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Novelo Rectangle

Max followed Jenna up the familiar walkway they remembered from the video they just reviewed. He noted the direction from which the camera was pointed and located a neatly perched surveillance mechanism, tucked away hidden in the shrubbery hugging the fence line. A small drone, with an even smaller camera mechanism, unprofessionally wired and hot glued to the drone. He quickly turned the device sideways to ensure it wouldn't capture their visit, making a mental note to grab it before they returned to the precinct.&nbsp; Jenna passed a few polite knocks on the door as he stepped up the deck to join her.&nbsp; The door rattled a moment, and the small figure of a brittle man made his way out to greet them. "How can I help you?" He gasped.&nbsp; "Detective Jenna Reyes, this is my partner, Detective Max Clyde, we are investigating a series of burglaries in the area, and we have reason to believe this residence is connected Do you have time to answer a few questions for us?" She summed it up quickly and kindly. It was quite obvious this man couldn't be directly involved. He could barely speak without his lungs reacting to the triathlon it was to get from his lazy-boy chair to the front door.&nbsp; "Certainly, come in, Albert Smith." he introduced himself and waved them to follow him back in. "But I don't believe anything has gone missing here, I am not sure what help I will be." The old man scuffed his way back to settle in his chair, waving to welcome them to have a seat across his sofa.&nbsp; He clearly spent most of his time lounging in that spot, reviewing the newspaper, and collecting finished sudoku puzzles. It didn't appear as though he spent much time in any other parts of his house. "Actually, sir, we are searching for a woman, about 5'2, short brown hair, Evelyn Reynolds. We have reason to believe you know this woman." Max tried to appear patient and unconnected, but he was so close to finding her finally.&nbsp; "Oh, I don't know an Evelyn Reynolds, I am sorry. I don't get out much." The old man was sincere in his reaction, but it felt suspicious considering they had video evidence that he spoke to her, and she was welcome in his home.&nbsp; "We actually have a video recording that&nbsp;shows you speaking to this woman, momentarily on your front patio. Do you have any ideas who that would be?" Jenna took over to make sure to hold Max's insistence at bay.&nbsp; The old man grew worried as he made a realization, "My daughter. Well, daughter-in-law, you could say. It's complicated. She visits me every few days to help switch my tanks and brings me groceries every Thursday. Jade Evans." He noted, taking a sip of his iced tea. "She isn't in any sort of trouble, is she?"&nbsp; "We aren't quite sure just yet, Albert. Do you know of any trouble she could be in? Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt her?" Max jumped back in again.&nbsp; It was clear there was more to the story, but he couldn't help but feel a quick stab at the mention of her being a 'daughter-in-law'. At one point, he'd imagined his family as the only family she would have - and it felt odd to consider she was someone new entirely. The unexpected details had him regaining his focus. "Not particularly. She's a good kid. Sticks to herself and her computers. The only thing I can think would be my no-good spawn, Jordan. They were supposed to get married a few years back, but he took off and got hooked back on the drugs. We haven't seen him since. Other than that, I don't imagine anyone would hurt her. She is sweet as candy."&nbsp; Max felt a sense of relief, knowing someone still viewed her as sweet. Maybe she hadn't completely changed. Still. 15 years was a long time for someone to go through many changes. He had to stay neutral and objective.&nbsp; "You said she works with computers. What does that entail?" Jenna took over again to redirect Max's attention.&nbsp; "Oh, she is brilliant with computers. She has a repair shop over off Bandon Avenue - but she also likes to tinker with different things, in fact, she set up a whole system of monitoring devices I use when I sleep at night, she tracks my breathing and blood pressure levels, and it sends her alerts to her phone. There's been a handful of nights she's shown up to wake me up to make sure I'm doing okay." He chuckled in appreciation. "She won't let me just die already."&nbsp; This made sense to Max. She had always been trying to take care of others. Any time he got sick, she would skip school to bring him soup, knowing his parents were gone at their respective jobs. When Mom was sick, Evelyn would clean the house, and feed the dogs, and make sure Max was doing his homework. He knew she would grow up to take care of people.&nbsp; "It sounds like she really cares for you. You are a lucky man!" Jenna chimed in. "Well, she doesn't have to. It should be him. Like I said, she's a sweet kid. I don't know what I'd do without her."&nbsp; Jenna finished gathering a few more details, as Max took a moment to look around the house.&nbsp; It was a nice house, but he had clearly lived there for many years, possibly since his own childhood. Or at least, it seemed like it. He also could have just been a collector of vintage furniture.&nbsp; The yellow tinting on the walls gave a pretty good idea of what lead up to his need for an oxygen tank. Though, Max wasn't really one to judge. He'd spent a few years being angry about losing his father, and needed the comfort of cancer in a stick.&nbsp; Making his way through the kitchen, he stopped to noticed familiar handwriting, and then, a familiar face. He noticed a picture on the fridge that appeared to be Evelyn standing next to Albert in front of a nearby waterfall. He didn't have his oxygen tube in, indicating this was some time ago.