The worst part? She had his private phone number.

She says the physical relationship ended about eight months ago, right before Cain announced he was running for president. But the communication did not. When we asked for any corroborating evidence, she pointed us to her cell phone contacts. One name: Herman Cain.

She showed us some of her cell phone bills that included 61 phone calls or text messages to or from a number starting with 678. She says it is Herman Cain’s private cell phone. The calls were made during four different months– calls or texts made as early as 4:26 in the early morning, and as late as 7:52 at night. The latest were in September of this year.

“We’ve never worked together,” said White. “And I can’t imagine someone phoning or texting me for the last two and a half years, just because.”

We texted the number and Herman Cain called us back. He told us he “knew Ginger White” but said these are “more false allegations.” He said she had his number because he was “trying to help her financially.”

Sixty-one calls over four months is roughly one every other day. Cain and White didn’t work together, either: According to her, they met at a presentation he made for the NRA in the late 90s and have been friends ever since. Cain acknowledged that friendship in his interview with Blitzer this afternoon but said his wife has never met White. So they’re old friends, but not close enough friends that White would have met his family, yet close enough that (a) Cain would be willing to help her financially and (b) they’d be in frequent contact even while he was busy campaigning for president.

Two other interesting details. One: The Fox affiliate claims it wasn’t White who approached them with this story but a tipster who knows her and who allegedly was shopping the story to national media. That might explain the peculiar timing of White waiting to come forward until after Cain had already started to slide in the polls. If she was looking to make a buck off the story, she’d have been better off jumping in three weeks ago when he was still the frontrunner and media interest was sky high. The fact that she waited suggests that she might be telling the truth in saying she felt obliged to come forward before some news outlet picked up the tipster’s claim and ran with it. Two: Watch to the end here and you’ll see that she has money problems and has been accused before by a business partner of stalking and defamation. In fact, she lost a defamation case because, supposedly, she never showed up in court to contest the suit. Reason to doubt her credibility? Sure, but if she was stalking Cain or trying to shake him down for money, why didn’t he tell the reporter that when he texted him from White’s phone? And who is that mysterious tipster running around talking to reporters anyway? Click the image to watch.