WaPo Bodensee - Season 8

Well-known businesswoman Viktoria Fildermann doesn't seem particularly distraught as she reports her husband's disappearance without a trace to the WaPo. Jakob, in particular, can't believe the brazenness with which this influential woman repeatedly leads the investigators on a wild goose chase. She is supported in this by her assistant, Klara Bogner, and her lawyer, Dr. Sven Leitmeyer. Viktoria Fildermann makes no secret of her contempt for her stepson, Maxim.

Jakob loses his temper. It's clear to him that Klara sacrificed herself for her boss to protect Viktoria Fildermann. He promises Klara's mother, Theresa Bogner, that he'll find the real culprit and lets himself get carried away into making an emotional outburst to the businesswoman. This has dire consequences for Jakob. But they pale in comparison to the bad news that's now coming in. A suicide in prison, a murder at Fildermann's villa, and Maxim Gönder and his girlfriend Thessa on the run toward Switzerland in a stolen boat—until they run out of gas and are cornered by the WaPo.

The undertakers are quite taken aback. In the middle of Lake Constance, they're ambushed while transporting the body of convict Charlie Maurer. The kidnappers make off with the coffin and its contents. Jakob and Paul are at a loss when, a short time later, they find the boat with the coffin but no body. It's the same question Nele and Julia are asking themselves: Who would kidnap a dead convict who had no social connections or relatives?

During their morning patrol, the WaPo receives a distress call: There's a body at the beach with an arrow stuck in its chest. The deceased is Jan Kastner, who had been spearfishing secretly along the shore with his friend Tobias Lehner. It quickly becomes clear that the fatal shot was not fired from Lehner's speargun. But Nele and Julia can't believe their eyes when they run into Kastner's wife, Lara, at her home. Lara Kastner is extremely tense and refuses to let the police officers into the house.

Instead of the trash she expected to find on the lake bottom, Julia brings up a body during a dive—one that had been weighted down with a stone. Based on his coat of arms, the deceased is identified as Torsten Engelhard. When Nele breaks the news of her husband's death to his widow, Patrizia Engelhard, she is already dressed in black. In fact, her husband had already been buried eight days earlier. The police open the grave. The coffin is empty. Who would steal a dead body from its grave to sink it in Lake Constance?

Paul Schott is injured during a robbery at a gas station by the lake when he encounters Pia Giroud, who is on the run. She takes advantage of a hospital stay to escape from prison, where she was serving time for stealing medication. A possible accomplice remains unknown. While reviewing the surveillance footage, Pia manages to escape again, which weighs heavily on Paul.

Screams alert Nele and Julia aboard the "Bodan" just as they are passing the Prehistoric Museum in Bodman. Line Felber is distraught. The daughter of museum director Manfred Felber has just found security guard Tom Geissler—dead under a heavy stone slab whose securing straps had been deliberately cut, as Nele quickly realizes.

The robbery at the yacht club goes awry. While one of the perpetrators flees in a car, the other, having been shot, limps through the woods toward the dock. On the getaway boat, the "Novalis," Paul's wife Christina—of all people—is waiting for her new boyfriend, Professor Tritan Langguth. Dennis Breitner takes her hostage. Paul is shocked; he wants to act immediately to free her and suspects Christina's new boyfriend, who, however, vehemently protests his innocence. Fortunately, Nele keeps a clear head and, with Julia's and Jakob's help, tracks down Kalle März, Breitner's possible accomplice. He, however, insists adamantly that he had nothing to do with the robbery. An attempt to contact the fugitive robber through Franziska Weill—Dennis's ex and the mother of his daughter Matilda—also fails at first. Breitner has even switched escape boats with Christina. The police are in the dark. Then Max discovers a secret message from Christina on the "Novalis." A race against time begins. Breitner is known to be violent and intends to make his escape. Then, unexpectedly, a new lead emerges that no one could have anticipated.

After a tryst at a hotel in Konstanz, Walter Tesker drives his car at high speed into the lake without braking. The WaPo manages to rescue him at the last second. While Tesker is placed in an induced coma at the hospital, the WaPo discovers that the car's software had been tampered with. The accident turns out to be an assassination attempt. Through a receipt from a lingerie boutique, Jakob tracks down the woman from the hotel: Sandra Murau claims that she had been having an affair with Tesker for two months and now wants to save her marriage to her husband, Michael. The case takes a new turn when Nele receives a visit from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which informs her that Tesker was a former Polish spy who betrayed several colleagues after the fall of the Berlin Wall and had been living in Switzerland with the Office's knowledge. The case is none of the WaPo's business. But to Paul's great relief, Nele has no intention of handing the investigation over to anyone else. She tracks down Oleg Gorski, a former colleague of Tesker's, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment on Lake Constance. Nika Murau surprises her parents with the news that she's dropping out of college.

When even the newspapers start reporting on the "Phantom of Lake Constance" on their front pages, District Attorney Dr. Severin loses his temper. He storms into Nele's office and accuses her of not having her department under control. Meanwhile, the WaPo is even working night shifts to track down the person who has now broken into and robbed nine yachts along Lake Constance. Each time, the perpetrator left no traces and wasn't caught on camera. Then a sailor, Max Gerber, comes forward, saying he saw the Phantom in the semi-darkness before he was incapacitated.

A boat drifting aimlessly holds a nasty surprise for Julia and Paul during their patrol across the lake. There is a dead body on board. Investigators suspect suicide after finding a gun next to the body of Michael Schwab. That is the name on the papers found with the body, and it is also the name of the man whom Nora Fornoni reports missing to Nele at the police station almost at the same time. When Jakob later tries to get more detailed information from Nora, who works as a waitress at a beach bar, he finds her locked up and being threatened by her boss, Oliver Baier.

The picnic by the lake with the beautiful tour guide Alina Poll ends fatally for Max Rogall. The real estate agent collapses, bleeding, in front of beachgoers. Nele and her team are in the dark. After all, Rogall was rich, had no enemies, and his wallet is full. Paul finds the victim's car and, in the GPS, a lead pointing to David Petrov. The businessman seems genuinely distraught over Rogall's death and, moreover, has an alibi from his assistant, Mascha. Rogall died from a fatal blow to the heart. Was it a defensive strike by Alina Poll, who felt threatened by the man who might be her father?