University Hospital in Columbia was like St. Luke’s in Kansas City. It had clout. Second largest employer in town with over four thousand full time ...mployees. Combine it with the University of Missouri and the total was more than fifteen thousand taxpaying voters on the payroll.Rumors had started spreading the day Sabbath Armstrong had been admitted. The spectacular nature of the attack catapulted it into the public consciousness. The ‘Blowtorch Beast’ made the national news on the second day.. He poured a good measure into each coffee and we drank it. The conversation turned to women and marriage. Lenny said his previous wife was his 4th and had left 2 years before. He said how lucky I was to have a beautiful wife like Elaine and then started telling me about sexual experiences he had participated in with women. He asked if Elaine liked oral and when i said yes, Lenny led the conversation, asking more and more intimate questions about what she liked to do. We drank some more coffee. And they weren't, it seemed, in a good mood—not surprising, given that it was about 1:00 a.m. and they'd probably been waiting quite a while for us."Where the hell have you been?" snarled Smith as we emerged.Well, fuck that. I wasn't Scarpia any more, I'd left him back at the opera house, but even Nick Volker didn't have to take that kind of crap. "That's none of your Goddamned business," I barked. "What in God's name are you two back again for?"Smith was clearly about ready to come back even. As soon as Traci sat down she reached for her own pipe and took hoot. As she exhaled she said “Hmm I have been waiting all night for this and handed the re loaded pipe to me, which I willingly accepted and took a big hoot of my own. We all sat and smoked cigarettes, funny we all smoked Newport 100’s, and talked between sucking on the glass dick, as Carrie called the crack pipe. I learned that Traci was a nurse at the local hospital and had the next week off on suspension because she refused to.