A Perfect Husband (10 page)

Being financially secure allowed Michael the freedom to work at his own pace, which was important for a man like Peterson, who took painstaking efforts to study the origins of war, the governments and politics of Southeast Asia. His novels were historically based, very intense tales, and Peterson made sure that all his facts and figures were to the letter. Reportedly, Peterson had received over $600,000 for
A Time of War
, a book that centered on a fictional diplomat, Bradley Marshall. The figure could never be confirmed, but there was proof that the book had sold well, and had also been optioned by a network for a miniseries.

But after that one
New York Times
bestseller, unfortunately, Michael Peterson saw no other real success. His sequel to that novel,
A Bitter Peace
, was not received well by the public. The book chronicled the evolved circumstances of Bradley Marshall, who made efforts to help end the conflict in Vietnam in the early 1970s. The narrative presented Marshall as a man on a mission, as a man of honor who tried to achieve peace in Vietnam. Peterson had based one of female characters on Kathleen, and she was entirely flattered by that. His wife held book-launching parties for him, and their friends all agreed that it was a captivating work. Everyone was certain it would go bestseller. It would be a book that readers wouldn't be able to put down.

With his first book out of print, with his
New York Times
bestseller never having been transformed into a miniseries, Peterson needed
A Bitter Peace
to be a national hit. But Michael and Kathleen's hopes for
A Bitter Peace
were never realized. A reviewer from
Publishers Weekly
said Peterson's narrative was impeded by storytelling that fell flat. The fact that his third novel was largely ignored by readers was a real blow to him, both financially and personally.

That was one of the reasons why Peterson's fourth book was all the more important for him. Aside from being a story he believed in, the book was a departure from war novels. For Peterson, who had never written a nonfiction work before,
Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company
became a labor of love. The book told the real-life story of a young orphaned Chinese boy who was befriended by a company of marines during World War II. A tale that embodied what was still the American dream: “Charlie” was eventually saved from starvation in his war-torn region of China. The marines helped their friend Charlie make the odyssey to freedom in America. It was a years-long effort, but Charlie ultimately settled in the serenity and beauty of Chapel Hill.

In order to write
Charlie Two Shoes
, Michael Peterson worked with a coauthor, the North Carolina journalist David Perlmutt. Critically, the book was well received, and was even praised by Norman Vincent Peale in a 1993 quote, which was placed on its jacket. Michael Peterson had hopes that it would become the next
Saving Private Ryan
. As it happened, it was Michael's good friend Nick Galifianakis who had pushed the project along. Nick was hopeful about the potential movie deal, and knew that a film option had already been signed
.
There was much talk among the Peterson clan that the true-life story would be made into a film; and in the meantime, the book had a tremendous regional following, which was a blessing in and of itself.

Everyone knew it was a noble story, one of bravery and courage in the face of impossible odds. Everyone felt it was exactly the kind of project that Hollywood producers were looking for, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when patriotism and brave soldiers were all front-page news. The timing was right, and Michael Peterson, as well as his many supporters, felt he had earned it.

In fact, Michael and Kathleen had been celebrating the movie option for
Charlie Two Shoes
on the night of her death.

But no one ever knew if an actual movie was going to be made. If real money was going to be paid, actors would have had to sign on, a director would have had to been attached, and none of these things had happened yet. There was no green light from a studio; there was nothing concrete. When the media asked Galifianakis to confirm the details about the film project, he said he couldn't discuss it.

 

 

The court motion filed by David Rudolf on December 21, 2001, asked that Michael Peterson be released from jail on a $1 million property bond. Rudolf argued that Peterson was not a likely flight risk. Peterson would use his mansion as collateral, and of course he would not skip town. Rudolf insisted that Mr. Peterson was a most worthy citizen.

But certain things had turned up about Michael Peterson, as a public figure, that made people wonder just how worthy he was.

