The January Girl

by Goldie Taylor

  “What good is that going to do? I know I never should have told you that woman’s name.”

  “I’m going to find the bitch.” Within a few minutes, Angel had an entire dossier on Thandywaye Mbeki Malone.

  “Satisfied?”

  “No.”

  “What in the hell are you going to do with that?” Stephanie pressed, rubbing the fullness of her belly. “Let him go.”

  “But, I . . .”

  “Angel, I said let him go.”

  Before she hid in her house, she’d driven by Jack’s a dozen times. She even rummaged through his mail. Nobody came or went but the maids, and the house was completely dark on Christmas Eve.

  “I can’t,” she admitted. “He promised me.”

  “He promised you nothing. The man lied. He popped you in the face, for heaven’s sake. You sat your ass in jail for days until your mother bailed you out. If you don’t let go, this will kill you.”

  “I don’t want to die,” she said, shaking her head. “I just can’t breathe without him.”

  Stephanie stared blankly at Angel. She noticed the bottle of pills and the waiting container of water.

  “Ain’t no man worth all of this. Get something for yourself. Something can’t nobody take from you.” She got up, grabbed the bottle, and took it to the bathroom.

  “You got a plunger?”

  “Under the sink.”

  Stephanie worked the clog. When it was clear, she dumped the pills and flushed them away. Angel appeared in the doorway.

  “I didn’t really want to do it, you know?”

  “I know, girl.”

  “How are you and Doogie doing? Are y’all back together now?”

  “Yeah. We’re going to the Atlanta Medical Association ball tonight. Doogie’s being inducted as president.”

  “Jack bragged about how he was AMA president a couple of years ago. I know he’ll be there tonight. I’m tired of life happening to me.” She straightened her back. “My mother always said people make their own luck.”

  CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

  A long black limousine entered the Gabrielle driveway just after five thirty, carrying the newly inaugurated governor and his wife. The driver opened the rear door and Faulkner stepped out.

  “Hey, Mr. Governor!”

  He wrapped his arms around Thandy and planted a kiss on her cheek.

  “Stand back and let me look at you!” he said. “Lord, Lord, Lord. You are positively gorgeous!”

  “Thank you.” Thandy blushed.

  “Doc, you know what to do with all of this?”

  “Of course he does,” Marla Faulkner said, stepping out of the car. “Thandy, it’s so good to see you.”

  The women hugged politely as the men shook hands. In the beginning, Mrs. Faulkner didn’t like the idea that her husband kept company with such a beautiful young woman. Her suspicions almost got the better of her until Sloane agreed to invite Jack and Thandy over for dinner. Besides, Mrs. Faulkner knew well the life of a mistress. She had been Sloane’s for several years until his first wife threw him out.

  “C’mon in. We can grab a quick cocktail,” Jack said.

  Jack and Sloane walked ahead. The women trailed behind. Senora Perez opened the double French doors and stood to the side as the foursome walked into the marble foyer. Jack went into the butler’s pantry and emerged with a bottle of champagne.

  “I think a toast is in order,” he said as he popped the cork and poured four glasses. “To Georgia’s first black governor.”

  Everyone raised their glass. The doorbell chimed and Senora Perez opened the front door.

  “Y’all drinking without me?” a woman called from the foyer.

  “Philly!” Thandy cried out. She turned to Jack. “Sweetie, you didn’t.”

  “Of course I did,” Jack said. “She cussed me out first, but she’s here.”

  “Just get me a glass, baby. Everybody meet Frank,” Phillipa said, introducing her date. “Frank, this is everybody.”

  Thandy poured two fresh glasses for Phillipa and Frank.

  “Now, let’s see. Where were we?” Jack cleared his throat. He raised his glass.

  “Careful, Doctor. I’ve got my good eye on you,” Phillipa warned.

  The cocktail reception was in full swing by the time they arrived. The 191 Atrium filled with tuxedo-clad physicians and their wives. A polite hush took over the room as Jack and Thandy arrived, trailed by the first black governor.

