Come, Sweet Death Read online

  Brenner stayed there in the grass for another half an hour, just watching the garbage trucks and the garbage men clean the island. They moved through the grassy fields, rousing the occasional drunks and sending them slowly on their ways, a moving sight somehow, almost like flamingos in an animal paradise.

  The new Rapid Response chief proposed a mutually agreeable solution to Brenner’s contract of employment, and Brenner signed on the spot. Three months’ wages without having to work, not bad. And in three months’ time, surely something would present itself. Besides, summer. If you’re going to be unemployed, ideal timing really.

  The new chief’s only request was that he not return to his apartment at the station. Because, crucial to morale among the EMTs that the grass grow as quickly as possible over the whole matter. The new chief promised that he’d arrange for the few personal effects of Brenner’s to be moved and stored, all on Rapid Response’s dime. And he even booked a room for him at the Hotel Adlon in the second district.

  It was nine-thirty when Brenner checked in. Walked the whole way, a good ten kilometers. And along the way, a beer on Mexicoplatz. The hotel porter gave him an envelope containing 50,000 schillings. And sincere thanks from Lanz and Angelika.

  You can’t forget that while Lanz was in jail, he’d been rid of his entire gambling debt. Junior couldn’t exactly demand the money back that he’d used to pay off Lanz’s debt. So, Brenner pocketed the 50,000 schillings with a good conscience now.

  He lay down on the hotel bed, but needless to say, huge disappointment. Because a musty hotel room, no comparison to the dewy grass back on Danube Isle. What he would’ve liked to do most was get right back up and take the train back out to the island. But he was just too tired, and besides, you can’t make a nice experience happen twice anyway.

  You can’t make anything happen twice, Brenner said to himself. And I won’t call Klara, not today, he said to himself. And not tomorrow, either. You shouldn’t brood.

  As he closed his eyes, he pictured the fleet of shiny orange garbage trucks and orange garbage men that had made all the festival detritus disappear as if by magic.

  And this morning’s experience of detritus and Friday’s experience of music seemed to blend together into one and the same experience as he drifted off to sleep. And it occurred to him that perhaps it’s only upon dying that a person has such a sublime experience of music. But he doubted that Junior, as his head flew smack into the rear door of the 590, had as sublime an experience as he did.

  It’s upon surviving that one has these sublime experiences, not upon dying, Brenner said to himself upon falling asleep. A good thought, he thought. Upon surviving, not dying. I mustn’t forget this. When he woke up later that evening, though, he was just glad that he still knew his own name.

  From the internationally bestselling mystery writer Wolf Haas

  RESURRECTION

  “Wolf Haas and Detective Brenner’s debut shows how a washed-up private investigator can solve a double murder on a Swiss ski hill and become an Austrian policeman. If you like the Coen brothers, you will adore Inspector Brenner.”

  —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

  $14.95 U.S./Can.

  Paperback: 978-1-61219-270-3 | Ebook: 978-1-61219-271-0

  THE BONE MAN

  “As Brenner chases the clues amid the picture-book countryside (one waits for a chorus of Edelweiss), he encounters sex workers, fake tour guides, war profiteers, slimy art dealers and even a white slaver. Fans of Carl Hiaasen ought to love this series.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

  $14.95 U.S./Can.

  Paperback: 978-1-61219-169-0 | Ebook: 978-1-61219-170-6

  BRENNER AND GOD

  “Brenner and God is a humdinger … a sockdollager of an action yarn, concerning the potentially fatal situation ex-cop Simon Brenner finds himself in when the two-year-old girl he’s been chauffeuring is kidnapped.” —The Austin Chronicle

  $14.95 U.S./Can.

  Paperback: 978-1-61219-113-3 | Ebook: 978-1-61219-114-0

  MELVILLE INTERNATIONAL CRIME

  Happy Birthday, Turk!

  Jakob Arjouni

  978-1-935554-20-2

  More Beer

  Jakob Arjouni

  978-1-935554-43-1

  One Man, One Murder

  Jakob Arjouni

  978-1-935554-54-7

  Kismet

  Jakob Arjouni

  978-1-935554-23-3

  Brother Kemal

  Jakob Arjouni

  978-1-61219-275-8

  The Craigslist Murders

  Brenda Cullerton

  978-1-61219-019-8

  Death and the Penguin

  Andrey Kurkov

  978-1-935554-55-4

  Penguin Lost

  Andrey Kurkov

  978-1-935554-56-1

  The Case of the

  General’s Thumb

  Andrey Kurkov

  978-1-61219-060-0

  Nairobi Heat

  Mukoma wa Ngugi

  978-1-935554-64-6

  Black Star Nairobi

  Mukoma wa Ngugi

  978-1-61219-210-9

  Cut Throat Dog

  Joshua Sobol

  978-1-935554-21-9

  Brenner and God

  Wolf Haas

  978-1-61219-113-3

  The Bone Man

  Wolf Haas

  978-1-61219-169-0

  Resurrection

  Wolf Haas

  978-1-61219-270-3

  Come, Sweet Death!

  Wolf Haas

  978-1-61219-339-7

  Murder in Memoriam

  Didier Daeninckx

  978-1-61219-146-1

  A Very Profitable War

  Didier Daeninckx

  978-1-61219-184-3

  Nazis in the Metro

  Didier Daeninckx

  978-1-61219-296-3

  He Died with

  His Eyes Open

  Derek Raymond

  978-1-935554-57-8

  The Devil’s Home

  on Leave

  Derek Raymond

  978-1-935554-58-5

  How the Dead Live

  Derek Raymond

  978-1-935554-59-2

  I Was Dora Suarez

  Derek Raymond

  978-1-935554-60-8

  Dead Man Upright

  Derek Raymond

  978-1-61219-062-4

  The Angst-Ridden

  Executive

  Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

  978-1-61219-038-9

  Murder in the Central

  Committee

  Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

  978-1-61219-036-5

  The Buenos Aires Quintet

  Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

  978-1-61219-034-1

  Off Side

  Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

  978-1-61219-115-7

  Southern Seas

  Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

  978-1-61219-117-1

  Tattoo

  Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

  978-1-61219-208-6

  Death in Breslau

  Marek Krajewski

  978-1-61219-164-5

  The End of the World

  in Breslau

  Marek Krajewski

  978-1-61219-274-1

  Phantoms of Breslau

  Marek Krajewski

  978-1-61219-272-7

  The Minotaur’s Head

  Marek Krajewski

  978-1-61219-342-7

  The Accidental Pallbearer

  Frank Lentricchia

  978-1-61219-171-3

  The Dog Killer of Utica

  Frank Lentricchia

  978-1-61219-337-3

 

 

 
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