-Chapter Three-

When Elsa arrived at Bashful's home the fire had already been put out. Some of the framing still remained, but most of the house was charred and utterly destroyed. Hercules was there to greet her as soon as she stepped out, fixing her jacket in the cold morning air. The sun hadn't even risen yet, but Elsa could tell that there was little left to salvage in the remains.

"Elsa, thank you for coming so soon, it's been a wild night" explained Hercules as he led her over towards the home. "Looks like your men were able to take care of the fire pretty quickly" noted Elsa, fishing for a compliment. "Kind of, it took longer than it should have actually." Hercules made the statement with a trailing off voice. Anyone else would have let it go, but Elsa had to push; part of the job.

"Herc, you said on the phone that Bashful was murdered. What makes you think that?" asked Elsa. Hercules was quick to respond "I don't THINK, I know. All the evidence is there." Elsa approached the smoldering house. "What evidence?" she asked, her boots crunching against some burned wood that had blown away from the house. Hercules motioned to a fireman who brought up a charred gasoline container. "Well that could have happened during the fire right?" Elsa had her own suspicions but was trying her best to play it down the line. Hercules just sighed "We found four more of these scattered about. These plastic containers are melted, if they had been caught in the fire they would have combusted."

Elsa had to pause at that, crossing her arms she took a deep breath. "So this was arson? Found anything that might implicate someone?" Hercules shook his head "Honestly, we haven't had much time to look. Feel free to look outside the perimeter, haven't seen anything yet. We'll let you know when it's safe to go inside the body of the house." Elsa nodded her head and began to walk closer to the perimeter of the house when Hercules tapped her shoulder. "You'll need this" he ordered as he handed Elsa a hard hat.

Silently groaning to herself Elsa put on the hard hat, she didn't really want to mess up her hair. It sounded petty in light of a murder, and it was. Still, Elsa needed to keep her center and the more irritation that piled up on her the more likely she was to lose focus. As she rounded a corner she managed to spot a boot print. It didn't resemble those of the firefighters and so she took a closer look. The boot print was on the smaller size with an obvious steel tipped toe. What made it odd however was the little black specks in the boot print. Squinting Elsa tried to examine it better but even with her flashlight it was near impossible to detect its material/texture.

"What are ya' looking at?" asked Aladdin, which startled Elsa a bit. He had come from behind the kneeling Elsa and his sudden entrance had caught her off guard. "Geez Aladdin, what took you so long?" asked Elsa, more mad about being startled than his mild tardiness. "You know how it is. I'm here to help now. Hercules filled me in." Aladdin explained this as he kneeled down next to his partner. "Trying to figure out what this is" whispered Elsa. Aladdin stared at the black specs in the bootprint and then leaned in to smell it, coughing a bit on his way up. "It's rubber; someone burned their boot a bit. Must've melted the soles of the boot" said Aladdin with some confidence. "I don't think this belongs to a fireman" proclaimed Elsa as she took out her camera and snapped a photo of the boot print.

"I think this imprint belongs to our killer" said Elsa with a little hesitation. "Well then let's get CI to take a sample and block off this area, don't want it mixing with the good guys. I'll also have them run everyone's boots against this one to make sure it's foreign to the scene." Aladdin may have been late but he was already on top of it. Elsa looked into the burned home of Bashful and wondered who would do such a thing. There was no prime suspect at the moment; she was going to need to catch a break soon.

After CI roped off the area and took photos Elsa began to talk with Aladdin. She leaned in to whisper, still not positive that nobody around had caused the fire. It would be the perfect crime no doubt. A firefighter is an arsonist, the power to know a house's weak points and the alibi of being there to put out the fire. A hero of the common citizen. Elsa could not afford the luxury that anyone was innocent.

"We've got to convince the dwarves to get protection with the department."

"We don't have the man power at our station."

"Well get the other stations to help. What about Captain Hook and his deputies? They're pretty efficient."

"They're also as crooked as they come. Killer could offer them $20 and a coupon and they'd look the other way."

"Sad thing is, you're probably right. But dammit we need to do something soon. This is getting out of hand, I'm sure this death is connected to the other ones."

"This is real messed up Elsa, but we've got to keep other options available ya' know? I mean Basil made a good point earlier with Sneezy, I mean maybe this was a guilt induced suicide."

"We go down that path and then we have to possibly let someone die while we sit on our butts. I don't like it."

"I'm with you."

"Got a bad feeling about all of this. I really do."

"Well you can't think about it right now. You've got to appear in court in an hour remember?"

