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| Photo by Maksym Tymchyk on Unsplash |
The cop that found Dresden sitting naked on the curb had been sent to collect him to take a look at the scene of Linda Randall's murder. She was killed the same way as Tommy Tom and Jennifer Stanton, although I notice that her heart wasn't torn out as forcefully - it was a foot away, on the bed, not splattered on the ceiling. This could be because of all the other magic Victor Sells did on the same night, or because no on involved in the casting had any particular beef with Linda, they just needed her out of the way.
Dresden gets a minute to reflect on how sad it is that he and Linda never had a chance at a relationship, that they might have really understood each other. I agree, and this moment, prompted by a couple of pizza boxes in the kitchen trash, is basically the only good part of the chapter. (Although for me, it was the half-burned candles. That's how she made a space, a rental, where she probably couldn't paint or hang pictures, something that was hers. This was Linda's Small, Quiet Room.)
Murphy has pretty much figured out that Harry knew Linda, and Harry does not want to talk to her about it. Even though Murphy's position is more correct (he should talk to her, and withholding information will make it harder for her to do her job), I honestly have more sympathy for Dresden. Murphy has repeatedly disincentivized open communication, including in this chapter, when she reacts to Dresden saying 'I think they're using the storms' with 'why didn't you tell me sooner' rather than like 'oh, good job, that's information I can use'. This is a classic case of Do Not Punish The Behavior You Want To See, and if there's a good reason for it, we never find out. Dresden, on the other hand, is absolutely being irrationally twitchy, but he's coming from a place of having spent his entire adult life being unfairly suspected by the White Council, including in these murders. (I mean, not that unfairly, but it feels unfair to Dresden, and it represents a monumental failure to recognize that he might have grown or changed at all since he was 16). So of course, he thinks Murphy will do the same thing. He expects to be treated as a suspect like, all the time, and Murphy isn't exactly going out of her way to allay those fears. She already threatened to put him in protective custody for admitting to investigating on his own, and now she's also prepared to consider him a suspect if he won't tell her how Linda got his business card. Dresden claims to be having a psychic premonition, so he can tell her what he knows without falling into either side of the catch-22 she's created, and of course she's angry about that too.
On the other hand, Dresden also wants to keep secrets because he thinks that will protect Murphy from the murderer, and the Council, and even if that weren't patronizing as hell it would still pretty much be bullshit. In Dead Beat, Dresden tells Butters that pretty much anyone can make a magic circle, so he could teach Murphy how to do that, and it would almost certainly keep her safe, especially now that they know the time windows in which there's an actual risk (so she wouldn't have to be in a circle literally all the time, which would make it kind of hard to continue the investigation). I would also be interested to know where Dresden got this idea that the White Council will kill people for knowing that they exist. W never see any evidence that this is a real thing.
The other interesting bit in this chapter is that we get out first mention of Marcone's role in the death of the Becketts' daughter. Apparently they sued him for wrongful death, and his lawyers blocked the case, but then he offered them money and they refused it, which is weird. Wrongful death isn't a criminal charge - money is all they would have gotten anyway. If Marcone wanted to avoid an admission of wrongdoing, he could have tried to settle out of court, without engaging in legal shenanigans. My best guess, actually, is that that's basically what did happen, but the Becketts refused because they wanted him to have to formally admit fault, so Marcone's lawyers shut the whole thing down, and now Murphy is presenting a skewed version of events ("He avoided the case, but then offered them blood money") because Crime Lord.
I don't know, everyone is just being awful here, and I don't think Linda would have wanted that. Hopefully, the next chapter will be less upsetting. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things.
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