Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 13

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Murphy walks Harry out of the building and back into the garden, where Carmichael is keeping the feds at bay. Agent Harris looks very surprised to see Harry, which is reinforcement for readers who already caught that sending him to the Full Moon Garage is a setup, and foreshadowing for everyone else. Carmichael is also surprised, and openly questions Murphy about it. Even a they're putting Harry in the back of the car, Carmichael is non-hostile, and seems more curious than anything else. Compare to the scene at Linda Randall's apartment in the previous book, when he mentally reclassified Harry as a suspect as soon as Murphy says she wants him in for questioning. I don't know what exactly happened in the intervening six months, but it has had a serious impact on Carmichael's perspective, and his trust in his partner. He asks what happened to Dresden's jaw, and I find it interesting that he doesn't consider the possibility that Murphy was the one who hit Harry. This means that whatever else might have changed, he doesn't think Murphy would physically attack someone who hadn't done anything to warrant it, but he also doesn't think Harry would have done anything to warrant it. I don't really know what to make of that, but it's interesting. 

Murphy's stated reasons for arresting Harry are that he was arguing with Kim Delaney last night, and that she can "connect" him with Terra West (because he tracked her down at the abandoned department store) and with some of the "decorations" (the ritual circle) in the house. She says she's charging him with obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit murder. The conspiracy thing is fine, I mean, it's obviously bullshit, but it's fine, but the only way anything Harry did is obstruction of justice is if we're going by the TV police procedural version of the law where it's "obstruction" to refrain from volunteering information that incriminates you, rather than y'know, a constitutionally protected right. I guess it's possible that she thinks his crumpling up the circle diagram was deliberate destruction of evidence? The closest I can put together to a coherent version of events here is that she thinks Harry had some pre-existing conflict with Kim Delaney, culminating in the argument at Mac's, and that he worked with Terra to mess up MacFinn's circle and arrange for Kim to try and contain him with the temporary one, which he knew she wasn't able to do, leading to MacFinn breaking out and killing her? (No idea what Terra's motive is supposed to be here. Jealousy of Kim?) And that he crumpled up the diagram because it was evidence of his nefarious scheme? That would be extremely thin even if Harry hadn't been cooperating fully with the investigation, including confirming that MacFinn is a Loup Garou, and that he recognizes Terra West. Ugh. 

Harry, for his part, feel like he betrayed Murphy by not having put the pieces together faster. I suspect part of the reason this book is in people's head under "times Harry kept things from Murphy" is because they remember the arrest, and Harry feeling guilty, but not the circumstances. Harry is just transitioning from a depression spiral to a panic attack, because not only is MacFinn still out there somewhere, he couldn't have been the one to kill Spike, the timing isn't right, which means there's a second killer who also hasn't been apprehended, or even suspected, when Terra rather alarmingly appears outside the car window. She's here to rescue him, pretty much whether he likes it or not, because he's the only one who stands a chance of stopping MacFinn. 

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Harry gets shot in the shoulder in the escape attempt, so Terra has to boost him over the fence, leaving her without time to get away herself. After some panic and deliberation, he uses a spell to magnify the steam coming up from his blood on the pavement into an entire fog bank, which gives her the cover she needs to climb over without getting shot. She's impressed as shit by the spell, too, but Harry doesn't really have time to adequately enjoy that, before losing consciousness from blood loss and exhaustion. 

Summer is awful, my head hurts, and I'm tired. I also feel like there was something in this chapter that I'm failing to address, so if you can think what it was, let me know in the comments. I hope to get another post up sometime this week. Until then, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things!