The Bay Bulls Standoff
Page 10
“No, we never left the pit until late. Joe was the last to leave.”
“Go figure. He’s always the last to leave.”
“Well, if we hear any shots fired in the next little while, we’ll know what it is. I know Leo is not livid with them for lighting up his house. More actions by the cops to further piss him off. I can see him popping those lights. Surprised he hasn’t done it already. This is going to get a lot more exciting before it ends. It could get a lot more exciting tonight.
“I don’t know where to stay. Will I stay here on your deck or go back to the pit? I’m going back to the pit. Ann Marie, promise me you will call the second you see anything or anyone moving. When did you come in off the deck?”
“I’m in the house about an hour and a half. Came in to cook a bit of supper, and then I watched the news.”
“Nothing new on the news?”
“No, recycled from yesterday. It wasn’t even the first story.”
“I guess it is kind of getting old. Four days. Well, I’m gone to the pit. Make sure we keep our lines of communication open. Call me. I haven’t conquered the texting yet.”
“For sure, Dutch.”
I left Ann Marie’s and headed back to the pit. On the drive back I saw more police vehicles than on the way to Ann Marie’s. I parked behind Joe and got in with him.
“Joe, you should go over to Irish Town for a look. You won’t believe the power in the lights shining on the back of Leo’s house.”
“I can see from here how powerful they are. I don’t know how they got to set them up without us seeing them doing it.”
“Joe, we’re doing a fine bit of talking. Our eyes are not on the house constantly.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“And there are times we wind up the windows and turn on the vehicle to warm up. No one is looking then.
“Oh, forgot to tell you. There’s a reporter up to Ann Marie’s from CBC. Apparently she told Ann Marie that they got a tip to be in the area tonight.”
“Who did they get that from?”
“The reporter wouldn’t say. I’m guessing the police.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes. Definitely attacking tonight, with the lights on the back of the house and with the reporter saying that. And Joe, they left the sharpshooters in place. Definitely attacking. Call Jeff, Plumber, and David Lou. No need to call Sharon or Brenda. They’ll be up anyway.”
“Do you know those six SWAT team members are still by the side of the garage?”
“Holy fuck. They’re there since before eight o’clock this morning.”
“Eight a.m. was the first time we noticed them. Why did you ask if they were still there?”
“There has to be a reason. You never know, they may have a visual on Leo. And like I said, they’re trying to intimidate him.”
“Well, they will need more than six cops there.”
“Sharon and Brenda are coming up the top road. And Jeff is taking up the rear behind them.”
A few minutes later Sharon’s car pulled into the pit and hauled in alongside Joe’s SUV. I rolled down the window.
“Hey, you talking to Ann Marie?”
“No, why?”
“You should dart up and see her, she has news.”
“What kind of news?”
“There’s a CBC reporter on her deck with a cameraman. Ann Marie told me that the reporter told her they got a tip to be in the area tonight.”
“WHAT?”
“Yup, that’s what she told me when I was there over a half-hour ago.”
“Okay, boys, we’re gone. If you see any big movement around Leo’s, call us at Ann Marie’s.”
I watched Brenda and Sharon go down the top road heading for Ann Marie’s. In the meantime, Jeff had parked his car in front of Joe’s SUV and gotten in with us.
“Dutch, it’s nine thirty and nothing moving.”
“I’d say they’re waiting for the harbour to settle down. They want as few witnesses as possible when they attack. Jeff, if I had to bet I’d say they’re going in tonight. Let me rephrase that. They’re going to try and go in tonight. Everything is adding up. Lights on the back of the house. Sharpshooters not taken from their locations in the grass behind the house. And what the reporter said.”
“Dutch, I just hope they do it soon. I can’t wait all night like you and Joe. I have school in the morning.”
“It will definitely be late tonight or early morning when it happens. And with our luck, we’ll miss it.”
“Dutch, how will you miss it? You’re here virtually twenty-four hours a day.”
“Jeff, we’re averaging eighteen to twenty hours a day. But you wait and see, it will happen when we’re asleep. Joe, the truck is going up the road.”
“Which truck?”
“The white truck with the robot in the back.”
“I guess they’re sending it in again.”
“So there is action happening.”
“I’ll call Brenda to tell her and Sharon to watch it from Ann Marie’s. Be interesting to see how it acts.”
I dialled Brenda’s number. “Brenda, the bomb disposal truck is going up St. John’s Road. I’d say the robot is going in to torment Leo again. The reporter still there?”
“No, she got a phone call and the second she got off the phone she left. Thanked Ann Marie for her hospitality and left.”
“Which direction did she go?”
“The van turned around in Ann Marie’s driveway and went out Irish Town Road towards the highway.”
“So there must not have been much fact in her comment about the tip they got. I guess she got pictures of the back of the house lit up and I’d say they’ll use them tonight on their late edition. You staying there for a while?”
“We weren’t. But we will now, to hear what the robot is saying.”
“I’m coming over. Tell Ann Marie to crank on the coffee pot.”
