54 deadtime

. " he asked if we saw  her around  bedtime . i didn't  ."
"still . you saw her /"
"we said hello on the trail . that's alll ."
"you were'nt  on the trasil  when i saw you . you were  back by the cayon  wall . you were  talking ."
" were you alone ? eric   asked her .
kanyn hesitated ." yes ."
"coul;d you hear ?"
"no ."
" you didn't  see us . what you think you saw is not important ," he  said .
" if they haven't  found her  , they 're going  to ask us questions when  we get up  to the top  , eric  . what are  you going to say ?  if yoyu say otherwise . i'll  say you're mistaken ."
" why ?"
"there 're some things it's bettter not to be involved in ."
" you can just pretend something didn't happen ? how do you do that ?"
eric disdn't respond at forst ." i don't know what happened to her , kanyn . i can't help them ."
' do you tink he had something to do with it ? nick ? the shirtless guy ?"
"  whatever happened , they'll figure it out . the park service people . they'll  do what they do . whether i saw her or nopt won't change  anything . and whatever  you think you saw , i'm pretty sure you're mistaken ."
"i hope  he didn't do anything to her ."
eric  said ." they've3 probably already found her ."
he picked up the pace , she matched him .
" do you want me to lie , eric ?"
he took a few more steps before hee replied ." i'm going to tell them i didn't see her last nioght , kanyn ."