Synopsis:
Sarah Paulus, daughter of a local furniture magnate, is strangled to death upon leaving her workplace. The team soon finds out that Sarah had a very active love life and search for the killer among her (former) lovers. Meanwhile, Sarah's father, Emiel, tries to interfere with the case and starts a witch hunt of his own, much to Witse's ire. The solution to the case, however, turns out to be related to a discovery Sarah made at her work.Plot:
It's close to midnight when Sarah Paulus, youngest daughter of furniture magnate Emiel Paulus, decides to end her workday at the furniture mall. As she leaves the store, she gets a call from an (unknown) suitor, who she's meeting for a date. As they arrange to meet in front of the store, a car is seen driving into the parking lot. The next morning, Emiel finds Sarah's car unlocked and ransacked in the parking lot. As he looks around further, he is intercepted by his associate and right-hand man, Raf Persoons, who discovered the corpse of Sarah and tries to shelter Emiel from the murder scene. When Witse and his team arrive at the scene, they find that the victim was beaten and strangled to death. They also notice that the victim's car and purse were searched, but only her keys and mobile phone were stolen. Witse and his team proceed to question the family and colleagues of Sarah: her father Emiel, her elder sister Viviane, Viviane's husband and company accountant Thomas Flieger and Emiel's right hand man Raf. They discover that Sarah was a bit of a workaholic and that she kept her private life a bit of a mystery, even to her family.When Emiel shows Witse to Sarah's desk, he demands that the murder of his daughter gets the highest priority and even tries to bribe Witse into cooperating. Witse, who can see that Emiel is consumed by grief, sternly (yet politely) declines Emiel's offer. As Witse and Dimi arrive at the victim's home a bit later, they find that the place has been burgled, but no sign of what the burglar was looking for. They also find men's clothing in Sarah's bedroom and a secret dark room containing picture books filled with (former) suitors. When they show the pictures to Emiel and Raf, Raf recognizes one of the men as a former employee of the furniture mall, Jan Schepers. As they interview Schepers, they find out that Sarah was a rather clingy lover and that her father considered her a saint. They subsequently release Schepers, as he has an alibi for the night of the murder. Shortly after this, Witse is called into the office of chief commissioner van de Casteele. She warns Witse about Emiel, as he is an influential man with a lot of connections in the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Dimi finds a password protected floppy disc among Sarah's office belongings, which is sent to the computer crime unit.
Later that afternoon, Witse gets a phonecall at home: Emiel Paulus is beating up one of Sarah's (ex-)lovers. Witse hurries over and finds Emiel nearly killing Sarah's latest lover, Rudy Oostvogels, in order to get a confession out of him. Witse decides to bring Rudy in for questioning and (harshly) warns Emiel not to take the law into his own hands. During his interrogation, Rudy admits to having an (extramarital) affair with Sarah, which started over half a year ago. He also tells Witse that he wanted to end the affair and that he had agreed to meet Sarah on the night of the murder to break things off with her. However, he claims that he didn't see her when he arrived at the parking lot and that he subsequently left. As they bring Rudy to holding, Witse hears from van de Casteele that Emiel has requested on the radio to bring any evidence regarding his daughter's murder to him instead of the police. Van de Casteele asks Witse to let it slide, which he reluctantly does.
The next day, Dimi finds the telephone number of Sarah's therapist in her dayplanner. The therapist turns out to be Annemie Nachtegaele, Witse's Love Interest. She tells Witse that Sarah was being treated for fear of abandonment, which explained her clingy attitude towards her lovers. She also shares that Sarah had given up on her dream of becoming a photographer in order to please her father, who wanted her to become his successor. Yet, Annemie couldn't point Witse to anyone with a motive to kill Sarah. Later on, as they're picking up one of the prizes for the annual police quiz night, Witse spots a leaflet made by Emiel Paulus, awarding 10000 euro for the identity of Sarah's killer. Witse wants to bring him in immediately, but is dissuaded by Dimi, as it would (likely) cost him his job. Instead, Witse has a conversation with Emiel and tries to appeal to his better nature. He tries to talk him out of taking revenge for his daughter, but Emiel continues his search regardless, as he feels that he owns it to Sarah.
As more and more suitors are cleared as suspects, Witse's investigation takes a different turn. Apparently, the company accountant, Sarah's brother-in-law Thomas, was working late at the furniture mall on the night of the murder and lied about it in his statement. His reason for lying follows soon after, when Dimi shows the team the content of Sarah's floppy disc. The disc contained evidence of a Penny Shaving fraud conducted within the company. When Witse and Dimi visit Thomas at his home, he confesses to the fraud. However, he claims that it was Raf who killed Sarah. Raf had been defrauding the company since the 1980's and bought Thomas's silence when he confronted him about it. When Thomas found out that Sarah was onto them, he warned Raf about it so he could get rid of the evidence. Unfortunately, Raf got rid of Sarah instead. After arresting Thomas, Witse and Dimi go to the furniture mall and arrest Raf in front of Emiel. When they take Raf outside, Emiel shows up and pulls a gun on them. Witse manages to convince Emiel to back down and brings Raf in for interrogation. At the station, Raf confesses to Sarah's murder, as well as to using her mobile and address book to lead Emiel towards several of her suitors.
