Schmidt & Schwarz (2012)

Chief Inspector Paul Schmidt, who headed the homicide squad for many years, quit the force early when smoking was no longer allowed in the squad’s offices. Schmidt is a macho and very much his own man, but he was also admired by all his colleagues. His successor, Carolin Schwarz, has a tough act to follow. During Schmidt’s time in office, the murder of little Maja Homann went unsolved. Now a convicted pedophile has been found dead, and Maja’s mother is suspected of the crime and has been arrested. The press calls them the “Rose Murders” because, as in an earlier case, a red rose was placed on the man’s chest. Schwarz, however, does not believe Bruni Homann is the killer. To her surprise, Schmidt himself offers to help. Schwarz can’t stand Paul Schmidt from the outset, since in her eyes he positively oozes self-satisfaction. On the other hand, just like her, he is convinced that Bruni Homann is not carrying out revenge killings of child molesters. Together, they also manage to prove that Bruni has an alibi for the time of the crime: Lorenzo Baldini, an Italian, says he spent the whole night with Bruni in a pub. Then Schwarz receives a call from Bruni Homann. She is in the apartment of her neighbor, with whom she was friends. He is lying dead on his bed. A rose lies on his chest. Shortly beforehand, Bruni Homann had listened to her answering machine, on which her neighbor Günther Breuer confessed that he was responsible for her child’s death. It also turns out that the Italian had been hired by Bruni’s skat-playing friends to provide her with an alibi. But then the tables turn when a USB stick is found, revealing new facts. In the recording, Günther Breuer, who also took his own life, confesses that he committed the first two Rose Murders. Breuer had brought little Maja to the two men he later killed. The men abused the child and then killed her. At the final press conference, Schwarz gives special thanks to Paul Schmidt, whose instinct, intuition, persistence, and tenacity led her to this success.