Well, there are some "Cowl is Harry from the future" theories out there. I don't buy it anymore than I bought the "Dumbledore is really Ron from the future" theories for HP, but it is one crazy option.

Other options include the possibility that DuMorne is alive, though for some reason I thought it was fairly conclusive he was dead. From what we've heard of DuMorne too I can't see him being as... well, I can't say nice or accepting, but he didn't seem to have a grudge against Dresden in Dead Beat til after Dresden screwed up his party, so I don't think Cowl = DuMorne.

I guess DuMorne could be alive somewhere and have told them this, but that seems iffy.

Since Cowl is a student of Kemmler and Bob was Kemmler's for a while, during which time Kemmler "twisted" what Bob was in ways we might not know about, it's possible Cowl can "track" Bob somehow.

However I think that the most likely option is that Cowl just got access to the White Council records (Harry suspects they are on the Council), which likely state that DuMorne destroyed Bob (or that a Warden did, and Cowl could have known which one had that task) and then connected the pieces with DuMorne turning out to be a bad guy, etc.

But you make a good point -- there isn't a clear explanation. Zebras or Horses? In this case I'm going with Horses. But with the upcoming "kid" plotline... Zebras. Definately Zebras.

 

The Merlin might sometimes remind me of a version of Dumbledore, but only because both are damned good politicians and know how to manipulate a crowd and events to their liking. Everything else is not the same. The actual characters and their motivations are different in a lot of ways as is their interaction with their respective Harry so I've never really compared them as characters. They just have that one aspect in common.

Also -- good point about Elaine possibly knowing that Bob was missing. She could have let it slip somehow, perhaps when she was with the Fae (maybe Summer wants Bob to hold over Mab's head since Mab is apparently pissed as shit at Bob?) and Cowl got it out of them. *shrug*

Could be anything. But yeah I am leaning towards Cowl being on the Council like Harry thinks he is and having gotten enough info from them to piece it together.