The Black Echo

Bosch watches the vault and looks through the military file on Meadows that St. Louis mailed to him directly, noting things that are missing from the file Wish gave him. A 1973 letter from a congressman thanks Meadows for his hospitality in Saigon and mentions that Meadows was recommended by Lieutenant Rourke. Bosch is stunned to learn that Rourke was Meadows’s commanding officer in Saigon: “[T]here are no coincidences” (323).

Bosch calls Rourke and accuses him of knowing Meadows. He insinuates that Rourke has not put a SWAT team into the tunnels like he said he would. Rourke denies it, claiming he doesn’t remember Meadows from Vietnam. Bosch calls FBI dispatch to see if there really was SWAT surveillance. There is, so now Bosch suspects that the vault is either a decoy or a way to send Franklin and Delgado into a trap while Rourke steals the diamonds from Tran directly. Bosch shows the congressman’s letter to Wish, and they discuss whether Rourke is the inside man.

The vault alarm goes off. As agreed, Bosch tells the patrol to call the Beverly Hills police captain and treat it like it is a false alarm and instructs the vault manager to reset the alarm without opening the vault.