Lara Raith killed Malcolm Dresden

[The_Sibelis]

I thought it was heavily implied that Lord Raith used an entropy curse just like he did in blood rites.

ahh yes, I like the way you worded that. It IS assumed, as Harry had been going up against Lord Raiths curse. But we know of another possible ally of hers who's pretty famous for his entropy curse.. Nicodemus.

[forumghost]

ahh yes, I like the way you worded that. It IS assumed, as Harry had been going up against Lord Raiths curse. But we know of another possible ally of hers who's pretty famous for his entropy curse.. Nicodemus.

See while in some ways Nick isn't a bad candidate, (because he probably has the resources and knowledge to hide Harry even from someone like Eb), I feel like it doesn't fit because if Nick had gone after Malcolm, he'd probably have swooped in immediately and dropped a Coin on him.

An ignorant child Wizard would be a prime candidate for Nick to mold into one of his chief enforcers.

So yeah, it has to be someone that's capable of a subtle and near-untraceable Magical Assassination, and the resources and skills to conceal Harry absolutely from two major-league Wizards, both trying their Darndest to find him, but not enough to prevent Lea from tracking him.

[KurtinStGeorge]

See while in some ways Nick isn't a bad candidate, (because he probably has the resources and knowledge to hide Harry even from someone like Eb), I feel like it doesn't fit because if Nick had gone after Malcolm, he'd probably have swooped in immediately and dropped a Coin on him.

An ignorant child Wizard would be a prime candidate for Nick to mold into one of his chief enforcers.

That makes a great deal of sense.  Plus, do you think anyone who Nicodemus killed died with a smile on their face?  Neither do I. 

So yeah, it has to be someone that's capable of a subtle and near-untraceable Magical Assassination, and the resources and skills to conceal Harry absolutely from two major-league Wizards, both trying their Darndest to find him, but not enough to prevent Lea from tracking him.

I think there are three characters that we know who could have killed Malcolm Dresden in a subtle and nearly untraceable manner.  Lara Raith is one, and the other two are Ebenezer McCoy and the Leanansidhe. 

Ebenezer has a license to kill from the White Council; and from how we saw him behave in Peace Talks, if Eb thought it was necessary to kill Malcolm in order to protect Harry, I have no doubt he would have done so.  However, at this point I have no specific evidence that he did so.  All I know with certainty is Ebenezer described Malcolm as, "A mortal, without powers, without influence, without resources. But a man with a good soul, like few I have ever seen."  So that suggests that Ebenezer Soulgazed Malcolm, maybe.  That first sentence though, it describes someone who couldn't protect Harry.  It feeds my suspicion of Eb as a suspect, but it's hardly proof.

We've only seen the Leanansidhe kill by using extreme magical violence against some of the Lords of Outer Night, but I don't doubt that she could do subtle if she wanted to.  I think Lea might have wanted, or felt she needed to do so.  People have wondered how Harry was disappeared.  We know, or at least strongly suspect, that Lea was the women who occasionally visited Harry when he was in the system.  We know she agreed to a deal with Margaret LeFay to protect Harry.  I doubt that part of her deal was to look out for Malcolm.  Jim has stated that Margaret didn't make the best deal she could have.  As a personal note, Lea has always been my Number 1 suspect.  If Lea believed that the best way to keep her deal with Margaret was to off Malcolm, or look the other way while someone else killed Malcolm, I'm pretty sure she would have been OK with either of those two things.  Lea doesn't have a strong grasp of human morality, other than it exists and is often contradictory.  I won't be surprised if we eventually learn that Lea had a side deal going with Justine DuMorne.  It would have been quite convenient for Lea to allow Justin to train Harry.  All she had to do was wait for Justin's inevitable betrayal of Harry so she could sweep in and rescue Harry so she could bind him to her own purpose.  If you think about the conversation Lea had with Harry's disembodied spirit in Ghost Story, she knew an awful lot about Justin; specifically about his rotten character.  It seems to me that Lea must have had personal dealings with Justin to have formed such a strong opinion of him.

