Was I a bad person?  

I never believed it and maybe, I still don't. But last night made me rethink. I'd always known Denise to be a sensitive person, maybe it was my blunder to spring up the topic like that. She would get over it soon, I hoped, she just needed time.

Now, I needed to sort out the information I had. From all the crime documentaries I'd watched, I knew one thing - I needed a proper timeline of where I was throughout that day. Simone mentioned that I was admitted almost 24 hours after the estimated accident time and I was admitted at 3:50 AM. Denise mentioned a sleepover but didn't specify any time period, but our sleepovers were usually from 7 till whenever we felt sleepy. 

Nothing helpful so far, I thought while looking at my timeline. I looked up Lake Albert which was a 50-minute drive from Denise's neighbourhood. But assuming I went missing at midnight, there would be significantly less traffic, making it around 30 minutes. 

"Ms Henderson, here's your coffee," Olivia said, placing a tray with a coffee pot, cup and sweetener in front of me. 

I mixed a packet of sweetener in my coffee and took a sip before turning back to my laptop where I was managing the timeline. And suddenly, it hit me! 

Coffee is amazing, I told myself. 

Axel mentioned him being the last to see me before I went missing. If anyone could help, it was him. I pushed myself out of the chair and walked to the window using the abutment of the tables and headboards and saw him in his room, looking at his phone. I flung a pen at his window, which got Axel's attention. 

He smiled and came out of his house before jumping over my fence. He used his hands to hold the rope and placed his legs on the wall. In succession, he kept one leg after the other and pulled himself to the first floor. 

"Damn, I'm impressed," I touched his robust muscles. 

"You're the only one brave enough to say it to my face," he said with his usual enigmatic smile, "everyone else is much too shy" 

"Either that, or they don't find it impressive," I replied. 

"I'll never know," he shrugged, "anyway, what do you need that requires an innocent pen getting itself mashed into my wall?" 

"I wanted to be creative, instead of a boring text message," I rolled my eyes. "And to answer your question, I needed some information from you" 

He clutched his chest, "And here I thought you genuinely wanted to spend time with me" 

"When I find out why I'm blacking out for no apparent reason, we'll hang out all day every day" I promised. 

Both of us walked to my bed and climbed onto it, covering ourselves with my woollen, velvety linen blanket. And yes, my mom is obsessed with all the peach-cream shades. We had my laptop in between us, half of it resting on my right thigh and the other half resting on his left thigh. I opened the timeline I had created so far, which only had two slots filled. 

"What's this?" he asked. 

"It's a timeline of the night I went missing," I explained "I had a video call with Denise and she explained how I had a sleepover with her and some other friends" 

"Oh, you spoke to Denise?" he asked with piqued curiosity "How is she doing?" 

"She seems fine, she lives with her boyfriend. I think, I'm not sure," I said "It was going good, we spoke about life and all, and after I asked about the accident she flipped out and started screaming. That's when the potential boyfriend came and ended the call" 

"Yeah, the whole investigation kinda fucked her up, especially when the cops started implying that they believed Denise did something to you because she was jealous" Axel recalled "She moved out the same week of our graduation"

My heart sank hearing this. Denise had a heart made of gold, she could never hurt anyone. She was the person who felt bad for always winning a game of uno in fifth grade. 

"That explains her reaction," I muttered "Maybe I shouldn't have brought it up so quickly" 

"Agreed," he said "I mean she was speaking to you after five years, give her a break" 

"I'll call her sometime next week. I'll apologize, explain myself, anything to make her forgive me" I said. 

"Yeah, Denise isn't the type to hold onto a grudge after you explain" 

"Ok, I kinda got off topic," I said, focusing back on my laptop, "Denise didn't mention an exact timeline for the sleepover, but in my vision, I remember seeing the clock at 1:15 or 1:19, I'm not sure" 

Axel could tell where I was headed with this, "When I saw you, it was around 1:35. I remember because I was waiting for my parents to get back from the hospital with David" 

I immediately remembered what happened the last time Axel spoke about David and his parents, so I quickly steered the topic away, "In the vision, Denise and the others went to sleep, except me who was staring at the ceiling. Maybe I got bored and decided to go for a walk?" 

"That can't be" Axel shook his head, "you were headed somewhere"

"Where?" I asked, suddenly sitting straight. 

"I don't know," he replied apologetically, "I offered you a ride which you refused. I insisted and you asked me to take you to the bus stop and that you'd go from there" 

"At 1:40 in the morning?" I asked, surprised. What was so urgent that I was getting on a bus in the middle of the night? If there was such an emergency, then I would've just called my driver.

"It surprised me too," he agreed, "I was going to stay and wait with you, but then you asked me why I was up so late, I told you the reason and you urged me to wait at home"

"Did you see which bus I got on?" I inquired. 

"No, I left before any bus came" he replied. 

