Plot summary
Rachel Walling gets the information from one of her Mentee Cherie Dei that the poet is back. He sent a package to the FBI addressing Rachel. Dei ask Rachel to join the task force which she agrees to.
Meanwhile Graciela McCaleb requests Harry Bosch to investigate her husband's death who passed away on the wheel of his boat. When he asks her why does she think that McCaleb's death is needed to be investigated she tells him that the autopsy of McCaleb revealed that his blood missed the key elements of his medications which were supposed to keep him alive even though everyone saw him taking his meds implying that someone tampered with his medicines. Although Bosch was reluctant at first, he eventually agrees to take the case as he owed McCaleb. He talks to Buddy Lockridge McCaleb's business partner at first then the next day he goes to inspect McCaleb’s Boat for clues. He first starts with McCaleb's laptop where he finds pictures of the charters. There Buddy tells him that one of the charters stole a GPS from them. After looking more Bosch discovers two things. One for some reason McCaleb suspected the charter and took his photos without his knowledge. Second the same guy was stalking McCaleb's family and he sent him some stalking photos. Also he found a picture of a road to Las Vegas form Los Angeles and an old boat.
Meanwhile Rachel flies to Las Vegas unaware of the fact that she is being followed by The Poet aka Robert Bakus. She is received by Dei who on their way to the crime scene makes it very clear that Rachel is here only as an observer and she still has to make up for her past mistakes. After reaching the sight Rachel is informed by the Agent in charge Randal Alpert that not everyone in the team knows that this is the case related to Poet and pressures her to keep it like that.
Meanwhile Bosch decides to spend the night on The Following Sea and look through McCaleb's case files. After looking he realizes that what Graciela told him was in fact true. Terry had a hard time letting go his old life and it had become his obsession. He checked the local newspaper for cases and offered his services to the investigative officers. Sometimes he was welcomed and sometimes not. One of the cases was about 6 missing men. Bosch suspects that it is related to his death because McCaleb researched it just before his death. Also he finds evidence that made him doubt that McCaleb had gone to Vegas. To be sure he looks at the credit card statements but there was nothing on it. He also finds a map book in McCaleb’s car that he takes a look at before starting for Vegas to continue his investigation.
Back in the field office the team discuss about the case. They had find a boat on the dessert where Bakus lead them through a GPS system. Agent Doran Brass tells everyone that she found McCaleb's fingerprints on the boat. This is the point where Rachel learns about McCaleb's death.
Brass also tells them that they traced the GPS to California where a man name Aubry Snow bought it. But later he lost in a poker game with other fish guides. She says it could be related to McCaleb since he ran a charter business. Amongst these discussions an Agent comes and tells them that Bosch is held at the check point because he has a file where there is the photo of the boat that was found on the excavation site. Alpert sends Rachel, Dei and Zigo to investigate the matter.
The team goes to see Bosch where they ask him about the picture and file. Bosch through the presence of Rachel there realises that this has something to do with Poet and tells them the man in the pic he had the one McCaleb took secretly was Bakus. Dei pressurizes him to tell them the whole story. Bosch says he needs to call his client and take their permission before revealing anything and he wants to do it in private. Dei lets him and he uses the opportunity to call Lockridge and tell him bring the file of Poet with some additional things because he knew as soon as the FBI listened to his story they would confiscate the boat and some other things of McCaleb which in fact happens. After hearing his whole story Dei says that he can not work the case anymore after taking the file he had with him and releases him.
Bosch goes to the Hotel and calls Graciela. He tells her that he is going to keep working the case. Then he recreates McCaleb notes from memory that were in the file the FBI took. McCaleb mentioned a triangle theory in his notes which Bosch couldn't figure out at that time. But then suddenly it comes to him. One of the 6 missing men rented a car just before disappearing which was returned by his adductor. The car data said it had 328 miles travelled in it. According to McCaleb there were 3 points. The Airport, the point where the adductor met the victim and last where the killing took place. They already knew 2 of the places. The road in pic of McCaleb's computer which was where the bodies were found and Bosch was held and the airport. Then using simple Geometry and some deduction Bosch decides the place where victim met with his abductor has to be a village named Clear.
