Laim und der letzte Schuldige (2020)

Chief Inspector Lukas Laim is investigating at the Munich State Opera this time, where a visiting star tenor is allegedly holding a young boy captive in his dressing room, according to anonymous information from the State Criminal Police Office. When the police team arrives at the opera house, they do indeed find a frightened, half-naked minor who does not speak German. The tenor, Lorenz Ammersfeld, is arrested immediately, but shots are fired as he is being taken to the police car, fatally hitting the singer. Commissioner Laim, who happens to be at the opera house, is at the scene right away. State Criminal Police Office investigator Sandra Rutkowski reports that the shots were very precise and were probably fired by the man who had “delivered” the child. Rutkowski insists on accompanying Laim’s investigation, hoping to catch the mastermind behind the child trafficking. Laim’s colleague Anton Simhandl cautions against settling too quickly on that group of suspects. Further inquiries reveal that the boy is from Romania and had previously escaped from a reception facility. With the help of an interpreter, the boy says that a “policeman” approached him and asked whether he wanted to earn a hundred euros. After drinking a cola, he cannot remember anything. Since the refugee facility is guarded by security staff, their uniforms may have looked like police uniforms to the child. When Laim and Rutkowski inspect the security company, they discover several underage boys who have evidently been sedated with medication. Rutkowski is pleased with the quick success, but Laim still has to find the killer. Ammersfeld’s last phone call had been with his personal aide, Chris Kranzl. The security guards had handed the children over to Kranzl, who then took them to the clients. When Simhandl goes to question him, he finds him dead in his bathtub. At first, Laim assumes that Kranzl shot the tenor after Ammersfeld called him because the police were about to take him away. But it seems there is another suspect. The search for the man leads Laim to a foundation Ammersfeld had established to support musically gifted children. These children live at a boarding school, where they are looked after by Roland Gachleitner. The children had apparently been brought to Ammersfeld at the opera house regularly, something Gachleitner could no longer bear. After his wife’s death and his favorite student’s suicide, he had begun planning to punish everyone responsible. He regards himself—the man who had “looked the other way” for too long—and the opera staff, who he believes silently tolerated the child abuse, as the “last guilty parties.” He ties up the opera staff, douses them with gasoline, and is about to set them on fire. Laim then brings the hostage situation to a bloodless end, and Gachleitner is arrested.