Heiter bis tödlich – Hubert und Staller

All Hubert and Staller want is to catch an escaped parrot, but soon they discover that the bird's owner, food wholesaler Anton Bayer, has passed away. It seems that Anton Bayer caught a burglar and was beaten to death as a result. Reimund Girwidz just moved from Dortmund to the apparently not so peaceful and idyllic alpine foothills, and is anything but pleased to be confronted with a murder on his first day in office. For him, this case is a first litmus test and he wants to look good, especially to local reporter Barbara Hansen. But he soon finds that things are a bit different in the countryside and that, with Hubert and Staller, he has two rather unusual investigators on his team. While the police councilor has to deal with fake badges on his uniform and his rebellious daughter, there is growing evidence in the Bayer murder case that the break-in was just a diversion and that Anton Bayer was killed deliberately. Neighbor Robert Kunze, with whom Bayer had been at odds for years, seems just as suspicious as Manuela Bayer, the widowed wife of the murdered man, to whom he left a considerable fortune. And then there is Martin Bayer, the Bayers' unemployed son, who has a criminal record, is in a bad dispute with his father and, unlike his mother, has no alibi.

Bringing two drunk and rowdy youths to order at the S-Bahn station sounds like a routine job for Hubert and Staller. But when one of the hooligans can't keep his stomach contents down and Staller has to go to the public toilet to clean his uniform, he suddenly finds himself standing in a pool of blood. Murder victim Markus Botzek is still tied up and countless knife wounds suggest that the perpetrator wanted to see his victim suffer. The fact that the dead man has just served an eight-year sentence for rape and has the words "Never again!" emblazoned on his forehead leads Hubert and Staller to suspect that someone deemed the sentence too lenient and took the law into his own hands! While police master Riedl diligently evaluates the numerous surveillance videos from the train station, Hubert and Staller deliver the death message to the victim's father Robert Botzek, with whom the son had been living after his return. Hubert and Staller cannot escape the fact that the father already seemed to know about the son's death, but they blame it on local reporter Barbara Hansen, who is not usually very discreet with confidential information. Markus Botzek's ex-wife Sandra is far more shocked by the death than his father. She has a new boyfriend by now and has barely any contact with Markus but still lives next door to his father. The somewhat unclear family relations in the Botzek house, however, seem negligible when Hubert and Staller look at their colleague Riedl's video evaluations: one of the tapes clearly shows that a certain Hermann Killer was at the station at the time of the crime. And Hermann Killer not only has a promising name, he is also the father of one of the rape victims.

Contract killings in a retirement home – a rarity, according to Staller. But pensioner Hannelore Kramer firmly maintains that someone is trying to kill her there. When her neighbor passes away, Hannelore is absolutely certain that she has fallen victim to an assassination attempt that was actually meant for her. Hubert and Staller handle the matter as a pro forma case, so Staller carries out the toxicological test of allegedly poisoned orange juice by tasting it. This puts him straight on the "tray" of pathologist Dr. Anja Licht. Stalleronly escapes with his life because he took only a small sip of the poisoned juice. However, one thing is certain now: someone really wants Hannelore Kramer dead! While police commissioner Girwidz cautions his men to proceed with the utmost discretion among the senior citizens, local reporter Barbara Hansen makes an extremely interesting discovery about the past of Hannelore Kramer's caretaker Boris... The possible culprits are a spurned lover from the old people's home, and Hannelore's stepbrother Jürgen Rollmann, who is currently facing considerable housing renovation costs. After all, Hannelore Kramer has 60,000 euros in her account, which would become his inheritance. And even the seemingly caring son Lorenz Kramer is not unsuspicious – after all, he put his mother's deadly juice in the fridge, and his wife Karoline has a particularly frosty relationship with her mother-in-law. But before Hubert and Staller can take a closer look at the family ties, the poisoner strikes a second time. This time it fatally affects the old Mrs. Kramer, and very nearly kills her stepbrother as well.

