Marie Brand und die Nacht der Vergeltung (2009)

Marie Brand, a detective with Cologne’s homicide squad, is called to a crime scene where three bodies have been found. The apparent explanation is that Edwin Seibt, the managing director of a baby-products company, was shot along with his lover, Anuschka Schmidt, by his jealous wife, Carola Seibt, who then killed herself. To Simmel, it is the classic motive: love, revenge, jealousy—and therefore an extended suicide. As in the past, Marie has her doubts about this case too. She finds several clues suggesting that events may have unfolded differently and that the case has not yet been solved. She begins investigating with her colleague Jürgen Simmel and questions the Seibts’ adult children. Marie soon suspects that Carola Seibt was already dead when her husband and his lover were shot. Antonia and her husband seem little concerned, while the Seibts’ son, Hanno, openly tells the investigators that he resents his father. Marie and Simmel manage to track down Martin Bremer, a detective who had been following Edwin Seibt on his wife’s orders. But when Marie goes to see him, he too is lying dead on the floor, shot. This strengthens the suspicion that Edwin Seibt and his lover were murdered by someone else. Noting the unusually large number of photos of Anuschka Schmidt taken by the detective’s son, the investigators conclude that he had fallen in love with her. Whether jealousy led him to become a murderer himself, however, is uncertain. Brand and Simmel first investigate the Seibts’ company. According to the information available, the company was due to be sold, which would have cost their son-in-law his job. Simmel therefore keeps Steffen Probst under surveillance. He sees Probst meet with the detective’s son. Simmel arrests Tom Bremer, and Probst says that Tom had blackmailed him. During questioning, Tom Bremer denies having blackmailed anyone. He says he took the photos on his father’s behalf, but did not kill anyone. Marie Brand believes the answer lies with the heirs. They are not very cooperative, so Brand and Simmel have to resort to a few tricks. They manage to speak with Fatima, the housekeeper. She tells them that shortly before taking her own life, Carola Seibt wrote a farewell letter in which she forgave her husband and let him go. Even so, they cannot get any further with the Seibts, who shut themselves off and communicate only through their lawyer. However, they manage to obtain a CD containing the files of the last photos Tom Bremer took on the evening of the murders. The images clearly show that Carola Seibt shot herself and that Hanno Seibt entered the room shortly afterward. He takes the pistol and shoots his father and his father’s girlfriend as they enter the apartment. Hanno Seibt is arrested, as is his sister, who admits to shooting the detective in order to get the photos that incriminated her beloved brother.