Penalty time: a case for Hubertus Hummel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
novel
title Penalty time: a case for Hubertus Hummel (Ice Age)
country Germany
author Alexander Rieckhoff , Stefan Ummenhofer
publishing company
  • Verlag Mory's Hofbuchhandlung (first edition 2000)
  • Piper Verlag (completely revised and expanded paperback edition)
First publication 2000

Penalty: A case for Hubertus Hummel is the title of the first volume of the so-called Black Forest crime novels, which were written by Alexander Rieckhoff and Stefan Ummenhofer . Under the name Eiszeit , the volume was first published in 2000 by Mory's Hofbuchhandlung before it was published in 2011 as a completely revised and expanded paperback edition under the name Strafzeit: Ein Fall für Hubertus Hummel . In 2011 this new edition was published by Piper Verlag .

action

Hubertus Hummel, a high school teacher from Villingen-Schwenningen , complains about the Friday morning when many things happened that did not make him happy. He also criticizes his students' lack of interest in politics and he is considering giving his advanced course a surprise test. Hummel is also thinking about the coming evening when his favorite ice hockey club, the Schwenninger Wild Wings , will compete against their rival from Ravensburg . On the way to class, Hummel meets his colleague Mielke in the corridor, and the two talk briefly - Hummel with secret contempt. In the evening, Hummel gets ready for the ice hockey game. His friend Klaus Riesle picks him up and together they drive to the stadium while they are looking forward to the grand finale.

The game is in full swing and it looks very promising. The puck slid back and forth rapidly and Schwenningen finally won two to one. After Klaus and Hubertus hug each other for joy, Hubertus notices many paramedics on the opposite grandstand. Klaus, who is a journalist by profession, wants to take a closer look, and so the friends get closer to the action. It appears that someone was shot dead in the final minutes of the game. While Klaus inquires further, Hummel recognizes the body. It is his teacher colleague Mielke.

After the horror, Hummel and Riesle go to their regular bar to celebrate the victory against their rivals and to suppress the horror of Mielke's murder. In the pub, the friends meet their friend Edelbert Burgbacher. He tells everything he knows about Mielke. It turns out that Mielke had a very interesting private life. On the one hand, he is said to have been a player in a Konstanz casino. Hubertus then decides to solve the Mielke case and asks his friend Riesle for help.

Claudia Mielke, the victim's wife, is preparing for a meeting. Their marriage hasn't been going so well for a long time and that's why she got involved in an affair. The meeting goes very well, but when the police rings the doorbell, the lover is quickly and fleetingly said goodbye. The police officers tell Claudia that her husband was shot while playing ice hockey and interrogate the fresh widow. They search the apartment a little and they notice the red roses that the lover had given Claudia.

The next morning, Hummel goes to the Villingen weekly market, which takes place on the Münsterplatz, directly under the large Villinger Münster . The murder of his colleague is still on his mind and this is the number one topic of conversation in the market. At the stand of his regular greengrocer, Hummel meets his wife Elke and her partner Guntram Bröse. Hummel despises Bröse and mentally calls him the pseudo star lawyer from Villingen. Hubertus also meets his teacher colleague Ziegler, who sat next to Mielke while playing ice hockey. The two men talk a little about the incident and what Mielke's private life was like. It becomes clear that Mielke had a relationship with Mrs. Willy, the wife of the Wild Wings player Kirk Willy.

Klaus and Hubertus set off for Constance in the evening . In front of the casino, where they are hoping to get more information about Mielke, a few members of the “Blue Heroes” biker gang hang around. The friends enter the casino and immediately jump into the game. At a gaming table the two meet a Bosnian who apparently knows about Mielke. The two hobby detectives find out that Mielke had appeared at the casino every Saturday evening, accompanied by two Thai women. The friends make their way to the bar to interrogate the two women. After some back and forth, they find out the name of a potential new suspect.

