Zeit zu beten. Ein Krimi aus Passau (2024)

Frederike Bader, a former police officer from Berlin who now lives in Passau under witness protection, wants to help her former witness protection officer, Jochen Mohn, with a personal matter. Mohn has since been promoted to head of the Passau Criminal Investigation Department. She enlists the help of Austrian private detective Ferdinand Zankl. Mohn suspects that lawyer Jürgen Ritter, the new partner of his ex-wife Monique, is acting as a henchman for organized money launderers. Ritter has worked exclusively for a Swiss investment company for two years, but nothing has been proven against the company that could be used in court. Ritter lives under the same roof as both Jochen Mohn’s ex-wife and Mohn’s eight-year-old son, Mamadou. Mohn cannot officially investigate Ritter, so Bader and Zankl make inquiries on his behalf. Bader follows Ritter to a fasting seminar at a monastery, where he is taking a break, and he dies right beside Frederike during a meditation session. Elisabeth Kruger, who was also watching Ritter, is among the seminar participants. According to the autopsy report, Ritter died of sudden cardiac death. During the seminar, Richard Hummel, who is connected to Kruger, searches Ritter’s house and knocks Jochen Mohn unconscious when he returns with his son. Hummel takes Mamadou hostage. Before his death, Ritter had left a letter with Ali Sahamir, the owner of a shoe workshop, to be sent to the authorities in the event of his death. Hummel demands the letter from Mohn as ransom for his son, but insists that Mohn must not open it or attach a tracker to it. Zankl pays a visit to department head Dr. Dirnbacher at the district administration office. Until two months ago, Dirnbacher, like his boss, the regional councillor, had opposed a project by the investment company to build a beauty clinic by a lake in Lower Bavaria. Zankl wonders why Dirnbacher suddenly changed his mind about the project, especially since the clinic’s sister company in Thuringia is under investigation for money laundering, and how Dirnbacher can afford an expensive private construction project. Zankl also discovers that Ritter regularly commissioned expensive shoes from Ali Sahamir’s shoe workshop. All of the data storage devices, computers, a laptop, and a mobile phone have been stolen from Ritter’s apartment and monastery cell. After Frederike tails Jochen Mohn and he causes a car accident, he tells her about his son’s kidnapping. Mohn plans to hand over Ritter’s letter, which he has now received, to Hummel as demanded. He goes to a chapel in the woods and leaves the letter there for Hummel, along with a USB stick. Mohn then receives information about his son’s whereabouts. Soon afterward, he is able to take Mamadou back into his arms, and Mohn and his ex-wife grow closer again. In the sole of the blue-and-red suede shoes Sahamir made for Ritter, Zankl finds a 2-terabyte memory card. Among other things, it contains instructions on how to locate Ritter’s stolen devices if necessary. Using this, he tracks down Ritter’s computer and leads Frederike to Hummel’s caravan, which is parked in the woods. After Hummel shoots Bader, Zankl shoots Hummel, injuring him in the carotid artery. Kruger later shoots the severely wounded Hummel. The memory card also contains a list of all the politicians who were bribed, as well as lists of Swiss numbered accounts and shell companies and subcontractors that employed undeclared workers. Ritter had brought more than 25 million in illicit funds from Switzerland, taking a three-percent commission for himself. In a subplot, Mrs. Hertel, Mia, and Franz take a trip to Altötting to visit the Chapel of Grace and its Black Madonna.