Gier nach Gold. Ein Krimi aus Passau (2024)

Pastry chef Roswitha Hertel is visited by Dave Henigan from Denton, Texas. He is researching his father, who was stationed in Passau as a U.S. soldier in 1945/46, after the Second World War. Henigan’s father, Sergeant Bill Henigan, and Roswitha’s mother, Erika Schmalhofer, knew each other back then. Erika had a child with Richard Bowman, a Black GI: Roswitha’s half-brother, Arthur. Dave found a photograph showing Bill, Erika, and Richard, and read an online article about Roswitha and her pastry shop. Frederike Bader learns from Jochen Mohn, head of the Passau criminal police, that the Bahdari clan has put a €50,000 bounty on Frederike and her daughter Mia. Mia performs as a singer with private detective Ferdinand Zankl on keyboard at a small venue called the “Delirium.” Afterwards, she is followed home by someone whose identity is initially unknown. Among those at the venue was the technician Khaled, who had filmed the performance on his phone. Frederike fears that posting a video of the performance online could expose their cover in the witness protection program. Khaled later says he does not know the name Bahdari. Mohn identifies Mia’s nighttime pursuer as Hubert Höllrigl, who runs an enameling workshop. Höllrigl has two suspended sentences for brawling. Frederike finds traces of blood in Höllrigl’s workshop and suspects that he either had a workplace accident or someone hit his hand with a hammer. Höllrigl makes Wehrmacht badges there and artificially ages them in an acid bath. While Frederike is searching Höllrigl’s workshop, he receives a visit from Jozef Hašek, the Czech-born leader of the biker gang “Lobos Rojos,” to whom Höllrigl owes money. Frederike pretends to be Höllrigl’s cleaner; Höllrigl himself has disappeared. The Lobos Rojos, whose logo is a red wolf inspired by the Passau wolf, are involved in arms and drug trafficking. Frederike fears Höllrigl intends to pay off his debts with the bounty placed on her and Mia. Zankl, on the other hand, theorizes that Höllrigl was not interested in Mia at all, but in the Texan, who had attended Mia’s performance with Hertel, because of his fascination with the Second World War. Mia, an aspiring journalist at the Passauer Kurier, suspects Dave Henigan has an intriguing story and wants to interview him, but soon afterwards he vanishes without a trace. Franziska, the waitress from the “Delirium,” also known as “Ska,” is Höllrigl’s niece. She tells Zankl and Bader that her uncle had sold Wehrmacht medals to the biker gang, which then resold them to a gang in Mexico. It came to light there that they were fakes. Franziska’s parents died when she was young, and Höllrigl took care of his niece. Hubert Höllrigl’s grandfather was SS-Sturmbannführer Willy Höllrigl, who looted a suitcase full of jewelry, coins, and watches in France. After the war, his widow Lotte sold some of the items on the black market. That was how she met two GIs who were also dealing and stole the suitcase from Lotte. Hubert had been searching for the treasure for years. After Dave Henigan tells Franziska at the Delirium about his father, Höllrigl sets out to find the Texan. Franziska gives Zankl and Bader a lead on Höllrigl’s garage, where they find the Texan bound. Henigan suspects the treasure is buried on Klosterberg, at a spot that is now a playground. His father gave him a map with a marker on it, but Höllrigl now has the map. Höllrigl digs up a suitcase with Jozef Hašek; it contains, among other things, a pistol. Höllrigl shoots Hašek’s companion, and the two of them manage to escape. A skeleton is found at the excavation site, and Mohn suspects it is the remains of Richard Bowman. A flashback shows how, back then, Sergeant Bill Henigan shot him during a dispute over the treasure. A series of articles by Mia Bader about the treasure and its history appears in the newspaper.