"Buddy told me he won it in a poker game. It had a lot of good fishing spots marked on it. He was pissed off when it got stolen, thought it was another fishing guide who took it."

I could tell by their reactions that I was hitting every pitch. The GPS was important. It had not been taken simply as a cover. I was wrong about that. It took me a minute but then I put it together.

"I get it," I said. "That's how you found this place, isn't it? Backus sent you people the GPS with this place marked. He led you here like he did with Terry."

"This is not about us," Dei said. "It's about you."

But I glanced at Rachel and saw the confirmation in her eyes. I took the next jump and figured it had been sent to her. That was why she was here as an observer. Backus called her out, just as he had called out Terry.

"You said Terry was the first agent Backus mentored in the unit. Who was the second?"

"Let's move on," Dei said.

Rachel didn't answer but she gave me that slight smile that looked so sad with those dead eyes. She was telling me I had it right. She came after Terry McCaleb in the mentoring program.

"I hope you are taking appropriate precautions," I said quietly.

Dei opened the file on the table.

"That's actually no business of yours," she said. "Now, there are some things in your notes here I want to ask you about. First of all, who is William Bing?"

I looked at Dei. She thought that it was my file and my notes.

"I don't know. Just a name I came across."

"Where?"

"I think Terry had written it down. I haven't figured out who it is yet."

"And this reference to the triangle theory, what does it mean?"

"What does it mean to you?" "Mr. Bosch, don't annoy me. Don't play cute."

"Cherie?" Rachel asked.

"What?"

"I think those are probably Terry's notes."

Dei looked down at the file and realized Rachel was right. I looked at Rachel like I was hurt that she had ratted me out. Dei closed the file abruptly.

"Right. Of course."

She looked up at me.

"You know what that means?"

"No, but I think you'll tell me."

"It means we'll take it from here. You can head on back to L.A. now."

"I'm not going to L.A. I'm going to Las Vegas. I have a place there."

"You can go wherever you want but stay away from this investigation. We are officially taking it over."

"You know I don't work for any police department, Agent Dei. You can't take anything over from me unless I want you to. I'm a private operator."

She nodded like she was understanding of my situation.

"That's fine, Mr. Bosch, we'll be speaking to your employer later today and you'll be unemployed before sunset."

"I'm just trying to make a living."

"I'm just trying to catch a killer. So understand me, your services are no longer required. Stay away from it. You're out. You're finished. Can I be any clearer?"

"Think maybe you could put it in writing, too?"

"You know what, I think you should get out of here and go home while you still can. Tom, would you get Mr. Bosch his license and keys and escort him to his car?" "Gladly," Zigo said, his first word uttered in the motor home.

I reached for the file but she snatched it away from my grasp.

"And we'll be keeping this."

"Sure. Happy hunting, Agent Dei."

"Thank you."

I followed Zigo toward the door. I glanced back and nodded to Rachel and she did the same to me. I think I saw a trace of light enter her eyes.

THE THREE AGENTS WERE Still talking about Bosch when the helicopter lifted off the desert floor and they began the forty-minute journey back to Las Vegas. The three agents wore headphones so they could communicate with each other despite the noise of the rotor wash. Dei clearly remained annoyed with the private detective and Rachel thought that maybe Cherie felt that somehow Bosch had gotten something over on her. Rachel remained amused. She knew they hadn't seen the last of Bosch. He had seen-it-all-twice eyes, and that nod at the end told her he wasn't going to just fold up his tent and go home.

"What about the triangle theory?" Dei said.

Rachel waited for Zigo to go first but as usual he said nothing.

"I think Terry was probably onto something," she said. "Somebody should go to work on it."

"At the moment I don't know if we have the bodies to chase all of this stuff. I'll ask Brass if she's got anybody. And this William Bing-that name hasn't come up before."

"My guess is that he is a doctor. Terry was coming over here and probably wanted to have a name in case something went wrong."

"Rachel, when we get back, can you just run that down? I know what Alpert said, you're an observer and all, but if that's just a loose end, then it will be good to nail it down."

"No problem. I can do it from my hotel room if you don't want him seeing me working a phone."

"No, stay in the FO. If Alpert doesn't see you he'll start wondering what you're up to."

Dei, who was in the front passenger seat, turned and looked back at Rachel, who was behind the pilot's seat.

"What was with you two, anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. You and Bosch. All the looks, the smiles. 'I hope you are taking appropriate precautions.' What's going on with that, Rachel?"

"Look, he's outnumbered here, okay? It's natural that he'd pick one of us to play to. It's covered in the manual on interview techniques and tendencies. Check it out sometime."

"And what about you? Are you playing to him? Is that in the manual, too?"

Rachel shook her head as if to dismiss the whole discussion.

"I just like his style. He acts like he still has the badge, you know? He didn't stand down to us and I think that's sort of cool."

"You've been out in the boonies too long, Rachel, or you wouldn't say that. We don't like people who won't stand down to us."

"Maybe I have."

"So does that mean you think he's going to be a problem?"

"Definitely," said Zigo.

"Probably," added Rachel.

Dei shook her head.

"I don't have the people for all of this. I can't spend my time watching this guy."

"You want me to keep tabs on him?" Rachel asked.

"You volunteering?"

"I'm looking for something to do. So, yeah, I'm volunteering."

"You know, before nine-eleven and Homeland Security, we used to get whatever we needed. Bagging serials were the best headlines the bureau got. Now it's terrorists twenty-four-seven and we can't even get overtime."

Rachel noted how Dei pointedly did not say whether she wanted her to check up on Bosch or not. A nice way to have deniability if something went wrong. She decided that once back at the field office she would get Dei alone and get her to run a check on whether Bosch really had a home in Las Vegas. She'd try to find out what he was up to and keep a loose watch on him.

She looked out her window and down at the black asphalt ribbon that cut through the desert. They were following it back to the city. At that same moment she saw a black Mercedes-Benz SUV heading in the same direction. It was dirty from off-roading in the desert. She knew it was Bosch making his way to Vegas. Then she noticed the drawing on the roof of the Mercedes. He had used a rag or something to draw a happy face in the white dust on the roof. The drawing made her smile, too.

Dei's voice came in through the earphones.

"What is it, Rachel? What are you smiling at?"

"Nothing. I'm just thinking about something."

"Yeah, I wish I could smile knowing that there might be a psycho-agent out there waiting to put a plastic bag over my head."

Rachel looked at Dei, annoyed by such a snide and brutal remark. Dei apparently saw something in her eyes.