&nbsp; It was definitely her. There is no way she had a doppelganger that is closely identical to her. She even had the same X shaped scar on her eyebrow. One he remembered giving her.&nbsp; ----- "Max, stop pushing!" A six year old Evelyn screamed at the top of ger lungs.&nbsp; "Quit being a baby, Evelyn. It's not even going that fast!" He continued to spin the merry, go round faster as she desperately clung to the bar.&nbsp; "I hate you, Max! When I get down from here, I am never playing with you again!" The words stuck him worse than a bumble bee, and he instantly grabbed hold of the spinning roundabout and jerked it to a stop.&nbsp; Losing her grip, Evelyn went flying sideways into the next bar over, bumping her face right into the bar beside her. Screaming, she went running towards her mother.&nbsp; He followed behind, head held low as he approached their mothers at the bench.&nbsp; "I'm sorry, Evelyn. I didn't mean for it to stop so hard." He slumped as she burrowed her face in her mother's coat.&nbsp; As blood smeared across Christine's blouse, Joyce insisted she take them to urgent care. "That one looks good enough for stitches."&nbsp; Evelyn had screamed the whole way to the emergency room. On the opposite side of the car, Max had silently cried.&nbsp; ----- As the duo loaded back into the car, Jenna made a quick call to Harris. "Hey bud, I need to run anything you can find on a Jade Evans... Yes, or at least that's the name she's going by. And Max is pretty confident that its her. Yes. Uh-huh. Okay. Got it. We'll see you soon."&nbsp; Max pulled away from the sidewalk and instantly burrowed deeper into his autopilot. That would explain why he never could find any record on her since she ran away. If she had been using an alias, of course, he would have never found her. But why? Why go through all the trouble to change her name?&nbsp; Everything seemed so conflicting. On the one hand, nothing specifically defined her innocence. On the other, he couldn't help but feel like she was in danger.&nbsp; Max turned down Maxwell Road, 3 miles down he would meet Bandon Avenue, and he could finally be sure if it was Evelyn. However, right now, they needed to make it back to the station and have the drone inspected. Stammets also dismissed himself to meet at the cemetery, so Max was assigned to manage the floor for the remainder of his shift.&nbsp; Maybe it was just being so close to finding her that pulled him into resentment for desk duty, but right now he couldn't imagine being stuck at the office all day. Field work seemed much more soothing to him. Even when he was facing a homicide case, or active hostage situations, he wasn't sure he'd be able to hear about it from the sidelines.&nbsp; "I don't think she's a suspect." Jenna chimed in, to get rid of the silence.&nbsp; "What?" Max tried to adjust himself back to focus. "I think whoever is sending you those messages wants you to think harder than you need to. To get under your skin, so you forget what we're actually looking for." She noted, trying to be supportive.&nbsp; "I can do my job just fine." He snapped. "Yes, and he's counting on that. You're going to do everything by the book, you're going to be objective, even if you have feelings." She paused. "If he can encourage you to believe there's more reasons to play it by the book, you're going to push yourself to be extra careful about it."&nbsp; "So what, you think I should break some rules, just to piss this guy off?" He smirked, reveling in another one of Jenna's geniusly stupid ideas.&nbsp; "No, I just mean, don't go so hard on yourself. We don't know what we don't know. Luckily, it's our job to figure that out. But, we have to do our job to do that first. Answers take time." She took a sip from her coffee mug, realizing she was tiptoeing into some quicksand. She needed to back off before she got too much sappier.&nbsp; "I know. But I've spent 15 years trying to find her. I don't even understand WHY I feel an urgent need to find her."&nbsp; He was just a boy when she moved in next door, but from the day she did, his parents were always involved in Evelyn's life. His father and Stammets spent alot of time helping Evelyn's mother with different projects. Her car, the broken sink, the back patio when it rotted out. And his Mother and Christine were virtually inseparable. Almost as if they were sisters.&nbsp; Until Christine died, and Evelyn came to live with his family. From there, they'd become best friends, though some people would confuse them as siblings. Max always hated that. She wasn't his sister. She was his future wife. At least that's how he'd viewed it growing up.&nbsp; And the night she disappeared was tragic, and left many questions unanswered. From her running late, and seemingly anxious about someone following her, to her utter horror when Stammets came to tell Max that his father was in an accident, to her suddenly disappearing to her room unable to bear Joyce's heartache, and then making a silent escape into the night.&nbsp; He always questioned why she suddenly became so shifty. What was going through her mind? Why didn't she tell him what she was thinking? Why did she leave him on the night he needed her most? Why did she give up the only safe home she had left? After her mother died, his family was all she had. Where did she go?&nbsp; "Well, we have a pretty strong lead. Let's go see what Harris has to say!" Jenna reminded him to grab the drone, and they made their way back into the building to get back to work.&nbsp;

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Finding Jade

Finding Jade

EvonyJade

Shyanne Ordiway

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