Hattinger und der Nebel - Ein Chiemseekrimi (2016)

Georg Kammler is found dead on the farm he runs with his sister, Ursula. Since Kammler had already attracted attention over suspected financial crimes, Detective Inspector Hattinger suspects that this may be the motive and that the culprit could therefore be among Kammler’s business associates. Shortly before his death, Kammler had spoken on the phone first with Benjamin Staller and then with Harald Strenger. Staller is Ursula’s ex-boyfriend, whom she had left because she could not cope with his personality disorder. Staller has had this disorder since an accident two years ago, in which his younger brother was killed and Staller himself was seriously injured. In Hattinger’s view, the other person Kammler spoke to, Harald Strenger, has the strongest motive, since Kammler had cheated him. As Strenger cannot provide an alibi, he is remanded in custody. But bank director Wachler’s behavior is also extremely suspicious. Hattinger’s investigation reveals that Wachler had passed information about insolvent bank customers to Kammler, who then bought their properties from them and took advantage of them in the process. However, after the usable DNA traces from the crime scene are compared, neither Strenger nor Wachler can be considered the culprit. Unable to bear being alone on the farm, Ursula Kammler moves in temporarily with Benjamin Staller and his mother at their farm. A short time later, she is found murdered there, and Staller is immediately arrested. He readily admits to strangling Ursula because she had discovered that he was the one who had killed her brother. According to Staller, Kammler was to blame for the accident in which his brother lost his life. Just as the case seems to have been solved, Hattinger receives a cry for help from Sarah Beck. She was Kammler’s accountant, and Hattinger had become friends with her during the investigation. She tells the inspector that Wachler is threatening her and that her life is in danger. Hattinger rushes to the location she gave him and sees through the window Wachler apparently threatening Sarah Beck with a knife. The inspector does not realize that Sarah Beck has arranged everything so that Hattinger has no choice but to shoot Wachler. When Hattinger investigates Staller’s accusation against Kammler, he discovers that Kammler could not have been responsible, because he was not even in Germany at the time of the accident; he was attending a conference with Sarah Beck. When the inspector hears from Staller that this woman had convinced him that Kammler caused the accident, he realizes that Beck had driven Staller to commit murder in this way. She had also used Hattinger himself to get Wachler out of the way. But he cannot prove anything against her, because she had devised her plan extremely cleverly. Sarah Beck was after more than just the money Kammler had swindled; her actions stemmed from a desire for revenge. Kammler’s shady dealings had cost her her family home, and in her opinion, Kammler bore some of the blame for her sister’s death.