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lonely.
    Returning to my flat at the Waikiki Edgewater, I took Niki’s photo in her string bikini at Sunset Beach from the night stand and slid it face down into the drawer.
My California blonde . . . .
I wasn’t angry anymore. I just preferred not look at her.
    “Good-bye, Niki,” I said. “We had fun.”
    My eyes moistened a little, but not for long . . . . Later, as I mechanically went through my ritual of reading Honolulu’s two daily papers, a story caught my eye. Missing Fisherman’s Tackle Found.

X: Chapter Twenty-Four: North Shore Surfing

    Before his fateful interview with the prime suspect in Sara Ridgley-Park’s murder, Kai says: “With six hours until the interview with Dr. Goto, I did something not every detective would understand. I drove to the North Shore and went surfing.” The next line puts Kai in an elevator to the doctor’s office. No further mention of the North Shore or surfing. In earlier drafts Kai recounts his surf session in detail and tells us about his Hawaiian cousin Alika, his surfing mentor. Alika plays a more prominent role in
Wipeout!,
where his knowledge of big wave riding aids Kai in solving the case. Here Alika appears in an interlude, rather than in the central action.

(cut from)
twenty-four

    With six hours until the interview with Dr. Goto, I did something not every detective would understand. I called cousin Alika, grabbed my longboard, and headed for the North Shore.
    Someone might reasonably ask, “Considering all that hung in the balance, how can you paddle out into the blue?”
    My answer: “This is how I survive.”
    At Sunset Beach Alika and I stroked hungrily into the lineup. A shoulder-high swell was forming up nicely into hollow, right-breaking peaks. Not bad for October.
    I don’t usually trouble Alika with the details of my cases. He is a tall, sinewy, soft-spoken Hawaiian whose focus on surfing is nearly complete. Like his father, my namesake Uncle Kaipo, Alika is a born waterman. He has managed to live his entire thirty-eight years on the North Shore, working as a life guard, coral diver, chef, spear fisherman, and surfing instructor. He and his wife, Malia, and their two
keiki
still reside with the Kealoha
‘ohana
who, as I said, first adopted me when my parents died.
    Alika knows all the North Shore breaks as well as anyone, but Sunset Beach is his special place. Out here he is my mentor. And on
these
waves, sometimes you need one.
    Sunset can be a very intense, complex break with a quickly changing lineup, wicked rip currents, and a dangerous shallow coral reef. You don’t want to go out here unless you really know what you’re doing. Too often I hear surfers from town or the mainland boast, “I’m going to ride Sunset (or Pipeline or Waimea) just to say I did it.”
    My response is always the same: Sit on the beach and watch the veterans. Where do they paddle out? Where do they sit in the lineup and take off on the wave? How do they battle the soup and deal with the rip? And when their session is over, where do they paddle in to shore? Until you can answer these questions, you’re not ready to get wet.
    There is a big difference, you see, between waves in town and in the country. A four foot swell at Sunset is equivalent to about six feet at Waikiki. The reason for this is that country waves are thicker and carry more water. And are more unpredictable. Due to their larger mass and erratic nature, when country waves break they can peak up suddenly and dramatically. Nearly
doubling
in height. Regardless of the surf forecast, bigger than anticipated sets may abruptly loom on the horizon and break far outside. As the boiling white water rolls in, all you can do is “duck dive” or “turn turtle.” After a set or two crashes in front of you, you’re totally
gassed.
    Welcome to the North Shore!
    The rips and unpredictable swells at Sunset that present problems in winter were fairly under control today. Or so it appeared. This was October when the