Elsa slapped her forehead in frustration "You're right, I totally forgot!" Elsa gathered herself to leave while Aladdin sat down on a large flat stone. "You get out of here, I'll be sure to take a look at Bashful as soon as the area is clear. Elsa tossed Hercules her hard hat as she slipped back into her car, driving away she look one last glance at the house; then sped off.

When Elsa arrived into the courthouse she wasn't surprised to see it already packed with people there to watch the trial unfold. Belle was making her move to become the chief district attorney and any case she took on was now considered 'big news.' The prosecutor was Hades a fast talking man with an appetite for misery. He was an unattractive, tall and oddly shaped man. He clashed against the raw beauty of Belle whose skirts while conservative in nature seemed to hug her hips just right. It was no secret she used every trick in the book to win over the jury's favor, but Hades had a way with words and was quite the formidable opposition.

The case was nothing special; Ralph Badd was demolition entrepreneur who was being accused of inflicting his employees with bodily harm. It was no secret to anyone that he had a temper so the case initially seemed like a slam dunk for prosecutor Hades to win. If Ralph was found guilty it would make him an easy target for the eventual lawsuit that would be coming his way. Wreck-it industries was already not doing so well due to the lack of expansion in the county, but losing this case would spell disaster for Ralph. Hades had gotten cocky about the trial and let his guard down, and that was all Belle needed to compile evidence that many of Ralph's employees had personal vendettas against him for trivial and prejudicial concepts.

Ralph was a big guy to say the least, he was strong and a bit frightening in some regards. Elsa had not been involved with most of the trial but she had followed it somewhat. She had heard that when Ralph first walked into the courtroom that jury members were visibly shocked by his bulk. Still their view on him had softened with each passing day, Belle had strung together the very worst witnesses to the stand, but the best for her case. These employees of Ralph quickly exposed themselves and came off as greedy, petty and pretentious. Belle had the upper hand; until Hades had apparently shown a video of Ralph smashing up an employee's car in frustration.

This was the last day of cross examination and Belle really had to pull something out here or she would lose a fairly high profile case to Hades. It wouldn't cost her a chance at her intended career path, but it could slow her down. She was counting on Elsa as an expert witness, and also hoping Elsa wouldn't crack under the verbal lashing of her opponent.

As Elsa took to the stand she could feel the eyes of the 'honorable' Judge Claude Frollo trying to stare through her blouse. He always struck her as a perverted old man, he was well respected in the church community but Elsa had heard horror stories from female interns who worked for him. Nothing could be proven and Frollo knew so many prominent people it'd take a lot of guts to go after him, still Elsa found herself fantasizing about seeing him locked away. She caught her mind drifting and snapped herself back into the moment just in time for Belle to begin questioning her.

"Deputy Elsa, tell us about what happened on April 17th, 2011 between you and the defendant." Elsa paused for a moment, her nerves starting to get to her. So many eyes were on her, she could feel herself tensing up and her internal temperature rising. "No, not here" she thought to herself; she was prone to anxiety attacks. Taking a deep breath she tried her best to stay calm. "On April 17th, 2011 I was called to a worksite on Maze Rd."

Belle paced, occasionally looking at the jury and then back at Elsa, it was a soft but serious expression. "So Deputy Elsa, what was the call about? Do you recall?" Elsa had practiced "Yes, there was an altercation between the defendant and one of his employees. A Brad Thatcher." Belle smiled "What was in your official report?" Elsa swallowed "My official report stated that Ralph Badd had been attacked by Brad Thatcher, to be precise he had mud thrown in his face from Mr. Thatcher."

"Did my client retaliate in any physical matter?"

"He only removed the hand of Mr. Thatcher when it was placed on his chest in a threatening manner."

"Threatening manner?"

"He poked him the chest, Mr. Thatcher admitted to doing this and it is in my report."

"So even after an act of bullying and violence my client did not physically retaliate in a violent manner?"

"According to my report, yes."

Belle gave Elsa the side eye, that wasn't how she wanted her to phrase her answer. "Does my client seem like the kind of man who would violently attack one of his employees?" Hades stood up for that "Objection! Speculation!" Frollo nodded his head in agreement "Sustained. You know better miss Belle." Belle gritted her teeth a bit, she wasn't getting the leeway she was hoping for. "Now tell us about August 23rd, 2013. What happened then?"

"I received a call to come down to Wreck-It Industries because Ralph was threatening his employees."

"Did you ever witness him threatening an employee?"

"No."

"Did any employee show signs of injuries due to an altercation with my client?"

