“No,” Jacques replied quickly.Too quickly to Barry’s thinking.
“You didn’t know someone was hunting turtles there?”
“It’s called trawling, not hunting, and there aren’t turtles there.”
“I thought you said you didn’t know what they were doing,” Barry countered.Jacques glared at him for having gotten caught in a lie.
“Maybe I do.”
“Mac is going to get hurt digging into this.”Maybe he could appeal to his conscience.
“I told her to leave it alone.”
“What they are doing is wrong.”
Jacques shrugged as if it didn’t make a difference to him.“It helps fishermen catch many more fish that much faster to feed more people.”
“And when the fish are gone, how is that going to affect your little business here?”Jacques advertised fishing boats.Hard to fish when they were gone.
Jacques pushed his hat up further on his head and lowered his feet to the ground, sitting up to look down at Barry.“The ocean will still be here whether there are fish in it or not.Doesn’t stop someone from boating.”
Barry pulled out a fifty from his wallet and held it up.“So, who’s doing it?”
Jacques took it and pocketed it.“No idea,” Jacques said in a bored tone, leaning back into his seat.
That had been a waste of money.“Then how do you know there is trawling there?”
“Rumors.”Jacques shrugged.“A lot of fish were being sold at the market.More than normal from previous months.”
“What kind of boat would you need to trawl?”
“Why?Thinking of going into the business?”Jacques asked, cocking his head to the side to study him.
“No, but I want to stop this person, and I need to know how to find them.The problem is there are a lot of fishermen in the area.I can start narrowing down my search by the type of boat needed.”
“A trawling boat.”
“And that would be?”Barry questioned, striving for patience but finding none.
“A trawling boat.That’s what they are called.”
“I got that, but what kind though?What size?”
“Depends on the number of fish you want to catch and the number of crew.I can’t answer more than that.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
Jacques sighed heavily, indicating he was getting bored with this conversation.Well, tough, Barry still had questions.“Take your pick.”
“Do you know any of the fishermen on the north shore who would be involved in trawling?”
“All of them do trawling in some shape or form.”
“What about bottom trawling?”Jacques gave Barry a look that said he was done answering questions.“One last thing.Do you recognize this voice?”Barry pulled out his phone and played the recording.
“Who is that?”So the answer was no.Barry wasn’t going to get any more help from Jacques.
The only thing left to do was go to the north side and inspect the fish.Jacques said a large number had been sold recently.The person with the greatest number of fish to sell would be the prime suspect.