  The Faulkners faded into the crowd and were soon circled by a gaggle of physicians who wanted to shake his hand. Jack squeezed Thandy’s hand and moved into the crowd, stopping frequently to make small talk with his colleagues.

  “Don’t be nervous, baby,” he assured. “This is our night.”

  A voice came from the fog. “Dr. Gabrielle.” Her smile was unmistakable. Lucy the Lunatic.

  He forced a grin and said hello. “It’s been a long time.”

  “Indeed,” she said, extending her hand. “I’m Lucy Geautreux. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Mrs. Gabrielle.”

  “Good to meet you, Ms. Geautreux,” Thandy answered. “It’s French, no?”

  “Indeed. Creole.”

  Lucy noticed the empty ring finger and was immediately confused.

  “Lucy, meet my friend Thandy Malone.”

  Lucy frowned, then pasted a smile on her face. “It was good seeing you again,” Lucy cooed. “Enjoy the party.” She eased away.

  “Who was that?”

  “A patient,” he lied.

  “She’s very pretty.”

  “She is indeed. Let’s grab a cocktail. What would you like? Champagne?”

  Thandy wondered if she had ever been labeled a patient. She shook the thought away and followed Jack to the bar.

  “Dr. Gabrielle!”

  “Elijah, my man!”

  “And you must be Ms. Malone.”

  Thandy smiled.

  “You’re just as beautiful as he told me you were.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Thandy, meet my favorite bartender and poker partner, Elijah Brown.”

  Thandy smiled again and accepted Mr. Elijah’s best champagne.

  The dinner bell sounded. The crowd began to move downstairs to the ballroom, crossing through a palatial hallway that led into the Ritz-Carlton.

  “Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?”

  “Yes, baby. You did.”

  “And did I tell you how precious you are to me?”

  “Yes, baby.”

  “Did I tell you how much I love you?”

  “Only a hundred times today.”

  “Well, let’s make it a hundred and one.”

  They made their way down the stairs and into the ballroom.

  Dressed in a sequined, strapless dress, Angel stepped from the crowd.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

  Well, hello Jack.”

  “Angel.” He nodded politely. He wrapped his arm around Thandy and kept going. Angel followed.

  “Aren’t you going to introduce us? Hi, I’m Angel Delafuenta.”

  Jack tried to pull Thandy away.

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Thandy Malone.”

  “He’s a worthless piece of shit,” Angel spit out.

  “Angel, stop it,” Jack demanded.

  “What are you going to do? Punch me in the face again?”

  Thandy looked at the floor.

  “Tell her, Jack. Tell her how you punched me in the face!”

  Jack pulled at Thandy’s waist, but her feet were firmly planted on the floor. People were staring.

  “I don’t know who you are or what happened to you,” Thandy started. “But I’m sorry.”

  Angel lunged. Two men dressed in tuxedos pulled her away. Security was dispatched and she was led from the building.

  Against the mumble of the crowd, Jack whispered into Thandy’s ear, “I’m sorry, Thandy. I’m so ashamed. I promise I will tell you everything.”

  “I just want to g
o home, Jack.”

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

  The fire erupted just before 5:00 a.m. Senora Perez was the first to hit the floor and awake the family. Jack shook Thandy out of a deep sleep and emerged shirtless from the bedroom. The fire alarms blared and the floodlights Etienne had insisted on installing lit up the smoky common areas. Thandy fought her way through the dense smoke to get to the boys. Jack hoisted and carried a drowsy Montana from her bed.

  “What’s going on?” she cried.

  “The house is on fire!” Jack said. “Thandy! Where are you?”

  “I’ve got the boys! Keep going!” she called from down the hallway.

  Jack and Montana made it downstairs and into the foyer before the landing gave way. Part of the second floor crashed onto the first.

  “Oh my God! Mom! Mom!” Montana screamed.

  Jack pushed her out the front door, then dashed up the stairs. He couldn’t make the jump across the fiery hole.