Lara Raith, hmmm.  Well, I suppose Harry might have been told an aneurism killed Malcolm, even if no actual cause of death was found.  Lord Raith could have sent Lara after Malcolm, but wouldn't the more logical target have been Margaret's Starborn son?  Wouldn't Lord Raith have figured that out?  Killing a vanilla mortal doesn't make much sense.  Also; if Harry was the ultimate target, sending a princess of the succubae to kill an infant is overkill in the extreme.  It works to get Malcolm out of the way, but if Lara did the deed, this would mean that someone else already took Harry and hid him; and in that case why waste time killing Malcolm Dresden?  There could be some missing piece that makes this scenario work, but I don't see it.

For now I'm leaning towards Lea as the guilty, or at least complicit, party with Ebenezer as my backup suspect.  Lara Raith is a distant third.  Then again, maybe they were all in it together!   I need to work out a scenario were all of our suspects; perhaps including Justin DuMorne, were involved in Malcolm Dresden's murder.  Something like the movie Blood Simple (great movie, if you haven't seen it), where four different characters do or say things that the other characters aren't aware of or misinterpret, that eventually leads to three killings by the end of the movie.             

[The_Sibelis]

Seems to me your compounding nic killed Margret with nic killed them both. Which is certainly not what I said or meant..  margaret died from an entropy curse, Malcolm had an aneurysm.. the two are not mutually exclusive, though I presume, relative.
If Eb had killed Malcolm, then he would have been able to nab Harry directly. And if Leah had done it then the Harry vs Lea battle would not be in the air based on Harry maturing past it. I've already presented on why lara seems rather unlikely. It would have technically been Lord Raith, don't know why that makes Lara culpable anyway.
*Hell loosing Margret, likely from her falling for Malcolm, is motive for either though.

[Arjan]

Lea is unlikely because she is Sidhe and she needs a gateway to even hurt him. She also has no motive, it does not help her godson in any way.

Ebenezer has no motive either. The only ones with a clear motive are pappa Raith, who would have killed Harry as well, and Justin who can use magic to kill and Bob could have helped him.

Sure there re others like Nicodemus who could have pulled it off but do they have the motive to make it look like a natural death and leave Harry alive? At this moment as far as we know only Justin has both the motive and the capability.

[TheCuriousFan]

Also Nic IIRC offered knowledge about who killed Malcolm if he took up the coin in DM, that seems like the kind of offer that'd backfire too easily if Nic was even vaguely involved in Malcolm's death so he was probably off burning orphanages somewhere else at the time.

[Mira]

Also Nic IIRC offered knowledge about who killed Malcolm if he took up the coin in DM, that seems like the kind of offer that'd backfire too easily if Nic was even vaguely involved in Malcolm's death so he was probably off burning orphanages somewhere else at the time.

Nic would know because of Andruiel, but knowledge doesn't mean he did it.  Lasciel isn't the first to
offer Harry the information, so did Chauncy, but for a price and Harry wasn't taking the bait.

[morriswalters]

Malcolm's death may have been part of Margaret's deal with Lea, even if she wasn't aware of it.  It could also be a player we don't connect with the death.  The only group who we know has reached in to the juvenile system is the BC, who do it to Molly in Proven Guilty. Apparently Margaret was a fellow traveler at a minimum.

[Arjan]

I think Justin could perfectly well kill Malcolm using magic and making it look like a natural death, he was a warden after all. And if not he had Bob to explain him exactly how. He also had a motive, with Malcolm alive Harry would stay with him and would not enter the system. Justin might have killed Elaines parent(s) as well just to get hold of her.

[forumghost]

I think Justin could perfectly well kill Malcolm using magic and making it look like a natural death, he was a warden after all. And if not he had Bob to explain him exactly how. He also had a motive, with Malcolm alive Harry would stay with him and would not enter the system. Justin might have killed Elaines parent(s) as well just to get hold of her.

