"Have a seat, Mr. Gallagher." David said as he kicked the chair across the table back for Carl to sit in.
"Mr. Gallagher?" He asked with a nervous chuckle. "When's the last time you called me that?"
"What exactly is your connection with this man?" David asked, sliding a photo of Meyer toward him, and staring at him with a hard look in his eyes.
The same look Carl had seen him make before, only then it was not directed at him, it was directed at people involved in murder. He was annoyed at first, thinking that he didn't deserve it, until he realized that he did. He really realized that he was involved in a murder, in a very different way than he is used to.
"Uh," Carl cleared his throat uncomfortably, "I... I worked the case with you guys."
"The case?"
"You know what case." He snapped, "I get that you need to do this, but you don't have to act like we're strangers."
Penny nodded lightly as David scoffed.
"What was the case?" He asked again, his tone getting progressively harder.
"David, come on." Penny sighed lightly.
"Let him answer the question." David demanded, his eyes still burning into Carl's.
"The case was in New Mexico." Carl sighed exasperatedly, "There were seven victims, Meyer was the unsub."
"That's pretty vague." David said.
"I figured you could fill in the blanks, considering you were there, too."
"Don't be a smartass."
"Jesus, David." Penny muttered, "Give it a rest."
"Do you like your job?" David asked, eyes snapping to penny.
"Yes." She narrowed her eyes, "I love my job, but I love my friends more. Are you honestly threatening to fire me because of-"
"Do your job." He snapped, then looked back to Carl, "Why don't you tell the whole story."
"Alright, we've got five victims in New Mexico," David said as Max pulled up the information on their computers. "All with multiple stab wounds to the abdomen, and tied up by their hands before being shot execution style."
"Were they tied up before or after the stabbing?" Penny asked.
"Coroners report is uncertain from technicalities," Max spoke up. "but they're pretty sure they were stabbed twice before being tied up, and the rest happened before the shooting."
"Connections with the victims?" Carl asked as he sifted through the existing case notes while David quietly stepped away to answer a call.
Max nodded solemnly, "All young mothers. Their children were all found at the scene as well. All unharmed, apart from the one boy with a black eye who told the police he 'got hit by the mean man when he told him to stop hurting his mommy', and then he was too scared to speak again."
"He made the kids watch their mothers being tortured and killed?" Penny asked.
Max nodded, then quietly mumbled "He did."
"What else do we have?" Carl asked, trying to get as much information as possible.
"Another body." David sighed, "Victim number six, we need to get to the scene now."
"And that's what we knew about his victims."
"That isn't the whole story."
"Yeah, no shit," Carl scoffed, rolling his eyes.
