MR. MANIAC

CHAPTER 4

It was 11 in the morning... The sun hid behind pink and purple clouds, the air was crisp and cold, there was a still breeze... as if time had stopped this time of morning, near dawn. Layla and Tug were out in this melancholy weather. Of course accompanied by the FBI's crime scene investigative team, and two fellow agents. One of them being a rather tall yet burly man with a hefty mustache rarely seen today, and the second agent an averaged sized seasoned man like Tug, only with the look of weariness on his face, and a tiredness in his eyes... as if he'd seen it all before, and had seen enough. They all greeted each other cordially,

"Agent Montgomery, a pleasure to be working with you and the lady here." The burly mustache man said

"Hello, I'm Agent Chase. It's a pleasure." The tired man said as he shook Tug's hand, then Layla's

"What exactly do we have here?"

"Another Maniac murder, this guy was tied up to some part of the guy's car then his face was used as a dry sled all along the highway. Forensics are saying the time of death was at least one a.m. this morning. The guy suffered massive head trauma till it killed him." Tug explained

Layla held up a plastic evidence bag, a medium sized chunk of rubber lay in it lifelessly. "We found this in the victim's head, it seems this Maniac guy ran him over as the final blow."

"We're thinking maybe this happened around 12 am this morning. Knowing this guy we might see another one of these before the day is through."

Layla surveyed the scene, looking desperately for anything that could help. She wasn't about to let another murder go by after reading those files. She couldn't bear another sight of it, or another sleepless night of it. Tug gazed into the evidence bag at the fragment of tire, this gave Layla a burst of excitement. An idea had formed into her head.

"What if we cross referenced that tire piece?"

"We could give it a try but I doubt anything would turn up, I mean tires are a wide range of things to go on." Montgomery said

"These skid marks aren't your regular tires. If this guy was doing 360's every couple miles and only this much of the tire came off, it must've had to have been sports or racing tires. Regular tires can't take that much punishment on asphalt roads." Layla said quite matter-of-factly

"And how would you know?" Agent Chase said, doubtful
"My father was a mechanic after he gave up circuit racing." She said defensively, Tug intervened

"Look whether it comes up a dead end or not we're gonna try it. We got nothing else to go on and I'm not waiting around on my ass. Have forensics get to it asap. We'll see what comes up. In the meantime, somebody bagged this guy up, I'm sick of looking at him, god rest his soul." Tug said with authority

Everyone cleared out, forensics was in for a tireless night.

†

Layla and Agent Doyle sat in a café across the street from the bureau. Mulling over small talk and casually flirting. Doyle places his hand on Layla's as she tells a story about something or another. He caresses her hand softly with his index finger, she blushes as he says sweet nothings to her quietly. She interlocks fingers with him. They lean forward and share an Eskimo kiss, then head out back towards the bureau. Layla gives Doyle her number, and kisses him softly on his lips.

"This must stay personal, it shouldn't and won't affect our job Agent." Layla said, trying her best to sound stern though still flustered

"Of course Agent, and... call me Aaron." He said with a giggle They kiss once more and hurry back into the building.