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“Most of the abalone sold in restaurants is cultured and imported from Chile, Mexico, Australia, Korea, and other countries. With abalone prices, the temptation to collect illegally is always there. Plus, you have the assholes who poach just because it’s illegal.
“There’s not much commercial production in the U.S., but Mexico has a licensed industry, and once the abalones are harvested, you can’t tell where they come from without expensive testing. Since abalone poaching hasn’t been that high a priority, what with budget cuts and more serious issues, we don’t do such testing
“As for being worthwhile, it takes several good-sized abalones to get a pound. Still, you can imagine that if your hot spots do exist, someone could pull out several thousand dollars’ worth in a dive session.”
“People get killed for a lot less than that,” said Greta.
“I guess, although you might be stretching things a bit.”
She laughed sardonically. “It is stretching, which is the point we’re at with our investigation. Stretching is all we have left.”
“So . . . assuming this is something to look into, what do you have in mind?”
“Sounds like neither of us has all the time in the world to run around checking the entire coast, but maybe we can work together and look into it. Any ideas where to start?”
“Hmmm.” He thought for a moment. “If there are hotspots not generally known about, I would expect them to be along the less accessible parts of the coast for two reasons. First, because they wouldn’t have been harvested out decades ago. Once an area is cleaned out, it takes a long time to recover. And second is that the person, or persons, wouldn’t want to be seen repeatedly diving in the same spot and give the location away, especially with more chances of being spotted by the crack Oregon Fish and Game Department.” Sheffel laughed at his own joke.
“I can envision a few such places in Tillamook County,” she said.
“We’d have to decide on some limits. We can’t be checking the whole Oregon coast.”
“Right,” responded Greta. “Since my primary interest is the homicide, I’d like to limit it to as far north and south as the victim was most likely to operate. Those we’ve questioned seemed to only know of him in Tillamook and Lincoln counties.”
“Do you have a map with you?”
“Yeah. Hold on a second, and I’ll pull it out.” She rummaged through the map folder in the passenger side door until she found a western Oregon map. She unfolded it and rested it on the steering wheel. “Okay. Got it.”
“Let’s say we only consider from Newport in Lincoln County to Falcon Rock at the northern end of Tillamook County. That’s about a hundred miles of coast. There’s only a few places where a diver could reliably work unobserved. Starting from Newport, there’s Cape Foul Weather. The Otter Crest Loop road winds along the cliffs for a couple miles. Pretty steep to get down to the water, but there’re a few ways down if you’re careful. Then heading on north, there’s the part south of Cascade Head just north of Lincoln City. It’s a pretty big stretch and isolated from any houses or roads. There’s no road in, but people walk the area, either hiking or fishing. Then across Salmon River and the county line into Tillamook from the north side of Cascade Head to Neskowin, there’s a good four miles that’s the most remote of any on this section of coast. The thing is, as with the southern part of the Head, there’s no road in to the coast. A person would have to park and walk anywhere from one to two miles or more to reach the water.
“After that, it would be Cape Lookout. That would be my first bet, if it weren’t for the same problems of no roads in and steep cliffs. The Cape juts out a mile from the rest of the coast, and there’s lots of rock formations that could hide your abalone pockets. There’re hiking trails out to the tip of the cape, but if you pick your time of day and weather, there’re plenty of spots not visible by anyone staying on those trails.
“Continuing on north . . . to . . . well, I guess Cape Meares is possible, although it’s a smaller area, and the lighthouse gives views on much of the shoreline. When you get up to Tillamook Bay, the Bayocean Spit has that long stretch of beach sporadically used by walkers and joggers. It’s long enough, and Bayocean Dike Road runs the full length on the bay side. Someone could park out of sight, walk over the dunes to the beach, and wait until no one is around before heading off into the water to a dive spot. You can see anyone else on the beach for a good mile in most places.
“The last place I’d suspect would be the north end of Tillamook County at Falcon Rock and Smuggler Cove. Those have the same problems. No roads in, except for partway from the north on Elk Flat Road, and there are houses whose owners would see you come in. A poacher would have to park a mile out and hike in. Someone carrying diving gear and sacks for the abalone would have a hard hike and be pretty conspicuous.”
Greta looked at her map. She had marked the places suggested by Sheffel. There were seven spots, five within Tillamook County.
“Dave, if we decide to move forward, are you willing to work on this?”
“Sure, as long as it doesn’t take too much time and interfere with other things.”
“How about if you take the two spots in Lincoln County? They’re closest to your office in Newport. I’ll take the five in Tillamook. I’ll talk to our other patrol deputies and see if they’ll keep an eye on the ones to the north. I’ll watch the two or three in southern Tillamook.”
“Sounds good. Do we need to keep in regular contact?”
“I don’t think so. Either we find something, or we don’t. Maybe a call every week or so to confirm we’re still watching and share any ideas that occur.”
“Okay, sounds fine. I’ll start watching Cape Foul Weather and the part south of Cascade Head. I’d also offer to do the adjacent north part of Cascade Head, but there’s no direct connection from the south.”
“No problem. I’ve got the north Cascade Head area.”
“Okay, then. Let’s see what we shall see. Nice talking to you, Greta.”
“Same here, Dave. Bye.”
Greta called Mike Barrios and Jimmy Phillips, the two deputies covering the Falcon Rock, Bayocean Spit, and Cape Meares areas. She didn’t tell them the connection to the murder investigation, only that she was helping Fish and Game watch out for abalone poachers and asked whether they would keep an eye open for anything suspicious at those two spots. She said she might occasionally check in there as well if she was in the area. Both men agreed, although Phillips sounded less enthused. She already didn’t like the way he looked at her in the main office. Greta suspected he made snide jokes about her to the other staff—based on the titters she heard when she saw him around the sheriff’s office. She figured she might need to do Bayocean and Cape Meares on her own if Phillips wasn’t reliable.
That left her with Cascade Head and Cape Lookout on her own to start off with. During the next week, she checked out both spots after using Google Earth to get detailed satellite views. This confirmed Sheffel’s statement about no good roads leading to potential diving areas. One Sunday, she drove as far as she could at all the sites, including areas where only a four-wheeler with high clearance like her sheriff’s vehicle could handle. From there, she hiked out to the coast.
