Tod einer Brieftaube (2012)

Private detective Finn Zehender has retreated to the small village of Aschberg, where, during an earlier case (Mörderisches Wespennest), he won a farm from the estate of a murder victim in a memory contest. Unfortunately, the farm also comes with debts of €150,000. The forced auction is due to take place within 72 hours. He needs money. Instead, former police officer Mühlfellner, who suffers from amnesia, turns up and wants to prove to Zehender that his gun isn’t loaded. He fires into the air and kills a homing pigeon. The pigeon was carrying a message from a kidnap victim, Lars Döbbelin. And just like that, Zehender has a case. Lars’s father, millionaire Jürgen Döbbelin, is supposed to pay the kidnappers three million euros. Zehender offers the father a deal: for a fee of 7.5% of the ransom, he will get it back from the kidnappers—a task which, he says, would not be a priority for the LKA, which is involved in the handover. That would save his farm. But complications arise during the subsequent cash handover. Mühlfellner, whom Zehender has drawn into the case, is captured, and the ransom demand is increased. For the next handover, the LKA has to come up with the additional million euros demanded, since the victim’s father cannot raise the money. When the bank branch tasked with paying it out has no knowledge of this, Zehender demands the sum at gunpoint, and chaos ensues.