Dresden Files Reread - Storm Front Chapter 19

Photo by Francisco Andreotti on Unsplash

Apparently when Dresden broke into an active crime scene to take a nap, he forgot to lock the door behind him, so the newcomer is able to skulk right in, wary but apparently unaware of Dresden's presence. Upon seeing the bloodstains on the bed, he freaks out and starts frantically searching under it, apparently looking for the film canister that dresden found a few moments earlier. Dresden scares the everloving shit out of him, initially allowing Sneaky Man, who introduces himself as Donny Wise, to think he's a cop, and then spooking him again when he gets a proper look at Dresden's consultant's badge by using magic to bar the door. Combined the the fact that Harry has the film, this adds up to a fairly successful intimidation check, and they make a deal. Harry will give Donny the film, if Donny will give him the context around it. 

Linda, whom Donny knew because he's taken pictures for her in the past, when she was trying to get into adult magazines, asked him to take pictures through the windows of Victor Sells's lake house, in exchange for which she would have sex with him. What he saw, and photographed, there, was an orgy involving Linda, two men, and a couple other women, none of whom he recognized. 

This entire interaction, and the chapter it comprises, almost didn't need to happen. If Harry had just had a minute to think after he found the film, he would have been able to come to roughly the same conclusion - that the two cases are connected, and that Monica Sells deliberately maneuvered him to become involved in this - even if he wouldn't have been able to be as sure, or to guess that Linda was planning to try to expose or blackmail Victor, at least until he got the pictures developed, which he would, in this scenario, have been able to do. Watching it play out in dialogue, and being given more of the pieces, does make it feel more plausible, and maybe more interesting, than just watching Dresden stand there and think about it, hence almost unnecessary. 

Having put the puzzle together, Dresden sets off to confront Monica Sells.