Blind ermittelt - Blutsbande (2019)

Alexander “Alex” Haller, who inherited a hotel together with his sister Sophie, is a blind former chief inspector from Vienna who lost his sight—and with it his career—in a bomb attack. Together with Nikolai “Niko” Falk, a taxi driver from Berlin, he investigates his second case. This time, Haller’s sister is kidnapped. Haller’s assistant, Niko, takes Sophie to the theater, much to Alex’s displeasure. During the performance, she is abducted. Niko tries to stop the kidnappers and shoots one of them during the struggle, but they still manage to escape. As they flee, Caro, one of the three kidnappers along with Adrian, shoots their injured third accomplice. Alex wants to investigate the case alone and keep the police out of it because he assumes that involving them would put Sophie in greater danger. At first, Niko suspects the kidnapping has something to do with the €50,000 he owes the betting syndicate. However, this turns out to be a false lead. The kidnappers seem to know a great deal about Haller and his family, and demand €750,000 in ransom. The handover is to take place in a carriage on the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel, with the money stashed in a backpack. When the body of the third kidnapper is found, Haller’s successor, Inspector Laura Janda, also takes up the case. She obtains the Burgtheater security-camera footage, which also shows Niko. Janda suspects a connection between the body found on the Danube Canal and the shootout outside the theater, but an eyewitness to the shootout cannot positively identify Niko in a lineup. Alex and Niko are under surveillance by Janda and her team as they attempt to hand over the ransom. When Caro and Adrian spot them, they create confusion by warning that there is a bomb. The two manage to escape with the backpack full of money. Adrian tells Caro that there was no money in the backpack and shows her its contents, made up of scraps of paper. Adrian tells Sophie that he needs the money for heart-valve surgery. Sophie tells Adrian that she suspects Caro stole the money from the backpack. After claiming that they never received the first payment, the kidnappers raise their demand to one million euros. Haller visits former senior public prosecutor Arthur Pohl in prison, where Pohl is serving time, among other things, for murdering Haller’s partner, prosecutor Kara Hoffmann. Alex talks with Pohl about his father Lorenz Haller’s affair with their maid, Franzi. Franzi took her own life after Alex and Sophie’s mother threw her out. Franzi was Caro’s biological mother; Mrs. Molden took Caro out of the orphanage and raised her. Mrs. Molden tells Alex and Niko that Caro suddenly disappeared one day, then later returned with her boyfriend Adrian. Both Alex and Sophie discover that Caro had worked at the Hallers’ hotel. Caro tells Sophie that she is her half-sister. Sophie tells Caro that she suspects Adrian stole the money from the backpack. Caro finds the ransom money together with a plane ticket in Adrian’s name. He had only pretended to have a heart condition because otherwise Caro would not have gone along with his plans. From the background noise in the kidnappers’ video, Alex deduces that they are on a boat. Alex then manages to free Sophie from the boat. When Adrian threatens to shoot Inspector Janda, Caro shoots Adrian. Caro escapes with the ransom money.