Zielfahnder - Blutiger Tango (2019)

Nine years ago, Gisela and Uwe Tezloff kidnapped industrialist Volker Hagenbach, who was released after a ransom was paid. The couple were indeed arrested and convicted at the time, but the ten million euros in ransom money have never been traced—and neither has the still-unknown third perpetrator. Now, after serving their sentences, the Tezloffs are free again and flee to South America under false names. The police believe the now-estranged couple finally intend to collect their share of the loot as payment for their silence, and see this as a chance to perhaps catch the unknown third perpetrator at last. LKA target-tracking officer Hanna Landauer and her new partner, Lars Röwer, try to pick up the couple’s trail in Montevideo, working on their own despite the advice of their South American colleagues. The only lead they have is Gisela Tezloff’s passion for tango. So Landauer and Röwer spend night after night making the rounds of the so-called milongas, Montevideo’s countless tango clubs, always hoping to spot Gisela Tezloff there. Landauer also shares investigative findings with her ex-boyfriend Rossmann, who arrested the Tezloffs at the time but is no longer with the police. Röwer believes that they will get nowhere if they stick strictly to the regulations during this overseas assignment, and tries to move the investigation forward in a more unconventional way. Eventually, the investigators do manage to track down Gisela Tezloff, only to lose her again shortly afterward. When they meet again, Gisela Tezloff asks Röwer, of all people, to dance tango and takes him to a short-stay hotel, where, to avoid blowing his cover, he uses cocaine and has sex with her. Röwer manages to install a tracking app on Tezloff’s smartphone. Shortly afterward, the woman is kidnapped by three people. Rossmann is involved in the operation as well. Gisela Tezloff is supposed to call her husband and tell him they want the ten million euros back. Rossmann openly threatens her with violence if no money is handed over. At first, Uwe Tezloff thinks his wife is making it all up to get the money. Then, however, a box is left at his door containing Gisela Tezloff’s severed finger. Tezloff then seeks out his partner and demands that he hand over the ten million euros. Both the third perpetrator, a boxing promoter, and Tezloff are arrested. Tezloff tells the investigators about the extortion and the severed finger. Only now, very late, do they realize that they have been under surveillance and have therefore helped the copycats get onto the Tezloffs’ trail. To avoid endangering Gisela Tezloff’s life, the money handover is to go ahead. At the scene, Rossmann demands that Landauer hand over the money. He has arrived by helicopter. Gisela Tezloff is released after the money is handed over. The helicopter takes off, and shortly afterward Landauer and Röwer watch in horror as Rossmann is thrown from the aircraft over the water. When he is recovered, the knife with which he was stabbed in the back is still lodged in his chest.