“Explain this sanctuary stuff to me,” she said, sitting back down at her desk. “And everything else about why the Islanders don’t like Virginia.”
Andy informed her that Tangier Island had become increasingly hostile toward the rest of the Commonwealth when a recent General Assembly passed a number of bills that were entirely in favor of crabs and not the watermen who chased after them. It was true, however, that crab stocks were in serious trouble.
“A waterman brought in to testify before the legislators back in January admitted that the number of crab pots required to snag a hundred blue crabs had climbed from ten to fifty,” Andy explained. “And last year, hard-crab landings dipped below thirty million pounds and the downward trend is continuing.”
Harsh words such as “fully exploited,” “overcapitalization,” and “overfishing” were fired at Buren Stringle, the head of the Tangier Island Watermen’s Association and the island’s only police officer. Legislators set a lower limit for the number of crab pots the watermen could toss into state waters. Subsequently, a Blue Crab Advisory Commission was appointed, and it further tightened the restrictions by declaring that all pots would be tagged, thus making it easier for the marine patrol to count them and see who was cheating. The sanctuary was expanded to cover four hundred and sixty-five square miles of water at least thirty-five feet deep from the Maryland line to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay near Virginia Beach–a crafty political move that would allow a million more pregnant crabs to safely reach vital spawning grounds.
“In truth, the sanctuary does no good at all,” Andy summarized to Hammer. “The area of the bay deemed off limits happens to be a deep trough that would require extraordinary lengths of rope for every crab pot dropped in the water. The watermen have been keeping this bit of intelligence to themselves, and so far no one on the mainland, except possibly me, knows that Tangier Island has no interest in the new sanctuary or is the least bit opposed to it. Meanwhile, pregnant crabs continue to travel to their usual spawning grounds, indifferent to their new protection and not entirely aware of it.”
“Okay. So forget the sanctuary idea,” Hammer decided with disappointment. “But I can’t think what real leverage we have, Andy. The way you’ve described it, Virginia really doesn’t care much about the plight of the watermen, and the watermen aren’t really that interested in Virginia’s concerns, either.”
“The root of all problems,” Andy commented. “Nobody cares.”
“Let’s don’t become cynical.”
“What we need is some good ol’ fashioned community policing,” he said. “And I can do that through Trooper Truth.”
“Oh no,” she warned. “No more . . .”
“Yes!” Andy countered. “Let’s at least give it a chance. Trooper Truth can ask his readers to help with our cases.”
“Including Popeye!” Windy was suddenly in the doorway. “Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful if we could get Trooper Truth to ask for help finding Popeye?”
“What?” Andy asked, shocked. “What do you mean, find Popeye?”
Pain passed through Hammer’s eyes.
“Don’t be mad at me,” Windy said to her. “I know you think I just let the cat out of the box, but maybe we can find Popeye. Maybe it’s not too late, even if she did disappear months ago when you let her out to potty.”
“That’s enough, Windy,” Hammer said again. “Please leave and shut the door.”
“Well, okay, but I’m sending Trooper Truth an e-mail right away and telling him about Popeye.”
She left and shut the door. Hammer sighed.
“How could you?” Andy whispered, outraged and deeply saddened by what had happened and that Hammer had never told him. “How could you not call me the minute Popeye disappeared?”
“You were off on one of your research trips, Andy,” Hammer said in a defeated way. “And I don’t know why else, but, well, I just haven’t wanted to talk about it. There’s nothing that can be done. Hold on.” She held up a hand. “Now what is it, Windy?” she said to her secretary, who had just opened the door.
“Richmond Detective Slipper is on the line,” Windy announced.
“Thank you.” She waited until Windy shut the door again and shot Andy an ominous look as she picked up the phone and said, “Hammer.”