As he had told the Vicomte, Inspector Thierry had been able to send an inspector to the Opera Populaire the next day. Inspector Michel was young and a naturally shy man, who was obviously intimidated upon first meeting with the Vicomte and Messieurs Andre and Firmin who wanted him to do everything necessary to find Christine and not to anything to draw further attention to the theatre respectively. Despite this he genuinely wanted to find Christine and had stood his ground when Raoul had tried to send him back to Inspector Thierry, saying that he wanted someone with experience. The young inspector had explained that he had worked with the Sûreté for the past eight years and that he had been involved in solving dozens of cases. He had also explained that if the Vicomte refused to cooperate with him, Inspector Thierry was extremely unlikely to send anyone else.

Meg had been watching the confrontation between the Vicomte, the managers and the inspector from a balcony above the foyer and had silently cheered the inspector on. She felt that Inspector Michel would do everything he could to find Christine, not because it was his job, but because he genuinely wanted to see Christine returned home safely.

After Raoul explained that they had already searched the theatre for any signs of Christine the inspector had thanked him and conducted his own more focused search. Once he had briefly questioned the Vicomte, the managers, Meg and her mother, the performers from that night and anyone else that Christine was close to he had conducted his own search. He spent a good part of the afternoon searching and once Meg had finished her lessons for the afternoon she started discreetly following him, watching him as he conducted his search. Raoul was less discrete, constantly questioning Inspector Michel and challenging his methods. From their conversation Meg learned what sort of evidence the inspector was looking for and that there were methods to searching a room so that nothing was missed.

Whilst he didn't have much time Inspector Michel tried to talk to as many people as possible in the theatre. As Meg was ushering the youngest ballet rats to their dormitory to get settled for the night he had approached her and asked if he could talk to the girls. Although Meg was reluctant to have the girls caught up in the matter, she had agreed on the off chance that one of them might have seen something that would help.

When the day drew to a close Inspector Michel gathered the Vicomte and the managers in Monsieur Andre's office. He regretted to inform that that he had not been able to find any evidence in the theatre as to where Mademoiselle Daae had gone. It gave Raoul some small comfort to know that it was unlikely that Christine had been physically harmed in the theatre. The inspector promised that this would not be the end of the investigation and that in the next few days he would start searching for witnesses in the streets surrounding the theatre.

Initially Inspector Michel was coming to the theatre or the de Chagny estate to inform the Vicomte of his progress every few days, but it very quickly dropped back to once a week. There were only so many times he could tell the Vicomte that there was no news or no evidence and that no one had seen Christine on the night on Don Juan Triumphant after she was taken from the stage, or any night since. She had simply vanished. Although from what the inspector had been told he didn't believe that Christine was the kind of young woman who would run away, there was no evidence one way or the other.

Rather than deterring the Vicomte however, the lack of news only fuelled his desire to find Christine. He was now convinced that the Sûreté were incompetent and that he was the only who was capable of finding her and thus dedicated his days to it. Much to Philippe's despair Raoul started to entirely neglect his family obligations as he spent all day either in the theatre or the surrounding areas. Despite the searches conducted by both the people who worked at the Opera Populaire and the inspector he still repeatedly combed over every inch of the theatre, hoping that there would be something that they missed.

Although the managers still hadn't decided what they were going to perform next, hoping that the gossip and rumours surrounding that night would die down, Madame Giry still ensured that her dancers would be ready, holding practise sessions twice a day for all the dancers. As well as her own rehearsals, Madame Giry had placed Meg in charge of the newest rats and she was required to take them to their lessons as well as providing extra assistance with their dancing. Although this did not leave Meg with much time to spare she tried to help the Vicomte with his search whenever possible.

All too quickly the residents of the Opera seemed to move on from the fact that Christine was still missing. Although there was endless gossip about the night she went missing and the Phantom it seemed to be forgotten that one of their own had vanished that night. The ballet rats who had been friends with Christine would remember her every now and then, but except for Meg, none of them assisted the Vicomte in his search.

Whilst Meg knew that there was nothing to find in the theatre she persisted in helping the Vicomte. The Sûreté, whilst not having officially closed Christine's case, nonetheless had cease communications with the Vicomte and it seemed that the search was gradually dying. Meg felt that if she stopped searching the little attention that was being paid to the matter would drift from Christine's disappearance to the obsessive Vicomte. By assisting with the search Meg felt that she was making sure that people still remembered that Christine was missing.

