I did most of the quest (a couple updates ago) without having Esmeralda arrested and interrogating her. I used Pet Pal to talk to Jake's dog, and broke into Evelyn's house (not sure if that is still possible). Part at the end didn't trigger properly, but I don't know if that was a bug in itself, or if being able to break into the house was the bug, and I just skipped part of the quest that way.