The next morning Hubertus Hummel is getting ready for a meal with his parents. After the morning shave, Hubertus goes to Martina's room to wake up his daughter for the appointment. To his horror, his daughter is not alone in bed. A young man is with her. After Hummel threw the boy out of the apartment, he shooed Martina into the bathroom to get ready for the family reunion. A little later, the two Hummels are on their way to see their grandparents. There Hubertus receives a call from Klaus. He tells his friend that he has organized three tickets for the ice hockey game in Ravensburg at noon. He says that he has already been to Hummel's colleague Ziegler to hear him out a little more.

Claudia Müller is at the police headquarters. She is eagerly awaited by Chief Inspector Müller. After the two were supplied with drinks by Müller's secretary, Müller begins the interrogation. This is briefly interrupted by Winterhalter, who also sits down. It becomes clear that Müller would like to get a confession from Ms. Mielke. Müller lists all known facts before he aggressively accuses Ms. Mielke of killing her husband. Claudia Mielke denies this and requests her lawyer before Müller and Winterhalter say goodbye to the widow.

The apparent final of the Schwenninger Wild Wings against the Tower Stars from Ravensburg should take place on Sunday afternoon. Hubertus and Klaus make their way to Ravensburg together, while Klaus is cruising down the autobahn again. Arrived in Ravensburg, the friends drive to the ice rink, where Riesle briefly jumps out of the car to pick up the tickets for the evening game. Then they drive to downtown Ravensburg to get some information about a potential witness in the Mielke murder case. In the evening, the friends find each other in the ice rink. There they meet the chief inspectors Müller and Winterhalter shortly before the start of the game. They interrogate the two hobby detectives about their investigations and demand that they stay out of the murder investigation in future and rather leave it to the police. Through this interrogation, Hummel and Riesle miss the first third of the game, which apparently doesn't go that well. The remaining thirds are also not going as the Schwenningen fans would like. The game ends with a victory for Ravensburger. Since it became clear that Mielke had a relationship with Kirk Willy's wife, the SERC player could also have a motive for the murder, which is why the police officers Müller and Winterhalter go to the players' dressing room to interrogate Willy.

The next morning the school where Hummel works holds a small memorial service in honor of his dead colleague Mielke. Nobody seems to be focused and the whole murderous thing still haunts the minds of the teachers and students. At lunchtime Riesle picks up his friend from work and the two of them make their way to Schwenningen again. Klaus lets Hubertus get off in front of Willy's house. Hubertus should tell Helen Willy something about the possible affair with Mielke. But when the young woman Willy calls her boxer dog, Hummel quickly picks up his legs and runs away. The duo of friends then drives to the ice rink to talk to the player Kirk Willy about his wife's affair. After Hummel and Riesle have been chased away by this too, Klaus calls the manager of the Wild Wings, an old friend. There are no new indications from this either.

The mood of the teachers and students in school did not look any better the next day either. Klaus and Hubertus had arranged to meet for the evening. They wanted to look for answers in Mielke's regular brothel. After work, Hubertus meets up with his friend Burgbacher to borrow a mustache from his stock of costumes. In the evening Riesle and Hummel go to the brothel in question, Hummel disguised in a rather funny way. There they talk a little with the owner about Mielke. Apart from the fact that Mielke was a regular customer, the hobby detectives don't get much more out.

Chief Detective Winterhalter goes alone and interrogates the biker gang “Blue Heroes” from Konstanz to Mielke. At first the police officer is ridiculed and called a joker, but then he gets the longed-for questioning.

Hummel and Riesle are located in the bistro, their favorite bar. Over a couple of beers, the friends talk about the results of the case so far, and also about whether they should talk to Kirk Willy and his wife again. In addition, the hobby detectives arrange to meet the next day to interview the widow Claudia Mielke. On the way back to Klaus' car, the friends find an unconscious man on the Brigach , which runs through Villingen-Schwenningen. Hubertus gives the man first aid while Klaus calls the ambulance service. To everyone's surprise, one of the paramedics is this young man who recently shared the bed with Martina, Hummel's daughter. After the injured person has been taken care of by the rescue workers, Klaus and Hubertus are asked about the course of events, about which the two, however, know nothing.