So every day during the lunch hour Meg would race down to the kitchens to grab whatever she could eat whilst standing and rush off to meet Raoul. Every afternoon she would madly dash back to collect the young rats and escort them to their lessons before they were all scolded for being late. Once she had let them loose to play in the late afternoon she would return to the Vicomte, searching until she was required at supper. After guiding the girls through the nightly routine and making sure they were all tucked in, Meg would collapse into her own bed, ready to start again the next morning.

Naturally there was gossip regarding Meg spending all of her free time with the Vicomte but, especially for the Populaire, the gossip was mild. There was the odd comment every now and then, but rarely was anything said in front of Meg and every more rare were the comments within earshot of Madame Giry. It seemed that whilst the interest in Christine's disappearance had waned, everyone was still aware that it was very much at the forefront of her best friend's mind.

Not long after Inspector Michel commenced his investigation Raoul started searching the streets around the opera. He quickly learned however that the people who lived and worked in those streets could spot a nobleman from miles away and would demand a coin simply for talking to him. At first he tried to refuse until he found that the few who would assist without payment did not know anything, although they did seem to genuinely want to help. Like the inspector however, he was only able to talk to so many people and he knew that if anyone had seen Christine the chances of him finding them were incredibly low at the speed he was going.

Raoul decided that as the Sûreté was not going to supply the men that were desperately needed to search for Christine he would hire his own men. Not only would this enable him to search more quickly for Christine he also felt that any possible witnesses were more likely to talk to a person from their own class, rather than a nobleman. He was eager to send his men out as quickly as possible and hired the first men that applied, although none of them had any investigative experience.

Meg could see the difference in the Vicomte once he had set his men to work. His focus on finding Christine didn't waver and it was obvious that he believed more than ever that he would find her. So when Raoul told Meg that he wanted to go back into the Phantom's lair she knew that now was the time to tell him about the bedroom that had been Christine's.

She had spent hours thinking about the beautiful bedroom and whether she should tell the Vicomte about it. She knew what the implications of the bedroom were and hadn't been sure that he was ready to face them. But as he continued to search the theatre Meg knew that eventually he would find the room and she felt that it was best that he heard about it before he saw it.

They were searching in Box Five, which they no longer had any fear of having searched it numerous times, when Meg decided to tell him. The stage and the auditorium were empty, so there was little chance of anyone seeing them if he did happen to react badly and the Vicomte was in as close to a good mood as Meg had seen him since Christine had disappeared. She hated to ruin it, but there wasn't going to be a better time to tell him.

"Monsieur?" she asked tentatively.

"Hmm?" he murmured distractedly, intently studying the plaster cornice that ran just below the ceiling of the box.

"Vicomte," she said, placing a hand on his arm to draw his attention away from the ceiling, "Can we sit please, there's something I need to talk to you about."

He glanced back, trying to memorise the spot he was up to, before taking a seat next to Meg.

"It's about the cellars, his lair." Meg started.

"Oh good. I had been meaning to ask you about that." He said, "I want to go down there again but we need to spend more time there. I think we should go on a Sunday, when you don't have to look after your girls."

"I suppose so," Meg said. With Sunday only being a few days away she knew that there was no getting around telling him now. If he wanted to do a more thorough search of the lair then she had to tell him what she had seen. "But there's something I need to tell you about it."

"I'm sorry, I interrupted you," the Vicomte realised.

Meg gave a tight smile of acknowledge, "There's something about the cellars that I haven't told you..."

"Yes..." he urged.

"When you were searching the main part of the lair I searched the two rooms near that back entrance." She explained.

"You said there was nothing there." He said slowly, picking up on the nervousness in Meg's voice.

Without specifically responding to his statement, she continued, "The first room was his bedroom. It was disturbing but there was nothing in there that could help. The second room was another bedroom. A woman's bedroom." She clarified.

"I don't understand, why would there be a woman's bedroom there?" He didn't like where this was leading and desperately hoped that she was going to give another explanation.

"There were items in the bedroom that I had never seen before, but there were also items that were familiar. They belonged to Christine. I should have told you sooner but I didn't think you would have wanted to know when it happened, because of what it could mean. But you do need to think about it now." Meg confessed.

