Image description: The YeastEnders village of Walnutford, with baked-goods characters gathered in Almond Square outside The Queen Victoria Sponge.
Nobody moved.
Everyone stared at Dot Crumble.
Dot stared back.
“Well, don’t all look at me like that.”
Peggy Cherry Bakewell pointed behind the bar.
“Dot. What just went clunk?”
“A tin.”
Roxy Rhubarb groaned.
“We know it’s a tin.”
Ronnie Roly-Poly folded her arms.
“What tin?”
Dot disappeared behind the bar. There was a scrape, a thump and a complaint about somebody leaving bottles where bottles had no business being.
She reappeared carrying an old blue metal tin with a small padlock on the front.
Sticky Nick took one look at the tin and turned away.
“You recognise it,” said Ronnie.
“No.”
“Your face does.”
“Left corner again,” said Dot.
“Ma!”
Rye-vita took the small brass key from Roxy and tried it in the padlock.
Click.
Inside the tin were bundles of yellowing papers tied with string.
Peggy frowned.
“How long has that been under my bar?”
“Years,” said Dot.
“Why?”
“It seemed important at the time. Mind you, I can’t remember why.”
Ronnie lifted the first bundle.
Old invoices. Delivery notes. Business names.
Then Roxy found a document headed:
QUEEN VICTORIA SPONGE – STORAGE AGREEMENT
Peggy snatched it.
“I never signed this.”
Sticky Nick looked at the date.
Ronnie was watching him.
“You know something.”
Nick sighed.
“Bruno used places like the Queen Vic years ago. Not necessarily the buildings themselves. Sometimes just the names.”
“For what?” asked Phil.
“Making deliveries look legitimate.”
Peggy glared at him.
“And you helped?”
Nick looked down at the papers.
“It was a long time ago.”
Ronnie shook her head.
“That’s not an answer, Nicholas.”
Dotty Crumble stared at her father.
“Dad?”
Nick tapped the tin.
“Bruno wants this because it contains the old records. If he’s using the Queen Vic again, those papers might prove how.”
Rye-vita folded her arms.
“So we don’t give it to him.”
Roxy picked up the Buttered Bunch message.
“MIDNIGHT. BY THE RIVER. BRING THE TIN.”
“Or,” she said, “we make him think we will.”
Peggy smiled.
“I like her.”
Ronnie sighed.
“Of course you do.”
“I’ll take it,” said Nick.
Dotty grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
“If Bruno sees any of you, he’ll know something’s wrong.”
“And if he sees you?” asked Rye-vita.
“He’ll think I’ve changed my mind.”
Ronnie looked straight at him.
“Have you?”
For once, Nick had no quick answer.
Peggy shoved the empty tin towards him.
“Take this.”
“It’s empty.”
“Exactly.”
Rye-vita nodded.
“We keep the papers here. Nick takes the tin and finds out what Bruno wants.”
Phil scratched his custard.
“Won’t Bruno notice there’s nothing in it?”
“Eventually,” said Peggy.
“That’s your plan?”
“No. That’s the bit where we run.”
At five minutes to midnight, Sticky Nick waited beside the custard river with the blue tin under his arm.
The others hid behind a row of flour sacks near the old mill.
Ronnie whispered to Roxy.
“If we survive this, I’m still annoyed with you.”
“Noted.”
Three figures appeared beside the river.
Bruno Brioche stepped forward.
“I knew you’d come back to us, Nick.”
“I’m not back,” said Nick. “I brought the tin. That’s all.”
“You brought the tin. That’s what matters.”
Nick handed it over.
Bruno opened the padlock and lifted the lid.
His smile disappeared.
“Where are the papers?”
“Somewhere you won’t find them.”
Bruno stepped closer.
“You’ve forgotten something, Sticky.”
“What?”
“The Buttered Bunch doesn’t need those papers to prove the Queen Victoria Sponge belongs in our records.”
“Then why do you want them?”
Bruno smiled.
“To find out what Peggy Bakewell has been hiding.”
Behind the flour sacks, Peggy went completely still.
Blindman Makes 