He stood silent, waiting for her to spell it out.
"You don't have a bleeding disorder in your family?" she asked, like she was talking to a three-year-old.
"I don't even know what you're talking about."
"A bleeding disorder," she said, as if repeating the words would make him understand. "Lane Kendall said that Eric had a bleeding disorder."
Jeffrey wondered where she was going with this. He had tried his best to block out the episode with Lane Kendall and did not relish going back over it.
She said, "I haven't examined him, but from what Nell told me, it sounds more like von Willebrand's disease."
He waited for her to continue.
"Blood won't clot."
"Like hemophilia?"
"Sort of," she answered. "It can be pretty mild. Some people have it and don't even know it. They just think they're easy bleeders. Eric's bruises were raised, like bumps. That's also a sign."
Jeffrey felt all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
His expression must have given him away, because Sara asked, "What?"
He shook his head, thinking that this whole ordeal with Robert had made him too suspicious. "It couldn't have come from Lane's family? Or Julia's father?"
"It could," she answered, though her tone said she did not think it was likely. "Generally, women know when they have it. Their menstrual cycles are extremely heavy. A lot of women end up getting hysterectomies when they don't really need them. It's not an easy diagnosis, not many doctors think to look for it." She added, "As many children as Lane has had, she would know if she had it. Pregnancies can be very high risk for anyone with a bleeding disorder."
Jeffrey could only stare at her, his mind making conclusions that turned a knife in his gut. "What if someone gets nosebleeds a lot?"
She wrinkled her brow. "Who are you thinking about?"
"Just answer, Sara. Please just answer."
"It could be," she said. "Nosebleeds, bleeding gums. Cuts that won't stop bleeding."
"You're sure it's genetic?"
"Yes."
"Shit," he whispered, thinking that as bad as everything seemed a few minutes before, it had just gotten worse than he could have ever imagined.
"What are you -"
They both looked up as the door opened.
"I'm sorry it took me so long to get here," Hoss told them, taking his keys out of his pocket as he walked toward his office.
Jeffrey could not move.
Hoss looked at Sara, obviously taking in her cuts and bruises. "I would've never thought Robert was capable of hurting a woman," he told her. "But I guess he wasn't nearly the man I thought he was."
"I'm fine," Sara answered, a tight smile on her face.
"That's good," Hoss said, unlocking his office door. He went in, turning on the lights as he walked to his desk and rummaged through some papers. "Come on in so we can get this over with."
Sara gave Jeffrey an inquisitive look, and he returned the question with an affirmative nod.
Hoss noticed Jeffrey still standing in the doorway. "Slick? There a problem?"
Sara put her hand on Jeffrey's shoulder. She asked him, "Do you want me to wait outside?"
"That's okay," Hoss said, obviously thinking she was talking to him.
"I'll wait outside." She squeezed Jeffrey's shoulder again, and somehow, her confidence that he would do the right thing gave him the strength to walk into the office.
The door clicked shut behind him as he sat in the chair opposite Hoss.
"Guess she's had a hard time of it," Hoss said, obviously thinking Sara was in a delicate state. He picked up a report and scanned it as he talked. "I sent Reggie out to pick up Jessie. Jesus, what a mess. I'm sure she'll fight him hammer and claw."
"We still don't know about Julia."
"Robert confessed."
"He confessed to a lot of things he didn't do."
"Don't know that I can trust his word after what we know about him."
"You're saying because he's gay, that makes him capable of murder?"
"Makes him capable of anything in my book," Hoss said, turning the page over to read the back. "Might open a few of his cases and see what he was really up to."
This more than anything else sparked Jeffrey's anger. "Robert was a good cop."
"He was a fucking queer," Hoss said, still staring at the report. He picked up his pen and signed the bottom. "No telling what else he was doing. We had a missing boy here a few years back. Robert worked the case like it was his own son."
Jeffrey managed to speak through clenched teeth. "You're saying he's a pedophile now?"
He picked up another report. "Goes hand in hand."
Jeffrey could only stare at him.
"He coached the Little League," Hoss said. "I've already called some parents."
"That's bullshit," Jeffrey spat. "Robert loved kids."
"Yeah," Hoss agreed. "They all love kids."
Jeffrey tried to sum it up for him, to show Hoss how wrong his thinking was. "So, he's a pedophile, has a thing for boys, but he killed Julia when they were both teenagers?"
"No telling what a sick mind like that will do," Hoss said. "Choke an innocent girl, kill a man for banging his wife…"
Hoss's words echoed in Jeffrey's head, and finally he saw it all laid out like a puzzle. "I don't remember telling you she was strangled," he said quietly.
Hoss shot him a startled look. "Your lady told me."
"Did she?" Jeffrey asked, making to get up out of the chair. "You want me to go ask her when?"
Hoss faltered. "Maybe I heard it in town."
Jeffrey couldn't believe how silent the room suddenly was. Everything fell into place. "You know he didn't do it."
Hoss looked at Jeffrey over the report. "I do?"
"Eric Kendall has a bleeding disorder."
He looked back down, eyes moving as he scanned the page. "That right?"
"He's your kid, isn't he?"
Hoss did not answer, but Jeffrey saw a slight tremor in the report he held.
"You told me once how you tried to join the Army after your brother died, but they wouldn't take you on medical grounds."
"So?"
"Why wouldn't they take you?"
Hoss shrugged. "Flat feet. Everybody knows that."
"You sure it wasn't something else? Something that would keep you off the force if it got out?"
"You're just talking crazy now, boy," he said in a tone that ordered this conversation to be ended.
Jeffrey did not obey. "You get nosebleeds all the time. Your gums bleed for no reason. I saw you get a paper cut once and it bled for two days."
He gave a weak smile. "That don't mean -"
"Don't lie to me," Jeffrey demanded, anger boiling to the surface. "You can say anything you want right now and it stays in this room, but don't you dare lie to me."
Hoss shrugged, like it was nothing. "She was loose. You know that."
"She was only sixteen years old."
"Seventeen," Hoss corrected. "I wasn't breaking any laws."
Jeffrey felt disgusted, and it must have read in his face, because Hoss tried a different tack.
"Look," he said. "Times were different. That girl needed someone to look after her."
Jeffrey felt sickened by his words. As a cop, he had heard that same excuse a thousand times from dirty old men, and to hear it now from Hoss was like a slap in the face. "Looking after her doesn't mean screwing her."
"Watch your tone," Hoss warned, as if he still deserved Jeffrey's respect. "Come on, Slick. I took care of her."
"How?"
"Kept her daddy off her, for one," Hoss answered. "Plus, you think her mama paid for her to go off and have that baby?"
"Your baby."