Monument to Murder - Margaret Truman [62]
Their trysts were catch-as-catch-can, a stolen hour in a hotel room, sex on the floor of his office after all other staff had gone home for the night, and once at her apartment, the riskiest of all their assignations.
Jamison had been linked to several extramarital affairs, none of which had ever been proved to the extent that local media dared to base stories on the allegations. Jeanine knew one of the women, a blonde nightclub hostess with multiple tattoos. The blonde had gotten pregnant and didn’t want his baby, or any baby. Jamison arranged for her to visit a doctor in Atlanta who had a thriving business on the side doing abortions for the mistresses of well-connected men. Jamison paid the doctor and gave the blonde a generous going-away present in cash. Jeanine had heard about the cash settlement and asked Jamison about it during one of their hurried sexual romps. He denied it, of course. But a few weeks later, a departing disgruntled employee took Jeanine out for drinks, consumed too much, and confessed that he was the one who’d delivered the cash to the blonde, and to the doctor. That knowledge didn’t elevate Jamison’s character quotient in Jeanine’s estimation, but by that time she’d set her eyes on replacing the current Mrs. Jamison and becoming first lady of Georgia. The governor’s past indiscretions were stored in another of her mental compartments.
Following the sexual encounter at her apartment, she was approached by a local political reporter who’d been staking out that apartment since rumors of her affair with the governor had made it to the newsroom. The reporter told Jeanine of the story he was developing about Jamison’s extramarital sex life, with Jeanine Montgomery as exhibit A.
She vehemently denied the allegation to the smug reporter, wondering as she did so what he’d do with the knowledge that only that afternoon she’d learned that she was pregnant with Jamison’s child.
Knowing she was pregnant did not unduly upset her. She decided that it could be the catalyst to force Jamison to make a decision about their relationship, something she’d been looking for since their affair had commenced. He’d promised to end his marriage to marry her, but as far as she could see, he hadn’t taken any steps in that direction.
That night, in tangled, sweaty sheets after lovemaking in a hotel, she decided it was time to draw a line in the sand. She told him that she was carrying his child, told him of the reporter’s visit, and revealed that she knew about the blonde hostess and how he had arranged and paid for her pregnancy to be aborted. She ended by saying, “I want to be your wife, Fletch.”
She expected an angry reaction. Instead, he said, “And I want to be your husband, Jeanine. Claire and I have agreed that a divorce would be best for everyone involved—for her, for me, and for the kids. We’ve stayed together because I wasn’t sure how being divorced would affect a run for the presidency. There’s only been one divorced president, Ronald Reagan, and it sure as hell didn’t hurt his chances for the White House. Claire and I will be announcing our decision at a press conference at the end of the week, irreconcilable differences, an amiable parting of the ways after a long and honorable marriage. We’ll stand side by side along with our oldest son, Michael, a good family with the sort of values that have been lacking in American culture for far too long now.”
He paused, and she concealed her incredulous smile.
“After a decent amount of time has passed, we’ll announce our engagement.”
She hugged him tightly, which aroused him.
“What about the baby I’m carrying?” she asked.
“I don’t want another child, Jeanine,” he said. “I’ve researched it. George and Martha Washington didn’t have children, although she had two before being widowed. Jackson and his wife never had kids. Harding and his wife—what was her name?; oh, right, Florence—Florence Harding had a son from her previous marriage that ended in divorce. Polk was sterile and Buchanan was a confirmed