  “Where’s Montana?” Thandy called through the roar of the fire.

  “She’s outside! The landing is gone! Go back!” he shouted. “Go back! Take the back stairs.”

  “I don’t know where they are!” Thandy cried, panic in her voice.

  “Go back through the boys’ room. The study door is on the other side of their bathroom. Get to the stairs!”

  Jack thought quickly and ran back down the winding stairwell. He circled through the dining room and into the kitchen. The fire was pouring from everywhere. The boys came out of the back stairs that opened into the keeping room. Thandy had wrapped their faces with wet towels and left every faucet she could get to running at full blast.

  “Thandy!”

  Jack threw his body against the locked glass door several times. He could see the fear in their eyes. When it wouldn’t give way, he wrapped his hand in the curtain and broke the glass. He could hear Thandy and the boys coughing and choking on the thick smoke. Flames shot out of the stairwell. He heard Thandy’s screams.

  “Baby! Come on!”

  He kicked the frame until there was enough room to get through. He pushed his sons through the opening into the arms of a fireman, one at a time.

  “Help me,” Jack pleaded to the firemen. “My wife is still inside.”

  Jack rushed the stairwell, ignoring the firemen’s orders to come out. The flames blew him back, but he kept going. The firemen rushed the house. The back stairwell fell. Jack fought through the smoky upper hallways searching the rooms, calling her name. He screamed her name again and again, still fighting, still pushing. He kept screaming until nothing came out. He collapsed. He could feel his lungs filling with smoke. God, Thandy. Please. Get out.

  The streets were clogged with a legion of emergency vehicles, fire trucks, and news crews. Flames shot from the main house, engulfing the nearby cluster of buildings. The curbs were lined with people dressed in their nightclothes, horrified at the sight.

  Moments later, Thandy stumbled down the driveway, nearly naked and bleeding. A paramedic rushed in and wrapped her in a blanket. The main house collapsed behind them.

  “Sweet Jesus!” they heard one woman say. “She’s alive.”

  After two hours, the fire squadron gave up. They set up a safe perimeter and let the structures burn. All that remained were the charred frames. Senora Perez sat curbside next to a paramedic, weeping. The boys were huddled on a neighbor’s lawn. Montana lay in the rear of an ambulance, consumed in grief. The children were treated for smoke inhalation at Grady Hospital. Thandy refused treatment until Sloane showed up.

  “Let them take care of you,” he said. “You sit down there and let that doctor clean out those burns,” he ordered.

  “Where’s Jack?” she whispered.

  Sloane was silent.

  “Where’s Jack?” she pleaded.

  He squeezed her hand. “He didn’t make it, baby girl.”

  She doubled over, then dropped to her knees and shrieked. Sloane wrapped his full body around her.

  “You said it would get better,” she moaned. “You said it was going to be okay.”

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

  Thandy and the children holed up at the Swissotel in Buckhead for the night. The general manager told the family they could stay as long as need be. Little Jack and Jacob were fast asleep on the sofa. Sloane called Yvetta in Winston-Salem.

  “Mrs. Malone, I’m so sorry,” he told her. “He wanted to love her better.”

  “He did, son,” Yvetta said. “I know this. How are they? Where’s my grandbaby?”

  “She’s sleeping now.”

  “And Thandy? How’s my baby?”

  “Not good.”

  Thandy rose from the chair, took the hotel medical kit into the bathroom, and began to clean her own burns. She clamped her teeth together and picked the wood and cinder from her forearm. She poured peroxide over the wound and watched it bubble away. Nothing, she thought, could be more painful than losing Jack. Etienne appeared at the door. Thandy could see her in the mirror.

  “He’s gone,” Thandy whispered, bowing her head.

  Etienne wrapped her arms around Thandy’s head. “I’m sorry,” Etienne whispered. “I know how much you meant to him.”

  Thandy shook her head. She sat on the toilet lid and let out a deep moan.

  “Let me see your arm. You need to go back to the hospital. This won’t keep.”

