Mr. & Mrs. Bright - A Poisoned Engagement

Chapter 1

Malcolm set the ring box down on the blanket to grab his phone, this was the only time Malcolm hadn't been excited to learn that they had a new murder case.

"I guess we have no choice but to go out in the rain now," Dani said trying to lighten the mood after it had been ruined from the case texts.

Malcolm gave Dani a weak smile as he stood up to put Sunshine back in her cage, "We should probably clean up our picnic first before we head off to the crime scene." He said as Sunshine flew into her cage and Malcolm locked the cage door.

Dani nodded as she started to clean up some of the dishes they had on the blanket as Malcolm joined her in cleaning up, placing the ring box on the kitchen counter to get back to when they finished the case.

A short while later, Malcolm and Dani arrived at the crime scene together. JT and Gil were standing by the murder victim talking.

"Look who finally decided to join us," JT said as he watched Malcolm and Dani walk over to him and Gil.

Malcolm shoved his hands into the pockets of his suit pants as Dani rolled her eyes, "We're only late because we had to clean up from our lunch." Malcolm said as they stopped beside the body.

"I'll have to run a tox screen back at the morgue but I'm about eighty percent sure that he was poisoned," Edrisa said as she looked up at everyone from where she was crouched beside the body.

"Poisoned?" Malcolm asked excitedly as Edrisa stood up and nodded.

"If I'm correct about him being poisoned and if it's the same poison, there's a chance that this murder is the same as a few others that I've heard about through fellow medical examiners," Edrisa said with a smile, though she really shouldn't have been smiling at this very moment.

"So what you're saying is that we may have a serial killer who poisons his victims on our hands," Gil said with a sigh, "Looks like I'll be making some calls to figure out why we didn't know about this before." He added before walking away from the crime scene.

As Edrisa and her team started to pack up to transfer the body to the morgue, Dani walked ahead of JT and Malcolm as they headed to their vehicles.

"Hey JT," Malcolm said once he knew Dani was out of earshot, "I have a hypothetical question for you."

JT raised an eyebrow at Malcolm as Malcolm started to walk backwards so that he could look at JT while talking to him, "Alright, let me hear your hypothetical question."

Malcolm nodded, "Alright, so hypothetically, if you were proposing and the proposal was interrupted by a murder, would you take that as a sign to just not propose or would you try again after the murder was solved?"

JT's face lit up when he realized that Malcolm's question was a genuine question and not actually hypothetical as he had said. "Dude, you proposed to Dani?" He asked curiously, "You should definitely try again after we solve this thing because I have a strong feeling that she'll say yes." 

Malcolm smiled slightly at JT's comment as he and JT joined Dani by her car. 

"Gil's already headed to the precinct to make some phone calls. He wants JT to head back as well to help with setting up the crime board, and wants Malcolm and I to go talk to our victim's wife."

JT nodded as he walked over to the driver's side of his car, "Alright, I'll see the two of you back at the precinct then." 

Dani and Malcolm got into Dani's car and drove to the victim's house to let his wife know he was deceased.

"You know, poison definitely seems like the likely option for Mr. Williamson's murder," Malcolm said to Dani as they drove to the victim's home, "There were no signs of foul play, no signs of a struggle. That just leaves poison as the only option left for cause of death."

Dani parked her car in front of the victim's home and got out, heading towards the front door with Malcolm following close behind her. 

Dani knocked on the front door and she and Malcolm stood on the front porch in the rain as they waited for an answer.

The door opened a short time later to reveal a woman with a child clinging to her leg and her one hand resting on her stomach.

"Yes? Can I help you?" The woman asked as she stared curiously at Malcolm and Dani.

"Ma'am, are you Mrs. Williamson?" Dani asked as raindrops rolled off the roof and down her face.

Mrs. Williamson nodded, "Yes, I am," She said as she stepped to the side to let Malcolm and Dani into her home, "Please, come inside."

Malcolm and Dani followed Mrs. Williamson into the living room and after she gestured for them to sit, they sat down on the couch. 

"Bailey honey, go play in your room for a bit, okay?" Mrs. Williamson said to her daughter as she sat in a chair next to the couch, her daughter quickly leaving the room, "May I ask what this is about?" Mrs. Williamson asked as she turned her attention to Malcolm and Dani.

Dani let out a sigh before speaking, "Ma'am, my name is Dani Powell, I'm a detective with the NYPD, and this is my partner Malcolm Bright," She said and Malcolm gave Mrs. Williamson a slight smile.

"Please, call me Nicole," Mrs. Williamson said as she rested her hand on her stomach, "Can you please tell me what has brought the two of you to my home?"

"Nicole, when was the last time you saw or spoke to your husband?" Dani asked and Nicole looked at her worried and confused.

"Matthew had this big project at work and normally when he has a big project for work he'll check into a hotel close by the office so that he can stay at work later on go into the office earlier and not have to worry about waking Bailey or I. The last time I saw him was Sunday night before he left to go to the hotel he was staying at," Nicole explained to Dani and Malcolm, "Why are you asking me this?"

"Nicole," Dani said with a sigh as she gently placed her hand on Nicole's arm, "I hate to be the one to tell you this but your husband was found early today. We believe he was murdered."

Nicole gasped and started to cry, she never thought that when she had said goodbye to Matthew before he had left on Sunday that it would be the last time she would see him.

After Dani and Malcolm had finished talking to Nicole Williamson, they headed back to the precinct to fill JT and Gil in on what they had learned.

"Mrs. Williamsom said that he was staying in a hotel close to his office," Dani said as she looked over the crime board that JT and Gil had set up while she and Malcolm had been talking to Nicole, "Apparently it was a habit of his when he had a big project at work that he was working on."

Gil nodded as he listened to what Dani was saying while he looked at the crime board they had set up which would soon have more victims than just Matthew Williamson once case files of other victims were sent over to them.

"The first thing we need to do once we get the case files of these other victims sent to us, is we need to find similarities between the victims," Gil said as he looked at his team, "there has to be some sort of similarity between them besides the fact they were all poisoned. Something has to connect them."