While I for one have no doubts about Justin being able to kill Malcolm on the quiet to set Harry up to be 'saved' by him, I do question him being able to conceal him well enough that both Morgan and Eb would be unable to find him, so he definitely had help somewhere. That to me is the more interesting topic.

So who was that? Lea might have wanting to 'toughen him up' with a little isolation. Teach him independence, sounds like her.
Maybe Nemesis, trying to shape him as Morgan feared?
Maybe it was part of Maggie's old cabal (we know Justin was part of it) or perhaps the White Council arranged it, and just didn't know that Justin had gone bad.

Harry has been manipulated for his entire life and we don't even know who might be doing it yet, because Harry doesn't like to ask important questions if it's at all possible.

[Arjan]

Just kill him and call the mortal authorities and disappear. Use a veil if you want to observe. Ebenezer would prefer Harry as an anonymous kid in the system and they were probably not even there especially if there was some distraction and Justin had some time to wait until one popped up.

It is not that complicated, actually it is pretty straightforward. The natural looking death was of course necessary to make everything go as smooth as possible.

[KurtinStGeorge]

Harry has been manipulated for his entire life and we don't even know who might be doing it yet, because Harry doesn't like to ask important questions if it's at all possible.

The really interesting question is, "What will it take for Harry to start asking relevant questions, and to seek answers on his own if no one; who won't ask for his soul or something nearly as ruinous in return, will give him complete answers?"

Even in Battle Ground LTW held out against answering Harry's question about being Starborn.  Does anyone think Harry will be given a complete answer or any at all, in one year's time when LTW promised to get back to Harry?  I think some major event, or several, are going to push Harry to a point where not asking questions or getting straight answers will become impossible for him to tolerate.  I just wish we could get to it sooner rather than later.

[Mira]

The really interesting question is, "What will it take for Harry to start asking relevant questions, and to seek answers on his own if no one; who won't ask for his soul or something nearly as ruinous in return, will give him complete answers?"

Maybe because he might get answers he really isn't ready to deal with as of yet.  While Lara may not have done it, it is logical that Lord Raith may have.  Now she might reveal the whole thing on their wedding night...

[pcpoet]

11 years ago I discovered my roommate dead by an aneurism.  I can tell you from personnel experience in how I found my roommate that it looked like it could of been the result of a white court vampire attack.    I came home from playing board games with friends at 2 am in the morning.  the place was an old Victorian style house that had been a rooming house since it was built in the 1880s. the land lord lived downstairs and there were 3 rooms for rent upstairs, each room was almost its own apartment only there was no bathroom except for one shared bathroom for all three rooms. When I got home at 2 am I made ready for bed and went down the hall passing his room. When I passed is room the door was open and I glanced in. what I saw was him nude on the bed and he looked to be pleasuring himself. I Quickly looked away and thought oh my god he is a pervert he wanted me to catch him doing this. At the time I had only roomed with the person about 6 weeks and really did not know the guy will. I went took a shower and when I returned to my room I did not look in on purpose. next day I get up in the morning go to the bath room and the door is wide open and he is in the same position he was in from the night before. only now I realize that somethings wrong. I go into his room and feel his neck looking for a pulse his body is cold and dead.  on his face is a big smile.  I call 911 and wait for the police down stairs in my land lords living room.2 weeks later I find out that had died around noon time the previous day from a aneurism.  the guy had a smile on his face just like other white court victims in the Dresden files.  side note the police believe that he had taken a shower and was getting ready  when he realized something was wrong went back to his room sat down on bed naked picked up phone dropped the phone and died with his hands at his crotch.  years later I look at this and wonder was he actualy the victim of the white court feeding.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

[Snark Knight]

Lara might leave her victims with a smile on their face, but I really doubt it would be a quiet enough process that a kid in the same room would sleep through it.

Besides, Malcolm and Margaret probably had a genuine true love relationship based on the available information about how she changed. A devoted single father who was rarely in the same place for more than a few days probably didn't have much opportunity to move on in the dating scene after losing his wife, so that protection may very well still have been an obstacle to Lara.