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Where was he staying?” Rice said, “We checked at El Tovar, Bright Angel, Thunderbird, and the rest of the possible places. He wasn’t booked at any of them.” “He had to stay somewhere.” “It could have been at one of the campgrounds, either inside the park or nearby,” noted Lambert. “Okay, he took the train up here. But if he came from DC he probably first flew into Sky Harbor. He might have stayed somewhere there until he went to Williams, Arizona. That’s where the train leaves from, right?” Lambert nodded. “There’s a hotel at the train depot. He might have stayed there.” “Have you made a search down here?” “We covered as much ground as we could. No trace so far. And we’re losing the light.” Pine took all this in. In the distance came the sharp bark of a coyote followed by the echoing rattle of a snake. There might be a standoff going on out there between predators as the lights of nature grew dim, thought Pine. The muscular walls of the canyon held a complex series of fragile ecosystems. It was the human factor that had intruded here. Nature always seemed to get on all right until people showed up. She turned her head to the left, where a long way away
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