ALEX WAGNER

  Waltzing with Death

  A Case for the Master Sleuths

  Waltzing with Death

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  1

  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 world-renowned 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 we were currently staying in a hotel because Tim's rented apartment had gone up in flames during our last murder case, he’d quickly invited us not only to attend the ball, as originally planned, but also to move into a guest room and stay in his palais for a few days.

  "We have plenty of space," Alexander explained to us, "and Bella will certainly be happy to have a companion in the house for a while." The man really was so nice.

  Victoria was definitely looking forward to the ball, and had already bought herself a beautiful gown—although unfortunately she couldn't plan on shaking a leg with her boyfriend. Tim was still badly injured and currently getting around in a wheelchair, but he said cheerfully that he was a disaster as a dancer anyway and that Victoria was therefore very lucky that he was out of action.

  In our last murder case, the poor guy had taken quite a beating, if I may put it that way. He’d almost been killed and had barely escaped his attacker, leaving him with quite a few injuries—including several fractures, which was why he was currently wrapped in a lot of plaster and moving around on wheels.

  Our friend Oskar, who was traveling down from northern Germany, was also to move into a guest room at Palais Merlingen, so we would all be together under one roof for the first time. Victoria, Tim, Oskar, Pearl and me.

  "Now we can take on a particularly tricky murder case," Pearl commented in her inimitable way, sounding as if it was just a new crossword puzzle, as was popular with many of the two-leggeds. By now she had reached the stage where she expected a new murder mystery as soon as we had finished the previous one; and the worst thing was that it did always happen again and again … we obviously attracted murderers, corpses and complicated crime puzzles the way nectar attracts bees.

  I was a little nervous about how the meeting between Tim and Oskar would go. Tim was Victoria's boyfriend and they really loved each other, but Oskar … well, Victoria was quite fond of him too. And not just because he was such a good detective inspector, with whom we had already solved two murder cases.

  The two men knew about each other, and there was nothing going on between Victoria and Oskar apart from a genuine friendship. But would Tim still react jealously if he and the chief inspector met in person?

  Victoria, Tim, Pearl and I arrived at the palais before Oskar showed up. We were greeted in the hall by a butler in dark livery, as if we had traveled back in time a hundred and fifty years, and shortly afterwards we found ourselves in a guest suite that was larger than Tim's old apartment.

  From the windows and the small balcony, you could look straight down onto the Ringstrasse—where cars, horse-drawn carriages and tourist buses rolled slowly through the persistent snow flurries. I felt like I was in a fairy tale.

  But then it was time for us to meet Bella, the Merlingens' new dog. Alexander Merlingen appeared in our suite with her. He was carrying her in his arms when he arrived, perhaps because he was afraid that I might rush up to her and greet her too effusively.

  Of course there was no such danger. I know how to behave and would never have harmed a puppy, but sometimes people think I'm dangerous just because I'm big and strong and my black and white fur gives me a rather wolf-like appearance.

  Pearl stomped confidently towards Alexander and stretched her head upwards.

  "Put her down," she ordered. "Let's have a look at the little one!" The humans, of course, only heard a tiny cute meow.

  The little one was indeed still a puppy, albeit a somewhat older one and easily three times the size of Pearl. Which, of course, did nothing to dampen our sofa cat’s self-confidence.

  I approached Alexander carefully, sniffed Bella and inhaled her adorable puppy scent. She was really cute and very fluffy, but actually still a little shy. She snuggled close to her two-legged’s chest as I approached her, and didn't say a word in reply to my friendly greeting. She just looked at me in amazement out of her big brown eyes, as if she had never seen such a big dog in her life. Which of course couldn't be true—after all, she hadn't been born to a dachshund, and her mother had to be at least roughly the same size as me.

  But Alexander realized that I wouldn't be a danger to Bella, so he finally put her down on the floor between Pearl and me.

  Bella looked at me silently and rather reverently for a few more seconds, then she turned to Pearl, gurgled happily and began to inspect the tiny kitten. She stretched out one of her paws, which already looked quite big and strong, towards Pearl.

  Puppies that grow up to be really big dogs always look kind of ungainly. Their legs are thick little pillars on which they waddle clumsily along, and of course they usually have no control over their rapidly growing physical strength.

