Mr. & Mrs. Bright - A Poisoned Engagement

Chapter 3

Once Dani and Malcolm had arrived back at the precinct, they headed straight for Gil's office where Gil and JT were discussing what they had learned from Brooklyn Macintyre and Taylor Mackinnon.

"So all four of our victims were staying at the same hotel leading up to their murder," Gil said as he looked at the papers they had received with the name and number of the hotel the murder victims had stayed at, "JT, Dani, Malcolm, I'm gonna have the three of you go to the hotel. Ask some questions, find out all you can about our victims from the hotel staff & see what you can possibly learn about our killer."

As JT, Dani, and Malcolm were walking through the precinct to the elevators, Edrisa came running up to them with a file in her hand. 

"Conium maculatum," She said as she handed the file to Malcolm, "That's the poison that was used on our victims."

JT and Dani looked at Edrisa confused, before looking at Malcolm for an explanation.

"Hemlock," Malcolm said as he looked up from the file, "the hemlock plant is highly poisonous. Imagine the possibilities of how they poisoned our victims." He added a little too excitedly.

JT took the file from Malcolm and handed it back to Edrisa, "Thanks for letting us know Edrisa," He said to her, "take this file to Gil in his office, the three of us have some things to do for the case."

Edrisa nodded before heading to Gil's office to give him the file while JT, Dani and Malcolm left the precinct.

Once Malcolm, Dani & JT had arrived at the hotel, the three of them got out and walked into the hotel, JT & Dani looking around the large hotel lobby.

"I'm sure you've spent plenty of time in hotels like this one. Right Bright?" JT said as they walked towards the front desk.

Malcolm rolled his eyes at JT's comment as they reached the front desk.

"Welcome, how can I help you today?" The woman sitting at the front desk asked the three of them with a bright smile that, Malcolm could tell just by looking at her, was hiding her annoyance from the crazy busy day that she was having.

"NYPD," JT said as he and Dani showed the woman their badges, "We have some questions to ask about four guests who have been staying here."

"I'll have to get my manager, could you take a seat over there while you wait?" The receptionist asked as she gestured towards the couches and chairs that were behind them.

Dani and JT nodded before walking over to the couches, Malcolm smiled at the receptionist but instead of following Dani and JT to the couches, he started to wander towards one of their event rooms and looked at a table that was just outside of the door that had copies of event schedules to take.

"What is Bright doing?" JT asked Dani as he watched Malcolm carefully, Dani shrugging and shaking her head in response.

"I don't know what he's doing," Dani said as she looked over at Malcolm, "But when do we ever know what Malcolm's doing when we work cases?"

After a few minutes, Malcolm joined JT and Dani, the two of them looking at him curiously.

"I figure one of these might be useful if our victims attended one or more of these events while they were here," Malcolm said to JT and Dani as he showed them four copies of the event schedule.

"I'll make sure we ask for a list of people who signed up for these events," JT said as he stood up when he noticed the receptionist point them out to someone, "I doubt these events are open to the public type events and you have to sign up first to join them."

After speaking with the receptionist, the manager walked over to Dani, JT, and Malcolm, shaking JT's hand.

"Detectives, why don't we go talk in my office." He suggested as Dani and Malcolm stood and the three of them followed the manager to his office.

After their conversation with the hotel manager, JT, Dani and Malcolm headed back to the precinct to look over the event sign-up sheets and the event schedules with Gil.

"For a man who went to this hotel every time he had a big project at work, Matthew somehow seemed to be able to find the time to attend some of the events happening at the hotel," JT said as he highlighted Matthew's name on a few different sign-up sheets.

Malcolm picked up one of the sign-up sheets that JT had highlighted Matthew's name on and looked for the event on the event schedule.

"This event here took place during a time when he should have been at work," Malcolm said as he handed the sign-up sheet to Gil.

Gil nodded as he looked at the sign-up sheet that Malcolm had just handed to him.

"JT, do you want to be the one to talk to Mr. Williamson's boss? Find out the real reason he was at that hotel?" Gil asked as he tossed the sign-up sheet on the table.

JT nodded as he stood up, "I'll see what I can find out about this project he told his wife about." 

As JT left the room, Dani grabbed her phone to look something up.

"I don't think now would be a good time to search your phone, Powell. We do have a serial killer to catch after all." Gil said when he saw Dani looking at her phone.

"It's important to the case," Dani said to Gil as she looked up at him from looking at her phone, "Well, it's sort of important to the case. Williamson sounds like a familiar last name to me and I can't figure out why."

Before Dani could type the name into her phone, Malcolm groaned as he realized why the last name sounded so familiar.

"Williamson is the maiden name of my cousin Richard's wife." Malcolm groaned as he remembered the incident they had with the bridezilla.

"We met Matthew at the wedding," Dani said as she quickly went through the photos on her phone, "Nicole might not have recognized us because the last time she saw us we were dressed up for the wedding." Dani showed Malcolm and Gil a photo of her with Matthew Williamson, Nicole, and Bailey.

Malcolm looked at the photo and sighed, "Looks like we'll have to tell Mary-Ann the news that her brother was murdered." He said as an officer poked his head into the room.

"There's a woman out here who says she's here to see you," The officer said to Gil once Gil looked over at him, "She says her name is Mary-Ann Milton."

Gil nodded at the officer, "Send her to my office please," He said and the officer left the room, "Powell, why don't you and Bright go talk to Mary-Ann."

Dani nodded before leaving the room with Malcolm following behind her, the two of them heading to Gil's office to talk to Mary-Ann.