The Bay Bulls Standoff

by Chris Ryan

  “Well, it’s true, Chris. I had the TV to myself all week. You know how you hog it.”

  “Well, I’m here in the pit all week. That’s why you guys are going for Mom. Tell Mom I’m sorry I couldn’t pick her up.”

  “Chris, you know Mom, she’ll be pissed that you never went and picked her up. You know how sooky she gets.”

  “I know that, Hollie. Hollie, tell her that there was too much excitement here. Bye, love you.”

  “You too, Chris. Oh, Chris, I forgot to tell you that Laura came with us.”

  “Which Laura?’

  “Your favourite Laura, Laura Dillon.”

  “Tell her I said hi.”

  I hung up and went back to chatting with the boys. “Boys, how long they stopped?”

  “They must be stopped ten or fifteen minutes. I’d say that long at least.”

  “I’d say they’re froze to death, Kevin. You know they’re getting somewhat wet. And with these temperatures tonight, wouldn’t be hard to get cold.”

  “Looks like there are a few bodies gathering around the hydrant again.”

  “Yes, Joe. There they go again. More water. As if there wasn’t enough in the house already. Someone time them.”

  “Done.”

  “I guess they had to stop for their coffee break. As we know, cops don’t miss their breaks. Having watched these boys in action all week, we know that for a fact. We could time them going around with their treats to their co-workers, the boys parked in cars and the sharpshooters behind Leo’s house. This standoff has been very good for the economy of Bay Bulls.”

  “You said it, Dutch.”

  “When this is over, the town council should give Leo a citizen of the year award for helping the economy of our town during a very slow month of the winter. They have given them to people for less.

  “Water stopped again.”

  “Dutch, I’d say that’s the end of the water for tonight.”

  “Joe, if we added up the amount of time they’ve been at it, I’d say they’re nearly an hour in total. How many gallons of water are in that basement at all?”

  “Good question.”

  “I’d say they’re after pumping 60,000 gallons in. And I mean gallons, not litres.”

  “Or more.”

  “I guess we’ll know eventually, Joe. I’ll be talking to a few of the boys in the next day or two. I’ll know then.”

  “That will be a good conversation.”

  “No, not going to say a word about what they did. They know what they did. They don’t need me to remind them. They will hear that from more than me in the future about this. You think I’m the only one around this community who’s not thinking the same thing?”

  “Yes, Dutch, people might think it. But will they say it?”

  “Something said carries a lot more weight than something thought and not spoken. Listen, boys, you know me. If I think of something, I say it. I hold nothing back. Never kept quiet in kindergarten, I’m not about to start being quiet now. Heading towards fifty. And I will have my say on this standoff when it’s over. Leo won’t be able to defend himself. So, he’ll need family and friends to defend him.”

  “Why don’t you think he can’t defend himself?”

  “He certainly can speak for himself, Jeff. You think he won’t be locked up after this is over? Like I said earlier, and I may have said it in this rig, they will try to throw the book at him. It will amount to nothing, a couple of petty charges. Leo didn’t turn this into the fiasco that it has become. We know who did.

  “Okay, let’s start focusing on the show. I can talk forever when I get going.”

  Brenda and Sharon pulled up beside Joe’s SUV and rolled down their window.

  “Hey, girls. Wild night, hey? Like never seen before in Bay Bulls. Were you up to Ann Marie’s?”

  “Yes, Dutch. A fine crowd up to Ann Marie’s. Lined off with cars from one end of Irish Town to the other.”

  “I figured there would be, what with it being Friday night and a waterworks show on the go. So what’s on the go behind Leo’s?”

  “Nothing, but you could see the hose spraying. The spray in the air is much larger from Ann Marie’s. Actually, I’m amazed at how large it is. They had the hose on full force. There’s a lot of water after going into that house.”

  “Like I said a few minutes ago, I’m figuring 60,000 gallons of water has gone in.”

  “I wouldn’t argue against you on that, Dutch.”

