Claire, Corinna... The woman who is found in a luxurious apartment has two faces. Inspector Schumann senses the allure this woman must have had.
As “Claire Montand” Corinna Berg knew how to cast a spell on men. She meant more than sex to her johns – she made them feel like the men they always wanted to be. However, aside from this illusion, Corinna didn’t let in love.
Schumann meets a john holding flowers in the corridor of Corinna’s apartment building after they discover the body. His sadness at hearing of “Claire’s” death is great and Schumann cannot help but wonder if Corinna would have mourned for him. The man who visited her regularly for years knew nothing about her.
Corinna’s daughter Anna had a sheltered childhood. She never had a father. But Anna wanted to break free from her mother’s yoke and started a family at young age. Corinna was a loving grandmother to her grandchildren. When Schumann tells Anna that her mother is dead she hears that her mother was a prostitute for the first time. She and her husband are shocked.
There are no traces in Corinna’s house that indicate she had a second identity as “Claire,” but Corinna was clearly involved at an advice center for women. The coroner also finds evidence of blunt force trauma that must have been inflicted about a week before her death.
When Schumann talks to the social worker at the advice center, she is clearly very scared. The only thing Schumann gets out of her is a paper with the name Minh-Khai on it. The girl is found during a raid in a cheap brothel. Did Corinna die because she tried to protect Minh-Khai?
Schumann can’t break free from Corinna’s spell. He again delves into Corinna’s past and finds out she worked as a prostitute before her daughter’s birth. Did she really never have a man in her life as her daughter Anna claims?
