The Attorney General for the state of New York, Albert Harley, had arrived and many were curious as to why we had shown up there. To the shock of everyone, he was there with an arrest warrant.
"We've come here to take Peter Martinez into custody. He's being charged with a recent string of murders." The Attorney General Mr. Harley said.
"What are talking about? Surely you can't mean the murders that we've been investigating? That couldn't possibly be the case, he was with us the time the last body was discovered. We know it couldn't be him." Samantha replied.
"That's true, but time of death isn't always completely accurate. And to be honest, I'm under a lot of pressure from the Mayor and the Governor to get this case closed. New York is a big city and as you know the public trust in law enforcement is at an all time low. If news about a serial killer that rips his victim apart with his bare hands got out there'd be panic in the streets." Mr. Harley said.
"So? What does that have to do with Peter?" Samantha asked.
"Well, to be frank, I'm not convinced that he committed these murders either. However, as he is the only person that we know of who's capable of making these wounds, he is our only suspect right now."
"That may be, but you can arrest him based purely on that."
"Usually you'd be right, but like I said there are extenuating circumstances this time. I'm acting on orders from my bosses. Unfortunately my hands are tied." Mr. Harley said. "Listen, I understand how you guys must feel but I'm just doing what I'm ordered to. I can give you guys 24 hours, but after that I'll have to charge him. In the meantime, we'll have to keep him in a holding cell at NYPD."
Samantha and the team worked as hard as they could to make a break through on the case, but they weren't able to make any progress. As the clock was ticking down, Samantha went to visit Peter at the police station.
"Sorry, we haven't been able to make any progress with getting you out of here." Samantha said.
"It's no big deal, worst case I can just break out or here. It's pretty easy." Peter said indifferently.
"You know you shouldn't talk about breaking out of jail so casually."
"Anyway, I've had some time to think about the case. Do you still have the list of suspects I told you to get?"
"You mean the list of people in the city with mountain climbing or gymnastics experience? Yeah I have it but we already went over it. Everyone on the list had an alibi."
"Just let me see it. I get the feeling that you missed something." Peter said as he flipped through the pages of the list.
New York City has the highest population in the country and the list of people in the city with the kind of experience they were looking for was in the thousands. It'd be easy to overlook a name on a list this large. However, Peter found the name that he was looking for.
"Look right here, check this guy out." Peter said pointing to a name on the list.
Samantha and Peter's meeting was interrupted by Brian walking into the interview room.
"Samantha, we have to go. The AG is going to be here in a few hours to formally charge Peter." He said as he beckoned her towards him.
"You know, you haven't been trying that hard to help Peter get out of here. You don't really think he did it do you?" She asked him.
"I don't know, you know that I never really trusted that guy in the first place."
"Well, you should at least be able to trust him a little bit. He did save your life." She said as she walked off in a huff.
Brian felt obligated to go back and have a one on one talk with Peter about the situation. He only stayed for a short time and just a few hours later the Attorney General came to charge Peter with a string of murders that he didn't commit. He entered Peter's holding cell alone.
"Well, it's time to get this started. Are you ready?" Mr. Harley asked. "I know this situation must be difficult for you to deal with but it's just the way things have to be."
"It's fine, I understand. In fact, while we're alone, I'd like to take this chance to confess." Peter replied.