Chapter 3

"The Oracle is in! What can I do for you?" Garcia asked.

"Garcia, I need you to dig up everything you can on Madame Giry," Hotch answered.

"The dance instructor?" Garcia asked as she typed.

"We think she knows more than she's telling us. Also, see what you can find out about Meg."

"Okay. Here it is. Madame Antoinette Giry was born in Paris. Started getting into dance at age four Starting teaching dance at sixteen. She's a very famous dance instructor. She's been the instructor at the Paris Opera House for a really long time. No shady buisness practices. She appears to be a normal woman."I

"And Meg?"

"Nothing weird there. Father didn't want aythinng to do with her so he left."

"Thanks."

Meanwhile, Reid was tasked with interviewing Christine Daae. He knocked on the door.

"Christine Daae?" he asked.

"Yes?" the brunette woman asked innocently.

"I'm Dr. Spencer Reid with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. We are investigating the murder of Joseph Bouquet. We think these strange killings may be surrounding you."

Christine gasped.

"He's here! The phantom of the opera!"

Reid's eyes perked up. That was the same thing Meg Giry said.

"He's always been after me," Christine explained, "ever since I was seven years old."

Reid looked confused.

"Before my father died, he told me he would send an angel of music for me. After he died, I was sent here—to the Opera House. I kept hearing a voice in my dressing room. It was so beautiful. His voice..it can hypnotize anyone. He said he was my angel of music and he would teach me from my dressing room. So every night, we would have our lessons. It was only yesterday I saw him for the first time."

"What happened when you saw him?"

"He took me to his lair underground. It was then I realized that he was the phantom of the opera. The angel and the phantom are one in the same. He hypnotized me into singing for him and he sang me the most wonderful song."

She sighed in happiness as she remembered it.

"What did he look like?" Reid pressed.

"He was so handsome. He was tall, and he had a white mask on. I didn't even know why he wore it. Then, the morning after, I took off his mask..."

"What happened then?"

"He got really, really angry," Christine whispered, "he tried to attack me. His face..oh..it was horrible. His right side was contorted and burned. But then, he calmed down and said that I could find the man behind the monster. We just looked at each other. He took me back to the opera house. Raoul didn't even know I was gone for one full day!"

As Reid was writing this down he asked her, "Do you know his name?"

"No," Christine shook her head, "I only know him as angel or phantom. I swear, I didn't wanna leave that place. But I had to get ready to perform."

"Don't worry, Christine. We'll find him and keep you safe."

"I don't want him to be found!"

"Raoul, Vicomte de Changy," Rossi greeted, "I'm David Rossi with the B.A.U and this is Agent Emily Prentiss wirh Interpol."

"I'm assuming this is about this 'phantom' buisness?" Raoul asked.

"Yes," Prentiss answered, "we think he's targeting Christine."

Raoul rolled his eyes.

"Of course."

"What do you mean?" Rossi asked.

"I didn't even notice she went missing for a day. This morning I received a note saying that Christine was with him and to make no attempt to see her."

"With who?" Prentiss asked.

"With her 'angel of music.' That's when I knew something was wrong."

When the agents looked confused, Raoul took a deep breath and explained.

" When we were little, Christine and I told stories about the angel of music and how he sings songs in her head. I think your...what do you call him... unsub is trying to recreate that story."

"And do you have any idea of who this angel might be?" Rossi pressed, "an old friend or lover?"

"No, but I think she met him when she first moved into the opera house. She was acting really strange after her first performance. She demanded that I get out right now and that things have changed."

"You think she was preparing to meet him."

"I don't have any other ideas."

"Well, if you think of anything, let us know," Rossi said.

As soon as he left, Rossi whispered, "We need to keep an eye on the Vicomte. He could be staging this whole thing to get to Christine."

"Christine goes to the oprea house and meets another man, and then when she gets famous Raoul shows up?" Prentiss asked.

"Yeah. I'm gonna see what kind of dirt Garcia can dig up on him."

"Angel of Music?" Morgan asked, "angel of music? I'm sorry, but Christine sounds like she could be a little..." He made the cuckoo sign.

"Christine is adamant that she met him," Reid countered, "said he had a disfigured face and freaked out when she took off his mask. But he sang a beautiful song to her."

"That fits with what Madame Giry and Meg told me," JJ answered, "Madame Giry said that his face was disfigured and it's a subject of fear. Meg also said that Christine talked of an angel of music, too. She at first thought that Christine was talking nonsense at first."

"She said her father said he would send an angel to her," Reid answered.

"So what—this unsub pretended to be the spirit of her dead father in order to get to her? He pretended to be an angel of music?" Morgan asked.

"That's what it looks like," Hotch asked.

"And Raoul talked about the same angel," Rossi addeed.

"And he decided to show her a different side of himself one night," Reid mused, "he wanted her to know that he was the phantom."

"So taking off the mask," Morgan started, "he's either bipolar or he's very insecure about his deformity and my money's on the latter."

"And he wants Christine to accept him," JJ answered, "he's in love with her."

"So what we have is a disfigured, insecure unsub who's in love with Christine Daae and he'll do anything to get her to notice him." Hotch summarized, "this unsub has gotten a lot more dangerous."