Disclaimer: Frozen belongs to Disney.

The house was magnificent.

A three- story wooden fortress stood above him, complete with tinted windows that provided privacy and protection from both the elements and strangers. There were balconies on each of the upper floors, giving Elsa what had to be a spectacular view of the valley and lake below. Situated right on the edge of a snowy mountainside, it struck the perfect combination of sophistication, grace, and warmth.

A castle befitting a queen.

Then again, Agdar hadn't really expected anything less from Elsa.

He paused at the bend in the road and looked at the image he'd transferred from the original land survey map. When Elsa had given him her address, on a hunch, he'd overlaid it on the survey map. They aligned perfectly.

One step closer.

Agdar hefted his pack and started walking toward the house again. He'd had his cab drop him off in the resort town about a mile from Elsa's, where he spent some time shopping, picking up clothing more appropriate to the area and a hiking backpack large enough to hold the Infernal Briefcase. He'd drifted in and out of several stores, checking for a tail before changing into hiking clothes and heading for Elsa's. He didn't think anyone could have followed him, but it never hurt to be sure.

He went through the gate and climbed the front steps, hesitating only for a moment before knocking on the door. He shifted from foot to foot as he waited, wondering what Elsa would say. Their last meeting had been a heated exchange, followed by his cold dismissal. Had she really believed that he was behind her attempted murder? The thought made his chest hurt.

The door opened just enough for him to slip through. It closed behind him, and when he turned, he found himself face-to-face with Elsa. After a brief hesitation, he dropped his pack and pulled her into a hug. She stiffened for a second, then her arms came up to wrap around his back. They stood holding each other, rocking gently back and forth.

He kissed the top of her head as she burrowed closer. He rested his cheek against her hair, murmuring, "Oh, my precious girl."

They broke apart after several minutes, and he held her at arm's length, looking her over. She looked beautiful as always, and more casual than he'd ever seen her. Her jeans and blue blouse were a stark contrast to the suits she usually wore, and instead of her normal uptight bun, her white-blond hair hung over her shoulder in a loose braid. The tears brimming in her eyes matched his own, but otherwise she seemed fine. Safe and healthy, which was all that mattered in the world at that moment.

"Thank God you're all right," he said, touching her cheek.

She gave him a slight smile. "It's been an…interesting several days."

"Understated as always." He looked around, marveling at the interiors. "This place is incredible, Elsa."

Elsa blushed. "Thank you. Come on in, I'll show it to you."

She gave him a quick tour of the house, putting great emphasis on all the green energy modifications she'd made to it. He tried not to smile too broadly at her enthusiasm – she reminded him yet again of an accomplished daughter, showing off her latest achievements to her proud parent.

He followed her into the great room, whistling at the view. "How long have you had this place?"

"It's been in my family for ages."

He tried not to react. One more piece in place. "Fortunate. I doubt anyone would think of looking for you out here."

"It's always been something of a safe haven for me. Even when I was little." She cleared her throat. "Agdar, I think we need to talk."

"Yes, we do. Is Miss Aarndahl here?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

Agdar turned to see a slight, red-haired woman standing in the great room archway. She was wearing jeans and an Arendelle University sweatshirt. Hanging by her side, in her right hand, was a pistol that looked way too big to supported by her thin wrists. As he watched, she made a show of sliding the gun into a waist holster at the back of her jeans.

"He wasn't followed," she said to Elsa as she crossed the room. When she got closer, Agdar was struck dumb by how young she was – maybe even younger than Elsa. She's barely more than a teenager! Her alert turquoise eyes never left him, as if daring him to make a comment.

"Agdar, this is Anna."

"A pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Aarndahl." Agdar offered his hand. Aarndahl shook it with a strength that belied her slender build. "I suspect you regret the day you agreed to take this job."

"Call me Anna." Aarndahl's expression softened into a small grin. "No, I don't regret it. In fact, I was thinking about specializing in this area. I mean, who else would be dumb enough to do it?"

Agdar squeezed her hand. "I'm so grateful for everything you've done to protect Elsa."

Anna nodded. "I think I've gotten pretty good at it."