Helping a likeable young woman who has slid into a ditch with her tractor is a matter of honor for Hubert and Staller. The two also help in the search for her dog, who has run away in fright. When Staller tries to get the intimidated animal out of the ditch, the dog bites his hand to defend his find, a woollen blanket. During the scuffle, a woman's body emerges from under the blanket. The tractor driver, Franzi Hartmann, is shocked: the corpse is her best friend Marlene Otter. Marlene is the reigning Miss Upper Bavaria and the daughter of the well-known plastic surgeon Dr. Pavel Otter. The two investigators discover that they do not belong in the world of the rich and beautiful as soon as they meet Dr. Pavel Otter. Otter coolly rebuffs the two, and his strange behavior gives rise to speculation. Hubert and Staller find out that Marlene Otter was not only the visual figurehead of the beauty clinic, but also suffered from her father's high expectations ever since childhood. To escape the pressure, she often stayed with her best friend Franzi Hartmann. With her ambitious and career-oriented fiancé Marcel Mühlbauer, she rarely found the support she was hoping for. Hubert and Staller soon discover that the ugliest things can happen in the service of beauty. Meanwhile, Hubert is annoyed because Staller's bite injury has upset the established distribution of roles. He now has to get behind the wheel again after all this time.

A complaint from guests of the nearby Waldesruh Hotel leads Hubert and Staller to the estate of farmer Wildmoser. The cause of the complaint is the allegedly too loud squealing of the pigs. Staller tries to get to the bottom of the matter with a sound level meter when suddenly something crashes through the barn roof with a deafening bang. The witnesses fear a meteorite impact, but on closer inspection they discover that a man has fallen through the roof. The victim is Markus Hartlinger, who is not only the owner of the Waldesruh Hotel, but also the chairman of the "Friends of King Ludwig's Association" and an enthusiastic balloonist. The latter seems to have been his undoing, but Hubert and Staller are not yet able to say whether it was an accident, suicide or indeed murder, especially as there is initially no trace of a balloon. During their investigations, however, the two not only learn that Hartlinger's hotel was struggling financially, but also that the relationship between the deceased and his fiancée Martina Christ was not quite as rosy as Thomas Brenner, the deceased's club mate and financial advisor, initially portrayed it. When the hot air balloon is finally found thanks to some clues provided by tourists, Hubert and Staller are finally able to reconstruct Markus Hartlinger's last flight. Meanwhile, local reporter Barbara Hansen is writing an article about the machinations of a real estate mafia that is trying to buy up all the hotels in the area on the cheap. Station chief Girwidz fears that organized crime has now made Bavaria's provinces its target. And it seems that Thomas Brenner, of all people, has contacts to the real estate mafia circles ...

During a routine patrol, Hubert and Staller discover a dead body on the shore of Lake Starnberg. According to the autopsy results, 31-year-old Sabine Pfeifer drowned two days ago. Bruises and a cut indicate that the young woman either fell or was forcefully pushed into the water. In the victim's apartment, the police find an invitation to a wedding reception on the MS Starnberg, also from two days ago. Hubert and Staller pay a visit to the bride and groom. The bride, Eva Kern, is shocked, and the men learn from her that the victim was not only a good friend, but should also have been her maid of honor. Sabine Pfeifer's disappearance that evening, however, allegedly went by just as unnoticed by Eva Kern as it did by Captain Walther Thiel, whom Hubert and Staller pay a visit to on his ship. The ship's waiter, Robert Sachs, is also unable to provide any clues, but he somehow looks familiar to the two investigators. Meanwhile, the bride's wealthy and influential father, Günter Kern, urges Girwidz not to spoil the most beautiful day of his daughter's life by questioning her unnecessarily, especially since it could still be an accident. This is further substantiated by the fact that, according to pathological examinations, the victim was heavily intoxicated. This result is confirmed by Markus Ziegler, the future groom, who – like everyone else – claims not to have noticed the young woman's disappearance. However, Hubert and Staller learn from one of the victim's colleagues that Markus Ziegler had an affair with the drowned woman not long ago...