  “Those firehoses are, like, two and a half to three inches in the round. Going for how long, the best part of an hour? Do the math. Whatever it is, it’s a hell of a lot of water.

  “There’s a lot of people watching this tonight. Just scan the harbour with the binoculars, Joe. Look up in Irish Town. They’re parked bumper to bumper. Indicators and tail lights everywhere. There must be ten or twelve cars down by Uncle Tom’s. There’s park lights on in cars all over the harbour. You’d swear this was New Year’s Eve, with everyone awaiting fireworks.

  “Truck is backing up. Yup, they’re leaving. Their job is done. But the big question is, did they get Leo yet? If they had him, by now we would be hearing it on the radio. We’ve had VOCM on since we got here. We’ve heard the news four or five times since the water started flowing. And nothing on Leo, not a thing. And if it was on another radio station, someone would have called us. So that tells me he’s still in the house. He never surrendered. As we expected him not to.

  “Listen, if he surrendered, the two cars by Sharon’s would have moved, or we would have at least seen their headlights when they started up their vehicles. I’ve scanned them a hundred times since this started tonight and those cops did not move, except for getting out a few times to stretch their legs. I saw one vehicle go to them about two hours ago, most likely dropping off coffees. Stopped at both for a minute or two and then left. The vehicle turned right onto St. John’s Road, went across Foodland’s parking lot, took a sharp left at the bridge, and went down Cemetery Lane East, back to the town hall.

  “I wonder, will they try it again tomorrow or tomorrow night? They might do this non-stop until Leo walks out. Sure, the house will turn into a grounded iceberg. It will freeze like a berg and get a little bigger every time they spray it. It will grow to titanic proportions before this is over. Fine for the weekend. But those firemen have jobs, so they won’t be here come Monday morning. If they don’t get Leo this weekend I’d say he’ll be pretty safe come Monday. Tomorrow will be the start of week two.

  “Okay, I can go home and go to bed. And see my baby. She should be home soon. And it’s pretty quiet over to Leo’s. I’m wondering, will they start that annoying robot again? If I had to bet, I’d say definitely.

  “Boys, you heading home?”

  “May as well. All the excitement is over for tonight, Dutch.”

  “I’m coming back early in the morning, just in case they start driving water in again. See you in the morning, Dutch.”

  “See you tomorrow morning, Joe. Take the scope. Actually, if the water is flowing when you get here, call me.”

  “Okay, will do.”

  Chapter 8

  _____________________________________

  Saturday, December 11

  “Dutch, where are you?”

  “Not long up. Tina wanted to sleep in after her long flight home last night, so I decided to stay as well. God knows I needed it, plus it’s been a lonely week. Why, what’s on the go?”

  “Lots. They’re flying back and forth over Leo’s house.”

  “In a plane?”

  “Duh . . . yes, Dutch.”

  “You said ‘flying,’ you never said in what. It could have been a helicopter for all I know. I can’t see the fucking thing from Witless Bay. Why are they doing that?”

 
“I have no idea. Get over here. There’s a rumour that the fire truck is on the way again.”

  “You serious? Didn’t waste enough water last night.”

  I got dressed, had breakfast, and then headed to the pit. It was around nine thirty when I arrived. Joe’s vehicle was the only one there. The plane was still making loops over the harbour.

  “Dutch, you never ate.”

  “Yes, why?”

  “What, did you swallow it in one mouthful?”

  “Joe, I eat fast.”

  “You might say you eat fast. I was only talking to you, like, less than fifteen minutes ago. You got up, dressed, ate, and drove from Witless Bay to Bay Bulls all in fifteen minutes. You certainly never drove the speed limit.”

  “Joe, who gives a fuck about speed limits when we have action like this on the go? I’d say there wasn’t a traffic ticket written on the Shore in the past week. Sure, all the highway patrol from Ferryland and Holyrood are standing guard down by Foodland. Haven’t they been, since last Saturday?

