AN: I'm back with another Frozen idea. This time it's a one-shot (for sure) and it's an AU but with Anna as a reporter and Elsa as a woman arrested for committing a crime but claims she is innocent of it, forcing Anna to investigate the circumstances behind the crime and Elsa's arrest because there's the possibility she was innocent. Again, Frozen isn't owned by me.
Anna Summers was one of the greatest reporters for the Arendelle Gazette, okay, maybe NOT the greatest, but one of the most talented. And today, they hit the big one. A crime was committed off of 43rd Street and the only witness had been arrested for it and taken into custody, proclaiming her innocence the whole time. Naturally, since she was found at the scene of the crime, it was assumed she did it. Her boss, Kristoff, wanted the inside scoop on why the woman committed the crime because he, for one, didn't believe her as he was aware many people use that 'I'm innocent' excuse and it turns out they DID do the crime to begin with.
"I don't know, Kristoff. From what was said about her, she doesn't look like the type who would do something that horrible", Anna said.
"All right, Anna. Prove to me I'm wrong and that she didn't do the crime. I want you down at the State prison in half an hour. Get the dirt on her and find out why she did what she did", Kristoff said. Anna nodded, even if she secretly thought Kristoff was being a little too thick-headed about the whole thing because all her years of investigative reporting taught her this one thing: All cases are not open and shut. Anna gathered her materials and went to the prison to interview the prisoner about the crime she alledgely committed. When she walked through the doors to the prison, she was met by one of the guards.
"Who are you?" the guard asked with his booming voice.
"I'm Anna Summers of the Arendelle Gazette. I'm here to see Prisoner #406. I'd like to ask her a few questions", Anna said.
"Sure, go into that room over there and we'll bring her in", the guard pointed to the questioning room. Anna walked into the questioning room and sat down on the seat facing the other chair. In a minute, the guard returned, flanked by a woman in an orange jumpsuit. The woman sat down opposite Anna and the guard remained near the door in case the interview turned hostile.
"So, what's your name?" Anna asked the prisoner.
"Elsa Frost. Yours?"
"Anna Summers of the Arendelle Gazette. I'd like to ask you a few questions", Anna said, getting her paper ready to jot down the answers.
"What questions? I didn't do the crime", Elsa said. Anna said nothing so Elsa pressed further. "What? You don't think I'm innocent?" Anna gulped and finally she had an answer.
"Well, yes and no. The yes part is that you don't strike me as the kind of person who would suddenly decide to commit a crime. The no part comes from some information that placed you right at the scene of the crime. You gonna coorporate with me, Elsa? Because I can get you out of here", Anna said. She stopped talking to see and hear Elsa's reactions.
"Fire away, Anna", Elsa said.
"Okay, where were you between the hours of 11:00am and 1:00pm when the crime took place?" Anna asked, pencil in hand.
"I was having lunch at Oaken's Deli", Elsa responded as Anna took down her answer on her notepad.
"They have good sandwiches", Anna said as an offhand comment. Elsa did have an alibi. The question is: was the alibi reliable? Oaken's was located near the spot where the crime took place and that could potentially incrimate Elsa further if she wasn't spotted inside the deli. The public was already convinced of her guilt enough to have her arrested without trial. Elsa testified that she left the deli at around noon and happened around the crime scene at exactly one but by then, the crime had already been completed but two pieces of evidence were left. Elsa picked up the second piece of evidence, the act which led to her arrest. "Thank you, Ms. Frost. However, I may be interviewing you again at some point if more questions arise", Anna said and gathered her materials in preparation to leave the prison. Elsa would be escorted back to her cell while Anna had another trip to make. She needed to see Oaken to see if Elsa's alibi was reliable and maybe prove Elsa Frost's innocence. Doing some quick math in her head as she walked, she figured that the crime was actually committed at 11:30am, contrary to the intial police reports saying 12:00pm. Replaying Elsa's testimony in her head, she reasoned that again, she could not have committed the crime to begin with. However, this was where Oaken would come in handy. If he said Elsa was indeed in the deli as she claimed, it would be smooth sailing for the most part but if he said she wasn't, it would be trouble for both of them because again, Anna knew that Oaken's was located near the crime scene and it would be perfectly possible for the culprit or Elsa to stop in and grab a bite to eat before the crime was executed. Oaken's testimony would either make or break this case for Anna. When she approached the deli, she walked in and asked to see the manager. "Hi, this is Anna Summers and I'm here to see Mr. Oaken", she told one of the workers.
"Right. He might still be in his office. Is he in trouble?" the worker asked.
"No, I'm an investigative reporter. A woman was arrested for a crime which she says she's innocent. I came from the prison and she testified she was here between the hours of 11:00am & 1:00pm. The crime was committed at 11:30am", Anna explained to the worker, who understood and summoned Oaken to the dining area.
"To whom I owe this pleasure?" Oaken asked.
"Mr. Oaken, I'm Anna Summers with the Arendelle Gazette. I have a few questions to ask you", Anna said, preparing her materials for the interview.
"Is it about the crime that took place near my sandwich shop?" Oaken asked.