“Will do.”
In a few minutes I was back at Ann Marie’s. Ann Marie and I and Sharon and Brenda and a few other people from the harbour gathered on her deck to listen to the robot. It was loud, even louder than it had been before.
“LEO . . . COME OUT. LEO . . . COME OUT. We won’t hurt you. Come on, now, Leo, come out. We have cigarettes for you. Anything you want, we’ll get it for you. Leo . . . we’re trying to help you, Leo. Leo, we’re your friends. I promise we won’t hurt you. Leo, don’t worry about your mother’s house . . . we’ll repair it. We’ll fix any damage that we did. Yes, Leo, we’ll repair your mother’s house. Come on, Leo, please come out.”
There was a lull, and then we heard Leo’s voice.
“Get the FUCK off my property. Get the FUCK off my property. Get the FUCK off my property. Get off my goddamn property.”
“Yes, Leo, we will get off your property when you come out.”
“FUCK off and get the FUCK off my property, ye bastards.”
“Leo, we’re not going anywhere until you come out. We will get off your property when you come out.”
“Get the FUCK off my property.”
“Come on, now, Leo, we’re trying to help you.”
“FUCK off, pigs.”
We heard what sounded like a rifle shot. Everyone broke out talking at once.
“Jesus, Leo fired.”
“At the robot?”
“I don’t know.”
“Holy shit, man, Leo fired at the robot again.”
“How many times are they going to repeat themselves?”
“They said that a hundred times last night. And Leo kept saying the same thing. ‘Get the fuck off my property.’”
“Don’t the police realize they’re destroying their own objectivity?”
“Do they realize that he’s in a tormented state of mind?”
“You would think.”
“But how are they getting him out?”
“Who knows.”
I phoned my brother. “Joe, did you hear the shot fired?”
“I heard it but didn’t know what it was. I kind of figured it was a shot. Sounded like Leo fired. Could have been a noisemaker. They sound a lot like a rifle shot.”
“Don’t underestimate the things that he’ll do. A caged animal is a dangerous animal. Can you hear the robot over there?”
“I can hear a little. When the wind blows a certain way you can pick up some words. It’s carrying a little in the wind. What’s the robot saying?”
“It keeps repeating itself. It says, ‘Come out, Leo, we want to help you. Come out, Leo, we’re here to help you.’ What I find interesting is it says that they’ll fix his house.”
“Is Leo saying anything?”
“He keeps repeating himself. ‘Get the fuck off my property. Get the fuck off my property.’ That sounds so much like what Leo would say. Jeff still there?”
“No, he went home. He said he had some homework to do.”
“He’s missing it. He’ll be pissed when he hears this.”
“His own fault for going home.”
“I guess he doesn’t have the luxury that we have. Oh well, someone has to get educated in this harbour. I’ll be over the minute the robot leaves. Joe, turn on CBC. See if they have an update.”
“Did the robot keep saying the same thing?”
“Yup, kept saying it over and over and over. What time is it?”
“Ten after eleven.”
“I’m betting they’re sending that robot in again.”
“You hanging around for a few more hours?”
“Yes, going nowhere. If something happens over there, I want to see it.”
“Fuck it. I’m staying, too. I have to run into the house and get some smokes.”
“Go on. I’ll meet you at your house. Might grab a bun or something to hold me over. Anything in there to eat?”
“I’d say Janet has something baked.”
“Joe, she’s a good baker. I dearly love her dark fruitcake.”
Joe’s house is close to Foodland, behind the funeral home on Cemetery Lane West. His wife was waiting for us in the kitchen.
“Janet, you should come up with us for a look.”
“Ye are off your heads, up there freezing to fucking death.”
“Janet, this is entertainment. Better than anything on the tube.”
“And freezing to death watching it.”
“I’m not cold, I have insulated jeans on. Janet, it’s not that cold out. It’s six degrees Celsius out. Warmest day since this started.”
We grabbed a couple of coffees in disposable cups and some fruitcake and headed back to the pit. The harbour was dead quiet.
“Joe, the white truck is on the move again. See it going up the road?”
“I see it.”
“Man, they are keeping the pressure on tonight.”
“I guess they’re trying to wear him down.”
“I’d say they don’t want him to sleep. Mind games.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Wear him down. Joe, they might do that every half-hour or so.”
“They’ll have to stop sometime to discuss strategy and then Leo will have a power nap. They say people who run on adrenaline can go days with little or no sleep. Apparently they have documented evidence of Canadian soldiers going for seventy-two hours and longer during battle in World War II. And Leo is a soldier. He always had that mentality. If he went at anything, like changing an engine in a car, he would go non-stop for two days until it was running. And then he might sleep for an hour or two.”
“Joe, he always kept himself in good shape, didn’t he?”
“Yes, always. Him and Francie pumped iron for years. Leo never bulked up like Francie, but there was never an ounce of fat on him. If he grabbed you by the throat, you knew it.
“Dutch, did you also notice about Leo he was always as clean as a whistle? And never any growth on his face. Always showered up. His trademark shirt is always the white dress shirt.”
