Finally, someone has to interrupt. Thankfully it was Briana and not me.
"Ms. Mogumbo! This all sounds crazy. How do you know? Where are you getting all this?"
"I can only tell you some of it. I have two main sources. The one from Caswell I can't reveal. Maybe the only honest guy who works there, pretty high up and he's seen everything. Flo's financial statements — she was forced into giving them. He knows she's in deep-doodoo financially. Has shown me the Caswell documents that spew out after the announcement of the White Girl competition, documents that show how Flo leveraged WGPD to get their executives back to the negotiating table, that show how effective she was, that show everything up to the letter of agreement in September. I wish I'd known some of it as it was happening, but I didn't. He told me everything after I got fired for the four point story, right after Alicia won Pharaoh."
We nod.
"You'll just have to trust me on this, cause no way am I revealing his identity, they'd crucify him."
"OK, go on," says Stony.
"But the stuff, the comedy of errors stuff, about the voting and the counting and the lying about the four points? That source is Judy Wexner. She's given me the whole thing in detail, including paper evidence from that night to back up her claims."
That didn't make any sense to me. I asked, "Wexner? Why would she do that? I mean it incriminates her too."
Ms. Mogumbo looked at us all and said, "I know. It's a sad story. It all comes back to what they did, the bastards, to Roberta O'Leary. See, Judy and I have been friends since grade school. There was a time around 2nd grade when everyone called us the two-Judies, we were so close. It was fine for us to be friends as kids. But she's upper so by high school her family made her drop me. But we're still friendly when we run into one another, still have a drink together off and on. Anyway, the night of White Girl they slam Roberta into the nut-house as a kind of protection, get her out of the public eye. It's just another stupid mistake on their part, on Flo's part. I mean it's not like Roberta knew about the cheating, right? She absolutely didn't. It's true she felt something wrong had happened, but she didn't know what and certainly had no evidence of anything. In the end she was like everyone else, blamed herself for the scrunchy penalty."
Judy Mogumbo took a long deep breath. The story was affecting her.
"But Judy Wexner has a heart, always has. She's devastated by the thought of what she did to Roberta, that Roberta is being held prisoner because of her lies. That's when she first contacted me, a few days after White Girl Pride Day. She'd had a few drinks and she was sobbing, telling me how bad she felt for Roberta. I didn't make much of it. We all felt bad for that poor girl. I figured it affected Judy even more cause she was one of the voters. It wasn't until Alicia won Pharaoh and Judy heard they readmitted Roberta and her husband that she totally broke. She calls again right after that, drunk again, and begins hinting something wasn't right with the four points. Wouldn't say much, just a bunch of hints about it being an error. I could tell she knew more than what she was saying. Hell, she was practically begging me to know there was more."
Briana interrupted her, "Damn! that's when you wrote..."
Mogumbo continued, "I wrote that article, the one that got me fired. Which, you know, that really was stupid. Cause I had no way to follow up on what she was saying. Suddenly Judy won't answer my calls. I didn't know what to do but I made it a priority to talk with Roberta the day she got out, asked her about the penalty. I was careful not to give anything away. She obviously didn't have any idea about the cheating. How could she? But that schmuck Murdoch really did believe it was her, that Roberta was the source of my story. You'd have to meet this guy, he's an idiot. One of those upper morons who got all his breaks from Daddy."
Briana says, "I know the motherfucker. Dray's had him over, but Dray thinks he's a moron too."
"Yeah. So then I'm unemployed and start thinking I can do an independent piece on the Caswell deal with the Barrens. That leads to my first source and I get really into it. Two weeks after that Judy finally calls again, and again she's had more than a few drinks. She's plastered. I couldn't even follow what she was saying. But by the next day she had sobered up and told me the whole thing over lunch in my apartment. She's absolutely devastated at what happened. She's a little better right now but back then I think she really was having some sort of breakdown. It was really sad. Like I said, Judy has a heart. She is so ashamed of what she did. She spilled everything."
Stony said, "Damn."
Bri says, "Sweet Frederick! That poor girl. I mean both of them. Roberta of course, but Wexner too."
I said, "Still doesn't explain why she'd want you to tell us, to tell me."
Ms. Mogumbo said, "Yeah. That's interesting. The fact is she feels guilty towards you too Jeff."
"Me? Why me?"
"Because twice she had the chance to save you from Alicia's crazy ambition to be with Pharaoh. She watched Alicia the whole way through and was convinced she was going nuts. Remember it was Judy Wexner who was the girl's chaperone on the tour, saw first hand what Alicia was turning into. That's when the guilt started. She could have saved Alicia from it, and you from it, twice. First when she sold her vote on Pride Day. Then when she agreed to lie about the four points. On the promo tour she feels more and more guilty. She knew your marriage was fucked. She knew about Draymond, he flew in four or five times to spend a night with Alicia. Everyone on the tour knew. Judy starts to realize the girls who get Pharaohed, they end up as a side slut for him or for some other upper black man. At least till their looks fade. At every step the husband is the loser. Judy knew it. She wants you to know how bad she feels about what she did."
"Hmmmm. OK. I guess." Stony took my hand but I actually was OK. Didn't even check my nose. Cause of Stony.
Briana said, "So Alicia never should have won Pharaoh. It's all been..."
Mogumbo said, "Well, yes and no. It is for sure she should not have been top three on White Girl Pride Day. Smith together with all their stupid errors made Roberta the actual third place winner that night. But you know, once Alicia got to Cleveland, all that was out of Lady Flo's hands. Alicia really did beat the pants off of Elizabeth and Elsie that night. Some of it was them, but a lot of it was her. I really meant it when I said she would have won even in a stronger field."
Stony said, "Yeah."
"So yes and no is the answer. Take it however you want."
We sat in shock. How weird it all was. And how through the weirdness I'd found Stony. How we'd both found Bri. How when Stony and I were invited over to the lake-house we both figured we'd end up in bed with Briana. The girls had even hinted that it was time I got Lord MacDougall'd. Damn. Then they were going to show me their own invention, Lady Mac they called it. How we looked forward to it, how much we loved Bri, and how much we loved making love with her. But the evening had taken quite a turn.
Mogumbo asked, "Jeff, is she still with Quentin Q. Quenton?"
"As far as I know she is. We've had a little communication, not much. I think they're in his place in Malibu."
She said, "Yeah. It's what I've heard too."
Briana said, "Cunt is going to have to work hard to keep him."
Mogumbo shook her head. "Well, from what I hear he really likes Alicia. She's just what he wanted. So maybe he keeps her five or seven years? Who knows? After all, she's still young, still gorgeous. Eventually he'll dump her. But even then she's bound to hook up with some other black upper, they all do. Most of the girls can ride it till around age 35. Plus she'll get some of the royalties from her honeymoon pictures. Most goes to Pharaoh, but the girl gets something. She'll do OK."
I had to ask, "Is this all going to come out now? Are you publishing what you told us?" Cause, despite everything, I still didn't want Alicia to suffer.
Mogumbo's face scrunched up and she said, "If only. It was my chance to be a real journalist and I think I did OK at it. Hell, what I really think is I did a great job at it. But they...I won't say who...upper uppers obviously...are on me. They knew I was snooping. Let's just say they have some good ways of persuading me not to publish. Part of why I wanted to tell you all in person. They won't bother any of us about this just so long as the masses never find out. That's why you have to keep your mouths closed."
We all nodded agreement to this.