"Yes", Anna stated. "Now, I'm gonna get straight to the point. I interviewed the accused at the prison and she claimed she was here at 11:00am as her alibi. I know you're located right near the spot where the crime occurred so could you validate that between the hours of 11 & 1, you had a blond-haired woman as one of your patrons?" she asked. Oaken tried to remember who it was who came in at 11:00am for lunch. He was drawing a blank.
"Name?" he inquired.
"Elsa Frost", Anna answered. Finally, Oaken remembered.
"Yes! I did see her here at 11", he answered & testified that the crime took place exactly at 11:30am but he didn't see Elsa join the people in committing it. She had stayed in the sandwich shop the entire time, leaving at exactly noon, like Elsa had said she did in her interview. However, Oaken also testified that one of the men involved came into his shop as well and his intent was to grab a bite to eat before carrying out the job. He described the man as having red hair with sideburns.
"Thank you for your time and cooperation, Mr. Oaken. However, if more questions arise, I will be contacting you again", Anna said before gathering her materials and leaving, but not before having a sandwich at Oaken's insistence.
'So, Elsa's alibi WAS reliable', Anna thought as she walked down to interview some witnesses before taking down her article. Elsa and Oaken's testimonies were only the few pieces of the puzzle but Oaken's testimony also provided a clue to whom the real culprit was, having red hair and sideburns. Anna next interviewed several witnesses to the crime and they all testified almost the exact same thing: that Elsa had approached the crime scene on her walk home at exactly 1:00pm, picked up one of the weapons, placing her fingerprints on it, which, according to them, was more than enough to cement her involvement and despite Elsa's claims of her innocence, she was arrested and booked on an "involvement by assoication" charge. However, despite the testimonies of Elsa, Oaken and the witnesses, Anna felt that something still wasn't adding up. While it looked like Elsa WAS innocent like she had said, one witness that Anna had interviewed testified that it looked like the weapon was deliberately left behind so that the next person who found it would be the one to take the fall. Anna went home with this information before she began composing her article.
Anna's article had made a LOT of headlines and a lot of people actually recanted what they had said about Elsa being guilty and actually wanted a trial for her. However, other people, like Kristoff, were still not convinced, despite evidence to the contrary due to Anna bringing it to light in her article, because they continued to see the case as open and shut, even when Anna revealed in the article that the true culprit was a patron at Oaken's before the crime took place at 11:30am. However, it wasn't smooth sailing just yet as the reason for the others' disbelief was the fact that the weapon reportedly had two traces of DNA on it: Elsa's and the real owner, Hans Westerguard. Anna had called the newspaper to retrieve the gun and turn it over for DNA testing to find traces of it. The next step for Anna was to visit the gun store and interview the owner in order to figure out the timeframe for the purchase because if the crime was committed at 11:30am, the gun would have had to been purchased around 10:30am which would have given Hans more than enough time to snag a bite at Oaken's around the same time Elsa was there. Speaking of Anna, she was heading towards the gun shop and like Oaken's, it was still open. She approached the front desk. "I'm Anna with the Arendelle Gazette and I'm looking for a Mr. Weaselton", she told the cashier.
"WESELTON! CAN'T YOU BUFFOONS EVER GET IT RIGHT?!" the owner of Weselton's Guns & Artillery had made his appearance and he made it perfectly clear he disliked his name being pronounced that way. "So, How may I help you?" his deameanor quickly changed.
"I'm not here to shop, I'm here to ask you some questions", Anna said with her materials in hand.
"Okay, ask away", Weselton said.
"Did you sell somebody a gun at around 10:30am?" Anna inquired.
"As a matter of fact, yes", Weselton said. He testified that someone came in around 10:00am, demanding a gun of the strongest calibar, not saying what he needed it for, he just wanted the gun. Anna recorded Weselton's interview, thanked him for his co-oporation and left the store. She decided to interview the man himself, Hans Westerguard, due to the fact he could make or break this case because from the looks of it, Elsa was indeed innocent and was merely the victim of a set-up. She was just about to head over to his house when her phone rang and it was Kristoff.
"Anna, they got the results of the DNA test on the gun. They found Elsa's and another person", he said.
"It's Hans, isn't it?" Anna asked. Kristoff was surprised that Anna was able to figure it out that it was Hans.
"Yep. Also, Anna, you were right about the case not appearing as close cut as it seemed to have been", Kristoff stated, explaining that having read Anna's article, he realized that he'd been drawing the wrong conclusions the entire time and the case was actually too far from being closed. Until Anna was able to secure an interview with Hans and maybe procure a copy of the security tape (that is, if Hans and his goons didn't shoot the security cameras on the way into the building to commit the robbery), the case was still considered open and the life of an innocent woman was in the balance. Anna was well-aware that Hans would try and twist his interview in some portions and as it turned out, that's exactly what happened with his interview. He did admit to getting the gun from Weselton's Guns & Artillery, even validating it when Anna showed him the gun, which she was able to reclaim from the lab, but what he DIDN'T testify was that he was at Oaken's at 11, having a sandwich before the crime was committed.
