Image description: The YeastEnders village of Walnutford, with baked-goods characters gathered in Almond Square outside The Queen Victoria Sponge.
The morning peace of Almond Square lasted until eight minutes past nine.
There was a crash, a clatter and a very loud, “Oi!”
Terry Teacake’s ancient bread van coughed its way into the square, clipped a flower tub and came to a smoky halt beside the Trolley Park.
Fatbread stared through the window of the Queen Victoria Sponge.
“Every time, bruv. That van’s got more smoke than sense.”
Peggy Cherry Bakewell barely looked up.
“If he’s flattened my begonias again, he’s paying for them.”
At the bar, Rye-vita had spread several pieces of paper beside her crumb notebook. One was the scrap she’d found at the old flour mill. Another contained the details of the two suspicious flour sacks delivered to the Queen Vic.
Dotty Crumble hovered nearby.
“So what happens now?”
“Now,” said Rye-vita, “I find out why your father’s name keeps appearing in my investigation.”
Dotty swallowed.
Across the square, Ryan Rye was leaning against the fence surrounding the Trolley Park, doing an excellent impression of someone with absolutely nothing useful to do.
Beside him stood Roxy Rhubarb, Peggy’s niece, back in Walnutford with a battered jacket and a tartan shopping trolley.
“Nice trolley,” said Ryan.
Roxy looked at him.
“Yours squeaks when you walk.”
“Character, innit.”
Roxy was about to reply when she stopped.
On the brick wall behind the Trolley Park was a symbol that hadn’t been there yesterday.
Two large letters, BB, marked out in white flour against the dark brick.
Beneath them was a small curled swirl, like the twist of a baker’s fingerprint.
Roxy’s smile disappeared.
Inside the Queen Vic, Grant the Spotted Dick spotted the gathering crowd.
“Something’s happening.”
Peggy sighed.
“Of course it is.”
They crossed Almond Square with Rye-vita and Dotty close behind.
Rye-vita stopped dead when she saw the symbol.
She pulled the scrap from the old flour mill out of her coat and held it beside the wall.
The same BB symbol appeared in one corner.
“The flour sacks,” she said quietly. “The mill. And now this.”
Dotty looked at her.
“What does BB mean?”
Before Rye-vita could answer, another voice did.
“Trouble.”
Everyone turned.
Roxy was staring at the wall.
Peggy’s eyes narrowed.
“Roxy?”
Roxy looked around at the faces surrounding her.
“I’ve seen that mark before.”
“Where?” asked Rye-vita.
Roxy hesitated.
“Crumbford.”
Rye-vita immediately opened her notebook.
“And who used it?”
Roxy shook her head.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Oh, I very much do.”
Roxy stepped closer and lowered her voice.
“They called themselves the Buttered Bunch.”
Dotty went pale.
Rye-vita’s pencil stopped.
Peggy folded her arms.
“And who exactly are the Buttered Bunch?”
Roxy stared at the flour-white BB.
“Bakers, fixers, smugglers. Depends who was asking.”
“And Sticky Nick?” said Rye-vita.
Roxy spun around.
For the first time, she looked genuinely frightened.
“Who told you about Nick?”
Dotty stepped forward.
“He’s my dad.”
Roxy stared at her.
Before anyone could say another word, a voice rang across Almond Square.
“Well, this is cosy.”
A sharply iced figure in sunglasses stood beside Terry Teacake’s smoking van.
Fatbread’s mouth fell open.
“Crumbs?”
Crumbs Blunt grinned.
“Miss me, bruv?”
Roxy didn’t grin.
She stared at him, then at the flour-white BB on the wall.
Crumbs slowly removed his sunglasses.
“Ah,” he said.
“You’ve seen it, then.”