"That doesn't mean anything. He was obsessed with her. He probably stole those items as part of his sick fantasy." He rationalised. "And how can you even be sure that they were her items, they could have belonged to anyone."

"I recognised the items Vicomte, some of them were Christine's favourites and I've borrowed them before. If he had simply taken them Christine would have been looking for them, she would have asked me if I had borrowed them. And the bedroom had been used." At his horrified look she hastily corrected herself, "Not like that," she stammered, blushing ferociously. "But the dresses had been worn; there were hairbrushes that I didn't recognise that had been used. The room was lived in." She finished.

"So maybe she had been down there in the past. That doesn't mean that she went back, not after what happened. It doesn't mean anything." He argued.

"But you can't ignore it." Meg pleaded.

"No. You must be exaggerating. Maybe it was the stress of those first few days playing tricks on your mind. We'll go back down and you'll see that things aren't the way you claim." He said, jumping to his feet and rushing to the door.

"No, Vicomte, wait!" Meg cried out, chasing after him. He needed time to get used to the idea before being confronted with it in reality. Then when he was calmer they could go back down.

The hours of searching the theatre had obviously paid off, as the Vicomte duck through small rooms and into hidden passageways that a person who didn't work in the theatre wouldn't have normally known of and Meg struggled to keep sight of him. She finally caught up when he stopped upon coming across a group of drunks. Meg immediately recognised some of the men as stagehands but the rest were strangers and they didn't look like men she particularly wanted to meet.

"What are you doing here?" the Vicomte demanded.

"Ah, Monsieur le Vicomte," one man said, struggling to his feet. The stench of alcohol wafted off him and it was obvious that he had been drinking for hours. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"Why are you here? Why aren't you searching for anyone who might have seen Mademoiselle Daae?" he challenged. Meg realised that these must have been the men that the Vicomte had hired to search for witnesses after he gave up on the Sûreté. She couldn't imagine what he had been thinking when he had employed them for not a one of them looked remotely trustworthy and had probably never done a honest day's work in their life. She knew for a fact that the stagehands could barely be relied upon to do their jobs.

"Oh but we are Monsieur le Vicomte," the self appointed leader said, "We're just taking a small rest and then we will start working again." He promised.

"What are you talking about?" an older stagehand said, "You've been here since breakfast."

"And all day yesterday." Another stagehand added, earning himself a cuff across the head.

"Have you done any work?" the Vicomte yelled, causing one of the men who was almost asleep to awaken with a jerk.

"Well...of course..." the first man slurred.

The older stagehand spoke up again, "You've been coming here for weeks now. Supplying some very nice liquor to share with everyone as well."

The Vicomte's face started turning red with anger. "For weeks you have been taking the wages I am paying you to search for Mademoiselle Daae, used them to purchased liquor and spent your days getting drunk down here?"

Some of the younger men had the decency to look slightly ashamed but most of them were too drunk to care.

"You are fired, every one of you. And I don't ever want to see you near this theatre again!" he roared, viciously kicking a bottle, sending it smashing against a wall.

The sound of breaking glass seemed to rouse the group and they all scrambled to get away from the furious Vicomte as quickly as possible.

Meg pushed herself up against a wall as the men passed and watched as the Vicomte continued to stand in the middle of the corridor, his shoulders heaving as he took deep, shuddering breaths.

"Nobody cares." He whispered.

"That's not true." Meg replied softly. "You care. And I care and Maman cares."

He walked over to the wall and slide down to sit where the drunks had just vacated. After a moment Meg sat down beside him.

"The bedroom. Are you sure that Christine spent time there?" he said brokenly.

"Yes." Meg admitted, "But that doesn't mean that she ran away with him or that any of the gossip is true. I just think that you need to remember that they did have a relationship of sorts. Maybe remembering that will help us find other clues."

"We should go there, see what we can find." He said, making a move to stand.

"No, not today. Too much has happened." Meg said, thinking that the Vicomte was on the very edge and anything else was liable to send him over. "On Sunday, like you said, we'll look then." She promised.

"Alright," the Vicomte agreed, tipping his head back against the wall and sighing. His sigh seemed to echo through the corridor as they sat there, thinking about where they were going to go from here and what today meant for the search for Christine.