She freed her hand from his and reached for Elsa's, threading their fingers together. There was something possessive about the gesture, and Agdar shot a look at Elsa. She blushed, but did not look away, staring at him almost defiantly. His eyes found a red mark on the fair skin of her neck, not quite hidden by the collar of her blouse. His face twitched as he tried not to grin. Elsa got even redder.

Well, that certainly explains Anna's protectiveness.

Something in him loosened a little as he saw Anna squeeze Elsa's hand. Anna's face was open and guileless, a slight frown flitting across it when she saw Elsa's obvious discomfort with the display of affection. Unless the instincts he'd honed over the last two decades were completely failing him, Anna cared for Elsa. Quite a bit.

Elsa was harder to read, her face as impassive as a porcelain statue. If he hadn't known her for as long as he had, he might have missed the crinkling around her eyes, the bare hint of a smile as she glanced at Anna.

Had someone finally melted the Ice Queen's heart?

Agdar mentally cringed at the unfair moniker. Elsa wasn't cold. Already reserved by nature, her aloofness had only been magnified by years of separation from her peers, first by her upbringing, and then by the brilliance that put her so far ahead of them academically. Half the Nasjonsting, both councilors and staffers, were in love with her, but no one had ever gotten anywhere with her. She treated everyone with same cool professionalism.

He hated that it had taken a life-threatening disaster for her to find someone who could get past her defenses.

And now here he was, about to deliver some news that might very well end any hope of her having a normal life.

"We have a lot to talk about, Elsa," he said. "Why don't we sit down?"

Hans leaned back in his executive desk chair, ready to put his fist through the computer screen in frustration. He'd been through his general ledger a half-dozen times, and he couldn't find any irregularities that might have caught his brother Gerhard's attention. Hans wasn't an expert in accounting or finance, but he knew enough about both of them to know that there was nothing overtly wrong with his books.

Gerhard could be bluffing – it wouldn't be the first time – and using the books as an excuse to send Reinhardt – the real finance expert among the Westergard brothers - to dig through his life. It would take a real professional, someone versed in all the tiny in and outs of how money moved, to find anything wrong with the way the accounts for Westergard Export Brokers were managed.

Hans wondered how far he could trust his own head accountant, a squirrelly little man named Knut - or is it Kurt? Who cares? Whatever his name was, he had to have noticed some of the one-off payroll expenses, but so far he had said nothing. How well would he hold up under Reinhardt's questioning?

Or had the man had already found something, and reported it directly to Gerhard? Maybe his brothers already knew, and Reinhardt was coming to deal the devastating blow in person.

Hans fumed. Reinhardt was the only Westergard son who wasn't tall and handsome, and he sorely resented that fact. It was a resentment that he'd been taking out on Hans for years. Picturing his squat, porcine brother, his pink face and beady eyes shining with glee from behind his horn-rimmed spectacles, lording over him in his own office made Hans sick.

God, how he hated the lot of them.

But hatred wouldn't keep him from being ordered home to face his father if Reinhardt found something wrong. Hans rubbed his eyes and turned back to the computer. He had just opened his payroll database when his phone buzzed. When he saw the incoming number, he snatched up the device.

"Westergard. What do you have?" He smiled as he listened. It wasn't firm, but they now had a general location. He hung up and made another call, listened intently to the report, then issued instructions in a clipped tone.

"...fine. Keep me informed. We will probably have to move quickly. I want to know as soon as it's done."

"…you're hardly in a position to make demands. Or have you forgotten what's at stake?"

"…I never would have allowed myself to be put in your place."

He let out an exasperated huff. "After this is over, we'll talk. Perhaps there is some room for renegotiation in our deal. Until then, you'll do exactly as I tell you."

He clicked off, then allowed himself a smile. His two golden geese might be occupying the same nest. That would make his task infinitely easier.

He had just turned back to his work when he heard a tap at the door. He looked up to see Margareta leaning against his office doorway, dressed casually in a flowing skirt and blouse. Hans barely stopped himself from snapping at her. What the hell was she doing at his office?

"Hey there," she said with a heart-stopping smile.

