So we’ve known some of the employees for years, some very intimately. Like Martin and his wife Isabell, whom we’ve spent many a night or weekend w...th at their home. We had some wine in the bar. Then we moved on to the restaurant. We’re regulars here. It’s a seafood restaurant that’s owned by a highly rated chef from NYC. You’ve probably seen him on TV. We love the food and the wine list, something we’re both passionate about .We were sat at our usual table, an intimate booth near the back but. .. We're just friends. I'll see him later ... I'm sure he'll be on the beach this afternoon."Betsy thought back to her initial meeting with Penny. She was a lovely girl who went to church every Sunday. Penny was fairly thin and she had the cutest smile on her face all the time. The one thing a person noticed about Penny right away was that the woman didn't have boobs. Betsy remembered feeling sorry for her at the time but later she realized that Penny had nipples that made up for any lack of. ”I volunteered, “I’ll come with you.”He glared at me, “Did you hear me. Get the girls and go home. Don’t tell them anything. I’ll do that.”I tried to smile, “OK, I’ll get the girls. We’ll wait for you at home.”He snarled. I’d never seen him look so vicious, “I don’t care what you do.”I backed back, “I’ll be out front.”~~v~~Bass slipped on his gore smeared clothes. He glanced around the emergency room. Nothing had changed. Everything had changed. He walked out past Triage. The nurse got up to. The glow of lantern light softened the harsh stone, and gave the whole city a dreamlike quality.The liquid trills of a night-singing bird sounded from the garden below, and from behind me came the notes of a flute, imitating the bird and then going into a melancholy tune. Piper. The music of his flute wound itself around me, and one of those violent shocks passed through my body. Piper.The sad tune dissolved into the liquid trills, and the music flowed and danced like water in a mountain.