Die Toten von Salzburg - Süßes Gift (2024)

At the Hotel Menuett in Salzburg, Salzburg State Parliament President Susanne Zirner and Bavarian Energy Minister Josef Wittmann announce a transition to biogas at a press conference. Businessman Gustav “Nussi” Nussbaumer is supposed to drive it forward with his new biogas plant. Among the audience are Chief Inspector Mur, undercover as Wittmann’s personal bodyguard, as well as Hofrat “Alfi” Seywald, a school friend of Nussbaumer, and Seywald’s husband, René Kleist. After Wittmann’s chauffeur, Seestätter, falls dead out of the limousine in front of everyone, Chief Inspector Mur and his Salzburg colleague Irene Russmeyer begin their investigation. The victim was poisoned, possibly with a Mozartkugel. According to a chambermaid, Elisabeth Hemetsberger, the State Parliament President’s PR aide, had earlier had a tryst with the chauffeur. Mur suspects that Energy Minister Wittmann was not the real target, and that Elisabeth Hemetsberger’s cuckolded husband murdered the chauffeur out of jealousy. Elisabeth admits she had been having an affair with Seestätter for three years. They always met when her boss and his boss had meetings. No one was supposed to know about the affair. She wanted to divorce her husband. Nussbaumer is praised by, among others, Seywald and Hemetsberger as a benefactor of the police sports club and the dog unit. Photos from the press conference show anti-capitalist activist Astrid Zehetner, who opposes the privatization of the energy supply. She had worked at a bank but, by her own account, had resigned. When Mur opens a small bag belonging to Zehetner, a dye-filled security device explodes in his face. Zehetner had been snooping in customer accounts outside her area of responsibility and had discovered that Wittmann and Zirner had received 10,000 euros a month from Nussbaumer for three years. Nussbaumer had also regularly made payments to the “gas prince,” Boris Gorkinski, through an Azerbaijani bank. Nussbaumer, however, claims he has had nothing to do with Gorkinski for a long time. Gorkinski is responsible for gas trading with Austria and Germany at Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company. Six months ago, on Wittmann’s recommendation, he also acquired German citizenship. After two people from Gorkinski’s intelligence service turn up in Salzburg, Nussbaumer fears that they intend to eliminate him, Wittmann, and Zirner. Soon afterward, State Parliament President Zirner is in acute danger due to poisoning. From Wolfgang, a waiter at the coffee house, Russmeyer learns that the two suspects left behind a flyer for the Salzburg Marionette Theater along with their tip. During a performance of Peter and the Wolf, the Cobra task force overpowers the two, and poison is found in one of their puppets. They had also been at the press conference and have to be released because of diplomatic immunity. A pipeline runs from Nussbaumer’s biogas plant to the Haidach gas storage facility. Another pipeline runs back from there, and Zirner approved it three years earlier. Zirner and Wittmann had made the pipeline possible for Nussbaumer and had received 10,000 euros a month from him ever since. Gas from Azerbaijan is also stored at Haidach. Nussbaumer buys cheap natural gas from Azerbaijan via Haidach and sells it at a high price as biogas. Nussbaumer accuses Wittmann of staging the attack on himself and also carrying out the attack on Zirner. Wittmann, in turn, accuses Nussbaumer of poisoning Zirner. Security-camera footage from the marionette theater shows Wittmann hiding monkshood in the Azerbaijanis’ puppets. Zirner had become a problem for him and Nussbaumer because of her drinking problem; they both considered her unstable and therefore a risk. According to forensic pathologist Dr. Wächter, chauffeur Seestätter was poisoned with dieffenbachia, while State Parliament President Zirner was poisoned with monkshood. Nussbaumer is arrested for the attempted murder of Zirner because he was the only person to whom Hofrat Seywald had spoken about the chauffeur being poisoned with monkshood. Hemetsberger’s husband is a garden architect and would therefore have had the necessary knowledge, as well as a motive. When the investigators arrive at the Hemetsbergers’ home, her husband is lying dead on the floor. He knew his wife disliked marzipan and had poisoned the Mozartkugeln because she was going to leave him for Seestätter. Elisabeth had discovered this, and they had argued. As a supposed gesture of reconciliation, she made him some tea. Elisabeth Hemetsberger is eventually arrested by the police.