Ouch. I kind of did feel like I’d painted one on myself some days. Well, I’d held on this long, hadn’t I? Without the benefit of vampire immortality, even.
Moving on, then. “So it’s safe to say that becoming a vampire didn’t change your ability or desire to be a stripper?”
“Like I said, I do this because it’s what I know, it’s a way I know I can make some money, and I like to have my own money rather than depending totally on the Family. The Family knows what I do, they’re okay with it. It’s good to have diverse resources, don’t you think?” She purred on this last.
“Remember folks, you heard it here first: vampires have their sticky little fingers in everything, don’t they?” I’d probably hear about this from Angelo later. Really, though, if he hadn’t wanted Colette to talk, he wouldn’t have introduced her to me. “Colette, how do you feel about taking a few calls?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” she said. “I know how this works.”
“All right, I’m opening the line for calls.” I checked the monitor very, very carefully and picked what sounded like a reasonably intelligent question, hoping against hope that however likely this episode was to end up in the gutter, we wouldn’t actually start there. “Nancy from Hartford, you’re on the air.”
“Hi, Kitty, thanks for taking my call.”
“You’re very welcome, Nancy. Do you have a question for Colette?”
“Omigosh, yes, what an opportunity to talk to a real, live vampire.” I could have quibbled with the terminology there, but I didn’t. Nancy continued, “I know you can’t say exactly how long you’ve been a stripper, but you must have an interesting perspective, and I wondered if you could talk a little bit about how the field has changed over the course of your career?”
Intelligent and academic, even. For my first question of the night, I chose wisely. Even better, Colette was happy to talk about changes in work environments, music, and traditions. “But in the end, it’s always been about watching women take their tops off, and that’ll never change,” she concluded. “Actually, you know what’s changed the most? Male strippers. Equal-opportunity stripping. Maybe a little more high end than what most of us do, but I’m not going to knock it.”
I switched lines. “On to the next call, now. Jen, you’re on the air.”
“Um, gosh, wow. Okay. My question, yeah. If becoming a vampire didn’t change anything about how much you made stripping, why do it at all?”
Colette sat back in her chair, legs crossed. “Why strip, or why be a vampire?”
“Well, yeah,” Jen said.
“Really, becoming a vampire had nothing to do with whether or not I was stripping. But what would you say if I told you I’ve found wonderful pickings at my places of employment.”
“You mean … oh,” Jen said. The phone clicked off.
“And I think we’ve lost Jen,” I said, suppressing an urge to chortle. “Next caller, you’re on the air.”
The caller was male, brash, and I’d lay money that he’d been drinking. “Yeah, Colette, great talking to you. Do you do private parties?”
“You couldn’t afford me.”
“But what if—”
“Really,” she said. That purr again.
I cut the caller off before he could embarrass himself further. “And how about we break for station ID? This is The Midnight Hour, and we’ll be back in a sec.” I waved at Matt thought the window, but he was a step ahead of me, cuing up the PSAs. The on-air sign dimmed—a reprieve.
I sat back and regarded my guest. “What do you think?” I asked.
“Angelo said this would be fun, and he was right. Certainly shakes things up.”
“You’re a natural at this,” I said. “I have to prod some people to get them to talk.
“Show business is show business.”
I could argue about that, but I’d lose. “Maybe you could convince Angelo to come on the show for an interview.”
“And how likely do you think that is?”
None. None likely. “You putting in a good word for me couldn’t hurt, could it?”
She narrowed her gaze. “Why are you so interested in interviewing Angelo?”