Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 2

Photo by James Sutton on Unsplash
The is the second book's Long Crime Scene Chapter. We get reintroduced to Harry's car, and to how wizards have trouble with technology. Murphy is weird and silent the whole way out to the suburb, technically out of her jurisdiction, where the latest killing took place. Turns out, it's the site where Marcone is rebuilding the Varsity. There's a brief recap of Harry's confrontation with Marcone at the original Varsity in the previous book, but it's oddly skewed, making it sound like Marcone was the maker of the 3-eye, and Victor Sells, who is not mentioned by name, only as "the dealer" was somehow just the fall guy. It makes it sound like Marcone orchestrated the events of Storm Front, which is kind of the opposite of what happened. Marcone was almost as confused as Harry, and considerably less able to take action. 

The dead body is horribly mangled, just shredded, but Harry eventually identifies it as "Spike", one of Marcone's bodyguards. Remarkably, he shares this observation with Murphy, who is like 'okay good to know' rather than getting weird about why Harry recognizes someone who works for Marcone. A+ communication, everyone! She tells him to keep looking around, and he spots a pawprint near a shattered window, like a wolf or dog print, but the size of his fucking hand. There's also some bloody shards of glass, and Harry quietly collects one of these in his handkerchief before drawing Murphy's attention to the pawprint. She confirms, in answer to his question, that there were a bunch of deaths around the previous full moon, and then asks if there's such things as werewolves. Harry doesn't have time to much more than answer in the affirmative before the FBI shows up. Agent Denton is not happy to see Murphy, having apparently already told her to stay away from this investigation, and he's even less happy to see Harry when, over Murphy's objections, he introduces himself. Given what a weirdo Murphy was being in the previous book, it's sort of understandable that Harry wouldn't trust her judgement here, but it's also sort of a dick move, especially given that he doesn't stand to lose anything by keeping his stupid face shut. 

Neither Denton's weirdness nor Harry's, however, gets anywhere near the level of Agent Benn's. When Denton asks her to escort Harry and Murphy outside, she instead physically attacks Murphy, and tries to shoot her when she fights back. Denton and Murphy both brush this off as an accident, much to Harry's puzzlement, when local police, who have arrived by now, express concern. 

One the way out, young FBI agent Harris asks Murphy to go easy on Agent Benn, because her partner died in one of the previous "Lobo Killings", only to be shut down rather aggressively by his partner, Agent Wilson. Weirdness abounds, basically, and Harry's pretty sure Denton's hiding something, beyond covering for his new partner. It didn't entirely register with me on previous readings how thoroughly Wait What? Benn's attack on Murphy really is. It's out of nowhere, and an extremely obvious indication that Something Is Up with the FBI people. 

Long chapter, short post. Lots of description, not a lot to analyze. Chapter 3 on Wednesday. Be Gay, do Crimes, and read All The Things. 

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