“Thanks,” he said.
“No problem, sir. Have a good day.”
Lyle was out of the office in seconds. He picked up the two empty boxes, used the top one as cover, and walked casually down the hall. The two lawyers were gone. There was no one in sight, until, suddenly, Egan Clement appeared at the top of the stairs. She was carrying a paper bag from a deli and a bottle of soda. She glanced at him as she walked by. Lyle thought, Oh shit! and had to make a quick decision. In a few short seconds Egan would be in the office and would become collateral damage.
Lyle dropped the boxes and removed from his pocket a remote detonator. He crouched beside the banister for cover, and pressed the button, at least thirty seconds before he’d planned to.
The thrill of bomb-making was to be close enough to feel and hear it, and sometimes even to see it, but yet far enough away to avoid debris. He was much too close and would pay a price.
The explosion rocked the modern building, which seemed to bounce on its concrete foundation. The sound was deafening and burst eardrums in the clerks’ offices on the first floor. It shattered every window on both levels. It knocked people down. It rattled walls and shook off portraits, framed photographs, bulletin boards, notices, and fire extinguishers. In the main courtroom, light fixtures crashed onto the empty spectator pews. Judge Oliphant was sitting alone at a table in his chambers having a sandwich. His tall glass of ice tea tilted, flipped, and spilled. He ran into his courtroom, stepped on bits of broken glass, yanked open the main doors, and was hit with a wave of smoke and dust. Through it, he saw someone move along the floor down the hall. He took a deep breath, held it, and scrambled toward the person, who was moaning. It was Egan Clement, with blood oozing from her scalp. Judge Oliphant dragged her back to the courtroom and closed the doors.
Lyle was knocked off balance and sent tumbling down the steps to the landing halfway between the first and second floors. He took a blow to the head and for a moment was out of it. He tried to collect himself and keep moving but his right leg was white-hot with pain. Something was broken down there. Panicked voices filled the air and he could see people running for the double front doors. Dust and smoke were engulfing the entire building.
The detonator. Lyle managed to clear his head for a second to think about the detonator. If they caught him with it he wouldn’t stand a chance. Clutching the stair rail, he struggled down the lower steps and made it to the lobby where he crawled to the front door. Someone helped him outside. Someone else said, “It’s a compound fracture, buddy. I can see the bone.”
Bone or not, he couldn’t hang around. “Can you get me outta here?” he asked, but everyone was hurrying away from the building.
On the courthouse lawn, dozens of dazed people staggered out of the building, and once clear and safe, turned to look at it. Some had dust in their hair and on their shoulders. Some pointed to the DA’s office on the second floor where smoke and dust boiled out.
The explosion was heard throughout downtown Biloxi and other people made their way to the courthouse. Then the sirens began to wail, as they would for hours, and this attracted even more onlookers. First the police cars, then the firetrucks, then the ambulances. Several policemen arrived on foot, sprinting and breathing heavily. They secured the exterior doors as the firemen frantically unraveled their hoses. The crowd was growing and the curious were commanded to stand back.
Gage Pettigrew heard the noise and commotion and hustled over to see what was happening. By the time he arrived it was an accepted fact that Jesse Rudy’s office had been bombed. No, there was no report of casualties. He tried to get closer and talk to a policeman, but was asked to move away. He ran back to his office and was about to call Agnes at home when Keith walked through the rear door and asked what was happening. He was returning from a hearing in Pascagoula. His first impulse was to run to the courthouse and check on his father, but Gage said he couldn’t get near the building.
“Please go home and sit with your mother, Keith. I’ll go back over there and ask around. I’ll call you when I know something.”