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everyone and she wanted to talk about everyone. Time and again he brought the subject back to her health. Time and again, she launched into yet another story, most of them malicious.
    Finally, she worked around to Piper, whom he suspected she’d come to tell him about in the first place. He soon found out that halting Mrs. Croaker in full swing was as futile as trying to stop a tidal wave. “It’s quite inappropriate for you to be telling me all this,” he said. “Many of these people are my patients. When they want me to know something, they’ll tell me.”
    “Poor Charlie,” she continued, undaunted. “When Piper turned up pregnant and not a husband in sight—bold as you please for all the world to see—it like to have killed him. She’s all he’s got left.” Her eyes gleamed with malice, sparkled with pleasure at spreading the gossip. “Shameless, that’s what she is. Thank the Lord my Neil found out before she trapped—”
    Eric interrupted. “You should see a specialist in Fort Stockton, Mrs. Croaker. I’m afraid I can’t help you.” He opened the door and stared at her, waiting for her to leave.
    “Blood will tell, I always say. When Tanner Stevenson married that woman I knew there’d be hell to pay. With an immoral mother like hers, is it any wonder Piper took up with—”
    Eric closed her file with a snap and walked out, leaving her with her fishlike mouth hanging wide open. People like her made him sick. Though she’d had no compunction about maligning everyone, smearing Piper had given her special pleasure.
    Piper hadn’t said, but Eric had assumed she married young and then divorced. To find out she’d never been married was a surprise, but he’d be the last person to judge her, especially when he didn’t know the true story. After all, he’d made some mistakes himself—marrying Dawn had been a doozy. No, he admired Piper for having the guts to raise her son where she wanted to, regardless of small town malicious tongues. It couldn’t have been easy for her to begin with. Add to that people of Mrs. Croaker’s ilk and it would be downright miserable at times.
    “You didn’t have to come out here,” Eric told Dave that afternoon. Eric had driven out to the Alpine airport to pick up his friend.
    “The hell I didn’t,” Dave said. “You’re not getting anywhere, so obviously I’ll have to attend to it myself. That’s why I made an appointment with her. Now, what’s the problem? Why won’t she give you the formula?”
    “Piper doesn’t want the publicity. And she thinks it could cause problems in the wrong hands.” Crime lords, he thought, smiling at their private joke.
    “Did you tell her about my clinic?” Dave asked.
    “She didn’t give me a chance to. She won’t give that formula to anyone.”
    “If you wanted to, you could charm her out of it.”
    Eric grinned. The formula wasn’t the only thing he wanted to charm Piper out of. “Afraid not, Dave. But you’re welcome to try.”
    “What’s she like? I’m good with little old ladies.”
    “Too bad, buddy. She’s young.”
    “I’m even better with them. Is she married?”
    “What does that have to do with anything?” Eric asked. Come to think of it, Dave was damn good with young, unattached women.
    “So she’s not. Do I detect a little interest, Dr. Chambers? I thought you’d sworn off women lately.”
    “Hardly.” Eric flicked him a sardonic glance. “Just because I wouldn’t go out with that vampire you tried to set me up with doesn’t mean I have no interest in women.”
    “Chicken. You have to admit Lila’s a knockout.”
    “You go out with her, then. I’ve still got teeth marks.”
    Dave laughed. “I did. That’s why I set her up with you.”
    “With friends like you,” Eric said.
    Half an hour later, they arrived at the Stevenson ranch. The sleepy dog was nowhere to be seen, and neither was anyone else. Assuming Piper would be in the greenhouse, Eric crossed the yard and pulled open