  “Joe, how long has the plane been going around for?”

  “She flew back and forth over Leo’s house four times. She came from the direction of St. John’s. She went out the harbour on the south side, circled around over the harbour, and came back in the north side. She did that twice. I’d say she was going around for twenty minutes before you arrived. I saw the RCMP logo on the side of her with the scope.”

  “Why have they brought in a plane? A man cornered in a house in virtual darkness for seven full days. What was the plane going to do, look down the fucking chimney and take pictures? Joe, the German sub U-190 that surrendered and came in here at the end of the Second World War? The periscope on that, which is now housed at the Crow’s Nest, an officers’ club in downtown St. John’s, had about as good a chance of seeing anything in that house as that plane flying back and forth over it. Whoever ordered that to Bay Bulls this morning should be shot. I know that they have wasted a lot of tax dollars on this standoff since it started. But that plane is the last straw. Joe, what have they not done and tried in the past eight days?”

  “Anything and everything.”

  “Let’s do a list off the top of our heads: phone call, PA system thrown in through the window, sharpshooters, police officers brought in from other provinces, robot, construction lights behind the house, power cut, flash bombs, smoke bombs, two police dogs, battering ram, fire truck, plane.

  “Joe, that’s what we know of. What have they tried and done that we have no idea about? We may find out about that later. I know I’ll be in court every day that there is court over this standoff.

  “Plane? Like, what the fuck? I could see if locals were in over the Ridge or down as far as the Spout, poaching moose. I could see the reasoning for using a plane to try and locate them, or to try and see where they would have the quarters of the moose hanging. Or even to try and find their camp. But a man being held at bay in a house surrounded by numerous SWAT team members, he’s not going anywhere. I hope they realize that after seven days, and especially after last night. So, someone please explain to me what the use of a plane is for.”

  “I guess training for the pilot.”

  “Joe, isn’t it ironic that they brought in a plane? When the RCMP were tracking the Mad Trapper of Rat River, they used a ski-equipped Bellanca monoplane. It was the first time in Canadian history that an airplane was used in a manhunt. The year was 1932.

  “We most likely have two firsts for Newfoundland. One, bringing in a plane to fly back and forth over a house with a person barricaded inside. And two, bringing a volunteer fire department to destroy a house rather than try to save it.”

  “Don’t worry, Dutch. They’ll have their reasons for that plane.”

  “Can’t wait to hear Merrill’s spin on this. Joe, that’s thirteen different things tried or done, and they still don’t have Leo. This has all the makings of a movie. Think about it, Joe. Eight days into this, with sixty or seventy policemen brought in, thirteen things tried or done that we know of and they still don’t have him. Too bad Stallone is not younger. He would have played a very good Leo. Both with coal-black hair, both built like brick shithouses. I said it earlier in the week, Leo will be a celebrity when this is over. There will be poems written, songs written. Leo will most likely write a book. Maybe someone else might write a book with a different angle on it. Like one from our perspective, and one from Leo’s perspective on the inside. And you never know, maybe a movie will come out of this. They’ve made some big-name movies over some pretty stupid stuff. Movies that, I might add, were very successful at the box office.

  “Joe, I wonder what kind of night Leo punched? I hope to God, for his sake, that he wasn’t wet.”

  “Knowing Leo, I bet he had as dry a night as you and I. Dutch, I’m sure Leo just never sat there and took that water being blasted into his house. I’m sure he reacted. Not his style, not to react. Not his style to be outdone.”

  “You’re probably right, Joe. But what? I guess time will tell. I can’t wait for the day to come that I can sit down with Leo and a box of beer or a bottle of Lamb’s. What a yarn we’ll have. I won’t interrupt him once. And there are not many people I don’t interrupt when they’re talking. Ever hear the saying, ‘You learn by listening’? I’ll be listening. Very attentively.

  “Joe, this is the most cars I have seen around, other than last night. They’re everywhere. Sure, the pit is all but full. And it’s only eleven thirty.”

