Mord in Ludwigslust (2012)

In Ludwigslust, Mecklenburg, a woman’s body is found near the castle. The victim is Lulu, the wife of the region’s most prominent construction contractor, Udo Schuster. He had been expecting her at an important business dinner the previous evening. When she failed to show up, he flew into a rage and wrecked the furnishings in his villa. The police detain him temporarily. Sophia Eichstätt, an analyst with the Kiel State Criminal Police Office (LKA), is currently working on a computer program that compares murder cases across Germany for similarities. She links the Ludwigslust case to a previously unsolved series of murders in which the victims, like Lulu, were strangled and then laid out by the killer in artistic poses. When Eichstätt arrives at the scene, she meets Mark Condor, the LKA Schwerin detective in charge of the case. Two years earlier, she had an affair with him that nearly destroyed her marriage. Condor had also been having an affair with the murder victim. The evening before Lulu died, he had slept with her. When the police find traces of semen on Lulu’s body, Condor comes under suspicion. Challenged by Eichstätt, he tells her that he had been friends with Lulu, Udo, and photographer Ben Martin shortly after German reunification. Eichstätt and Condor then visit Ben Martin at his photography studio, where Eichstätt notices Ben’s fondness for macabre photographs. They subsequently question Udo at his villa. There, the two investigators also meet Udo’s sister Rebecca, a doctor. Rebecca once saved Lulu’s life after a suicide attempt. When she learned that Lulu’s father was the Russian officer Wladimir Lukin, who had raped Lulu’s now-deceased mother, Rebecca decided to look after Lulu. Meanwhile, Lulu’s car is found. On her mobile phone’s voicemail, the officers discover messages from Udo and Rebecca that arrived shortly before Lulu’s death. They suspect that Lulu knew her killer and had therefore stopped her car on a country road at night. Chief Inspector Hilmar Hopf tells Eichstätt that Udo Schuster built up his construction company with help from the Treuhand and by acquiring Russian military barracks, and that he is now also doing business in natural gas. While Udo and Rebecca meet that evening with Kostja Lukin, Lulu’s grandfather and Udo’s most important business partner, Eichstätt discovers that Ben is trying to blackmail Condor with photographs showing Condor and Lulu having sex. Since Condor cannot provide an alibi for the night of the murder, he is eventually arrested. Eichstätt then returns to Kiel to attend her daughter’s school play. During the performance, she has an idea and drives back to Ludwigslust. Meanwhile, Rebecca goes to Ben’s studio and accuses him of blackmailing Lulu with photographs. Shortly afterward, Udo, Lukin, and Lukin’s bodyguard also arrive at the studio. While Rebecca deletes the photographs from Ben’s computer, Udo attacks Ben and accuses him of murdering his wife. The police arrive in time to prevent things from getting worse. During the subsequent interrogation, Ben says that Lulu and two other murdered women had known one another, and that he had photographed them together in erotic poses. He says that once, while he, Lulu, Condor, and Udo were spending a boozy evening together in a gravel pit, a car veered off the road and plunged into the pit. The drunk driver, a Russian officer, was Lulu’s father, and Lulu then used a cigarette to make the crashed car explode. Her grandfather Lukin, however, forgave her for killing his son and, after her marriage to Udo, helped build Udo’s business empire. Eichstätt drives to Udo Schuster’s villa, where Rebecca opens the door. While Eichstätt questions Rebecca, her colleagues establish that Rebecca’s last mobile-phone message to Lulu had been transmitted through just one cell tower. Rebecca tells Eichstätt that Lulu always took whatever she wanted, whether it was a man or a woman. Both Udo and Rebecca herself had suffered because of it, and she is glad it is finally over. When Rebecca mentions one of Lulu’s female friends to Eichstätt, Eichstätt goes into another room to make a phone call. She sees a scarf on a table, which Rebecca then picks up. Rebecca had once given it to Lulu. Eichstätt realizes that she is standing face to face with Lulu’s killer. She tries to escape, but Rebecca has locked all the doors. Rebecca tries to strangle Eichstätt with the scarf. At the last moment, Eichstätt grabs a high-heeled shoe and drives its heel into Rebecca’s face. When Condor and Hilmar Hopf break down the door, Rebecca is lying dead in front of Eichstätt, who is gasping for air. Eichstätt then has Condor drive her home.