Waltz On The Wild Side

Vienna During Ball Season

While practice was being held for the dancers at one of Vienna's historic venues, some anti-dance fanatic placed a bomb that killed three debutantes, their three escorts, and injured a score more. The backstage area was in a shambles. Blood and bodies were everywhere. The old caretaker who survived the blast said it brought back memories from World War II. Whoever had placed the bomb left this note, copied verbatim from an 1866 article in the English magazine Belgravia:

      "We who go forth of nights and see without the slightest discomposure our sister and our wife seized on by a strange man and subjected to violent embraces and canterings round a small-sized apartment - the only apparent excuse for such treatment being that it is done to the sound of music - can scarcely realize the horror which greeted the introduction of this wicked dance."

 

 

The Plot Thickens

Turns out it wasn't about dance, it was all about kidnapping and extortion. During this horrific interlude the United States amdassador's wife was taken. Mason Saint-Clair, my best friend and security chief, was shot during that attack. I made chase of the shooters and met a retired Israeli Mossad agent, under the strangest of circumstances. The trail that led to the bad guys made its way to the Russian mob, and through the Austrian countryside.

The Stars Of The Show

I'm Johnny A-Train, and I became involved by choice. So did Mason, Delilah Jones, the band's torch singer, and the love of my life. Also, lest I forget, there was Rex Coulter, Esq., my benefactor, manager, and nationally renowned criminal attorney.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Back