#sometimes I’ll check out their other stuff but 90% of my book tube involvement is bad book rants

[bookwyrminspiration]

I love several hour long video rants on bad books they are my life blood <3

[profitinaecho]

so You Wanna Spin Ch4

Max chews on his bottom lip looking at the board of victims in his office. He was looking forward to the day when the victims were all identified and he could replace the photos of their autopsy with a living photo of the victim before closing the cases when they caught the perpetrator. “Ok. So what do we know about the victims?”

Liz comes up beside him to see what he is looking at. “All of the victims died of strangulation with a ligature and were minority women between the ages of 18 and 25ish. But what do they have in common? Why were they chosen?”

“I guess we have to start DNA testing relatives of missing people that match the descriptions of the victims to identify them. Then we can see what they have in common by interviewing the families to try to catch this bastard.”

Liz nods in agreement. “I’ll get a box of swabs and labels then we can start organizing the missing persons reports so it is easier to locate their families.” Liz goes to get her box of samples while Max grabs the first binder. It has several reports flagged in it so it will take them a few days to track down the people that filed the report and go to them to get DNA samples to compare with the unidentified victims DNA.

“Here. Let me sort these by where in Roswell the family members live and whether any are from out of state.” Max starts shuffling the reports and putting them into piles based on which neighborhood and state they live in.

When Liz returns, Max is sorting the second to last binder so Liz picks up the remaining one to pull and sort the reports they flagged as being similar to their victims. They have a couple dozen families to visit to try to find a DNA match all live in New Mexico. Luckily, the three victims with out of state family members all live near El Paso, Tx and can be met with on one trip after Liz and Max interview and collect DNA from the local families.

“Ok. So we have 18 missing reports from families in Roswell, 5 from Sante Fe, 8 from Albuquerque, 4 from Las Cruces and 3 from El Paso. Let’s start with the ones in Roswell and work our way out. You call the first people and see if they're home, I’ll drive.” Max picks up his keys off his desk with the whimsical alien cowboy keychain.

“What if I want to drive?” Liz pouts, following him in her black slacks and southwestern coral colored blouse. As always at work, her hair is up in a tight no nonsense bun. Max hates those buns. He much prefers her hair  loose and wavy, but that is for off duty Liz and not something he gets to see any more. But that one time he saw her like that on their night in Colorado was everything.

Max smirks down at her. “You don’t have a badge so you can’t drive a cop car. You know that. Don’t give me that look.”

Liz grumbles, then goes around to the passenger side of his squad car. She hops a couple times trying to get up into the tall SUV and Max wills himself not to laugh. He asks if she needs help and with a grunt, she hoists herself up. “Nope! I’m picking the music.”

Liz puts on her seatbelt and reaches for the preset station buttons. Max is completely prepared to let her always pick the music, but he loves seeing her feisty side so he can’t help but argue. “No chick stuff.”

“What do you even think chick music is?” Liz puts it on the 90s station and bounces a little as an Nsync song comes on.

“Definitely whatever this is, but I’ll allow it.” Max looks over his shoulder, backing out of his parking spot and heading for the road.

“Ohhh. You’ll allow it. You’re not as tough as you think you are, Max Evans.” Liz looks to the side up at him through her long, black lashes.

“Don’t tell anybody.” He smiles back at her.

—————————-

Just down the street from the precinct, Max pulls into the driveway of the first family who reported a missing person on their list. Liz pulls out her swabs, tubes, gloves and glances over at Max. “You talk, I’ll get the samples. I haven’t ever had to talk to the families before.” Liz worriedly nibbles on her lower lip and Max reaches over and frees it from her teeth without thinking until she sucks in a breath at his fingers on her lips.

“You’re gonna chew those right off.” Max smiles lopsidedly at her, plopping his cream cowboy hat on his head and opening the door. Liz follows behind him as he goes to the door of the small adobe house to talk to the family. Knocking twice authoritatively, Max and Liz wait for the family member who filed the report to answer the door.

When the door swings open, Max takes off his hat politely. “Mrs. Powell?”

A short, round, pleasant looking blonde woman answers the door and when she realizes it is an officer, she begins to cry. “Did you find my girl?” She looks around behind them as if her daughter will appear.

“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about. We have found some remains that have similar characteristics to your daughter, but to confirm it, we need to collect DNA from a family member for comparison.” Max tells the woman somberly.

“Whatever you  need to find my Erin. How do I give you my DNA?” Mrs. Powell gestures for them to follow her into the living room of her home. It is cluttered but homely, with photos of her family lining the mantle.

“That is why my partner, Ms. Ortecho, is here. She will collect your DNA. Even if one of the bodies we have discovered is not your daughter, we will have your DNA on file to cross check any other victims we find.” Max assures her.

“Alright, Mrs. Powell. Open wide and I’ll take a swab of your saliva.” Liz pops on her blue vinyl gloves, smiling brightly at the middle aged woman and twisting the top of the tube to remove the  swab connected to the lid. After Mrs. Powell opens her mouth, Liz swabs her saliva then puts it in the tube so that it is sterile and can be tested. She sticks a label with Mrs. Lavonna Powell on it onto the tube. “Thank you so much. I’ll run this as soon as possible and I should have results back to you in a few weeks.”