There was his claim that he had earned two Purple Hearts for service in Vietnam. But in 1999, when Peterson ran for mayor, reporters uncovered a lie: the Purple Hearts were found to be a total fabrication. At the time, Peterson held a press conference to explain that his war injuries had been caused by a car accident in Japan. He told reporters that he hadn't ever explained the circumstances surrounding his Purple Hearts because the memories were too painful for him. Peterson insisted that he did receive the Purple Hearts, even though there were no military records of them, even though he couldn't produce the medals. Then there was a 1993 driving while intoxicated (DWI) charge against Peterson later reduced to wreckless driving, which had been discovered and reported by the media as well.

But even more curious to the general public was a 1994 incident involving his son Clayton Peterson, who was convicted for placing a pipe bomb in the main administration building at Duke University. Clayton Peterson, a onetime engineering student at Duke, claimed the bomb and the accompanying threatening letter were just a hoax. And even though Michael Peterson had tried to pass off the incident as a childish prank, his nineteen-year-old son would spend four years in prison.

Now, with Mr. Peterson facing a first-degree murder charge, each of his past failings would come back to haunt him. David Rudolf would do everything he could to distract the public from gossiping about Peterson's failed political career, about Peterson's “Duke Bomber” son, about Peterson's bogus Purple Hearts. And, in fact, none of that past history really mattered. The truth was, the man was being charged with murder, and all the gossip, all the spin, didn't make him a guilty man.

In direct response to the indictment, Rudolf reminded the public that the case was entirely circumstantial, and insisted to reporters that the crime scene police were relying upon was “hopelessly contaminated and mishandled from the beginning.”

In one of Rudolf's defense motions, he criticized the police investigation. Among his concerns: friends and family members were allowed into the Peterson house before police began gathering evidence; items listed as being seized in police search warrants were never removed from the home; Michael Peterson and others had been allowed into the stairwell, destroying the integrity of the scene.

In an overwhelming attack on the prosecutor and the Durham police, David Rudolf's motion suggested that the officials had rushed to judgment. In his view, even if it were possible that Kathleen Peterson's injuries hadn't been caused by a fall, the police and the DA were ignoring the idea that someone other than Michael Peterson could have been responsible for Kathleen's death.

Rudolf would begin to talk about a possible “intruder theory.”

Rudolf told the court that Peterson's home was rarely locked. The defense attorney would note that in June 2001, an unknown intruder had entered the residence after midnight and had stolen a computer and a cellular phone. Allegedly, the Peterson house had been broken into on at least two other occasions, and the cars in their driveway had been broken into at least six times.

Rudolf asserted that if, by chance, someone had struck Mrs. Peterson, it was far more likely to have been an intruder. It was Rudolf's view that there was no evidence, no motive, to show that Michael Peterson was in any way responsible for the death of his wife. Michael and Kathleen Peterson were dutiful partners. There was never any trouble in their marriage. There was never any hint of physical or verbal abuse between them.

David Rudolf argued that in order to believe that Michael Peterson killed his wife, Peterson had to have gone from being a loving and respectful husband to a premeditated murderer overnight. And that concept, Rudolf claimed, was something that “strained credulity to the breaking point.”

Without listening to any testimony or arguments, a superior court judge ruled that Michael Peterson would be held without bond. Awaiting a new hearing, which had been scheduled for January 22, 2002, Mr. Peterson, having dressed in street clothes, fully expected to be released on bond for the Christmas holidays. He slumped down in his chair and hung his head as Judge Ron Stephens announced his decision.

His attorneys, David Rudolf and Thomas Maher, were astounded. They had not only offered to arrange a $1 million property bond, but had also offered to have Nick Galifianakis, a former U.S. Congressman, monitor Mr. Peterson's whereabouts. To them, the decision had come from out of the blue. They had no explanation to give any member of Michael's family. The whole Peterson clan had come to Durham to support Michael—filling the courtroom in a standing-room-only crowd. But none of them could believe their ears as they heard the judge deny bond. They felt the court was treating the family harshly.