"No."

"Now we showed the worksite surveillance videos earlier, but when you viewed them did you see any signs of my client having hit and or touch another employee?"

"No."

"So basically it's a he said, she said with proven prejudiced witnesses?"

Before Hades could even stand up to object Belle cut him off "No further questions." Hades grumbled to himself and then approached Elsa, it was his turn. "Deputy Elsa, there was an omission in your statement wasn't there?" Now it was Belle's turn to object "Objection! He is insinuating that my witness committed perjury and with no basis." Frollo was quick to respond "Overruled, but be careful Mr. Hades." Hades grinned he had Elsa right where he wanted, Elsa knew she was in trouble and yet also had no clue how to defend herself from the coming onslaught. "Deputy Elsa I'm not saying you committed perjury, I'd never suggest such a thing. But you are forgetting to mention that the video surveillance tapes clearly show the defendant smashing up the car of one of the employees who claimed to be attacked by the defendant. His name is Clark Boyer, does that ring a bell?"

Elsa could feel the anxiety attack coming back on "Y-yes. He showed me a bruise on his ribs when I arrived on the scene but I thought…" Elsa was cut off she wanted to explain the bruise and why she didn't buy it but Hades was too good for her to say what she knew would bring the case down. "So a man has a bruise that is in your own report and his car gets smashed. Did you not in a statement to a media say and I quote 'that the vandalism to the car and the bruise on Mr. Boyer were most likely related'?" Elsa tried to get a word in but was stuttering "Y-yes b-b-but…" Hades was already finished "No further questions." Elsa sank in her seat, she had failed Belle no way the jury was going to side with Ralph now.

When a brief recess was called Belle stormed over to Elsa with fire in her eyes "What the hell was that Elsa?! You basically handed over the case to Hades!" Elsa was still a bit nervous and couldn't get her sentences out. "You looked like a scared deer up there! I am absolutely toast!" Belle began to pace back and forth when Elsa finally composed herself and approached the attorney. "Not exactly, the bruise on Boyer, it's too small. Ralph's hands are huge, if you can somehow…" Elsa was cut off again by Belle who was already texting someone on her phone. "Got it, alright that will work. Thank you, you may have just saved this case. Now get out of here. I know you've got things to do." And like that Belle began to walk away while a surprised Elsa slowly backed out of the courthouse, but not before Belle called to her. "And learn to breathe Elsa. Breathe." Elsa sighed, easier said than done.

As Elsa walked to her car she decided to give Aladdin a call, he had to have gotten access to the body of Bashful by now. Aladdin answered his phone with lightning fast speed "What's going on Al?" she asked as she unlocked her car door. "Elsa, I'm with Jack; get down to the morgue ASAP." Elsa hung up her phone and drove as fast as she could.

When she got to the morgue Jack and Al were waiting for her, and they were making direct eye contact with her. Elsa didn't even need to ask she was led to the slab where Bashful's body lay. "Jack was telling me something very important a little before you called." Aladdin then motioned for Jack to speak. Jack guided Elsa's eyes about the burned corpse of Bashful, he was almost totally unrecognizable. His skin looked like strips of bacon left on a skillet for far too long. "While examining the body, I discovered something interesting. It looks like he was killed before the house was set on fire. I found a wound on the back of his head. Eerily similar to what happened to our poor friend Sneezy, the fire was just a coverup."

"I guess the killer thought torching the place would hid the evidence" suggested Aladdin. "Anybody whose watched an episode of CSI would know that doesn't work" joked Elsa taking a closer look at the body. "Basil wants us to call the dwarves in. We're going to offer them protection. Which means…" Elsa groaned she knew all too well what this meant "I'm not going to go home tonight." Was all she could muster out of her mouth, Aladdin gave her a sarcastic point in return "Bingo!" Elsa sat down on a step stool, already exhausted from the day. "This is gonna be a long day…" she whispered as Jack continued to examine the corpse.

When Elsa and Aladdin got back to the station Doc and Sleepy were already there. Doc fidgeted non-stop, the silent walls of the station echoed with each tap of his finger or foot. Aladdin kind of got into a rhythm with the noise, but it annoyed Elsa to no end. She wanted to grab Doc and make him stop, but that would only agitate the situation. Besides, Elsa knew that deep down it wasn't Doc that was getting to her it was the killer and the Ralph Badd case. Just as Doc's fidgeting was becoming white noise Sleepy began to snore. Grimacing Elsa just tried her best to focus finishing on her report.