"Well, my parents once told me they have records of the bus routes in the office," I said, "you work in the Town Planning Department, find those records" 

"How the hell will I do that?" he raised his hands in protest "I work in trading. And secondly, that bus, if you even got on it, left five years ago. I highly doubt the routes are still there" 

"I suppose," I said. "Ok, but I'm pretty sure the records of the erstwhile workers are still there, just find drivers who used to work in that time period and we'll interrogate them" 

"Again," Axel sighed "I work in trade. I don't have access to those files. If anything, you should find them. Your parents are the founders"

"I can't" I shrugged "I never completed my training because of the coma. They won't let me in the office until I've finished it and they won't let me start until I fully recover. And we can't wait for that" 

"I suppose I could sneak in," he said, "but it's too risky" 

"No risk, no reward, remember?" I said, "Just casually walk past the HR department, go in during lunch break and transfer the files to yourself" 

"This isn't a middle school test paper," he said "Everything is tracked, if they find out it's been sent to me, I'll get fired. If I make a ghost account and send it there, they'll trace it back to me and I'll get fired. If they catch me while I'm doing it, I'll get fired. If they use the cameras, they'll see me and I'll get fired. If I get fired, I'll lose a hefty paycheck and won't be able to afford this house, or my gym membership"

"Ok, ok, I get it," I said, "too many risks" 

It wasn't fair to ask Axel to do this. He just upgraded to a house in the posher side of town and started changing a lot of the things about himself - it was evident from the way he dressed. If he got caught, he'd not only get fired but might also get arrested. 

"We need another plan," I muttered. 

"Maybe we just need another clue," Axel suggested. 

"The bus driver thing is the perfect clue" I emphasised on perfect, "The driver can tell us where he dropped me off and we'll see if I voluntarily went to Lake Albert or if I went somewhere else and was kidnapped" 

"I doubt a bus driver is going to remember a girl he dropped off five years ago," Axel said. 

"But my coma came all over the news the following day, that would make him remember it well," I argued. 

"Hm, that's actually a good plan," he rubbed his chin, "still doesn't explain how we're going to find him" 

"Crystal Falls only has twenty bus stops and not more than three buses," I thought out loud, "If each driver has a 6-hour shift, there'd be four drivers for each bus, which is eight drivers in total"

"All of that sounds great, except we have no way of knowing where they are," Axel pointed out. "if they're still alive"

"Let's look them up on social media!" I exclaimed, opening a new tab on my laptop.

"What are you going to type? 'Bus drivers of Crystall Falls'?" Axel mocked. 

"Do you remember the bus accident when the seniors were going camping in sixth grade?" I asked and Axel nodded, "Ever since then, the government created a safety portal which included qualifications of all the public transport drivers along with promising to do a sobriety test before each drive. They never made good on that promise, but I believe the portal still exists"

"How have I never heard of this?" Axel asked. 

"It was only around for a few weeks, to calm the parents of the children hurt by the accident down," I replied, "I'm not sure if they still update it, but we only need the files from five years ago" 

Axel nodded and watched as I went to the government website and opened the portal. It had a few blank columns that needed to be filled.

"Axel, which bus drop did you drop me off?" I asked. 

"Amber Valley" he replied and I filled it in. The page loaded and had one of the profiles - Peter Brown.

I looked and Axel and he looked back at me. Had we found him? It felt a lot easier than I'd expected, but hey, I'm not complaining. 

The profile had a picture of a man who looked to be in his late thirties with burgundy hair in a quiff cut. His skin resembled the bark of a giant sequoia. 

"I know this guy," Axel exclaimed, "this guy's bus was the only one available after every high school party"

"Do you know where he lives?" I asked.

"No," 

I sighed and continued scrolling. It had sections such as education, age, proof of licence, experience etc. And finally, at the bottom was his contact information - his email and phone number. 

"Let's call him and see if he's willing to talk," I suggested.

"If you mention your name and the real reason you want him, he'll be reluctant to come," Axel said.

"Maybe, but his address isn't on here and I think he'll prefer some basic decency than just showing up at his door" 

"Let me talk to him then," Axel said "he might recognize your voice" 

Axel took his phone and dialled the number. 

Ringing... Ringing... Ringing... 

"Hello?" a man spoke. 

"Hello, sir," Axel cringed at himself, "I'm calling from Amythist Street. I am interested in doing an article about the importance of public transport and delving a little deeper into the lives of the drivers" 

I didn't know what the fuck Axel was going on about, I suppose he was buttering Peter up to make him agree to talk to us. 

"I was on the government safety portal and saw your name and it just spoke to me. From the short eloquent words written in your profile, I could tell that you are an ambitious, hardworking man who would be the perfect face for my article" 

"Ah, finally! Today's generation is doing something of substance. I thought y'all would be lost in those pointless video games and dating apps! It's such a pleasure to meet someone like you" Peter said and I tried my best to control my laughter. 

"Can we meet tomorrow at 5 PM in the Old Brew Cafe?" Axel asked to which he happily agreed. he hung up and I burst into laughter. 

"'Short eloquent words?'" I mocked which sent him into a fit of laughter too. 

"Don't get too jolly" Axel said after a few moments, "you still need to explain why you lied and what you really want from him. He's not gonna want to reveal everything when he finds out who you are." 

"It's nothing a little money can't fix"