Keith was too stunned to argue. Gage walked him to his car and watched him drive away, and kept mumbling to himself, “This cannot be happening.” Sirens wailed in the distance.
Other than a nasty blow to the head, Egan appeared to be in good shape. Her wound was treated and she was strapped to a gurney and taken away in an ambulance. A secretary in the chancery clerk’s office was injured when a large filing cabinet toppled over and pinned her underneath. She left in the second ambulance. Lyle managed to grapple his way around to the side of the courthouse where he removed his brown shirt and stuffed it and the detonator into a large plastic garbage can. He was determined to get to his truck, drive away, go to the motel, and regroup. And as soon as physically possible, get the hell out of Biloxi. His plans went haywire, though, when he tripped and fell on a sidewalk. A first responder saw him, saw the blood and the exposed bone, and called for a stretcher. Lyle tried to resist, said he was fine and so on, but he was losing strength and fading. Another medic stepped over and they managed to get him on the stretcher and into an ambulance.
The fire was confined to the west end of the second floor and was extinguished quickly. The fire chief was the first one into the district attorney’s office. The walls of the reception room were charred and cracked; an interior wall had been blown in half. The desks and chairs were splintered. The metal file cabinets were dented and ripped open. Debris and plaster dust covered the floor and mixed with the water to form sticky mud. The door leading to Jesse’s office had been torn, and from where he stood the fire chief could see the victim.
The remains of a corpse had been blown face-first into an exterior wall. The back of his head was missing, as were the left leg and right arm. The white shirt was nothing but shreds, all covered in blood.
* * *
For the Rudy family, the clock had never ticked slower. The afternoon dragged on as they waited for the inevitable. Keith and Ainsley sat with Agnes in the sun room, her favorite place in their home. Beverly and Laura were due any moment. Tim was trying to catch a flight out of Missoula.
Gage and Gene Pettigrew manned the front of the house and kept the crowd away. Friends descended on the home and were asked to please leave. Maybe later. The family wasn’t receiving guests. Thanks for your concern.
A Biloxi policeman arrived with the news that Egan Clement was being treated at the hospital and doing okay. She suffered a concussion and a cut that required a few stitches. Evidently she was somewhere near the door of the office when the explosion occurred. The FBI and state police were on the scene.
“Can you keep Fats Bowman away from it?” Gage asked.
The policeman smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Sheriff Bowman will not be involved.”
The corpse would not be moved for hours. There was no hurry. The crime scene would be examined for days. A few minutes after three, an FBI technician carefully removed the wallet from the left rear pocket of the deceased and confirmed his identity.
The wallet was handed to Biloxi’s chief of police, who left the courthouse and drove straight to the Rudy home. He knew Keith well and was burdened with the responsibility of breaking the unspeakable news. The two of them huddled in the kitchen, away from Agnes and the girls.
Keith recognized the wallet and looked at his father’s driver’s license. He gritted his teeth and said, “Thank you, Bob.”
“I’m so sorry, Keith.”
“So am I. What do you know?”
“Not much so far. The FBI lab guys are on the way. Some type of bomb that went off somewhere close to your father’s desk. He didn’t have a chance.”
Keith closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “When can we see my dad?”
The chief stuttered and stumbled for words. “I don’t know, Keith. I’m not sure you want to see him, not like this.”
“Is he in one piece?”