Max shakes the woman’s hand after asking a few questions about the last time Mrs. Powell saw her daughter and Liz follows suit after him. “We will be in touch soon.” Max reassures her, popping his cowboy hat back onto his head and heading for his cruiser closely followed by Liz. “Alright, what address is next on the list?”

“A Mr. Facey down the street.” Liz reads off their list.

Max pulls out of the driveway, waiting on Liz to give him directions  since she is his copilot. —————————-

After collecting DNA from the Facey family, Max pulls in front of a large stucco house overlooking the mountains.

“Who lives here?” Liz sorts through her notes looking for which house they are at so she knows which label to grab.

“Me. I forgot my lunch this morning.” Max smiles sheepishly at her. “You want to come in or stay here?”

“And miss seeing where the illustrious Detective Evans lives? No way.” Liz unsnaps her seatbelt and swings open the door to the cruiser following Max into his home. “You don’t lock your doors?”

“No. I know everyone in town and no one would be stupid enough to steal from me.” Max tells her over his shoulder, heading to the kitchen to grab his lunch.

Liz bounces on her heels a couple times, trying to decide if she is just supposed to stand there and wait for him before being drawn to his large wall to wall bookshelves. “I had no idea you were so into Russian moralistic literature, Max.” She teases him, running her finger along the spines of his large first edition book collection. “And Jane Austin too. How feminist of you.”

“You want a drink or anything? Sorry it’s such a mess. I didn't expect to have company today.” Max leans across his kitchen island, smiling at her in a way that makes her heart skip.

“Just some water. Then we have to call the families we plan on visiting tomorrow to make sure they will be home.” Liz twirls her hair as she looks around his home. Max’s house is done in bachelor colors but clean and so much nicer than she expected. He had clearly put a lot of work and effort into it. She wonders what his bedroom looks like but doesn’t trust herself to go anywhere near Max and a bed.

—————————-

A little over a week later, after collecting DNA from all the families related to missing people in the Roswell area, they drove to Albuquerque to collect DNA from the families that live there related to their cases. The last week had involved tons of driving time together and they had settled into a rhythm. Every day, they show up to work, fight over the radio station, visit one family to collect DNA, have lunch, then visit another family. After work, they either went home or to the Wild Pony for a beer together. Due to the amount of families they had to meet with, Max had rented two adjoining rooms for the two days they would be in town.

Wheeling Liz’s suitcase and carrying his own after coming back from dinner together, Max follows Liz into her adjoining room to drop off her luggage. “If you need anything, my room is connected to yours and I’m right there. Ok?”

“I’m not afraid to sleep alone” Liz rolls her eyes at his concern. She’s not crawling into his bed with them working so  closely together and she can figure out how to work the tv by herself.

“Regardless, if you need something, I’m there.” Max smiles warmly at her then leaves to get settled in his own room. He wasn’t insinuating that she should come sleep with him, but last time they had been in a hotel together she had and that would haunt him while he was trying to fall asleep that night.

Liz doesn’t bother unpacking her suitcase because they will only be there one night. Instead, she showers, changes into her pink satin nightgown and falls asleep watching a cooking show. Sometime in the middle of the night, she bolts awake with a gasp as thunder shakes her room. Initially, she is unable to place where she is and is confused- and terrified. Liz has never been a fan of thunderstorms and this is a loud one.

When the wind picks up and starts moving the patio furniture on the balcony, Liz starts trembling. Without thinking too much about it, she pads to the adjoining door and opens it. “Max?” She whispers into the dark.

She is answered with a loud snore. He is sleeping straight through the storm. She crawls into the other side of his bed and her shivers finally subside. She feels safer with him here and will just hang out in his room until the storm passes. She knows he won’t mind. At some point, she drifts to sleep facing Max as the storm rolls on outside.

Max wakes up in the morning with long wavy hair covering his face and what distinctly feels like a woman on his chest. Opening one eye, he is confused to see Liz sprawled out across his chest. He knows they didn’t sleep together because there is no way he would have forgotten about that. So why is she in his room?

Sliding his hand gently along her back, Max whispers her name. Popping her head up from his chest in confusion, Liz stares straight into his wide eyed. “How did you end up here? Not that I’m complaining to waking up to a beautiful woman on my chest but…” Max smiles lopsidedly at her.

“There was a storm. The walls were shaking and I came to hide from it with you. I didn’t fall asleep on you, I swear.” Liz sits up quickly and the pink satin straps of her nightgown slide down at her movement and she pulls them back into place. Max watches her smooth tan skin appear and disappear entranced. He enjoys waking up with her but doesn’t let his mind explore that much further or he’d never be able to focus with her in the car with him all day again.

“What storm? I didn’t wake up once last night.” Max wipes the sleep from his eyes. He needs coffee and to brush his teeth.

“I know. You were snoring almost as loud as the thunder while the wind was slamming the patio furniture against the sliding doors.” Liz teases him.

Max swings his feet out of bed and walks over to the sliding glass door. Pulling back the curtains, he hmms seeing that sure enough, all of the patio furniture has been swung around and it is wet outside. “Huh. How did I miss that? Let’s get dressed and track down some breakfast.”