Jack's Widow by Eve Pollard Page A

piece of information to himself.
    By lunchtime she had left two messages. It was dark outside before he returned her call.
    He began by apologizing for leaving the White House reception early. “I just couldn’t handle it, seeing him there when it should have been Jack…I’m not surprised you got out of Washington so fast. You’re better off in New York.”
    He spent time complimenting her for the way her children were growing up so well and how brilliantly she had dealt with everything at Arlington. Then he said that his contacts in the newspapers had told him that tomorrow they were going to go heavy on the factthat Marilyn had chosen to kill herself on the anniversary of Jack’s death.
    “I’m glad to have this chance of warning you. I don’t imagine the story will amount to much, there’ll be the picture of them at the concert and that stupid film poster, but Jackie, don’t weaken now, try to just ignore it. Do what you always do. Don’t acknowledge any filth that those scum write,” Bobby told her.
    “The papers are probably angry at something that Lyndon’s done, or that he hasn’t done, so they want to get at the Party and this will give them a useful excuse. And of course, it’s a way of getting at the family, or at me, sabotaging my political chances.”
    When she quietly asked if he knew why the star had chosen the anniversary to kill herself, Bobby reacted angrily.
    “Of course I don’t. The stupid woman was probably drugged up to the eyeballs.”
    Jackie asked him again if he knew anything, anything at all, that connected Marilyn and his murdered brother.
    The slight twang in her brother-in-law’s voice got more noticeable.
    “Look, Jackie, I knew her too. They could say something about her and me, but they don’t dare because I’m alive to answer back.”
    Jackie interrupted, her voice low and serious. “You sound worried, Bobby. Surely they won’t be able to write much if they only have the picture of her shaking Jack’s hand, the film poster, and the coincidence of her death yesterday?”
    “Well, I wasn’t always with him.” He was more hesitant now. “Especially not in L.A. Marilyn was fun, a good-time girl who loved to party.”
    There was silence.
    She refused to break it.
    “Supposing, just supposing, he got out of line.” He sounded less angry now.
    “What exactly are you saying?”
    “Absolutely nothing…but supposing…you know, she meant nothing to him, she was just a, ah, convenience to him.”
    “Oh, that again, so you all say it.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Just something Jack used to tell me.”
    “Jackie, I admit he was no saint but he loved you.”
    “So you did know about it.” She spat the words out.
    Why had she even spent a second worrying that he didn’t know and that she would have to tell him all about his precious brother and his mistress?
    “Jackie, calm down. It meant nothing. Remember that. He was always asking you to go on the road with him. Getting upset just plays into their hands. As you’ve said, the papers have got nothing…and she meant nothing, zilch, to him.”
    Jackie decided not to bother to tell him that Deck had spilled the facts.
    “I’ll call you tomorrow. When you get down here for Thanksgiving, come over? We’ll arrange to go out somewhere, all of us.”
    So whatever the papers say, we’ll all be seen together and everything will look hunky-dory, which will be good for your career, thought Jackie. This family!
    “We’ll tip off someone we know, some reporter we can trust, get some pictures taken,” added Bobby.
    Unbelievable! More lying pictures. The whole Kennedy edifice was built on photogenic falsehood.
    “I don’t think so,” said Jackie firmly. Why not put him under the same pressure that she was coping with?
    “Bobby, Deck has told me everything. He had no option. The woman has left a suicide note.”
    She wasn’t sure but she thought she heard a gasp from the other end of the phone line.
    “Lyndon says