Der Fluss ist sein Grab. Ein Krimi aus Passau (2022)

The tailor Adil Bahdari comes from Berlin to Passau in search of his son Ahmed and hires private investigator Ferdinand Zankl to find him. A fisherman had found a watch on the banks of the Danube, with an inscription on the back. The watch had been a birthday present from Bahdari to his son. Bahdari suspects that his son was a criminal because he worked for his criminal uncle Kadher, Adil’s brother. However, he has no idea that Ahmed lost his life while trying to carry out a contract killing against the Baders, who are in witness protection. Nor does he know that Zankl was the one who caused Ahmed’s death. Adil Bahdari, whose wife had died two weeks earlier, had until recently run an alterations shop in Berlin. He had been a police officer in Lebanon, so Zankl and Bader fear that he may soon uncover their secret. The arrival of Ahmed’s father puts Frederike on high alert, and she prepares to flee. Mia, however, does not want to run away again. She is also needed in Passau after her boss, Roswitha Hertel, was stabbed and robbed in her bakery by a meth addict and is now in hospital. According to Jochen Mohn of the Passau Criminal Police, the perpetrator has been caught. Mia then begins an investigative inquiry into Passau’s meth scene. She follows a dealer who leads her to a meth lab. While trying to hide there, she witnesses a murder. Frederike manages to eavesdrop on a phone call between Adil and Kadher. Kadher says that he did not give Ahmed an assignment and has no idea where he is. Frederike also searches Adil’s hotel room, and Henry, the son of the O’Brian family staying at the hotel, sees her. Frederike gives Henry a piece of chocolate, and later he wants to thank her with a drawing, which he slips under the door of Adil’s hotel room. This is how Adil learns that Frederike, whom he meets again at Zankl’s, searched his room. Soon afterward, Adil kidnaps Zankl and, holding him at gunpoint, forces him to go into the Danube. He also gives Frederike an ultimatum: she must appear at the river within 30 minutes. Frederike is worried about her daughter, who has sent her messages on her phone pleading for help from the meth lab. She is faced with the dilemma of being able to help either her daughter or Zankl, but not both at once. Zankl finally confesses to Adil that he killed Ahmed in self-defense because Ahmed, acting on Kadher’s orders, had wanted to kill Mia and Frederike. Asked where Ahmed’s grave is, Zankl replies, “The river is his grave.” Zankl appeals to Adil’s faith in God and his humanity, thereby securing his release. Frederike manages to rescue Mia from the meth lab. The people in the lab are arrested by the police. Adil drives to his brother Kadher. After Adil draws his gun and aims at Kadher, the bodyguard kneeling beside Kadher fires a shot at Adil. Adil is hit and staggers, but there is no blood. Surprised, Adil raises his pistol again, but a second bodyguard shoots him from behind. Desperate, Kadher bends over his brother and realizes that the first shot aimed at Adil was stopped by his smartphone. The bullet had pierced both Adil’s and Ahmed’s heads in the photograph that Adil had tucked into his breast pocket along with the smartphone.