  And so it happened that the paw nudge that Bella gave Pearl knocked the poor tiny one right over.

  Pearl hissed in fright—which Bella seemed to find amusing. The young dog suddenly pounced on Pearl, barking wildly and wagging her tail, wanting to play. Before the kitten knew what was happening, she got a few incredibly wet kisses and a couple of nose bumps, was sniffed and pushed and then playfully chased around the room.

  The two-leggeds squealed with delight, and I watched the droll scene with equal amusement—only Pearl wasn’t getting anything at all out of Bella's impetuous affection.

  "Shoo! Stay away from me, you wretched brute!" she meowed indignantly, but Bella was not deterred. She had taken a fancy to the tiny one and didn't want to stop playing with Pearl.

  I stayed back, quietly and secretly laughing at the two of them, but at some point, when Pearl had already hissed "Do something, Athos!" twice, I gave in and intervened.

  I gently gave Bella a nudge with my muzzle, which slowed her down a bit, then I tried to explain to her that she was on her way to becoming a big and very strong almost-wolf who needed to be careful with her strength.

  "The tiny one is very fragile," I said. "You have to be careful when you play with her."

  For which I promptly got a scratched nose. Pearl's little paw shot towards me faster than I could ge
t to safety. And with her claws fully extended!

  No good deed goes unpunished…

  "How can you say that? I'm not fragile!" Pearl complained, instead of apologizing for her brutality. "I just don't like it when someone slaps my face with paws that are too big, or with a drooling tongue! And how many times have I told you not to call me tiny? My size is just right!"

  "All right," I mumbled as I ran my tongue over my poor scratched nose. "Do you always have to be so brutal?"

  The humans laughed. And if Alexander Merlingen hadn't grabbed Pearl's new biggest fan and left us, Bella would certainly have decided to continue playing with the tiny one. Until she got a scratched nose herself, I suppose.

  2

  Victoria's cell phone rang just a few minutes later. Oskar was on the line and announced that he had just pulled up outside the palais in a cab.

  "Great, I'll see you in a minute! We're already on our way down!" Victoria exclaimed and hurried with Tim towards the elevator to go to the ground floor.

  Pearl and I didn't miss the chance to storm down the grand staircase. It was made of marble, which was really slippery, but luckily there was a thick gray-blue carpet on it to provide good grip for my paws.

  Pearl and I were racing each other, and I almost bumped into the butler who was running past us at the foot of the stairs.

  He was a young man in his late twenties, tall, with fox-colored fur—er, hair, I mean, of course—and green eyes; and I already knew his name was Elias. He ran the Merlingens' household, and the entire staff of the palais was under his direction. Not bad at all for such a young two-legged.

  He had welcomed us when we’d arrived at the palais and immediately proved himself to be an animal lover. He had greeted Tim and Victoria with very friendly words, but then immediately turned his attention to Pearl and me. We were spoiled with stroking and cuddles and Elias immediately asked our humans about our needs. How did we prefer to sleep? Should he get pillows for us? A dog or cat basket? Toys?

  And then: what were our favorite foods? Should he take care of walking me so that Victoria could relax a bit and prepare for the big ball in peace?

  Victoria assured him that she would have time to walk me herself—and with Pearl, who usually joined us on our outings. And as far as our preferred diet was concerned, she replied: "Well, if you're being so kind as to ask: Pearl prefers fish, and Athos loves meat. But please don't go to any trouble because of us! We've brought dry food."

  Pearl had no such restraint.

  "I prefer salmon," she meowed at the butler. "Raw or grilled. Not smoked if possible. And please not completely cold from the fridge…"

  I would have loved the earth to open up and swallow me. Fortunately, Elias didn't understand a word she was saying.

  Even now, when I’d missed colliding with Elias at the foot of the stairs by a hair's breadth, he didn't take offense. Again, he proved to be quite the animal lover and found time to kneel down and stroke my head. And he even remembered my name.

  "Well, Athos, where are you off to? Ah, and of course you've got Pearl in tow again. You two really are a dream team."

  He looked dog tired, I thought, and he smelled weary too. Dark circles had formed under his beautiful green eyes and his skin looked sallow. Did the poor man have that much work with all the guests arriving for the ball? And with all the preparations that surely had to be made in the house?