The next day, Hummel and Riesle find out quite a bit about the injured man from the previous day. His name is Gerber and he is lying in a privately insured room on the ward. However, the friends do not meet the hospital patient there. They find out that he has been brought back to the intensive care unit and go to the same. Here, too, Klaus has contacts again. A sister, Klaus' ex-girlfriend, lets the hobby detectives into the ward, where they meet Gerber's wife. It turns out that said wife is none other than Claudia Mielke. Hubertus and Klaus follow Ms. Mielke to the elevator before the widow says goodbye to them. The friends then pay a little visit to the victim's gym, which is run by Gerber. There they meet Elke Hummel, who gives the friends some information about Gerber. With a casino token that Klaus and Hubertus found in Mr. Gerber's belongings, the friends arrange to meet again for a casino evening in Constance, where they hope to get more information about Gerber.

While Chief Inspector Müller is back to track down Claudia Mielke, Winterhalter is doing his own research instead. He searches the Internet for similar cases in connection between the rocker gangs Blue Heroes and the rival Silver Bulls . Finally he finds it. In a North German article there is a shootout between the two gangs. The result had been countless murder victims. Winterhalter then called the colleague from Kiel mentioned in the article, who gave him information on this case.

In the evening Riesle and Hummel go back to the casino in Constance. During the journey, Riesle phoned a friend of the municipal employees, and Hummel once again fears for his life. Once in Constance, the friends go to the casino, where they immediately jump into the action. After a few wins, but also some losses, the hobby detectives sit down at the bar with the gambler Radovan Josipovíc. They interrogate Radovan a little about Mielke again. There are also questions about Gerber or the Blue Heroes .

The next day makes Hubertus difficult. Due to the lack of sleep due to the previous night, he is completely drained for the working day. At lunchtime he goes shopping before he finds his daughter Martina crying in the kitchen at home. Martina tells her father after much back and forth that she had an argument with her boyfriend, the young paramedic. The dispute was about a meeting for which the friend wanted to prepare and that Martina wanted to accompany him. Peter, the friend, did not want this, which led to the argument. In the end Hubertus finds the young man's jacket, which he must have forgotten. Hubertus discovers a patch on his jacket that identifies Peter as a member of the Blue Heroes .

Klaus and Hubertus make their way to Peter Klingler, Martina's friend, at a rapid pace. When the young man arrives at home, Hummel and Riesle overhear the young man's conversation. Shortly afterwards, he gets on his motorcycle and drives towards Schwenningen. He stops at the Helios Arena. Hobby detectives Klaus and Hubertus watch Peter Klingler as he pulls out a weapon and disappears in the direction of Schwenninger Moos .

Very soon it turns out that Klingler was meeting with Hummel's teacher colleague Ziegler. He owed the young man and the Blue Heroes around fifty thousand euros. The two men still discuss a little while Hummel and Riesle hide in the nearby bushes. The discussion turns out that Ziegler had commissioned the murder of Mielke. When Hubertus' cell phone rings, the two secret doors are alarmed and look around frantically. Hummel and Riesle, on the other hand, crawl out of their hiding place and want to surrender when suddenly the Schwenninger Wild Wings team jogs past during their evening running training. After Hummel and Riesle shout for help, the players come to their aid, who pounce on Klingler.

Hummel and Riesle, both with big blue eyes, come to the Schwenningen ice stadium with Martina and their buddy Burgbacher to watch the last game of the Schwenninger Wild Wings against the rivals from Ravensburg. During the break in play, the friends tell the story of how Peter Klingler got the Mielke murder assignment and why Ziegler wanted Mielke's death in the first place. The story ends with the victory of the Schwenninger Wild Wings, which promotes the ice hockey club to the DEL.

characters

Hubertus Hummel

Hubertus Hummel is one of the protagonists in the story. He is a history and German teacher at a grammar school in Villingen-Schwenningen . He lives separately from his wife Elke, while their daughter Martina lives with Hubertus. Hummel is also a slightly more corpulent man with about 90 kg in weight. One of his passions is the SERC, the ice hockey club of the Schwenninger Wild Wings . He likes to go to their games with his friend Klaus Riesle. In the course of the story, Hubertus resolves to solve the murder of his teacher colleague Mielke, who was shot during a game by the Schwenninger Wild Wings.

