Something seems odd about that one, and unless I'm mistaken Dresden never quite figures out what she is. Here's what we know about her:

• She doesn't quite interact with the world like a ghost (e.g. with that whole thing about her statue no longer being there while she's moving around the world).
• She calls Dresden a "monster," and then she cuts through Dresden's sense of self-worth with ease, leaving him believing that he really is a monster, for a time
• When she taps Dresden's grave with her parasol, Dresden notes a "strange, sweet taste in my mouth, and the scent of pine needles and fresh greenery filled my nose."
• She remarks that "this little world is so small."
• Dresden says, "You aren't the ghost of a little girl," to which she replies, "If I am no ghost, why do you look so haunted?"
• Eternal Silence calls her "an insufferable entity. Her soul is made of crooked lines."

The most important of these is that she apparently has a soul, which would seem to disqualify her status as a normal shade, and also as a proxy of soulless entities like Mab. Combined with her ability to make Dresden feel worthless, do you think she might be a Fallen? Lasciel, perhaps?

 

Interesting side-note; I was reading through Grave Peril the other day, and when Bianca gives Harry his grave she does specifically mention that it will put him near Inez. Could be significant.

 

There's actually a similar thread on Inez back at the Jim Butcher forums (link) right now. One of the more interesting theories floating around is that, just like Eternal Silence serves as Demonreach's proxy, Inez is Mab's proxy. After all, she tells Harry that he'll become a monster; this would certainly happen if Harry served as Knight exactly how Mab wanted, that is, without exerting his own will. Another point is that he smells "the scent of pine needles" when she taps his tombstone, and sure enough, when he returns to his body, "there were pine needles-soft ones-spread about beneath [him] in lieu of a blanket, their scent sharp and fresh." While Lea was there when Harry woke up, I don't think she was there as a proxy, just checking up on her godson. Who knows if it's right, but it's certainly interesting enough.

 

Interesting thread, there. It's certainly possible that Inez is Mab's proxy, and admittedly it would neaten up some other things, but for now it doesn't go down easily for me. That "soul" bit sticks in my craw; either it would end up being sloppy wording, or it would be Inez as an independent entity with a soul who just happened to be playing proxy for Mab.

I note that the thread offered a third possibility: that Inez was the proxy of the third entity involved in maintaining Harry's body, the "parasite." In any case, I'm hoping we'll find out or sure in some future book.

 

I just wonder who's going to be the sick fuck who first puts together some ghost!harry/inez smut.

And someone better step up because I swear to god, I will be that sick fuck if no one else does it.

 

I would say that Inez getting mentioned all the way back in Grave Peril could be important, but I have no idea what it could possible mean. At the very least, it's a hint that she's going to be important somewhere down the line; Grave Peril does seem to have been full of 'this seemingly minor event will be really important X books later' moments.

Also, Inez does get a mention in one of the RPG books:

 

Keep in mind that Inez Clarke is actual Chicago folklore. Inez Clarke's legend was that she was struck by lightning (freak accident, dickhole parents locked her outside during a storm for being a brat, the story varies) and ever since her statue would go for a wander during thunderstorms, often punctuated by the Snopestastic tale of a night watchmen who found her case empty and saw her silhouette dancing off in the distance and immediately ran away and refused to ever return. But it was revealed that, gasp, no Inez Clarke was ever buried in that cemetary, and the statue was put up as the advertisement of a local mason.

Ditto Eternal Silence, which was built as a monument to some well-off businessman who was buried there. It was painted black but the elements quickly wore it away, leaving the brassy green underneath showing, except in the portion of it's face covered by it's hood, which does look kinda eerie. But then whoever makes up this shit made claims like 'it's impossible to photograph' and 'no camera functions near it', which gets faithfully repeated next to photographs of the damn thing.

So, yeah. Inez Clarke cannot be a ghost. Eternal Silence could, but he sure as shit doesn't act like it. But whoever they are, they've both been there for upwards of a century, which makes it difficult to believe that either is part of a Sidhe gambit to fuck with Dresden's head.

 

I dunno about Inez, but Eternal Silence is almost certainly a proxy for/manifestation of Demonreach. There's plenty of evidence for it, specifically in that there is only a set amount of "prepared speech" that it can deliver without a mindrape and in that the psychic voice of Demonreach is the same as Eternal Silence's, save less mind-crushing.

The most likely answer is that ES is simply an extension of Demonreach on the mainland. Why it chose that place and that statue is unclear, but the evidence fits.

 

Huh; my knowledge of Chicago folklore is lacking.

I guess that pokes a hole in my thoughts as her possibly being important due to being casually mentioned back in Grave Peril. It was probably just a nod to Chicago folklore; Butcher is the kind of guy who does the research and likes to show his work (except for Chicago geography in the early books).

 

Yeah, there's really no way to tell outside of Word of God whether he had planned her greater part in Ghost Story back when he mentioned her in Dead Beat.

 

Eternal silence has prepared speeches which it can deliver without obliterating Dresden's puny mind.

The fact that it is even capable of mentioning Inez to Dresden, let alone commenting on her soul, show's that Demonreach expected her to be interfering with Dresden, and that it decided alerting Dresden to the entity's nature was significant enough to take up some of it's seemingly very limited comunicable abilities. I think this is a significant clue as to the nature of Inez, but I'm not quite sure how to interpret it yet.

 

Except the Archive is almost always an older woman. Ivy taking on the mantle as a kid is said repeatedly to be a new and worrying scenario.

 

The thing is, why would Mab want to have another proxy when Lea already comes in contact with Dresden's shade? I see no reason for it.

As for Inez, I think the most likely thing is what ChedderTrek said, that maybe she's actually what Harry feared he would become, an actual soul trapped on earth.

 

You know, I've learned more about chicago through reading the Dresden Files than I have from almost any other source.

 

For what it's worth, I don't think Lea was acting as Mab's proxy. She had no important message to give to Dresden as Eternal Silence did; instead she was content to sit and listen to his memories. Also, remember that she even was tempted to tell Harry who his killer was until Eternal Silence stopped her. If she was Mab's proxy I'm sure she would have been forbidden to do so; Demonreach and Mab were mutually interested in keeping Dresden alive and wouldn't do anything that could endanger his soul -Harry had to find out himself in order for Uriel to deliver the 7 words...Lea telling him would kinda render that moot.

 

And i don´t think that Mab wanted Uriel to tell Harry the 7 words. Because without these words and the whole self reflecting that Harry did in Ghost Story she would have a much easier time controlling Harry.