Waltzing with Death by Alex Wagner EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Alex Wagner
- Language: English
- Genre: Murder
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Our stay at the Merlingen family palais got off to a peaceful start, and I was
able to indulge for more than a whole day in the sweet illusion that Pearl
and I wouldn’t have to solve another gruesome murder this time.
Alexander Merlingen was a count — unofficially at least, because there
has been no true nobility in Austria for a long time. However, he still owned
the beautiful palais, which had been in the family since the 19th century,
and which was located on Vienna’s Ringstrasse—one of the most august
addresses in the city, as I’d heard our two-leggeds say.
I would generally describe myself as a lover of the wild, open countryside
—quite unlike my friend Pearl, who is a staunch sofa cat—but here in this
beautiful historic building I felt at home straight away. After all, I’m also a
dog with a keen interest in history, and this old palais really had plenty to
offer.
I was fascinated by the idea that it had been standing here in Vienna’s old
town for over a hundred years, on the grand boulevard of the Ringstrasse,
between churches and palais, luxury hotels, museums and parks, not far
from the imperial Vienna Hofburg, St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the worldrenowned Spanish Riding School. And Alexander Merlingen’s ancestors
had even been regular guests at the Austrian imperial court.
In addition, it had been snowing almost continuously for days, so that the
palais and the entire Ringstrasse now shone in a mantle of beautiful white.
The trees lining the grand boulevard wore thick white caps that made them
look like sleepy giants, and the sidewalk and roadway were lined with high
white mounds that the snow ploughs piled up as they worked. It was
wonderful to romp around in them—as a thick-coated sled dog, I mean. The
two-leggeds don’t allow themselves this pleasure because they don’t
understand anything about the really great things in life. And the tiny one,
Pearl, also spurned having a wonderful snow bath, but that was only to be
expected, of course.
We — Pearl, our two-leggeds, Victoria and Tim, and I — owed the
invitation to Palais Merlingen to Oskar Nüring, our friend the chief
inspector from the island of Sylt. Apparently he was a close friend of
Alexander Merlingen’s, and had been since his youth.
Alexander was giving a huge ball at his house this weekend in honor of
his daughter Diana, as she had recently turned eighteen and was now to be
officially introduced into society. Organizing a festive coming-of-age ball
for this occasion was an old tradition among the Viennese nobility, I
learned.
The fact that Oskar and Alexander had come up with the idea of inviting
us was mainly due to the fact that a new four-legged resident had moved
into Palais Merlingen a few weeks ago: Bella, a young female Malamute,
one of my own kind! I was really looking forward to getting to know her.
And Alexander had gone one better. When he’d found out from Oskar that
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