Mr. & Mrs. Bright - The Beginning

Chapter 6

Dani, Jessica and Malcolm skipped over the afternoon's events, though Dani didn't like the idea in the least. Instead, they went to get Gil a suit so that he could be Jessica's plus one for the night's events. 

Later, Malcolm, Dani, Jessica and Gil entered the event hall just before dinner. Jessica and Dani were wearing different dresses, Dani was wearing another she found uncomfortable but she endured the discomfort to keep her cover. 

As Jessica, Gil, Dani, and Malcolm sat down at an empty table, Cricket quickly approached them as if to tell them the latest gossip. 

"Who's this? I don't remember being informed of a plus one." Cricket said as she stood next to Gil's chair, her hand on his shoulder. 

Jessica glared at Cricket who quickly removed her hand from Gil's shoulder. 

"You don't need to be informed of a plus one, Cricket. This isn't your event." Jessica said sternly to Cricket, as much as she wanted to stay for the full week, Cricket was really making Jessica want to leave at that very moment. 

Gil turned to Jessica, he could sense she was stressed out so he rubbed her back to calm her down. 

"Well anyway, it was nice to meet your plus one, even if I didn't get his name. I hope I'll be seeing more of him during the week." Cricket said as she winked at Gil before leaving the table. 

Dani rolled her eyes as she leaned her head on Malcolm's shoulder. 

"Shall we go to the buffet table to get some dinner?" Malcolm asked as he put his arm around Dani's waist. 

His mother and Gil nodded as they stood up and headed to the buffet table and Dani lifted her head from Malcolm's shoulder and smiled at him before standing to join Gil and Jessica at the buffet table.

After dinner, Dani and Malcolm decided to mingle with some of the event-goers while keeping an eye on the man that was in the file Gil had given them that afternoon. 

"There's the woman he was with yesterday, I'm gonna go talk to her," Dani said when she spotted the woman that Malcolm had described who was with their potential suspect. 

Malcolm nodded as Dani left him to mingle on his own. 

"Malcolm, your wife is quite lovely," Cricket said as she approached Malcolm when he was alone, "Though I have to say, I'm quite sure I don't know who either of you is." 

Malcolm turned to face Cricket, giving her a questioning look. 

"What do you mean Cricket? We met at Endicott's charity event, you know 'A Night at the Ballet'?" Malcolm said as he quickly tried to remember what his mother had said about that night, "You stood right near the stage as we watched the ballet performance and that poor dancer who died, coughed up blood on you." He added when he remembered how his mother constantly mentioned that to him and his sister. 

Cricket gave Malcolm a look of disgust for bringing that up, but instead of saying anything more, she walked away to find someone else to bother. 

Malcolm let out a sigh of relief as Dani walked back over to him. 

"You good?" She asked as they walked over to Jessica and Gil. 

"Yeah, Cricket was starting to get suspicious of us but I think I saved our cover," Malcolm said as they joined his mother and Gil.

When they got back to the hotel that night, Jessica and Gil joined Malcolm and Dani in their hotel room to discuss the night's events. 

"So it seems that woman is just as suspicious of him as we are. I talked to her tonight, and when I asked her if he had an alibi for the time of the murder of that couple, she said that he was out with that couple." Dani said after walking out of the bathroom from changing into her pyjamas for the night.