Dresden Files Reread - Storm From Chapter 10

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Content Note: Substantial discussion of smoking - no sensory details. 

As soon as he leaves the meeting with Bianca, Dresden calls Linda Randall. She finds time to make a weird, inappropriate joke about "investigating my privates" - has anyone in real life ever talked like this? - before making it clear that if he wants to talk about Jennifer Stanton, she doesn't want to talk to him. Dresden determines from background noise that that she's at the airport, and decides to disregard her clearly states preferences and go bother her in person. I think talking about how terrible everyone's boundaries are in this book is getting repetitive, so the less said about this the better. 

Once Dresden has her cornered, she acknowledges that she and Jenny not only used to work together, but were at one time roommates in the sense of Oh My God They Were Roommates. Unless I'm seriously forgetting someone, this makes Jennifer and Linda the only canonical f/f couple in the series, and neither of them survives the first book. I am not counting Justine's various lovers from Ghost Story onward, mostly because those are one-off encounters for Thomas's benefit, but especially in light of the information revealed at the end of Battle Ground. I also note that Linda is one of two characters in the entire series who definitely smoke, the other being Madeline Raith. Since we know there are EMTs in this series who smoke, it is of course possible that Lamar or his partner, whose name escapes me, also smoke, but w haven't had names matched up with nicotine intake there. This is odd only because in 2005 (as reasonable a snapshot year as any for this series), over 20% of American adults smoked tobacco, so in a series with dozens of named characters, I would expect to see a few more of them. Many Dresdenverse characters are in high stress jobs, the cast is skewed male, and a bunch of them have on kind of preternaturally good health or another (can Wizards even get cancer?) so I would think, if anything, that more of them would smoke. Oh, I guess Shiro had his cigars. Does that count?

Linda also reveals that Jennifer called her the night she died, asking if she wanted to get together again for the engagement with Tommy Tom. At that time, Jenny didn't seem to think anything was up, at least as far as Linda could tell. This is also where we get out first glimpse of the Becketts, and the immediate impression that something is Very Wrong with them, especially Mrs. Beckett. 

In between almost every action or interaction Dresden attempts, he chills for a minute and considers his next move. Just from a writing perspective, I have mixed feelings about this. It gives us good access to Dresden's thoughts, and a sense of what's coming next in the story. I can't help feeling like this could be smoother if Dresden had someone to talk to, but it would change the mood of this first book so far I'm not sure it would be a worthwhile tradeoff. 

In any even, having gone over his options and priorities, Dresden follows up on Toot Toot's information, and makes contact with a terrified pizza delivery driver, who has already spoken to Victor Sells. He reveals, without ever realizing it's not Victor on the phone again, that there was an orgy at the Sells's lake house night before last (the night Tommy and Jenny died, although Dresden has not yet made this connection), and that someone else was sneaking around taking pictures. I do wonder how it is that Harry and Victor sound so similar on the phone, but maybe this kid is just too freaked out to pay attention. This is when Dresden first thinks there might be more to this than a cheating husband, but he's still leaning towards "midlife crisis" rather than anything more nefarious. 

Harry heads home to do the dark magic research Murphy wants, but is interrupted by a man with a baseball bat, who bangs him around a little before warning him to stay our of the murder investigation. Dresden concludes, not unreasonably, that it was Marcone who sent him, and I don't remember at the moment whether that's correct, or if we're ever told which of his conversations prompted this reaction. 

Stay tuned for Chapter 11 at some point soonishlike. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things.