Erzgebirgskrimi - Tödlicher Akkord (2020)

Katja Hartmann, a landscape architect, is found in the woods. She has been bludgeoned to death. Chief Inspector Robert Winkler and his colleague Karina Szabo begin investigating, initially focusing on the members of the Schneeberg Miners’ Band. Katja played the French horn there. Forester Saskia Bergelt is also a member of the orchestra and offers to help. Interviews with individual orchestra members bring several people into focus. There is Heidi Köhler, who also plays the tenor horn and resented Katja because her former boyfriend, Thomas Majewski, had turned his attention to her. Katja had since dumped the tuba player, however. Majewski is known for his short temper. But the large-scale farmer Manfred Schüppel, who plays the bass drum, had also repeatedly clashed with Katja Hartmann, an environmental and animal-rights activist whom he felt was threatening his livelihood. The investigation also leads to the married couple Constance and Peter Wiese, who built an internationally successful business out of a musical-instrument workshop. They, too, are members of the band, where they play trombone and trumpet. An attack on Klaus Hartmann, Katja’s brother, raises further questions. It can be proved, however, that farmer Schüppel is not entirely truthful. Contrary to what he claimed, he last saw Katja on the day she died, not about a week earlier. He says she had once again been snooping around his farm, and that he had ordered her off the property. Schüppel’s brother, however, confirms his alibi. There are also inconsistencies concerning Heidi Köhler: she does not confirm Majewski’s alibi, even though he said he had been with her. Majewski then admits that he met Schüppel to discuss an expert report. All the stables are regularly tested for radon contamination. The level at Schüppel’s farm was seven times the legal limit. Katja confronted the farmer with the facts that afternoon, which she had intended to make public. There was a falsified report from the past, which he had given to Katja. It also comes to light that Majewski knocked Klaus Hartmann unconscious in his home. Klaus had threatened him over his falsification. Majewski insists that he only wanted to retrieve the report and put it somewhere safe. When an orchestra rehearsal is scheduled, Majewski approaches Winkler and assures him that he has very important information for him. He presses his bag to himself meaningfully and says he will give it to him after the rehearsal. The orchestra begins playing the “Steigerlied.” Majewski has barely raised his tuba to his lips when he starts coughing violently and then collapses, gasping for air. He manages to stammer, “My bag, my bag,” before dying. Pathologist Charlotte von Sellin explains that Majewski died of an anaphylactic shock, followed by circulatory collapse and resulting multiple organ failure. Majewski suffered from an extreme celery allergy, which caused the severe reaction. Someone who knew about his allergy must have deliberately contaminated the tuba—or its mouthpiece—with celery powder. It seems that the bag Majewski asked for contained an emergency kit. Someone must have known about it and made the bag disappear; it is later nowhere to be found. Karina Szabo has meanwhile learned from Klaus Hartmann that Katja wanted to sell the garden centre, which they co-owned equally, and had already found a prospective buyer. Naturally, he had opposed the sale. But he has an alibi: that evening, he was with his tax adviser, calculating whether he could continue running the business with his half. His account is true. The Wiese couple have also withheld information. For example, they concealed the fact that they had gone to Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic with Katja more than once. They are evasive when questioned about it, too. They claim Katja went there for cosmetic surgery. Since Winkler and Szabo doubt this, based on what Charlotte von Sellin has told them, and want to find out the truth, they follow Peter Wiese, who, alarmed by their hints, drives to Karlovy Vary. He meets a Dr. Steffens there. Winkler follows the doctor, while Szabo is supposed to keep Peter Wiese under surveillance. It turns out that Katja Hartmann donated an egg to Constance Wiese, who was unable to have children herself. The egg, fertilised with Peter Wiese’s sperm, was then implanted in Constance. Little Mia therefore has, in a sense, two mothers, one legal and one biological. However, Charlotte von Sellin explains, the person who gives birth to the child has all the rights and responsibilities. When Katja’s missing phone suddenly switches on again, Winkler uses a trick to find out who has it: Peter Wiese. After a chase, Winkler catches him. Wiese says someone must have slipped him the phone, and that he ran off in a panic because of it. Wiese admits that he met Katja that evening. They had developed feelings for each other and planned a future together with Mia. Wiese can hardly believe what Winkler tells him shortly afterwards, then makes him see for himself: his own wife is trying to frame him for a murder she committed. Constance Wiese says she did not act because of the affair, but no one is going to take her daughter away from her. As she is led away, Peter Wiese struggles to hold back his tears. The film mentions in passing that Chief Inspector Ralf Adam, played by Stephan Luca and involved in the first case, had not felt at home in the Ore Mountains and had returned to Berlin. As was suggested with Luca’s character Adam, the new inspector Winkler, played by Kai Scheve, is also grappling with a problem from his past. He left his home in the Ore Mountains after his girlfriend at the time was killed in a car accident in which they had both been drunk. Winkler hints to Saskia Bergelt that back then nobody wanted to know the truth, but evades her questions. Later, he hands her an old newspaper clipping stating that a black BMW had cut off their car and taken the right of way. The BMW’s registered owner was never identified.