  “I guess the plane brought them out, Dutch. Maybe they were expecting something big to happen with it.”

  “Joe, you’re right. You hit the nail on the head. There goes the fire truck. The pumper truck. Be a lot easier to keep an eye on what they’re doing today, being daylight. Sure, last night we couldn’t see very much with the mist coming off the water being sprayed.

  “I got the news on how the cops and firemen did the spraying last night. Apparently the firemen gave the cops a crash course on how to use the hoses. And how to hook up to the hydrant. The firemen stayed next to the pumper truck and operated the pumps on the truck. Apparently they had to run the water from the hydrant to the truck to get pressure. They were out of sight, staying behind the fire truck and the bomb disposal truck. They intentionally brought the bomb truck up from the town hall for that purpose, to help block Leo’s vision of the firemen operating the pumper truck. The firemen brought the truck there for the cops with one intent, to do one thing. They operated the pumps and, most likely, supplied all the firefighting clothes that were needed to help keep them warm and dry. Apparently it was too dangerous to let the firemen operate the hoses. It would have put them in the direct line of fire. And in direct line of the controversy that will come for what’s being done to a person’s home. A senior’s, at that.

  “There she goes. Same window. I hope Leo was awake and waiting for them. If not, he got a rude awakening.”

  “I’d say he was up before most hands in the harbour this morning, if not up all night.”

  “I’d love for them to get a call for a house fire. Not that I want to see anyone lose their home. Just to get them away from Leo and what they’re doing.”

  We watched them pump the water into Leo’s house, gallons and gallons of it.

  “They’re twenty minutes at it now. I wonder how much ice is built up inside the house after last night?”

  “Dutch, I’d say many inches from last night, and many more after today’s spraying.”

  “I know that water is not ice-cold this time of the year. I’d love to know what Leo did or where he hid when they were spraying last night. That’s a million-dollar question.”

  “No, Dutch . . . that’s a billion-dollar question.”

  “I guess he’s in the same spot now.”

  “We hope. And I pray it’s a dry spot.”

  “You got to gi
ve him credit, Joe. A lot of men would have walked out the front door many days ago, and said, ‘Fuck this. Here take me, charge me, let’s get this over with. Sure, big deal. I had a dispute with my sister. You’re the idiots that brought in cops from all over the Maritimes. Cordoned off half the harbour. Closed businesses. Made people move out of their homes. You, the RCMP, are to blame for all this disruption, not me. I am not responsible for any of this.’ And ninety-nine per cent of the people in the harbour would agree with him, other than the righteous few. Which every community has.

  “And Joe, that’s the truth. And nobody, and I mean nobody, will tell me anything different. Leo did very little that caused all this. It was the RCMP that caused this fiasco. They’re the ones that jumped the gun. And jumped it so many times. Not Leo. Why did the RCMP not knock on his door last Saturday? Maybe if one of the officers had knocked on Leo’s door this standoff would have never happened. This was never treated as a domestic dispute. But why? There are domestic disputes in Newfoundland and Labrador almost every week, some of them involving weapons. And ninety-nine per cent of the time the police walk up to the door of the person who is causing the dispute and ask them to go with them. Why was Leo treated differently?”

  “I agree with you.”

  “That’s why there should be an inquiry or at least some type of forum. To explain what happened and why it happened. Joe, they’ve just stopped the water.”

  “Never had it going for very long.”

  “Look at the men holding the hoses. If we didn’t know, you would say they were firemen. Head to toe, dressed identical to firemen. They laid down the hose, Joe. There’s something up.”

  “Why?”

  “Joe, scan the front of the house. Look . . . count them, seven cops, going towards the front door. Where did they come from so fast? Two of them have shields. Look at how many guns are aimed on the house. I see four guns aimed at the front door. Two cops are carrying long sticks, almost like broom handles. They’re going for the other side, towards Sharon’s. They’re just past the front door. They’re coming back. Going towards the back of the house.