Hubert ohne Staller - Season 10

Jessica Jablonski lies dead in her apartment. Apparently, the shopaholic woman died while opening a package. A detonator suggests that it was equipped with an explosive device.

According to the pathology report, Jablonski suffered from a heart defect and may have died of shock. The box contained an information flyer for a psychotherapy practice that treats shopping addiction. Therapist Nadine Stäble rejects any suspicion.

Since no cell phone was found in the victim's apartment, the investigators have it located. It soon becomes clear that neighbor Anja Strom stole the cell phone at the scene of the crime. Hubert and Girwidz follow her. Anja Strom confronts her boyfriend Stefan Zeindl, who apparently had a relationship with the victim. A clear motive. And Zeindl also comes under suspicion – after all, he is a pyrotechnician!

Thanks to Riedl, who is investigating a series of parcel thefts and tracking down the delivery driver, the trail soon leads to another neighbor of the victim. Late riser Frank Kreitmayr apparently felt compelled to accept parcels for Ms. Jablonski every day.
 

While jogging together, Christina stumbles upon the body of asset manager Peter Münch. How he died is initially unclear, as there is a strange wound on his neck. The question of where the victim was before his death is also not easy to answer.

While his widow Erika Münch believes he was at the community center attending a support group for overweight people, the "Festen Freunde" (Close Friends) – as the group is called – claim that Peter Münch had not attended their meetings for weeks. It also quickly becomes clear that the deceased had no real friends among the members and that there is generally a tense atmosphere within the group. When it emerges that the group's initiator, Frank Leibnitz, has also stolen money from the group's joint fund, the situation threatens to escalate completely.

Girwidz, however, is only half paying attention; he has completely different problems: in a few days, he has his MPU (medical-psychological assessment) and hopes to finally get his driver's license back. He hasn't told his colleagues yet – in the unlikely event that he fails, he doesn't want to embarrass himself. However, when he learns during the investigation at the community center that special courses are offered to prepare for the MPU, he panics and wonders if he is really well enough prepared. Because time is running out, Yazid is supposed to fix it with a crash course.

Meanwhile, Hubert and Christina discover that the deceased had incurred the wrath of some clients in his role as asset manager, most notably Frank Leibnitz from the "Festen Freunde" (Close Friends) ...

A cat shot dead in Wolfratshausen becomes Riedl's case after a brief assessment of the situation. Hubert and Girwidz have to take care of a priest who has been shot. But instead of being shocked, like Lothar Bienek, who is also present and has just buried his mother, or wondering why this has happened to him, the priest immediately names a suspect: the chairman of the shooting club, with whom he has been in a dispute for years.

Hubert and Girwidz investigate the accusations and actually find the murder weapon. The fact that it is the chairman's small-caliber rifle fuels the suspicion that he really was the shooter. The case seems to be solved until Dr. Fuchs throws a spanner in the works for the police. Her analysis has revealed that the bullet that killed the cat also came from the rifle.

The shooting club chairman is ruled out as the perpetrator and the investigation starts all over again. With Riedl's help, Hubert and Girwidz find a new lead, as there is one person who was at both crime scenes.
 

Far away from civilization, Riedl roams through the wilderness. He is on the trail of poachers who have been hunting cormorants for some time. Suddenly, a retriever shoots out of a conifer tree, carrying a shoe in its mouth. Riedel approaches the fir tree, pushes the branches aside, and discovers the body of a man with a bullet hole between his eyes.The investigators find nothing to indicate the man's identity. The only clue to the perpetrator is long, white hair in the branches of the fir tree. Since the area is heavily hunted, Girwidz thinks it could be a hunting accident. No one but a fish farmer would benefit from the death of a cormorant. That's where they should start.Shortly afterwards, it turns out that the dead man is a violist who played in a string quartet at a wedding the night before. It appears that he was shot on his way home. The three local fish farmers are summoned for questioning the next morning. A rough-looking fellow with his gray hair tied back in a ponytail immediately catches the investigators' eye. He vehemently denies the accusations.In the course of the investigation, it emerges that the deceased was having an affair with the only woman in the string quartet and that her boyfriend has a hunting license. But his alibi is watertight...

During their morning patrol, steam suddenly starts coming out of the patrol car's engine compartment. To avoid a piston seizure, Hubert and Girwidz head to Detlef Lechner's run-down dairy farm. But when Lechner sees them coming, he takes off, much to Girwidz's surprise.
Following the sound of knocking coming from a dilapidated shed, Hubert and Girwidz discover the reason for Lechner's hasty departure: Lisa Simlinger, the daughter of an influential fashion designer, is handcuffed to a chair. Lechner has apparently kidnapped the young girl and demanded a ransom of half a million euros. The victim's family has avoided involving the police.
When Hubert and Girwidz bring the girl home, they discover Lechner's crashed car on the way. For no apparent reason, Lechner seems to have veered off the road and crashed into a tree. However, Dr. Fuchs' autopsy reveals that Lechner was under the influence of strong medication, which he took regularly due to cancer.
Hubert is certain that Lechner must have had help with the kidnapping. Together with Girwidz, he investigates the kidnapping victim's circle of acquaintances and comes across Felix Geiger, a horse trainer. Geiger was in a relationship with the kidnapped Lisa before her domineering mother forced Felix to end the relationship.

Hubert and Girwidz find little Lina completely alone and unsupervised outside a kindergarten, whereupon Hubert gains access to the kindergarten. In the kindergarten director's office, he discovers the body of teacher Simone Hackl. Apparently, a burglar gained access and broke open the cash box.
Since the burglar must have been seen by kindergarten child Lina, Hubert suspects that the break-in was only staged to distract from another motive. The decision to hold an extraordinary parents' council meeting seems to prove him right, as the parents have demanded the immediate dismissal of the dead teacher.
Hubert and Girwidz grill the parents and find out that most of them did not agree with the victim's teaching methods. What's more, the chair of the parents' council, Michaela Schmidhofer, accuses the victim of assault. The victim is said to have given her "tasty" meatballs to her vegan daughter to eat.
Hubert and Girwidz ask themselves whether this unusual act of bodily harm is sufficient to commit murder. Despite their unconventional investigation methods, it is kindergarten child Lina who provides the decisive clue.

When Sabine Kaiser's car is towed away, she wants to get it back with Hubert's help. Unfortunately, they find the tow truck driver Tristan Kübler beaten to death in the parking lot. His wife Mara is Sabine's hairdresser. Devastated, she points to a colleague of the victim, Gabriel Haas, with whom Tristan is said to have spent the night.

He claims to have only given the victim an alibi. In reality, Tristan Kübler was having an affair and was with another woman: Jeannette Sievers turns out to be more than just the victim's mistress. The artist also has a possible murder weapon in her workshop: a decorative pineapple.

According to pathologist Fuchs, the victim was killed with a gold-painted object. However, it is also possible that Tristan Kübler did not notice the brain edema after the attack and continued working. This means that the widow is also a possible suspect. After all, she would have had a strong motive for jealousy if she knew about the affair.

To find out whether she may have left her salon, Riedl searches for the street musician who was standing in front of the salon in the morning – in vain. When they discover the identity of the witness, it turns out that he is homeless and was also recently towed away...