A Deadly Game by Catherine Crier Page A

of occasions, begging her for another chance. Even after they split, Scott would come to Michelle's house, eager to woo her back, trying to rekindle their sexual relationship.
    Still, it was only a few weeks after Scott and Michelle split up in 1995 that he began dating Laci Rocha.
    Laci was also attending Cal Poly. One of her friends was employed at the Pacific Cafe, and Laci would occasionally come in to visit. Scott, always charming and well mannered, caught her attention, and she asked her friend about him. Scott, in turn, had noticed the petite, curvy former cheerleader with the engaging smile.
    Laci asked her friend to give Scott her phone number. When handed the slip, Scott assumed his coworker was playing a trick and tossed the paper in the trash. When he realized it wasn't a joke, he retrieved the number.
    From the moment she wrote the note, Laci was confident that Scott would call her. Indeed, she'd already told her mother she'd met the man she wanted to marry-that she'd fallen in love with Scott on sight. Sharon asked if she'd gone out with him yet. Laci said no, but predicted that they'd go out together soon. This was entirely in character for Laci. A confident young woman, she could also be headstrong and was used to getting her way. Both her mother and her sister, Amy, said the same thing: If Laci put her mind to something, look out.
    Before long , Scott did ask her out on the deep sea fishing trip he'd mentioned to the police. Laci became seasick, however, and the excursion ended sooner than planned. Still, the attraction between Scott and Laci was strong and the two continued dating. Laci told her mother that she'd found her lifelong partner.
    Several weeks later, Scott invited both women to the Pacific Cafe He greeted them politely as they entered the trendy restaurant, and led them to their table, where he had specially arranged a dozen white roses at Sharon's place setting and a dozen red ones for her daughter. Scott's parents also met Laci soon after the two began dating. The Petersons liked the bubbly, dark-haired beauty from the start but their other children found it surprising that Scott had picked a girl with a colorful sunflower tattooed on her left ankle. They thought it was "outrageous."
    What Laci didn't realize was that, while all this was going on, her new boyfriend was still pleading with his ex, Michelle, to take him back. Scott brought Laci into the Pacific Cafe during Michelle's shift to try to make her jealous, and even introduced the two women. At some point, Laci apparently caught on and became upset? but in the end she prevailed. Michelle moved away from San Luis Obispo about
    two months after their breakup and never saw or spoke to Scott again.
    By Christmas 1995, Laci had moved into Scott's apartment Her holiday gift to him was the auburn haired puppy they named McKenzie. Laci graduated from Cal Poly the following spring with a degree in ornamental horticulture. Scott had avoided alcohol in high school, while dating Dawn Hood, but with Laci, he developed a taste for good wine. Indeed, Scott's parents told investigators that when they dined with Scott and Laci, they insisted that the younger couple pay for their own bottles because they had such expensive taste.
    When I started reading about the couple's early years together, Scott's personality traits began making sense to me. A sociopath is quite capable of morphing into the very person his companion needs. It is this ability to manipulate, ultimately for selfish reasons, that is a hallmark of this behavior disorder.
    Just as he had with Stephanie the health nut, and then again with Janet Use the vegetarian, Scott seemed to get through life by mirroring the needs of his companions. He quickly became, at least on the surface, the person Laci wanted him to be: the rising young entrepreneur and suburban father, who spent time remodeling the home, working in the yard, and joining her to entertain friends and neighbors. Later, with Amber