His irritation evaporated. "What brings you here this time of day? Not that I'm complaining."

"I have the afternoon off." She pushed herself off the doorjamb and sauntered toward him. Her skirt moved around her in a way that made him think she might not be wearing anything underneath it. "I thought you might want to play some hooky?"

Why not? His plan was back on track, and Margareta was a much more pleasant distraction than his brothers.

He grinned broadly, opening his arms so that she could slide into his lap. She wiggled a bit to get comfortable, and his body reacted in a predictable way. He rocked his hips a bit, telling her that he knew exactly what she was doing. She smiled and toyed with the short hairs at the nape of his neck.

"So what good deed did you perform to merit the afternoon off?" asked Hans.

"Idunn had some hush-hush emergency meeting. Someone from the Royal Council. She cleared everyone out."

Hans froze. The chief of the Royal Archives meeting with a Royal Council member just a couple of days after Erikksen's visit? Coincidence?

Maybe. But he couldn't afford to take any chances on that. It was definitely time to play his trump card.

Margareta crinkled her brow. "Something wrong?"

He recovered quickly, forcing a chuckle. "No, not at all. It made me remember a meeting that I have coming up. But it's not as important as this." He slipped a hand under the hem of her skirt.

"No?"

"No."

He ran his hand up her thigh as she leaned in to kiss him.

It turned out that he was right about what was under her skirt.

Kristoff left the small grocery story and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. They'd spent hours in Gjoheim, questioning the locals and showing around photos of Elsa and Aarndahl, with nothing to show for it. They had now been reduced to cruising through the streets of the resort towns grid by grid, hoping to spot either the motorcycle, or if the planets aligned correctly, one or both of the women.

It would be easier, he knew, if the NPs released the women's pictures into the media. But that move would be way too dangerous, as it could result in whoever was trying to kill Elsa finding her first, since they had yet to identify their leak.

Deep down, however, there was a part of him wanted to find Elsa first, without help from the media or anyone else. He wanted the credit for finding her, and maybe Erikksen as well. He didn't want some Gjoheim beat cop to get to her first.

So what if I want the credit? She has to be alive for me to get it, and slow or not, this is the best way to go about it.

He started a bit when Kai came up, clipping his phone to his belt. "That was Linne from Technology. She's found some property that might be Kjarensen's."

"What? That's great!" Kristoff said. "Wait, you said might be?"

"When she couldn't find anything in Kjarensen's name or under her alias, she started looking at property transactions in this area for the past few years. She didn't find anything in Kjarensen's name, but she did find a property that was owned by a trust set up by…" he glanced at his notepad, "…Astrid Kjarensen Strøm for her only child, one Elsa Kjarensen. A couple of years ago, Kjarensen's trust sold the property to LDG Incorporated."

"So?"

"So…the corporate officer who handled the transaction for LDG was Ingrid Larsen."

"Wait, what?" Kristoff tried to process. "So you're saying that Kjarensen sold the house to her alias?"

"Linne is fairly certain based on other data – or lack thereof – about this particular Ingrid Larsen, that she doesn't really exist except on paper. And LDG Incorporated is a shell company. So Kjarensen essentially sold the house to…herself."

"Wow." Kristoff was a little amazed at the brilliance of Elsa's scheme. If she hadn't screwed up at the airport, she probably could have disappeared for quite a while into the identity of Ingrid Larsen. If she changed her appearance and was careful about going out, she could possibly live up here for months without being caught. Years, maybe, if she moved her wealth into a numbered account.

Or at least until the NPs got desperate enough to flood the Internet and airwaves with her picture. At some point, Sinclair and Chifu would probably stop caring if it got her killed as long as they could cover their asses. Kristoff thought that might happen sooner rather than later, especially since they'd let Erikksen slip through their fingers as well.

"Linne needs a raise. Did she have an address for this place?" he asked.

"Right here." Kai held up his notebook.

They climbed back into the car. Kai gave the address to Kristoff, who punched it into his phone, and they headed out of Gjoheim toward one of the small resort towns. They followed the directions through the town and started up a narrow road that appeared to lead almost straight up the mountain. Kai stopped the car just before the last turn, backing it off the road into the trees. They got out to check out the last of the route on foot. Right before the bend in the road that led to the house, they ducked into the tree line.