Klaus Riesle

Klaus Riesle is another protagonist in the story of Hummel's first case. He is a sports journalist for the Schwarzwälder Kurier and is not afraid to dig into a story. After Herbert Mielke was shot at an ice hockey game by the Schwenninger Wild Wings , Riesle took on the task of making this story big. With his buddy Hubertus Hummel he sets out to solve the murder case, and they often find themselves in dubious circles.

Herbert Mielke

Herbert Mielke is, in some ways, also a main character in Hummel's first case. He is shot dead in a final ice hockey game between the Schwenninger Wild Wings and their rival from Ravensburg . Now the ambitious journalist Riesle and Mielke's teacher colleague Hummel are investigating to solve the murder of Mielke. It quickly becomes clear that Mielke was not the middle-class man he looked like.

Chief Detective Stefan Müller

Stefan Müller is a slim detective chief inspector of the Villingen-Schwenningen criminal investigation department . He wears wire glasses and treats his cases very objectively and somewhat cautiously. Together with his partner Winterhalter, he investigates the Mielke murder case, with the hobby detectives Hummel and Riesle occasionally standing in the way.

Chief Detective Winterhalter

Chief Detective Winterhalter is Stefan Müller's partner and also works for the Villingen-Schwenningen criminal investigation department . Winterhalter is described as rather rounded and very rustic, which is clear from his clothes, but also from his pronunciation. The chief inspector often wears knee breeches, a cardigan with rustic buttons and a felt hat, which means he can live out the Swabian language to the full. Winterhalter is also a good-hearted person and always appears friendly. He also owns a farm and also works as a farmer. From time to time he brings his slaughterhouses with him to the Presidium to then distribute them to his colleagues. All in all, the chief inspector is a great contrast to his partner Müller.

Martina Hummel

Martina Hummel is the daughter of Hubertus and Elke Hummel. Since her mother moved out and went to the self-proclaimed star lawyer Guntram Bröse, the 17-year-old has been living in her father's apartment in Villingen . Every now and then - as befits a teenager - she does things that her father does not approve of. On the one hand, she has a piercing that her mother approved, and on the other, she brings male acquaintances home with her every now and then or goes to her father's hangout with her friends.

Elke Hummel

Elke Hummel is Hubertus' still wife and meanwhile the life partner of the Villingen star lawyer Guntram Bröse. Since she moved out with her husband Hubertus, she has hardly had any contact with him. Her daughter Martina doesn't get to see much of Elke either. Hubertus is still weeping a little about the relationship between the two, while Elke wants a friendly relationship.

Kirk Willy

Kirk Willy is one of the players in the Schwenninger Wild Wings . Through Hubertus' teacher colleague Ziegler it becomes clear that Mielke had a relationship with Helen Willy, his wife, whereby the SERC player has a potential motive for the murder.

Helen Willy

Helen Willy is the wife of the Wild Wings player Kirk Willy. The two Canadians have a little daughter together and can also call a house in Schwenningen and a boxer dog their own. There are many rumors circulating that Helen is said to have had an affair with the teacher Mielke, whereby her husband Kirk had a potential motive for murder.

Peter Klingler

Peter Klingler is the murderer and therefore also an ex-boyfriend of Martina Hummel. Due to lack of money and huge gambling debts, he got involved in contract killing. On the side, Peter worked as a community service provider before he was arrested by the Villingen-Schwenningen police force.

Ziegler

Ziegler is a teacher colleague of Hubertus Hummel. Out of love for Claudia Mielke, he commissioned the murder of her husband. Ziegler later also attempted the murder of Ms. Mielke's lover Michael Gerber. Ziegler was also responsible for the false rumor that Helen Willy, the wife of Wild Wings player Kirk Willy, was having an affair with Mielke.

Audio book

An audio book was published in 2016. It was produced by the recording studio "wega" -Music and read by the actor Ulrich Blöcher .

literature