Letzter Saibling (2023)

In his fourth case, village police officer Group Inspector Franz Gasperlmaier receives assistance with the investigation from Dr. Jolante Schwarz of the Styrian State Criminal Police Office. After Gasperlmaier’s superior, station commander Friedrich Kahlß, is hospitalized following an excessive amount of Leberkäse rolls and a mild heart attack, probationary Inspector Michaela “Michi” Reiter is assigned to assist him. Gasperlmaier becomes acting station commander. A diver finds a severed right lower leg in Lake Toplitz. According to pathologist Dr. Kapaun, it was severed postmortem with a chainsaw. Gasperlmaier’s mother-in-law suspects the victim is Mathias Grubauer, since he has not made noise with his moped outside her house for two months. According to his mother, Mrs. Grubauer, he disappeared two months ago. However, he regularly sent her emails from Spain. Soon afterward, divers find more body parts, including one with a tattoo on the left lower leg, as well as Mathias Grubauer’s motorcycle. Jessica “Jessi” Grubauer suspects Max Hillbrand of murdering her brother. He says he last saw Mathias Grubauer on July 22. The email address was only created on July 24, presumably to cover up Mathias’s disappearance. The victim, Mathias Grubauer, was last seen at the annual fish dinner of the Altaussee Ski Club. According to the owner of the fishing hut, those at the dinner included bank director and ski club president Taler and ski club treasurer Beppo Pichler, as well as Kilian Köberl, who has been missing a leg for some time, Josefine Kain and her husband Helmut “Heli” Kain, and Lissi Egger. Soon afterward, a German tourist finds a second body, this time headless, near the Ranftl Mill. The victim is identified as Josefine Kain by a bracelet. Her husband, Helmut, teaches at the Hallstatt School of Timber Construction. Dr. Schwarz suspects he murdered his wife out of jealousy, and he has no alibi for the time of the crime. Helmut denies having committed the murder. Another suspect is bank director Thaler. Meanwhile, Jessi Grubauer and Max Hillbrand have disappeared, and the two are placed on a wanted list. Some time later, Taler is found hanged, but according to Dr. Kapaun he was strangled and hanged after death. The emails intended to conceal Grubauer’s disappearance were sent from Director Taler’s computer. Dr. Schwarz therefore suspects that Taler was involved in the murders. Thaler’s wife says that at the time her husband was murdered, she was with her lover, Beppo. At the fish dinner, she had discovered that her husband was cheating on her with another woman, and she wanted to prove it so she could get the house and alimony. Through an acquaintance at Interpol, Friedrich Kahlß learns that Jessi Grubauer and Max Hillbrand were arrested by Italian police in Jesolo for illegal possession of marijuana and are no longer suspects. Gasperlmaier receives a call in the middle of the night. At the meeting place arranged over the phone, he encounters Kilian Köberl, who ties him up and threatens him with a chainsaw. Köberl confesses to murdering Mathias Grubauer because he blamed him for losing his leg in the downhill race at Loser. Josefine Kain witnessed the murder and therefore had to die too; Köberl had cut off her head with the chainsaw. He had murdered Director Taler during an argument. Gasperlmaier then manages to escape. The next day, Dr. Schwarz tells him that Köberl threw himself in front of a train.