Basil eventually came to Aladdin and Elsa as Doc & Sleepy slept. "Still no word from Grumpy or Dopey. Starting to get worried. I sent Phoebus over to check in on them, but they both weren't home." Johnson was another Sheriff's deputy he worked the graveyard shift. He was a tall but strong man, he was kind of handsome in a rugged kind of way. His wife Esmeralda was a sharp social activist who had been on both Elsa's side and an antagonistic force at one point or another. Elsa smirked to herself remembering Esmeralda calling her out in the paper for her "unjust" arrest of Ursula a few years back. Ursula had a psychic center and so called metaphysics school she ran, but Elsa shut it down after finding marijuana and LSD on the premises. The church had been pleased with Elsa; not that she did it for them but Esmeralda was livid. Esmeralda believed that marijuana should be legalized and used the case as a lightning rod to try and get a public vote about legalizing the plant. Elsa didn't care one way or another whether the drug was legal or not, but she was amused at how quickly it became a hot button issue in the state.

Esmeralda was kind to Elsa in some regard, not dragging her name through the mud despite several members of the media trying to get her to. Elsa felt Phoebus had something to do with that; he was the only man who could rein her in when she got fired up about something. Elsa admired her attitude and her courage, even when she was on the wrong end of it. She figured it was similar to that for Phoebus, but in a more sexual manner. Aladdin and Elsa never spoke much to him, due to the way the shifts fell together but he was always pleasant company. Basil even followed Esmeralda on twitter and instagram though Elsa suspected that was more for more dubious reasons than her boss let on.

Her boss was currently trying to reach Grumpy or Dopey, but it was another unanswered call. "Dammit, what in the bloody hell could be holding them up?" asked Basil as he stroked his chin. "You don't think they skipped town did they?" asked Aladdin, it was more an accusation than a question. Basil was just about to hail the probably extremely tired Phoebus when Grumpy walked through the main entrance.

"Where have you been?! We've been trying to reach you for an extraneous amount of time." Basil approached Grumpy with his chest out, Grumpy just walked past him grumbling. "I had stuff to do, believe it or not we aren't all scared of whoever this nut job is. I can handle myself!" Basil wanted to say something but his mind was in a rare moment just too jumbled by the anger of the situation. "Alright, let's go over some ground rules for your protection" said Elsa as she began to lead the dwarves back into a room. Aladdin was about to join her when Hermes the local mail carrier arrived. He was wearing his signature tinted shades as he handed Aladdin a stack of bills, a package tucked under his arm.

"Sheriff, when are we gonna hire an office intern or like a secretary? I shouldn't have to do this." Said Aladdin as he signed for the package. Basil grinned "Well we could always rehire Merida…" Aladdin held up the palm of his hand in protest. Elsa chuckled at the thought, Merida was a nice girl, but a bit too rebellious and spirited to work at a desk all day. As Elsa led the dwarves into a room she began to lay down her rehearsed monologue "We would prefer if you all stayed in one central location for the time being. We have a friend of the department who you all can stay with, we'll be there to stand watch and make sure nobody gets in…" Elsa was cut off by the raised arm of Doc. "You don't have to raise your arm Doc. But can we wait for questions until after I'm done talking?"

"Where is Dopey?" asked Doc with a cocked eyebrow. Elsa paused, she had forgotten about Dopey, in the relief of Grumpy walking in he had kind of slipped into the back of her own mind. "I'm not sure…we've been trying to call him" explained Elsa. "You idiot! Dopey doesn't answer phone calls he only texts!" barked Grumpy. Elsa shot a glare at Grumpy that she actually thinks may have got him to back down a bit. "Well let me text him and see where he is" Elsa assured as she pulled out her phone. That was when she heard the scream from Aladdin.

"ELSA GET IN HERE!"

Elsa sprinted out of the room towards Aladdin; she had never heard him scream like that. The dwarves followed behind her, she stopped dead in her tracks as she saw Aladdin holding up a Ziploc bag. Inside of the bloody bag was a severed pinky finger and some sort of gemmed ring. Sleepy began to vomit onto the ground. "Oh my God…that's Dopey's ring!" Doc was nearly gasping the air out of his own body. Basil went to his aid as Elsa stepped closer to the bag. Aladdin pointed to a letter inside the package. The letter simply read:

"4 DOWN 3 TO GO."

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long to post, promise the next chapter will be up much sooner had some projects had to take care of. Please review, Review, REVIEW! Your feedback makes it easier and quicker to write. Don't forget to check out my tumblr blog, the link is on y profile!