"So, you're calling Oaken a liar? Because when I interviewed him, he remembered that you were in the deli the same time as Miss Frost", Anna said.
"I would never be seen in that low-class place so yes, I'm calling him a liar. This conservation is over, Ms. Summers, you will kindly remove yourself from my house before I call the police", Hans said, adruptly ending the interview, leaving Anna to fill in the gaps herself but unbeknowist to Hans, she already knew it was him who framed Elsa.
Anna's second article, a continuation of the first, was no more of a success than her first one. More people were now convinced of Elsa's innocence, particularly when she noted that "Mr. Westerguard coorporated at first but then adruptly ended my interview with him when I had brought up Oaken's, almost as if he knew I was on to him" in the article, and were demanding that Hans, whose crime record was no secret to the populace of Arendelle, be arrested for his actions and Elsa, who had no criminal record at all, released. Anna's next and final stop was the building where the crime, which turned out to be a robbery on one of the largest banks in the city, was committed. She was going to interview the manager and maybe procure a tape of the robbery in action but if Hans and his goons shot the sercuity cameras inside, getting a tape of the robbery itself would not be possibile but however, Anna wouldn't need a tape of the robbery itself as that was unimportant because what was important was that it was a tape of the stuff that happened OUTSIDE that needed to be obtained and turned over to the police. The manager testified that the robbery occurred at 11:30am and that Hans was actually in the bank before, trying to get a loan of money and when he was denied, that led to him and his punk friends planning the robbery. Anna knew that this led to a RICO case as a RICO case means every individual can be tried on the same count if it was all tied together and luckily, it was. "Thank you, sir, for taking time to come and talk with me about this. I'm pretty sure this was such a blow to you and the bank", Anna said.
"Yes, it was. With our high-tech security, I'm surprised at how those punks were able to just get inside", the manager elaborated.
"How did they get inside with all that machinery?" Anna inquired and the manager answered that question, testifying that one of Hans' goons shot a motion sensor which, if the firearm was aimed exactly right, could be destroyed if shot properly as to not impede the job. The manager also revealed that Hans and his goons shot several security cameras during the robbery itself to avoid facial recognition. Anna was writing all of this down in earnest. "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, is there a video of what happened outside before this happened?" she inquired.
"Yes, there is", the manager said. "Would you like to see it?"
"Not here", Anna said. "Can I have a copy of it, please?"
"Sure", the manager procured the tape and gave it to Anna, with the promise the tape will be returned. When she returned home, she popped the tape into the VCR and sat down to watch it. In the tape, one of Hans' goons was decipted shooting the motion sensor to disable it, like the manager said he did. He then motioned to Hans whom, Anna observed on screen, came in from the direction someone coming from Oaken's would have taken. Oaken himself was right, Hans HAD been at Oaken's Deli. The boys armed themselves and went in to commit the robbery. Time passed for a little bit then Hans and his goons came outside, with the amount of money Hans was denied. However, while the goons took off immediately, Hans smirked at the security camera, dropped his bag of dough, took out the gun and dropped it as well before taking off, leaving the bag of money and the gun at the scene of the crime. Time passed before Elsa had showed up and picked up the gun, which led to her own arrest with the justification being she was caught on-camera and red-handed, the police ignoring her pleas of "I'm innocent!" as she was being led away, not even bothering to investigate the matter. Elsa was right all along. She was innocent. Before publishing her final article and before turning the tape over to the police, Anna decided to interview the police chief himself and get the dirt on what really went down. The police chief himself testified that the cops who arrested Elsa were bribed by Hans to get the first person who happened upon the money and gun with strict instructions not to even investigate the matter, just bring them in and book them before the robbery commenced. Anna took this down and in fairness, she was not happy about how the cops handled it. To her, it was the matter of principles and honesty being destroyed when somebody comes along offering a quick buck. "Sir, thank you for your time but you may wanna see this first before you do anything further", Anna said and placed something on his desk. It was the tape that Anna herself had viewed prior to coming to the police department for the interview. The chief viewed the tape and to say he was in shock was an understatement. As a matter of fact, he was outraged. He would deal with the traitorous cops later but right now, he needed to fix what was wrong. He summoned Elsa's guard. "Release Miss Frost at once. She was set up to take the fall for this robbery", he explained. The guard rushed off to release Elsa.
Anna's third article was again the same success as the first two and this time, the right actions were taken. Due to Anna's actions, Hans and his goons were arrested for the robbery and also for the set-up gambit and Elsa was cleared of all charges and released. The traitorous cops were also arrested as well, due to their actions of accepting the bribe from Hans to look the other way and busting a perfectly innocent woman for a crime she clearly didn't commit. Elsa remained grateful to Anna for proving her innocence, eventually becoming friends with her in the process. Elsa returned to her life while Anna kept reporting for the Gazette. It was a happy ending for all and the tangle of trouble was finally straightened out.
AN: That's it! That's it! That's the end of my first Crime Reporter!AU. What I was trying to get across in the story is that not all cases are open and shut (intially Kristoff and the public are convinced of Elsa's guilt at first but the more Anna uncovers causes them to rethink their stance). R&R!