Call me crazy, but I’m not big on defiance when I’ve got a gun rammed against my skull.

That sounds perfectly rational, and yet actually you behave like an idiot in the fact of imminent threat all the damn time.

Harry winds up cuffed and kicked over, at which point Murphy realizes that aw fuck, it’s the dumbass.

“You jerk,” Murphy said, her voice harsh. She was still only a shadow behind the flashlight, but I `recognized the contours now. “You found a lead and followed it, and you didn’t contact me.”
“Those who live in glass houses, Lieutenant,” I said

“How dare you not tell me something I need to know to do my job!”
“Well how dare YOU not tell me something you need to know to do your job! Wait, no, it does sound stupid when I say it like that.”

“There wasn’t time. It was hot and I couldn’t afford to wait or I might have lost it.”

She was literally sitting next to you.

And Harry must know this is bullshit, because

“How did you find this place?”
“I’m a wizard,” I told her, and waggled my arms as best I could. “Magic. What else?”

he goes out of his way to avoid saying the details of how the magic works, to make sure Murphy doesn’t know and can’t actually argue the point with him.

He then wonders how Murphy even got here when he worked so hard on justifying not bringing her. She says she totally noticed she was getting followed, though she assumes he didn’t and needs this explained, presumably because if he had noticed she mistakenly thinks the asshole would’ve mentioned it.

Murphy, being a saint, unlocks Harry’s handcuffs despite him totally deserving to spend the conversation like that.

Anyway, turns out Harry’s the only one who left by the back door, so she figures they left by the roof. She plans to go back in, only for Harry to now say that’s a terrible idea because the two of them are so outnumbered, unlike seconds ago when it was only him. Murphy is confused and he explains that why she was following the actual suspicious person, HE was evesdropping on kids COLLEGE STUDENTS HE SWEARS THEY WERE COLLEGE STUDENTS.

“But I’m not so sure that they were the killers. They didn’t seem… I don’t know. Cold enough. Mean enough.”
Murphy shook her head obviously remembering the last time Harry shot his mouth off about his amazing peoplereading skills and how the killer was absolutely a woman who was mad and not a male druglord. If only she knew that also Harry assumed a couple emotionally dead from the death of their child were a bunch of childfree swingers.

Murphy wants to officially report this and have people try to find those involved.

“I think you’ve got the wrong people, Murph,” I said. “Don’t put out that APB.”

Jesus fuck Harry the point of this is not “murder her as the killer on sight” it’s “bring in someone known to be involved so she can be questioned” also this is Murphy’s goddamn job shut up.

“Hold on, hold on. My spell didn’t tell me that the woman was the killer. Only that it was her blood at the scene.”

Murphy supposedly only folded her arms and glared up at me as opposed to punching him in his fucking face at this point.

And Harry’s all geeze Murphy don’t you understand that magical beings are functionally above the law and if you try to do anything they’ll murder you all and it’ll be your fault? Only when she’s all FUCKING BRING IT does he continue that also he has an actual reason to think they aren’t the killers, namely that he was super, super killable back there and yet is still breathing.

“You don’t think you could have taken care of yourself against a wolf, Harry?”
“In the dark?” I said. “Murphy, it’s been nearly a hundred years since the wolf went extinct in most of the United States. You’ve got no idea, none at all, of how dangerous they can be. A wolf can run faster than you can drive a car through most of Chicago. His jaws can snap your thighbones with one jerk. A wolf can see the heat of your body in the complete dark, and can count the hairs on your head from a hundred yards off by starlight. He can hear your heart beating thirty or forty yards away.

Okay so in Harry’s defense, he doesn’t have the internet and I don’t think he goes to the library, so this is probably legitimately memorized nonsense and not him just spouting off at random.

That said you’ll notice only after all this does he admit that specifically he tried to fight back and it kicked his ass.

Murphy, sadly, has a level head and can point out that this is less conclusive than he thinks:

“Maybe the killer knows you. Maybe it didn’t want to risk killing a wizard. Maybe, just maybe, the wolf did it to throw you off. Maybe it spared you just so you would react in this way, just to avoid suspicion.”

We know vampires function like that, and furthermore, the woman confirmed she thought she was followed. If she doesn’t want to directly engage the police, showing uncharacteristic mercy is actually a good move.

I shook my head. “Don’t put out the APB, yet. Hold off on it, until I can get you some more information. Look, you pay me to give you my advice, to be your consultant on the supernatural. I’m your expert, right? Listen to me. Trust me.”

See, this would be totally reasonable if not for the fact Harry’s a manipulative liar. She can’t trust him and he just proved that a couple minutes ago with his brilliant “don’t tell her I have a tracking spell” gambit.

Murphy, being a living saint, agrees to trust him, but not being an idiot, she says they’re on a strict time limit and if he doesn’t have info for her by then, she’ll continue with what she’s doing.

She says she needs it by “tomorrow morning”, which should be 24 hours because it’s already basically morning supposedly, but presumably means “this morning” and there actually is enough time for Harry to write up an essay for his teacher and he’s just using the no time to pursue thing as an excuse to not bother.

Also, we get a weird reference to the soulgaze thing.

She stared up at my face, her expression intent, looking away quickly when her eyes met mine. Murphy had known me for a while. You don’t go looking into a wizard’s eyes without a darned good reason. Wizards see too much.

So either Harry is spewing nonsense or soulgaze works very different this book.

Murphy’s flashlight flickered and then went out as the filament burst with an audible pop.
Murphy sighed in the darkness. “Nothing ever works right when you’re here. Sometimes, Harry,” she said, “I really hate hanging out with you.”

Yeah.