Pro photographer Lasse Marquardt, who shot Melanie as poster girl for a police recruitment campaign, is badly beaten into hospital in an apparent robbery. Pre-teen son Max, due for a custody turn in Hamburg, was turned against him by his divorced mother, citing backlog financial support. Lasse was bothered by a disgruntled firm client and go tin financial trouble due to clients failing to pay. He also was shifty during Melanie's shoot, maybe weary of a loan shark. As his studio was ransacked, the team speculates he may have stumbled upon and shot something compromising, now missing, found with unfaithful celebrity Mark Wenske, who was blackmailed.