A less competent investigator would have flashed on a light or rushed heedlessly into peril.
You threaten him because down deep he knows you're what he isn't - a competent investigator.
Along with this, Professor Bayley said, the board must receive enough money to insure that it has a staff of competent investigators.
He was handling his facts the way I would have done it, the way any competent investigator would.
There are certainly plenty of competent private investigators in this area; I'm sure there are many you've worked with before.
I had believed, though you have countless flaws, you were, at least, a competent investigator.
Mr. Giuliani said the current case might have been avoided if the 1998 allegations "had been turned over to a competent investigator."
He came to have an almost religious conviction that the Mafia could be beaten by dedicated and competent investigators.
Some of it is the work of marginally competent investigators.
The records do not show that any such faculty was ever demonstrated to the satisfaction of any competent scientific investigator.