The Case of the Bus That Nobody Caught

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The Case of the Bus That Nobody Caught

A short story by Ryan Cartwright - CC:By-SA

By Ryan Cartwright

Roboteers

Published: Mar 2026

Publisher: Crimperbooks (crimperbooks.co.uk)

Categories: Roboteers, Short-stories, Ages-6-and-up

Original URL: https://www.crimperbooks.co.uk/roboteers/the-case-of-the-bus-that-nobody-caught/

License: Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA 4.0).

You are free to share, copy, distribute and adapt this material under the same license terms.

The Case of the Bus That Nobody Caught

This short story is one of the adventures of the Roboteers. It is written in the style of a blog post by one of the gang. You can read more of their adventures on the Roboteers page.

Across the road from my house is a bus stop. It’s not unusual and it’s pretty much what you’d expect when I say “bus stop”. There’s a bench ( which doesn’t seem to be designed for you to sit on ), a post with a sign at the top (obviously) and that’s about it. The thing is, for some time I noticed people sitting (or perching ) on the bench for a while and then leaving a little later without getting on a bus.

You may be thinking they just timed it wrong and realised the next bus was going to be too big a wait so they started walking. But sometimes the bus comes just after they’ve left. Sometimes it arrives as they are literally walking away and they still don’t get on the bus. I’d understand if this was one person a week or maybe even two but, I’ve noticed it happens a lot and I think it’s suspicious.

I spoke to the other Roboteers about it but I they didn’t think it was as big a concern as I did. Not at first anyway.

“So people wait at the bus stop and then leave.” Martin said

I nodded.

“What’s weird about that?” he continued

“It doesn’t sound like something we’d usually investigate Priya.” Tim said “I think we have had better cases.”

“I’m not saying we should investigate it,” I sighed. “I was just saying it’s odd.”

We all sat silent for a bit and then Martin said “So is there anything you want us to do?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’m not sure it’s important enough for us to do anything. It’s just weird, that so many people wait for a bus and then don’t actually get on one. Don’t you think?”

Tim jumped back in “How many people?”

I shrugged again “I’ve not measured but it seems to be a growing number.”

“Maybe the first thing we should do is get some proper idea of the numbers then?” Tim said.

“Wait! You think we should do something?” I was a little taken back by this.

He nodded. “Well at least find out how big a problem this is. If it’s one person well, who cares? If it’s half the people then it makes me wonder what they are all doing there.”

“What do you mean?” Martin asked.

“Why are they not getting on the bus?” Tim said. “And why this bus stop?”

“Or,” I said excitedly, “is it more than one bus stop?”

++WHAT IS BEHIND THE BUS STOP?++ This was from Sugar the Robot

“There’s a wall and, behind that, some bushes.” I said, “Not much really. Why?”

++I WAS WONDERING WHY THEY WERE AT THIS BUS STOP. IT MIGHT BE SOMETHING ELSE NEARBY++

“That’s a good idea Sugar.” Martin said, “Should we take a look around it?”

All of a sudden, it seemed like we were going to do something about this. At least it sounded like we had a plan. We all agreed to go and take a look right now.

We looked around as much as we could but it was difficult because people walking past kept staring at us. I guess it looked strange to have three kids inspecting a bus stop - even though we didn’t look very much. A few people asked if we’d lost something so, in the end, we gave up. Perhaps, in hindsight, it would have perhaps been better if we hadn’t done it in the morning when most people were walking past to go to the shops (or even waiting for or getting off a bus).

We took some notes and Martin drew a quick map and then we went back to HQ.

“So what do we know now?” Tim said as we all sat down.

Martin spread his map on the table and said “Well, not much new really. There’s the bus stop post, the bench and a small wall behind it where it backs onto this garden.” He pointed at things as he said them.

++WHAT IS THIS?++Sugar asked, pointing to a square on the map.

“Umm, it’s a hydrant marker.” Martin said.

++I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT++ Sugar said

“It is used to show why there is a water hydrant nearby. The Fire Brigade use it to plug their hoses to if they need water.” Martin said.

“We still don’t know anything that tells us why people might be waiting at this bus stop and then not getting on a bus.” Tim shook his head. “And, while we were there, nobody did that at all.”

“That’s a good point,” I said. I was starting to feel like this was all just my imagination. “Maybe we should just drop it.”

Tim shook his head. “No, I think we should see how many people are doing this.”

I was amazed “You think we should look into this more?”

He shrugged “Why not?” then he paused, “Look I know I said it isn’t something we’d usually investigate and maybe we don’t need to do much more but it would be interesting to find out if it’s really happening.”

I smiled. I thought I was the only one who was bothered by this but it seems not. The question was, how to find out how many people are doing this. Sugar interrupted my thoughts.

++PRIYA'S HOUSE IS OPPOSITE THE BUS STOP. I COULD WATCH AND COUNT PEOPLE OVER A FEW DAYS++

“Really?” Martin asked with a chuckle.

++WHY WOULD I NOT?++ Sugar replied.

“It sounds a bit boring. Just sitting there counting people.” Martin smiled

++NOT TO ME. I FIND DATA INTERESTING++ I think if Sugar could smile, he would have.