Marie Brand und das ewige Wettrennen (2017)

Detective Marie Brand and her colleague Jürgen Simmel are called to a hit-and-run. It is obvious that the driver intended to run over teacher Lena Böhmer deliberately as she was jogging in the early hours of the morning. A courageous newspaper deliveryman tried to protect her, but was hit by the car himself and killed. The car belongs to the Renski family, who have not yet even noticed that it has been stolen. Since Justus Renski attends the school where Lena Böhmer teaches, he is questioned at length. At school, he is considered an exemplary and gifted student. Lena Böhmer also thinks highly of the boy and supports him wherever she can. As a result, some parents complain that their children are being disadvantaged and that she favors model student Justus Renski. In particular, attorney Haberland regularly writes letters of complaint, so that his rather mediocre son Finn learns early on that it is easier to sue for good grades than to earn them through hard work. Accordingly, Justus is bullied by his classmates, who go so far as to upload doctored photos from his laptop to the internet, compromising him and his teacher. Marie Brand thinks the conflict between Finn Haberland and Justus Renski deserves closer scrutiny. In the process, she discovers that a year earlier, Finn Haberland had reported Justus’s father, claiming that he had become physically aggressive while working as a salesperson, as a result of which he was fired. The man has been unemployed ever since and is still in a mental crisis. Brand and Simmel find a witness who saw a young man leave the car after parking it and walk away. The description is vague, but during an identification, the witness is sure he saw Finn Haberland. Benedikt Haberland, a shrewd lawyer, manages to unsettle the witness so much that he retracts his statement. Even so, the net is closing tighter and tighter around Finn. This drives his father to pay Oliver Renski a six-figure sum to take the blame. Despite all her doubts, Detective Brand has no choice but to place the man in pretrial detention. He describes the circumstances of the crime very plausibly, and his motive also sounds convincing: he supposedly believed that the teacher had seduced his son. The photos on the internet and Justus’s crush on Lena Böhmer were proof enough for him. Since the attempted murder, the rumor that Justus was having an affair with Lena Böhmer has also been troubling her husband. A few days after the incident, on his way into town, he turns back home and unexpectedly finds his wife alone with Justus. She is just seeing him off outside the house, and Alexander Böhmer interprets the situation according to his own imagination and decides to teach the boy a lesson. He provokes Justus, who then tries to fight Böhmer. But Böhmer dodges, and Justus falls so badly that the back of his head hits a stone and he dies instantly. Jürgen Simmel has the thankless task of telling Ulrike Renski that her son is dead. The woman is in shock, gets into her car, and speeds off. Brand and Simmel follow her, fearing she might take her own life. But she drives to the school, where a sports competition is taking place and Finn Haberland and his father are both present. Ulrike Renski throws the money at his feet and hysterically explains: “It was his son! 100,000 euros—for my husband to go to prison. For his son.” Finn Haberland denies it, and his father is convinced that the investigators cannot prove anything against his son. But Marie Brand is certain she can produce the evidence that his son decided to kill his teacher out of fear of getting bad grades and failing personally. She tells Finn: “Everything has consequences. For everyone. Even the son of a lawyer is no exception.”