"Jesus, it looks like it's built right into the mountain," Kristoff said, peering up at the big house. "Are you sure this is it?"

"With the address we have, this is the only place it could be." Kai frowned up at the house. "It's quite isolated. There's no way to know if they're even here, short of knocking on the front door and waiting to see who answers."

"That might be the easiest approach."

"Aarndahl is armed, Kristoff. If she's there, I doubt she'll hesitate to shoot if she feels threatened."

"There's a garage on the near side," Kristoff said, pointing. "Let me see if I can get close enough to look inside. If the bike's there, we'll know this is the place."

Kai looked around the property. "If you follow the tree line up along there, you might be able to get close enough to cross to the garage without being seen. From this angle, I can't tell if there are upper floor windows or not."

Kristoff started up the steep incline, and began skirting carefully from tree to tree, being careful to stay covered. His gray sweater wouldn't stand out too badly, but the human eye was drawn to movement. Even under the cover of the branches, the snow was shin-deep and heavy, and soon he was sweat-soaked despite the cold. By the time he got to the point where the gap between the tree line and the house was shortest, he was panting with exertion.

Man, I'm out of shape.

He squatted down and studied the house. There were only two small windows on that side, most likely for a bathroom or laundry room, judging by the vents below them. The likelihood that someone was in that room was pretty small, but there was no way he was going to be able to cross to the house without leaving footprints in the pristine snow. Well, that couldn't be helped, and since there weren't any footprints already there, hopefully that meant that no one had been walking around outside, at least on this side of the house.

He crossed from the trees to the house as quickly as he could. Peering through one of the small windows in the garage door, he spotted the green Honda. Fortunately, it was parked facing away from the door, and he confirmed that the license plate number matched the one that Eugene Fitzherbert had given them.

Kristoff looked up at the house. His whole body tingled with the thought that just on the other side of those walls were the two, or even possibly three people central to this whole investigation. He resisted the urge to just kick in the door right then. Take them back to Arendelle City and end his nightmare.

Instead, he retreated to the woods and made his way back to Kai.

"The bike is there. Green Honda Rebel, and the plate matches the number that Fitzherbert gave us. So they're still together."

"It certainly looks that way."

"So how do we do this? One of us through the front and one through the garage?"

Kai shook his head and began walking back to their car. "I don't like that. The bike being there means that Aarndahl is there, and she has a gun. If we go in and surprise her, she may start shooting. And she knows the layout better than we do. Even if we have the element of surprise, she may get one of us. Besides," he added, "you don't have your sidearm, so we're not splitting up."

Kristoff frowned. "I thought we had decided that Aarndahl wasn't a bad guy."

"Thinking something and knowing it for certain are two different things, Kristoff. And it's not a difference I'm willing to risk anyone's life over. And rushing in on someone unexpectedly, whether they're good or bad, can lead to mistakes. It could even lead to people getting killed unnecessarily. I want to close this case, but I would also like to get us – and Kjarensen - back home in one piece."

"So what do we do? Call in reinforcements? Or wait for them to ride off and then grab them?"

"If we call in the locals, the media will right behind them. That won't earn us any points with Sinclair and Chifu, even if we bag Kjarensen and Erikksen." Kai paused, considering. "I think our best course of action is to keep watch and see what happens. If we're lucky, Kjarensen will come out alone and we can pick her up. After that, I suspect that it will be easy to convince Aarndahl to come out as well."

"What happens if they don't come out? I don't want to lose them again, Kai."

Kai opened the car door and turned on the heat. "Unless they go out the back and straight up the mountain, they can't go anywhere without us seeing them. Aarndahl went to lot of trouble to get the Honda, so she's not going to abandon it. She doesn't have a way to replace it. Where it goes, she goes."

Kristoff nodded reluctantly, entering the car as well. "And it can't go anywhere without us seeing it. Okay. We wait."

A/N: Big thanks to Vesfarhloc for the beta read!