“This is absolutely unbelievable all around,” Caitlin Atwater told members of the press, insisting that her mother and Michael had the “most amazing, loving relationship ever” and were “ideal parents.” Caitlin and her four siblings were tearful and shaking their heads as they watched Michael being quietly led away by deputies to spend his second night in jail. As they struggled to subdue themselves, their tears quickly turned to indignation.

To the media, Caitlin became vocal and outraged about her stepdad being treated so unfairly. She told reporters that her mother would be “absolutely appalled” by the idea of Michael spending the holidays in jail, reiterating that neither Michael nor Kathleen would ever, in any way, harm each other. Her stepbrother Todd felt the judge's ruling was beyond unfair. In shock and disbelief, he said that having his father in jail would create “the most unbelievably heartbreaking Christmas” anyone could imagine.

David Rudolf promised the family that he would not give up easily. He was willing to do research to see if Judge Stephens's ruling could be contested in the state court of appeals. He told media that if police believed that Kathleen Peterson hadn't died from a fall, they needed to be “looking for an intruder” and not focusing on Michael Peterson.

Rudolf wasn't convinced that an aggravating factor existed. The attorney felt that Kathleen's death was more consistent with a fall, mentioning to reporters that the forty-eight-year-old Kathleen Peterson had been drinking on the night of her death. Rudolf also said that Mrs. Peterson had suffered “a couple of recent blackout periods.” Though Rudolf didn't have any medical reports available, he was having independent experts examine the autopsy reports and other evidence.

Peterson's attorney felt it was improper to deny bond before the prosecution made at least some showing of an aggravating factor. But it was Jim Hardin's position that his office was merely complying with the law, which deemed they need only state that an aggravating factor did exist. The DA did not have to specify what that aggravating factor was.

In Michael Peterson's journal entry from his jail cell, entitled “Christmas Eve,” the novelist said he was writing a journal in order to keep his sanity. Consumed with thoughts of his wife and children, he was writing, also, to keep his “horror at bay.” No longer locked in solitary confinement, he was spending the night before Christmas with twenty-three other jail mates in the C-pod of the county jail. He felt sorry for all the men housed there. The place was so dank; the place seemed inhuman.

In one of Peterson's journal entries, he wrote sympathetically about the men he shared his sorrows with, categorizing sixteen blacks, six whites, and two Hispanics. These were a group of men who were once little boys, little boys waiting for Santa, perhaps with sugarplums dancing in their heads. Peterson wrote about the gestures of a “toothless Santa,” an inmate in an orange suit, who handed out packages of Honey Buns bought for a few dollars in the jail's commissary.

Inside the cold, stark county jail, Peterson's life seemed upside down. His Christmas holidays, typically filled with eggnog and designer gifts, had become a time of unbearable grief. Not only was he unjustly housed in a jail cell, he was unable to see any of his family, not even his children. He had been allowed no local visitors for Christmas because of what the rules dictated.

Even though the jail had made a special meal for the inmates, feeding them the traditional mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry salad with oven-baked chicken, the food was assembly-line caliber. And when the detention officers handed out little gift bags to the inmates, gifts provided by the Salvation Army, the bags held nothing but soap, deodorant, and toothpaste.

 

 

As Mr. Peterson sat in jail, helpless to do anything but write, the Web site he had created, Hizzoner.com, was providing the general public with information about a possible link between Kathleen Peterson's death and a man who had been charged with several break-ins near the Peterson home. The unnamed man had allegedly broken into homes on three streets within half a mile of Peterson's Cedar Street mansion.

The information about the burglar had been posted by Peterson's friend and Web site editor, Guy Seaberg. And Seaberg wanted the public to be aware that if, indeed, Kathleen's injuries showed an aggravating factor, if her injuries showed that her death was not an accident, then authorities had an obligation. Durham police needed to question the man already being held in jail for a rash of burglaries in Forest Hills.