BLOODBATH AT THE RAINBOW ROOM

by Amanda O'Connor

Solution: NYLON

This puzzle comes with a bag of candies. The bag contains:
11 Almond M&M's — 2 red, 2 orange, 1 yellow, 4 green, 2 blue
6 Plain M&M's — 1 red, 2 orange, 2 yellow, 1 blue
8 Peanut M&M's — 1 red, 3 orange, 2 yellow, 2 blue
4 Reese's Pieces — 1 orange, 3 yellow

Or, by color:
4 Red — 2 almond, 1 milk chocolate, 1 peanut
8 Orange — 2 almond, 2 milk chocolate, 3 peanut, 1 peanut butter
8 Yellow — 1 almond, 2 milk chocolate, 2 peanut, 3 peanut butter
4 Green — 4 almond
5 Blue — 2 almond, 1 milk chocolate, 2 peanut

The colors map to the colors worn by bodyguards, men, women, girls, and boys. The fillings map to the last names of the four families: Aglieri is almond, McCall is milk chocolate (Plain M&M's), Pinzolo is peanut, and Poindexter-Barrett is peanut butter (Reese's Pieces).

The key to determining that the candies have different fillings are to recognize that some small candies have M's on them, and some don't; some large candies are pointy, and some aren't; and the text of the puzzle mentions that "each family was filled a different emotion." Furthermore, the first letters of the wedding gifts spells BITE EACH, which may lead you to bite into the candies.

Determine who's left in the room by starting with the entire wedding party and removing the people that the story describes as leaving (one Almond M&M of each color for the Aglieris, an orange and a yellow Reese's Pieces for the Poindexter-Barretts, etc.).

Once all extraneous candies has been removed, sort the remaining candies by type of person (i.e., by color, in ROYGB order), then alphabetize by family name (i.e., by filling) within each color. This arrangement spells out NYLON in Morse code, using small candies (Plain M&M's and Reese's Pieces) as dots and large candies (Almond M&M's and Peanut M&M's) as dashes. Morse code is clued in the last paragraph by the line "signaled to his lackey to dash over…"

Red: N -.

Orange: Y -.--

Yellow: L .-..

Green: O ---

Blue: N -.