It had been a few weeks since Samantha had brought Peter on as a consultant, but he had yet to participate in a case yet.
"I don't know why you ever made a deal with that guy. I'd rather just lock him up." Brian said.
"Oh come on don't say that. He did save your life after all." Samantha reminded him.
"And while I'm grateful for that, I just don't see what help he'd ever be to us. I mean bringing him in as a consultant? What could he possibly consult us in?" He asked.
"Well he seems to be a martial arts expert."
"Exactly my point! Despite recent events, it's not like we get martial arts related cases very often."
Just as Brian finished speaking another agent came in with a new case. "Boss, we just got sent a new case. Apparently there's been a serial killer targeting martial artists."
"That… is just a coincidence." Brian said as Samantha gave him a look.
Reluctantly he brought Peter in to review the details of the case. "So apparently there's been a string of murders of martial arts black belts ranging from Los Angeles all the way here to New York. In all, there's been over 40 murders, we're starting to suspect that they may have been carried out by the same person. Do you think that's a valid theory?" Samantha asked as Peter has sifting through the case files.
"Yeah, if you ask me. This guy seems like a Dojo Buster." Peter replied.
"What's that?" She asked.
"Well some people have different terms for it but basically it's a guy that goes around challenging the toughest guy in a dojo to a fight and beats them. It's supposed to show the superiority of your own school of martial arts over the other. Though in this case I'd say that it's just a guy who wants to prove his own personal strength." Peter replied.
"Well, there's one problem with that theory." Brian interrupted. "There's no evidence on this guy's identity. If this guy wanted to prove his strength, wouldn't he have put on more of a show of it? Wouldn't he want people to know who he is?"
"Yeah that's actually a good point. It actually looks like he's been careful to not get caught. That makes me think that maybe he's looking for someone in particular. Like maybe there's a guy that beat him in the past, and he's hunting black belts until he can find this guy and beat him." Peter said shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know, it's just a theory."
"Well, it's more than what we had to go on before." Samantha said.
"I don't know, I think your theory seems a little far fetched. That being said, you're right about one thing. He's clearly hunting black belts." Brian said stroking his chin. A smirk then cracked across his face. "Say, you don't happen to have a black belt do you, Peter?"
"Yeah I've got…" Peter seemed to be doing some mental math as he could be seen counting with his fingers. "Well that's tough because I have black belts in Karate and Kung Fu, but of course there are several different styles of each martial art. Then of course, I have a black belt in judo, and there's a bunch of other martial arts that don't really have belts like Muay Thai and kickboxing. So it's kind of hard to say."
"I see, well this case should be a slam dunk then." Brian said as he rubbed his hands together.
"Brian, you aren't thinking what I think you are, are you?" Samantha asked.
"Hey, no way! You're not using me as bait!" Peter said as he figured out what Brian was planning.
"Why not? Listen it'll be a panic if it gets out to the public that a serial killer that has been massacring martial arts experts is on the loose." Brian responded. "Plus, it's not like you're scared of this guy are you?" Brian said, clearly trying to egg Peter on.
Peter could see through Brian's taunting, but that didn't mean that it didn't work. "Fine, I'll do it. Just don't make a big deal about me being here." Peter reluctantly agreed.
The next day, flyers were posted all over the town about an expert martial artist that was doing demonstrations at a local karate dojo. The flyer read:
Come see Peter Martinez, a black belt in every martial art! Demonstrations to be held a XYZ Dojo next Friday!
When Peter saw it he immediately tore several of the flyers down, but there were so many he couldn't possibly get them all. Plus these types of things were mostly spread on social media anymore anyway.
Peter burst into Brian's office in a fury. "Hey, what's your problem! I told you not make a big deal about it!" He said as he tossed the torn and crumpled flyers on his desk.