Chapter 8 - THE BLUE RECIPE BOOK
Peter Sloan fled toward the abandoned freight spur.
Nicole and Harper followed.
The tracks led not to the textile mill, but beneath Maple Creek Community Hospital.
An old service tunnel connected the hospital’s supply basement to a loading platform built during World War II.
Cain Logistics used it to move stolen military medical supplies into civilian resale networks.
The hospital administrator signed false inventory records.
State officials received payments.
Sloan managed digital laundering.
Major Cole had discovered the scheme and secretly investigated his brother’s company.
The payments in the ledger came from a controlled account Cole used to trace Cain funds.
He did not tell Nicole because he feared the leak.
That secrecy nearly destroyed him.
Sloan held Evelyn’s blue book inside the tunnel.
Travis stood beside him.
Harper’s cooperation had been discovered.
Travis pressed a gun against the sheriff’s back.
Nicole entered from the east stairwell.
Sloan smiled.
“You should have stayed suspended.”
Nicole kept both hands visible.
“Give me the book.”
“It’s just recipes.”
“Then you don’t need it.”
Travis looked toward Harper.
“Tell her.”
Harper said nothing.
Travis struck him.
Nicole did not move.
Not yet.
The tunnel contained oxygen tanks and medical gas lines.
One gunshot could ignite the corridor.
She needed distance.
Evelyn’s voice came through the service radio.
“Nicole?”
Everyone froze.
Evelyn had followed officers to the hospital after realizing the blue book was missing.
Nicole closed her eyes briefly.
Her mother had ignored every instruction.
Again.
Evelyn stood at the far end of the tunnel holding a coffee pot.
Travis laughed.
“What are you going to do, pour coffee on me?”
Evelyn threw it.
Not at Travis.
At the overhead fire sensor.
Steam and hot liquid triggered the suppression system.
Water exploded from the ceiling.
Lights failed.
Nicole moved.
She disarmed Sloan.
Harper drove Travis into the wall.
Cole entered with tactical officers from the opposite stairwell.
Within seconds, both men were restrained.
The blue recipe book slid across the wet floor.
May you like
Evelyn picked it up.
“Still mostly coffee,” she said.
