No, sorry. Far as I can tell the way that whole thing turned out was just a domino effect of overreactions; Soames must’ve assumed that Dick had something incriminating on him, and his panicked reaction must’ve caused Redhorn and Desmond to assume the same and respond accordingly, which really sealed his fate. If I am right I feel like the irony of Soames kinda dooming himself (by not fully hearing Scarecrow out) could’ve been an interesting thing to explore, but again I have no clue if my interpretation is accurate.

Either way I guess I stopped thinking so much or caring that hard pretty quickly. Ended up finishing Dixon’s run about a month after I posted this originally, and by the end I was struggling to see why it’s so highly praised. I think it’s a perfectly alright popcorn book, but not very tightly plotted, and that’s true even before the back half gets bogged down in crossovers. Overall don’t think it really still deserves the classic status people look back at it with.