about, I don't recall how the conversation was brought up, but about trust and how I felt about trust and lies and how for me, it's easier to handle the truth, no matter what it is, versus a lie, and that knowing that a person could come to you with the truth is easier to handle than it later coming out that it was a lie. And, basically, just being truthful and how I responded to that.

Harris: Did the defendant make any comments or agree or disagree during this part of the conversation?

Frey: Yes.

Harris: What did he say?

Frey: He complimented me on my way of thinking about other people or how to handle situations that we were talking about
.

 

Despite the conversation, Scott continued to spin a secret life for Amber. His lies were overblown, grandiose, and served to portray him as a wealthy jetsetter rather than a Modesto fertilizer salesman. He kept up the subterfuge even as rescuers were searching for Laci's body. On New Year's
Eve, Scott pretended he was calling Amber from Paris during a fireworks celebration, and acted as he were having a difficult time hearing her because of a scratchy phone connection from way across the sea, revealed in a tape of the call played at his murder trial:

 

Frey: Hello.

Peterson: (loud music playing) Amber?

Frey: Hi.

Peterson: Amber?

Frey: I can hear you.

Peterson: (loud static) Amber?

Frey: l can hear you.

Peterson: Amber, if you can hear me it's New Year's.

Frey: I know. I can hear you.

Peterson: (static) Amber? Amber it's News Year's! Are you there?

Frey: Yes. Are you having a good time?

Peterson: Amber? Hey, Happy New Years!

Frey: Happy New Year.

Peterson: I wanted to call you.

Frey: Thank you.

Peterson: Amber, are you there?

Frey: I'm here.

Peterson: Amber?

Frey: I wish you could hear me.

Peterson: I'm on the, uh . . . I think that you're there. I'm uh near the Eiffel Tower and the New Year's celebration is unreal. The crowd is huge.

Frey: The crowd's huge?

Peterson: Amber?

Frey: Yeah, I'm here.

Peterson: Amber, if you're there I can't hear you right now, but I'll call you on your New Year's.

Frey: Okay. I'll hear from you then.

Peterson: Amber? Amber, I miss ya. I'll see you soon.

Figure 13.5. Scott clowns around in a Santa hat with his mistress, Amber, before a Christmas party. Laci vanished a short time after this photo was taken, and Scott was arrested for her murder a few months later when her body washed up on shore in San Francisco Bay.
Presented in evidence at Scott Peterson's murder trial.

Scott kept up the Europe tale for a number of days. He next “traveled” to Brussels, and told his lover he did a face-plant while jogging on the slippery cobblestones. “Can you hear the light-rail train?” he asks her at one point, and gushes about the “neat big churches,” and the “clean” European capitals where people get up in the morning at 9 or 10 and enjoy “two months off a year.” His “French has gotten a lot better in the last week,” he tells her. Then, it's off to Madrid, where his company's production headquarters are located (Brussels is the firm's “financial headquarters,” he tells Amber). He
tries to explain the time differences between California and Europe, and peppers his conversations with: “Amber, are you there?”—pretending to be having trouble with his international phone connection. These lengthy, affectionate calls in which Scott professes his love and calls Amber “Sweetie” occur when volunteers are hunting for Laci, divers are searching the park canal, and members of the public are reporting sighting women who look like her. Scott asks Amber, “Can I tell you how wonderful you are?” and cites poetry to her: “
We huddle under a large tree round with ivy with the storm raging around us. The only thing keeping me grounded are my hands on your waist.
”

The last time Peterson saw Amber in person was December 14, and he used several stories—other than traveling to Europe—to explain his absence, including the distance to her home from his “in Sacramento,” Detective Allen Brocchini testified. Their last night together, he told Amber he was going back to Sacramento, then flying out from San Francisco to Maine or Arizona, Brocchini testified. Frey “also said that she spoke to him twice on Christmas day, correct?” prosecutor Rick Distaso asked Brocchini.

 

Brocchini: Yes.

Distaso: Before that, she said he called two days later from Sacramento, and said that he was getting ready to go to Kennebunkport in Maine, to stay with his parents for Christmas, right?

Brocchini: Yes
.

Distaso: And did you later find out that that information was not true?

Brocchini: Yes.

Distaso: Where was he?

Brocchini: At the police station.

Distaso: Okay. So he wasn't in Kennebunkport, Maine?

Brocchini: No.

 

Chillingly, Scott told Amber that December that he'd be able to spend more time with her in January. He also told her that he intended to get a vasectomy because he didn't want children. He then mentioned an interesting book he had read: Jack Kerouac's
On the Road
. It was “mentally interesting to me simply because I never had a prolonged period of freedom like that
from responsibility, you know, and interesting to me and something that you could incorporate into life,” Scott said in his taped phone conversation played for jurors. He also named his favorite movie,
The Shining
, about a psychopathic killer dad, played by Jack Nicholson, who tries to murder his wife and young son.

Just weeks before Laci went missing, Shawn Sibley learned from a mutual business associate that Scott was married. She was furious, and she confronted him, but Scott again insisted he was single. Later, he left a voice message on her cell phone. “He's sobbing on my voicemail saying, ‘I'm sorry I lied to you earlier. I had been married. It's just too painful for me to talk about. Call me,'” Sibley testified. When she called him, “Scott's just sobbing hysterically,” she recalled. “He says, ‘I'm so sorry I lied to you earlier. I had been married. I lost my wife. It's too painful for me to talk about. Please just give me the opportunity to tell Amber in person. Please don't tell her. He's begging me this whole time. And I said, ‘Scott, I don't care if you are widowed, or you're divorced. All I care about is are you currently married right now?' And he said, ‘No, absolutely not.'”

A week later Scott arranged over the phone to meet with Amber at her house because he had something important to tell her.

 

Harris: And what did the defendant say to you?

Frey (so softly the judge had to tell her repeatedly to speak up): He said that he had lied to me about ever being married, and he stated that sometimes for himself, it was easier for him to say that he was not or never had been married.