The cowboy remained unimpressed. “So what? As I recollect, Chopper was workin’ on security for your old man in the States and overseas. Why shouldn’t he keep blueprints to the compound?”
“Yes, but look at these notes.” Daniel traced his finger across a series of arrows hand-drawn on the blueprint. The arrows marked a route from an access door on the west side of the building. They ended right outside a room that was labeled “diviner’s Office.”
Leroy knit his brows in concentration. “That is a trifle strange,” he admitted.
“And look at this.” Daniel pointed to three dots inside the diviner’s office and one dot right at the end of the corridor leading to the office. They had all been circled. “Those are security camera locations,” he said.
A notation scribbled next to the designated surveillance equipment read, “Joshua to disable cams.” A date was scrawled next to the message along with the words, “12 AM sharp.”
The cowboy sat even farther forward, his interest finally piqued. “Will you look at that? Chopper was up to somethin’ all right.” He transferred his attention to Daniel. “That date mean anythin’ to you?”
The scion nodded gravely. “It certainly does. That was the night Mr. Bowdeen attempted to kill my father. Your friend was shot by my brother Joshua instead.”
The cowboy scratched his head. He pondered the evidence before him in silence for several seconds before rising abruptly. “I need another drink,” he announced and walked back to the bar.
Returning a few minutes later, he set down a bottle of whiskey and a spare glass. After resuming his seat, he poured himself another shot and filled the empty glass, sliding it across the table to Daniel.
“I don’t drink whiskey,” the scion protested.
“You will by the time we’re done sussin’ this out,” the cowboy muttered with a scowl on his face. “Before I tell you what I think, give me the lowdown on what happened that night. Step-by-step and don’t leave nothin’ out.”
Daniel launched into a detailed account of the facts he’d been able to gather about the assassination attempt.
The scowl on Leroy Hunt’s face deepened with every sentence. When Daniel had finished, the cowboy asked, “And your brother Josh just happened to be cruisin’ through the neighborhood while my old buddy was fixin’ to shoot your daddy?”
“My brother said he’d grown suspicious of Mr. Bowdeen’s behavior and that he’d been keeping tabs on him for quite some time.”
“Don’t it strike you funny that a feller your brother tagged as a shifty character could make it all the way to your old man’s office at midnight without bells and whistles goin’ off in the guard shack? How come security didn’t stop him before he got that far?”
Daniel grew chalkier than usual. “Nobody questioned Joshua’s version of events.”
“Uh huh,” the cowboy remarked laconically.
Without thinking, the scion took the glass of whisky and gulped half of it down, causing him to sputter and cough. When he could breathe again, he gasped, “That means Joshua must have disabled the cameras just as the blueprints indicated.”
Leroy chuckled sardonically at Daniel’s dawning recognition. “There it is.”
“They must have planned the assassination together,” Daniel speculated shakily. “Maybe my brother lost his nerve at the last moment,”
“And there it went.” Hunt shook his head in exasperation. “Boy, you ain’t got the street smarts God gave a country hen.”
Daniel looked confused. “What are you saying? That my brother intended to shoot his accomplice?”
“Accomplice, my ass!” The cowboy treated the scion to a withering look. “That set-up wasn’t Chopper’s style. Tell me some more about your brother Josh.”
Daniel regaled Hunt with Joshua’s rumored activities as a spymaster, his close association with Chopper Bowdeen in militarizing the satellites, and his lifelong envy of his brother.
“So, Josh thinks he got the short end of the stick cause you’re next in line to run things?”
“He would do anything to discredit me.”
“Maybe he wasn’t havin’ much luck with talkin’ you down you, so he tried a different tack. He figured to make himself look good by savin’ your daddy’s life.”
Daniel took another gulp of whisky. “So, you think he saw an opportunity to betray his co-conspirator and took it?”
“Nope.” Leroy rubbed his chin absently. “I know for a fact that Chopper was always jumpy about workin’ for your old man. I never could conjure why. Maybe Josh knew my buddy’s weak spot too seein’ as how they spent so much time together. Could be your brother worked that nerve raw ‘til Chopper was ready to do somethin’ really stupid.”
“What are you saying?” The scion stared at him intently.
“I’m sayin’ your brother Josh played Chopper like a cheap fiddle. He set him up, son. Ole Josh never planned to kill your daddy. He only wanted to make himself look like a hero by shootin’ my army pal in the back. And Chopper was just dumb enough to fall for it.”
Daniel swallowed the rest of his whisky and poured himself another glass.
The cowboy gave a grim smile. “Though I ain’t met him, your brother Josh strikes me as the kind of feller who'd slip a rattlesnake in your pocket and then ask you for a light. Better watch your back, son, or what happened to Chopper is gonna happen to you.”
“Joshua wouldn’t kill me!” Daniel exclaimed. “He’s my own brother.”
“So, I guess you ain’t never heard the story about them two boys named Cain and Abel?” the cowboy asked dryly. “With you bein’ such a Bible-thumper, that surely is a wonder.”
Daniel was too stunned to speak as the implication hit him.
Leroy took his companion’s silence as an opportunity to mentally assess how much of a threat this new player might be to his own plans. A sidewinder like Josh who made it his business to know everybody else’s might be trouble. Of more concern was Josh’s desire to mess with Daniel at a time when Leroy still needed the runt to find the last doodad for him. Josh was a wild card that could queer Leroy’s chances