  I didn't get a chance to think about it, because at that moment Victoria and Tim came over to us from the elevator, and then the doorbell rang.

  It had to be Oskar. Pearl and I ran with Elias to welcome the inspector. At the same time, I looked back over my shoulder at Tim and Victoria. How would it work out, the two men getting to know each other? Would they see each other as rivals—or could they perhaps even become friends?

  Elias opened the palais’s heavy gate with a flourish. When he saw who was standing at the threshold, his friendly smile widened even more.

  "Count von Nüring! How nice to see you. Come in before you turn into a snowman."

  He reached for Oskar's suitcase and then stepped aside to allow the chief inspector to enter.

  Only now did his words really sink in for me. Had he just called Oskar a count?

  Apparently I hadn't misheard him, because when I turned to Victoria, she looked just as confused as I was. Yes, she even forgot to introduce Tim.

  "Count?" she blurted out.

  Oskar smiled sheepishly. "I am indeed, yes. But that's not important—titles of nobility belong to the 19th century, if you ask me."

  "But … you’ve never said a word about it," Victoria stammered.

  He shrugged his shoulders apologetically. "I can be proud of my family's history," he said, "and I am. There have been many great men and women over the centuries. And I'm glad to be a Nüring. Strictly speaking, a von Nüring. But that doesn't mean I have to boast about my title, especially not as a policeman."

  He approached Victoria, hugged her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "How nice that you're here! It seems like ages since we've seen each other."

  He let go of her immediately. "And this must be your boyfriend, is that right?" He walked up to Tim and shook his hand while he looked sympathetically at his plaster casts. "Nice to meet you, Tim. I've heard a lot about you."

  "And me about you," said Tim. "Only good things, of course." He grinned—and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I couldn't sense any animosity between the two of them. Everything seemed to be in perfect order.

  It took a load off my mind. And then it was Pearl's and my turn to be greeted by Oskar. She jumped into his arms without further ado when he leaned down to her—an unusually emotional greeting that the tiny one didn't give to every human.

  I wagged my tail wildly, circled Oskar twice and would have run over Elias again if he hadn't nimbly jumped to the side at the last moment—along with Oskar's suitcase.

  "Athos, my old boy! Take it easy!" Oskar shouted with a laugh.

  Everything is fine, I told myself. Oskar and Tim will become friends. We can be one big, harmonious pack, without any jealousies. And in this beautiful house, where the butler is so adorable and where a cute little Malamute lives, we won't get involved in a murder case for once.

  At that instant, the doorbell rang again.

  "Excuse me for just a moment," Elias said quickly. "I'll be right back, milord, and then I'll show you to your room." He put the suitcase down and hurried to the entrance.

  When he opened the door, a blond man in sportswear entered the house, brushing the snow off his light blue winter jacket.

  "Henry Lichtenau," he introduced himself. "My wife and I are expected. She can't come until tomorrow, though." Apparently he was a first-time guest here at the palais, or at least he didn't think Elias remembered him.

  The butler greeted him in a friendly manner, then waved to a slightly older man who had just come hurrying out of one of the many corridors. It seemed he was another servant of the house, as he was also wearing a uniform.

  "Jakob, please accompany Mr. Lichtenau to his suite," said Elias. "I'll take care of Count von Nüring in the meantime…"

  Jakob said something in reply, but his words were lost, because Henry Lichtenau suddenly called out loudly: "Victoria Adler? Is it really you? Good heavens, what are you doing here?"

  The next moment he ran up to my two-legged and hugged her so tightly that I heard her gasp. Then he gave her a passionate kiss on both cheeks.

  I saw Victoria's eyes widen and my nose couldn't help but notice that she was breaking into a heavy sweat.

  3

  "Who on earth was that man?" Tim asked, turning to Victoria when the newcomer had finally hurried to the elevator with Jacob in tow. "He looked at you as if you were a celestial apparition—not to mention all of his welcoming kisses."

  Not only that, but he had held Victoria in his arms for half an eternity after he had greeted her so effusively, and it had taken her quite a while to get over her shock and break away from him.

  He had then spoken to her with the rapidity of a machine gun: "I never thought I'd see you again. How long has it been? You haven't changed a bit. I've thought about you a lot. Far too often—"

  And so on.