“I saw him, at one of the dances at the old parish hall years ago, pound the shit out of two fellows from Goulds. There was always talk they were coming back for a rematch. They never showed their faces in Bay Bulls again.”
“Dutch, I don’t have to tell you, you could look high and low and you couldn’t find a nicer, more sincere fellow in the harbour.”
“Joe, there’s not a person who ever said anything bad about Leo, or any of the Crockwells, for that matter.”
“I just pray to God that he comes out of this unhurt. What they’re doing to him is inhumane. If they’d just pack up their guns and that fucking robot and go to fuck and leave him alone, Leo would walk out of that house in a few days, after he got his bearings.”
“Joe, I don’t agree with you much, but you hit the nail on the head on this one. We can only hope and pray they don’t hurt him.
“Joe, the robot is going again. That is the fourth trip since eight o’clock and it’s not even twelve yet. I know they’re not scratching their heads. I’d say this has to be the longest standoff in Newfoundland’s history. This is the fourth day and it doesn’t seem like it’s about to end anytime soon.”
“Have you wondered why they never attacked yet? They’re frightened to death of him. If they weren’t, they would have gone in days ago and dragged him out.”
“Joe, can you imagine what it’s like in there in the dark? No lights, no heat, the wind blowing freely through the house. I’d say it’s like living in a hockey arena for four days. And we know how cold arenas are.”
“If they think sending a little talking robot in to torment Leo every half-hour to forty-five minutes is going to work, they’re in for a real shock. They could send that little R2-D2 in every half-hour for the rest of the winter, but that little shitbox won’t do a thing to move Leo.”
“Joe, quick, look at the hangout. There’s two people walking up the road, a man and a woman. They’re abreast of the games arcade.”
“Who the fuck are they? And where the fuck did they come from?”
“And how the fuck did the cops allow them to get that close to Leo’s house?”
“Dutch, I think they’re the two living in Brian Ryan’s house.” Brian’s house is east of Mullowney’s and Crockwell’s.
“What? You tell me that they’re there all week and the cops never knew to take them out of there? Hard to believe, ain’t it? Sure, Eddie Fowler is gone.” Eddie’s house is close to Brian’s.
“Yes, but I think his niece took him for his own safety. The cops never ordered him out.”
“Yes, Joe, but they must have told these two not to walk up the road towards Leo’s.”
“They probably did, and they never listened.”
“Where have they been all week?”
“We never saw them walk up or down the road.”
“Well, they’re in for some shock when they pop around the corner of Foodland. There’ll be no less than twenty cops staring at them. Probably with weapons aimed. I guarantee you they won’t be going back down the road in a hurry.”
“It’s hard to believe that the cops would let them get that close to Leo. And Donna almost got in over the doorstep. What else is going to happen before this is over? If this was a training exercise it wouldn’t be any worse than the way it’s going.”
“Joe, they could be sending that robot in all night. Anyway, I’m beat to a snot and my back is killing me. You staying much longer?”
“An hour or so.”
“Okay, call my cell if they start moving in. You should have an idea if and when they’re going in. The place over there will be crawling with cops.”
“All right, I’ll call you.”
“And Joe, I’ll say it again. Take care of my binoculars and scope.”
“Yes, Dutch.”
“Good night.”
Chapter 5
_____________________________________
Wednesday, December 8
“Janet, where’s Joe?”
“He’s asleep. Chris, it’s only six thirty.”
“Yes, I know. But I want to know what went on after I left the pit last night. Don’t wake him. I’ll hear about it when he gets here. When he wakes, tell him I’m in the pit and it’s very quiet over around Leo’s, so there’s no rush for him to get up here. Tell him I have some news on Leo.”
“Okay, will do. Bye.”
I’d been in the pit for about an hour when Joe arrived. I jumped in the back seat of my brother’s SUV.
“Joe, you got a little sleep?”
“Yes, got a few hours.”
“What time did you leave here last night?”
“Left around two thirty. What time did you get here?”
“Around six thirty. So, anything big happen after I left last night?”
“No, not really. They sent in the robot two more times up to the time I left.”
“Did Sharon and Brenda come back over?”
“No, never saw anyone after you left.”
“I wonder what time they left Ann Marie’s?”
Around ten o’clock, Sharon and Brenda showed up.
“Good morning, girls, get in. You’re on the go early today.”
“Dutch, Peanut allowed in?”
“Jesus, yes, Sharon. I loves dogs. I got two. Bella’s from Kansas City; Hollie found her on the Internet. Lady we got from Heavenly Creatures, an organization run by loving and caring people. Hello, Peanut. You’re a handsome fellow.”
“Dutch, what’s the news you have? You told Janet you have news?”
“Someone told me last night, on the phone when I went home after leaving here, that Leo called the command truck by Foodland yesterday afternoon and told the negotiator to bring him a warrant and he would come out. If they aren’t going to bring him a warrant, then take their guns and go play their fucking war games somewhere else.”