At that moment Rachel comes to see him. She tells her that the FBI has told her to keep an eye on him and stop him if he investigates the case. But she doesn't plan to follow that. In fact she wants to take part in Bosch's investigation. After him asking her why she tells him that the FBI is putting her in the back and she wants to be in the front because this is her investigation. Bosch although don't completely trusts her he agrees. Later that night Bosch calls her hotel room and she doesn't pick up. But when she calls her in her cell phone, she picks up immediately and lies that she is in the her Hotel Room which makes Bosch more suspicious about her. In spite of that the next day he goes to Clear with her. There they learn that Jordan Shandy the man who was on McCaleb's boat and he got suspicious of was living there as Tom Walling and working as a driver. The Bar tender their tells Rachel that he left a note for his "sister" Rachel Walling. In the note it was said that this is his last act. Rachel calls it in. And while they were waiting for the team Bosch and Rachel decide to visit the trailer Tom used to live. After reaching there that smell a death body. Bosch also smells something else when he looks through that window where he sees the dead body and that makes him suspicious. He warns Rachel not to go there. But she doesn't listen and goes in there. Inside there were the photos of his victims that included the 6 missing men. There was also surveillance photos of McCaleb's family which were in his computer and that of Rachels another mystery man. Rachel opens the door of the bedroom and that sets of the bomb that Bakus had planned. Rachel and Bosch get out there quickly before the explosion. On there way they pic up the hat from the body for DNA and picture of the unknown man. The FBI fails to come to the conclusion weather the dead body was of Bakus or not.
As there is nothing left for Bosch to do in Vegas he decides to leave. When he was getting ready to leave Rachel comes to meet him and they start a romantic relationship. After that Bosch heads for the LA and Rachel goes to the FO. On the way Bosch tries to understand Bakus's plan by putting together the information they had. Before the explosion he found a barrel where it looked like a lot of things were burned including the IDs of the victims and a book and a recipt that said Book Car. After a conversation with his former colleague he finds out that another former colleague of his, the Poet's last victim whom he was not able to capture opened a book store named Book Carnival. Bosch realizes that Bakus is planning to kill Ed Thomas. He calls Rachel and tells her come to LA.
Back in the FO Alpert tries to throw Rachel out of the investigation. But she blackmails him saying that she found a GPS in her car and she is going to file a complaint against him for that and using her as a Bait to draw Bakus without her consent. This makes him cave and he lets her stay.
The next morning Rachel flies to LA and goes to keep an eye on Ed Thomas on his store with Bosch. He goes inside at first understand his situation. He learns from Thomas that Tom Walling was a customer who bought books from him online.
Bosch leaves the store and keeps watching him. During lunch time they see him leaving the store. Bosch calls the store and Thomas's wife picks up. She tells him them that he went to buy some books from a collector.
They follow him through the road in heavy rain. When they reach, they see it is the same house that Bakus had a picture of in his trailer. Bosch and Rachel spilt up and go inside through the front door and the back door. Inside Bosch finds the body of the owner of the house. On the other hand, Rachel is captured by Bakus and tied down to a chair with Ed Thomas to the another one. But Bosch comes in time to rescue them and Bakus takes a chance of fleeing through the window.
Once again Bosch and Rachel split up. Rachel chases him through the storm drain and Bosch heads up to the Beach in his car to capture him from that point. Bosch reaches the bridge. But Bakus attacks him and they both fail in the drain. And after a series of altercations Bosch is rescued by the LAPD but Bakus flows down. Later his body is found.
Bosch visits Graciela for one last time. There he sees a book Terry's daughter has. It was about Monkey named Billy Bing. McCaleb had a name in his notes William Bing. The same name. He realizes that McCaleb had checked into a hospital under that name (Rachel told him about a patient with that name in a hospital in Vegas earlier) and found out that his new heart was going the same way his old heart went. Implying that he would need another heart. Terry didn't have any money left for that. Also, neither did he want his family see him dying like that nor he wanted another person to die for him so that he could live. So for that reason he decided to kill himself and for this he switched his medicines. Bosch tells Rachel all these and says that she also knew all of that. Rachel ties to deny it but fails. Then she asks Bosch if he had the heart to tell everyone about this and make Graciela lose his life insurance. He says he doesn't have any intention to do that.
