Let's Update the Betting Pool

Back in December, I questioned whether Odessa Drake was correct about the Black Fox killing her father. We haven't seen any more direct evidence one way or the other since then, but we did have Felicia's conversation with her mother in issue 8 last month.

There's one page, where Felicia explains Odessa's accusation, and her mother asks whether the Fox did kill Castillo or not. Felicia says of course not, then elaborates by calling him too much of a coward to risk drawing that kind of heat.

Which sounds like the sort of overly optimistic thing people say in horror movies right before they die. "We found a ride! Everything's gonna be OK! *horrific death*" It's feels like Felicia making the same mistake Spidey always made with the Fox, treating him as a generally harmless old man who just happens to steal things. Even though she knows he'll kill if he really thinks he has to. it's just asking for a moment of crushing disillusionment at the worst possible time. So I'd say that increases the odds Fox killed Castillo, even if it still doesn't answer the question of why he didn't take the book when he did it.

On the other hand, Felicia's mother, for all that she hates the Black Fox, apparently agrees that he cared too much for Castillo and Walter to do that. When even your critics admit they don't think you'd do it, that a pretty ringing endorsement. Unless, of course, she's only saying that to avoid a fight with her daughter. If she can tell she won't be able to sway Felicia, she might say it just to avoid a fight, but that doesn't strike me as Ms. Hardy's style.

And there's the question of if they're both underestimating how badly the Fox wants this prize. He's old, getting older all the time. To the point Odessa couldn't even torture him the way she wanted, because she was convinced he wouldn't survive it. If he thinks he's got a chance at stealing immortality, then he might go pretty far for that.

(I kind of wonder if the Fox didn't hand Castillo over to Dracula when the vamp caught up with him, to save his own skin. Walter Hardy might have already been dead or in prison, but Castillo wouldn't be.)