  Thandy nodded again.

  “Do you have any money?”

  Despite Thandy’s silence, Etienne dug into her wallet and pulled out several hundred-dollar bills and the newly acquired black American Express card. “Here, take it,” Etienne said. “Please, take it.”

  Thandy looked up at her.

  “I understand you saved my—I mean—our sons. I will always be grateful for that.”

  “You certainly don’t owe me anything.”

  “Please take it.”

  Thandy finally relented and accepted Etienne’s offering.

  Etienne went into the main room and picked up the boys, one at a time, and carried them into the adjoining bedroom. Montana woke and reached for them. Etienne placed them under her. Montana wrapped her arms around the boys. Etienne watched them all sleep from a chair by the window.

  Sloane sat with Thandy in the main room.

  “Your mother will be down here tomorrow noon. I’ll send a plane after her. They’ll make a stop over in Charlotte and pick up your sister. A car will pick you up and take you over to Dekalb-Peachtree Airport.”

  “Are you coming?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Thandy nodded.

  “There’s a detective here to see you. He’s downstairs in the lobby.”

  Thandy got up and put on the new pants and shirt Sloane had bought her. “It ain’t much, but it’ll get you by,” he’d said when he gave them to her.

  Sloane called the front desk and invited the detective into the suite.

  “Mrs. Gabrielle?”

  “Yes, please come in.” Thandy waved her hand across the room.

  “Is there someplace we can talk in private?”

  “It’s all right. He’s my brother.”

  “Good evening, Mr. Governor.”

  The detective took an empty seat. “Mrs. Gabrielle, it’s early, but our initial investigation tells us this was arson.”

  “But we had the fireplaces going all day.”

  “We checked them out. The fire came from several other hot spots. There is evidence of an accelerant in the cellar and on the landing. The carriage house smelled like gasoline. Did anyone other than your family have access to the main house?”

  “Just the house staff,” Thandy answered.

  “How many?”

  “Four. Three had gone home for the evening. All have keys. But they wouldn’t do this.”

  “Did you activate your security system?”

  “No, I didn’t. Jack hadn’t given me the code yet. I thought he did.”

  “Do you know of anyone else?”

  Slo
ane rubbed his arm and asked, “Thandy, is there anybody?”

  “Etienne wouldn’t do this.”

  “Who is that, sir?”

  “She’s Jack’s ex-wife. She’s in the next room with our children. The divorce was finalized last week.”

  “I thought you told the officers on the scene that your husband died in the fire.”

  “She was his wife in every way that counts,” Sloane explained.

  “Look, Etienne got fifteen million,” Thandy said. “She wouldn’t put the boys in danger.”

  “I’ll have to talk to her. Is there anyone else?” the detective pressed. “Do you know anyone who would want to do you harm?”

  Thandy said nothing.

  “What about Angel?” Sloane offered. “Angel Delafuenta.”

  “How do you spell it?”

  Sloane spelled it for him. Thandy felt her teeth clamping together.

  “She had Dr. Gabrielle arrested,” Sloane said.

  “What were the charges?” the detective asked.

  Sloane spoke up. “Assault. They were both charged.”

  Sloane explained the evening, including the faked pregnancy. He then asked Thandy to get on the phone and call Parham.

  “Jack’s lawyer can help you understand the issues.”

  “Where can we find her?”

  “She lives in Southwest Atlanta. She called Jack yesterday and at least a hundred times before that,” Sloane explained.

  “What did she want?”

  “She didn’t say.”

  “Did he talk to her?”

  “I don’t think so. I don’t think he ever called her back.”

  “She was at the gala tonight,” Thandy said.

  After the investigator left, Sloane promised to tell Thandy everything.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to know any more.”

  EPILOGUE

  Thandy and Montana sat for hours in the grass, saying little, watching the clouds roll across the pastel-blue sky. She studied the chiseled marble. She traced his name with her eyes and let the tears fall. Thandy came every Sunday afternoon and never left until the sun went down. She needed to be with him.