Image description: The YeastEnders village of Walnutford, with baked-goods characters gathered in Almond Square outside The Queen Victoria Sponge.
Across Almond Square, the lights inside Ye Olde Crumb and Butter had gone out.
Peggy Cherry Bakewell was already halfway to the café.
Phil the Pudding hurried after her.
“I thought you said it was good because it was nearer.”
“It was good when the lights were on.”
Ryean Crust appeared at the café door.
“What are you lot doing?”
“Coming in,” said Peggy.
“No.”
“Someone’s just turned your lights off.”
“I turned them off.”
Peggy stopped.
“Why?”
“Because somebody’s downstairs.”
That changed things.
Inside, Chantelle Chia Bun stood behind the counter holding a rolling pin.
Ryean locked the door.
“About ten minutes ago we heard something underneath the floor.”
Parker Pastry opened his battered leather case.
“Where?”
Ryean pointed towards the back of the café.
“Storeroom.”
Behind sacks of flour and boxes of tea was a narrow wooden staircase.
At the bottom stood an old metal door.
Sticky Nick examined the lock.
“Same kind as the one under the pub.”
Parker ran his hand across the wall.
“Unit Three.”
Peggy folded her arms.
“So my pub and his café are connected.”
“Not exactly.”
“Good.”
“The whole square is connected.”
“Less good.”
Parker explained as they went through the door.
Years before the Buttered Bunch existed, storage rooms and underground passages had run beneath Walnutford. The old flour mill had been at the centre of the system.
“Deliveries came into the mill,” said Parker. “Then they could be moved beneath the village and brought up somewhere else.”
Rye-vita stopped.
“How far do the tunnels go?”
“I never knew.”
“Outside Walnutford?”
“Possibly.”
Sticky Nick gave a low whistle.
“So the Buttered Bunch didn’t build the network.”
“No. They found it.”
A noise echoed through the passage.
Keys.
Bruno.
Peggy whispered, “Other way.”
They hurried through another doorway and found themselves in a much larger chamber.
Old loading shelves covered the walls. Several passages disappeared into darkness.
And stacked in the middle were dozens of new wooden crates.
Rye-vita crouched beside one.
“Recently delivered.”
Sticky Nick tried the lid.
It opened.
Everyone gathered around.
Rye-vita pulled back the packing paper.
Silence.
Peggy reached inside.
“Sprinkles.”
Parker stepped closer.
“What?”
“Sprinkles.”
Phil picked up another packet.
“Hundreds and thousands.”
Dot Crumble adjusted her sugar-dusted glasses.
“There might even be millions.”
Peggy stared at Parker.
“All this. Threats, old mills, burned bakeries… and it turns out somebody’s got an underground sprinkle cupboard?”
Parker took a packet from Phil.
For once, he seemed completely baffled.
“I thought they were moving something valuable.”
Sticky Nick laughed.
“You didn’t know?”
“No. The old paperwork only referred to decorative goods and confectionery materials.”
Then Parker stopped.
He turned the packet over.
“Oh, good grief.”
Peggy groaned.
“What now?”
“The Sprinkle Tax.”
Nobody said anything.
“The what?” asked Ryean.
“Years ago, Walnutford introduced a tax on decorative sugar products. Hundreds and thousands, sugar strands, silver balls.”
Dot gasped.
“Silver balls?”
“Especially silver balls.”
“Criminals.”
Parker continued.
“It only lasted about eighteen months. But while it existed, there was money to be made bringing decorations into Walnutford without declaring them.”
Rye-vita looked around the chamber.
“So this entire network started with smuggled sprinkles?”
“No. The tunnels were already here. But the First Layer discovered how useful they could be.”
Peggy picked up another packet.
“And Bruno’s smuggling them again even though the tax disappeared years ago?”
Parker frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
A door slammed somewhere in the tunnel.
Bruno’s voice echoed through Unit Three.
“They’ve been here.”
Sticky Nick closed the crate.
Rye-vita pointed towards another passage.
Everyone ran.
Behind them, Bruno entered the chamber.
Peggy reached the next doorway first.
Then stopped.
A light was glowing at the far end of the tunnel.
Someone was coming towards them.
Parker stared into the darkness.
“That tunnel goes back to the mill.”
The footsteps grew louder.
And this time, Bruno wasn’t the person they were running from.
Blindman Makes 