Die Toten von Salzburg - Wolf im Schafspelz (2019)

In their fifth case together, Major Peter Palfinger and Chief Inspector Hubert Mur from Traunstein investigate a murder at the Capuchin monastery in Salzburg, where Palfinger’s brother Sebastian wants to hear confessions. While there, he finds a body in the monastery church. Brother Jakob, who handled the monastery’s accounts, was beaten to death with an iron cross. The archbishop tells Palfinger that the victim was not a real monk but a key witness in a witness-protection program. Tristan Wolf was a banker from Munich who had cheated his clients through a Ponzi scheme, causing them to lose a great deal of money. Since the victim was from Munich, the case also falls under Hubert Mur’s jurisdiction. Mur suspects a connection to one of his earlier cases. Back then, Sophie Wacker, the daughter of Andreas Wacker—Hubert Mur’s instructor and mentor at the police academy—was murdered. Wolf had been Sophie’s supervisor. Mur was also in charge of that investigation, and he suspects Hermann Sturm of having murdered Sophie Wacker then and Wolf now, three weeks before the trial was due to begin. Wolf was the main prosecution witness in the case against Sturm. Palfinger has the DNA from the current crime scene compared with the DNA from Sophie Wacker’s murder case; the results indicate that the same perpetrator was responsible for both crimes. After Mur knocks Hermann Sturm to the ground in response to a provocation, his superior, Thorsten Möller, removes him from the case and subsequently suspends him from duty. Andreas Wacker then obtains a warrant from the prosecutor to search Hermann Sturm’s villa. A print from a woman’s shoe is found in the victim’s pool of blood. It belongs to Rosa Wimmer, who works as a cleaner at the monastery. Brother Jakob caught her stealing and then blackmailed her, demanding sexual favors from her. Wimmer consequently becomes the main suspect for a time. Tristan Wolf had once again set up an online investment platform in Salzburg using a Ponzi scheme. One of his investors was Brother Johannes Zauner, who had lost his inheritance and is therefore also a suspect. Brother Johannes says he followed Wolf to the Salzburg State Bank, where Wolf was in the vault. Johannes gives Major Palfinger a key to a safe-deposit box. A plane ticket and an apartment near the airport lead Palfinger to suspect that Wolf planned to flee to Macau with 3.5 million euros in cash from the safe-deposit box, since there is no extradition treaty with that country. Andreas Wacker, Mur’s former instructor, has been working at the airport for some time. Mur and Russmeyer follow the GPS coordinates of a mobile phone that Sturm had previously called from a phone booth. When they reach the phone’s location, Russmeyer is shot. Mur saves her life by tying off her arm with his belt. He also suspects Sturm of being the shooter. Footage from a wildlife camera near the crime scene shows Thorsten Möller carrying a rifle. Möller is subsequently arrested, and Mur suspects that Sturm had bribed him. When Russmeyer and Palfinger want to question Andreas Wacker about his relationship with Wolf, Wacker refuses to leave the house and threatens to shoot himself. He tells Mur that he had run into Wolf by chance at the airport. Mur initially suspects that Wacker murdered Wolf because Wolf was responsible for his daughter’s death. Wacker, however, confesses that he himself was responsible for his daughter’s death. During an argument between them, she fell backward and hit her head, later succumbing to her injuries. Wolf had been a bad influence on his daughter; at the time, the two of them had embezzled clients’ money together. After Wacker happened to run into Wolf at the airport, he personally took revenge on him. Subplot: After Major Peter Palfinger and his girlfriend Angela Doll decide to move into an accessible apartment together, she tells him that she has received a job offer in Boston. Prelate Sebastian Palfinger is followed by Eva Plank, who claims to be pregnant by him. After Plank loses the baby, she admits that she named Prelate Palfinger as the father because he would have been the best father for her child. Prelate Palfinger tells his brother that he is considering stepping down from his position, because the incident has rekindled his desire to have a family of his own. In addition, Mur and his estranged wife grow closer again after the shooting of him and Russmeyer.