Marie Brand und die letzte Fahrt (2011)

This case takes Commissioners Brand and Simmel to a fairground. Carl Coburg, a manufacturer of high-tech roller coasters, was bludgeoned to death with a hatchet on a ghost train. Strangely, he had 5,000 euros in cash on him, and Bruno Teilbach, the owner of the ghost train, had until recently worked as a mechanic at the victim’s company. Apart from traces of blood, there are no direct clues to the killer. But the fact that Teilbach’s son was killed in an accident while building one of Coburg’s roller coasters makes him a suspect. Another possible motive could have belonged to Coburg’s brother, Waldemar, who left the company 16 years ago because he considered its new, cheaper rides too dangerous. Veronika Herrenstett, the company’s designer, may also benefit from her boss’s death. Irregularities in the accounts point to this possibility, as does the fact that her boyfriend, Julian Römer, is a multimillion-euro investment fraudster who has already come to the attention of the fraud squad. If Coburg had discovered what was going on, that would be a motive that could not be dismissed. As Brand and Simmel follow up on all these leads, an unknown person sends a text message saying they know who Coburg’s killer is and lures the investigators to the ghost train at night. Veronika Herrenstett receives the same text, and the three unexpectedly run into one another. Brand learns that the money Herrenstett had invested supposedly did not come from Coburg’s company but from Julian Römer himself, on whose behalf she had invested the amount. She also has an alibi for the time of the murder and is therefore ruled out as a suspect. Instead, the fairground operator Raino Petkanen comes under scrutiny after Brand catches him sabotaging one of Coburg’s roller coasters. He is a close friend of Bruno Teilbach and feels loyal to him, but denies committing murder out of friendship. Since there is no further compelling evidence against him, he has to be released from pretrial detention, though he remains under surveillance. Teilbach is also kept under observation, making it possible to prevent a possible attack on Herrenstett. Teilbach is arrested and says he wanted to hide the hatchet at Coburg’s company after supposedly finding it behind his ghost train. When Brand presses him, he suddenly admits to having bludgeoned Coburg to death. But this is disproved during an on-site inspection: the killer would have had to be at least 20 centimeters shorter to draw back the hatchet for a powerful blow. Teilbach then admits that he saw his ex-wife Charlotte coming out of the ghost train and that she had thrown the hatchet away. Brand and Simmel seek her out, and it turns out that she did kill Coburg because she believed he was responsible for their child’s death. But Veronika Herrenstett had fed her details beforehand, intensifying her hatred. Brand then has the designer arrested as well, for incitement to murder.