Seegrund. Ein Kluftingerkrimi (2013)

Chief Inspector Kluftinger goes on a Sunday outing with his family. But when they find a diver at Lake Alat who appears to be dead, the inspector feels duty-bound to work even on a Sunday. He sends his family home and begins securing the first clues. He then realizes that the diver is still alive and has “intruded” into the jurisdiction of the Füssen police. Inspector Friedel Marx soon arrives and insists on working on the case. To Kluftinger’s annoyance, the highly independent, chain-smoking woman virtually takes over the investigation. Initial examinations show that the injured diver has suffered a traumatic brain injury, presumably caused by a blow from another person. The first lead points to a group of divers who are scientifically studying the purple bacteria found in the lake on behalf of the University of Munich. It appears that the injured man had infiltrated the group under a false name. Norbert Schnalke, a self-proclaimed shaman, is camped close to the lake. He sees it as his duty to protect the lake and its cosmic energy. He tells Kluftinger about a treasure said to be hidden in the lake, but claims that only someone pure of heart can find it; the lake will kill anyone else. Kluftinger thinks it is all nonsense, but since he had involuntarily come into contact with the lake water, he does start to wonder a little. Kluftinger’s colleague Richard Maier researches old files and discovers that there was another mysterious diving accident years ago, one that was never properly solved. The brother of the man who died then claims that, at the end of the Second World War, the Nazis killed his brother because he was trying to get something out of the lake and into safety. After research divers find an old crowbar engraved with a swastika in the lake, Kluftinger suspects that the old man’s story is not made up. Richard Maier finds information online about an old project called Seegrund, in which the Nazis conducted secret weapons research. To find out more, Kluftinger and Marx contact Professor Johann Röck and learn that his son is the injured diver from Lake Alat. Meanwhile, the divers’ research camp is ransacked and their valuable diving robot is stolen. Kluftinger realizes that a group is behind this, including the injured diver, and that they are determined to retrieve something from the lake at any cost—something that can only be connected to the old Nazi stories. They put Professor Johann Röck and Pius Ackermann under surveillance, since the records show that both had taken part in the research project at the time. They see the two trying to take the haul from a group of divers who are using the stolen diving robot to bring boxes up from the lake. Kluftinger, Marx, and Maier intervene and finally discover what secret the sunken boxes hold. But when they are opened, all that remains inside is a mush of rotted paper. The shaman then sinks another box—which he had found in the lake some time earlier—back into the middle of the lake together with Kluftinger, so that the lake can keep its secret. In the coming days, Marx intends to establish that Pius Ackermann’s nephew was responsible for the attack on Christof Röck; her research has led her to believe that he is the culprit.