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By KIM CURTIS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Amber Frey's new book, while shedding little new light on the case against convicted double murderer Scott Peterson, offers a deeper look at a single mother desperate for love and how she was charmed by a smooth-talker.
Frey, 29, a Fresno massage therapist, became Peterson's girlfriend and later, the star prosecution witness at his six-month murder trial.
In "Witness For the Prosecution of Scott Peterson,'' Frey tells how she met Peterson after her best friend - who had met Peterson at a conference - set the two of them up.
She describes how Peterson coaxed her up to his hotel room moments after they met to "shower and change,'' then pulled out a bottle of champagne and a box of strawberries from his brown duffel bag.
Later, after dinner, they got "pretty tipsy'' and sang "Islands in the Stream'' at a karaoke lounge. Frey said she "ended up spending the night'' with Peterson.
"I liked him,'' she wrote in the book, which was released Monday by publisher Regan Books and goes on sale Tuesday. "I could see myself falling for a man like Scott Peterson.''
The 210-page book has chapter titles such as "Oh My God! Laci's baby is due on my birthday!'' and "Isn't that a little twisted, Scott?''
The book also features dozens of photographs of Frey - including a glamour shot taken when she was 18 and two dozen black-and-white frames from a "2000 modeling shoot'' that show a short-haired Frey in a see-through negligee.
Frey rehashes dozens of pages of recorded phone calls between her and Peterson, and reveals part of a letter Peterson wrote her from jail. She does not say whether the letter was written before or after his conviction.
"May fourth is Laci's birthday,'' Peterson wrote. "I am asking my close friends to fly a kite in her memory. She and Conner should not have been taken from the earth as they were. ... Children are miracles that we get (to) watch and help with. What a gift.''
Frey testified for six days in Peterson's trial, during which prosecutors played hours of the taped calls between the two. Though Peterson never implicated himself in the calls, they were central to the prosecution's case against him, portraying him as a callous liar who continued to carry on his affair even as police searched for his wife.
Peterson first told Frey he was unmarried, then claimed he had been married once but "lost'' his wife.
Frey stops short of saying she believes Peterson is guilty. But when the verdicts came on Nov. 12 she said that she was "relieved'' and that "justice had been served.''
"Once, long ago, Scott Peterson had charmed me. He was good at that. He knew how to charm people. He even knew how to make them fall in love with him,'' she wrote. "But there was nothing on the inside. He was an empty vessel. To me, Scott Peterson would always be a wolf in sheep's clothing.''
The 27-year-old Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002. Her remains and those of her 8-month-old fetus were discovered not far from where Peterson claims to have been fishing alone the day his wife vanished.
He was convicted Nov. 12 on two counts of murder. On Dec. 13, the jury imposed the death penalty. Formal sentencing is set for Feb. 25.
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