Forcing herself to walk over to the police outside her shop and identify herself as Galina Reznikov had taken every ounce of courage she had. Naively she had hoped that if she presented herself to them without any incentive to hide, they would realize that this was all just a big mistake and apologize for the inconvenience, not to mention the degradation, of having placed her under such scrutiny in front of her entire neighbourhood. However, that was not at all what had happened.

As the warrant for her arrest was brought forth and her hands were pulled behind her back and locked together in a pair of tight handcuffs, Galina had felt every last morsel of her bravery slipping away. She'd known things had gotten way out of hand and that she had crossed many lines that she stood have stayed clear of, yet some how she never had really imagined it coming to this. Being cuffed and locked in the back of a patrol car as she watched law personnel walking in and out of her shop like they owned the place, seemed to be something out of a movie. It wasn't supposed to happen to a hardworking mother of three. Yet it was only just beginning.

Hours later had not brought any improvement to Galina's predicament and would be considered for a long time as the worst moments of her life. She'd been fingerprinted and photographed, had her handbag confiscated, and suffered through the indignity of a full-on strip search conducted by an impatient female officer who had seemed inclined to make the entire process as humiliating as possible. As soon as that had been done with and she'd been allowed to get dressed, Galina had been locked up in a dirty cell with two other women. There she had sat, inspecting the marks on her wrists from the tight handcuffs and trying not to cry.

Nobody had seemed very interested in answering her questions or directing her towards someone who could help her out of this madness. She had tried to talk to the two officers who had driven her down to the station. She'd wanted to know where her husband was, since the last time she had seen Dmitri had been when she was leaving him to run the store while she headed to Vasily's school. That all now felt like it had occurred a lifetime ago, and it may as well have.

Nobody bothered to tell her what had become of Dmitri or what had transpired before she'd returned home. They'd snapped at her to be quiet because they'd use anything she said against her and then left her alone to her terrified thoughts while they conversed with one another as though she wasn't there. She hadn't bothered to utter another word since, except to answer the identifying questions fired at her upon arrival at the police headquarters.

She'd sat in that jail cell for what felt like hours and although she was terrified about what was to come next, it had been a relief when an officer had unlocked the barred door at let her out. She couldn't go anywhere but she had been allowed to make a phone call. So, since she was still unaware of what had become of her husband, she had decided to call Yuri instead. He had recently bought a cell phone with the money from his job, which Galina had initially believed to be a waste of money but now was immensely thankful for. They'd spoken briefly and then the officer had moved Galina into a small room where he'd cuffed her still tender wrist to the table before shutting the door and leaving her alone.

There she had sat. Her eyes upon the clock as she focused on the ticking sound and counted the seconds, minutes, and then straight into the next hour. One wall of this small room was a full mirror which Galina was certain she was being watched through. She could feel eyes upon her, judging and hateful, and kept her eyes focused determinedly on the clock instead. She didn't want to look into the mirror and be more of a spectacle for any observers than she already surely was.

"Yuri, it's mama," Galina had not been able to keep the trembling out of her voice when she'd phoned her son.

He had been able to tell immediately that something was wrong and Galina had hated giving him more ammunition to hold against her. She'd already disappointed him enough, just the realization that his mother had broken the law and wasn't who she had always appeared to be. Yuri had warned her to get out, not understanding just what a difficult hurdle that was to overcome-and now impossible. They were on to her and facing the consequences of the line of choices that had led her to here was all that she could do.

"I'm at the police station. I've been...arrested," Galina had whimpered into the phone, and replaying it over and over in her head now only intensified her shame.

"I don't know where Papa is, but he has your number so if he is able to then I'm sure he will call you…. listen to me, you can't go home."

"Where am I supposed to go?" Yuri had asked sarcastically, the scathing tone he addressed his mother with sending a shiver down Galina's spine. "Do you want me to go find your old pal Ganya? See if he'll cop up some bail money to get you out of this mess?"

"I want you to take care of your brothers," Galina had answered, her tone pleading as she locked eyes with the impatient cop standing a few feet away, who had just motioned for her to wrap it up.

"Darling, can you do that?"

"What am I supposed to do with them?" Yuri had asked resentfully. "Do you have any idea how long this is going to take? When you'll be home?"

"I don't know," Galina had sniffled, tears pooling in her eyes. "I'm sorry, honey...I'm so sorry. Could all three of you go to Anna's? Will her parents let you spend the night?"

"They won't be happy," Yuri had replied. Which was an understatement. His girlfriend's parents had been the ones to express their growing concerns about what his mother was getting into. They cared for Yuri and he knew they wouldn't turn he or his brothers away, but he dreaded having to admit they were right and lower their opinion of his family even more.

"Just don't go home," Galina had nearly begged. Last she had seen of the place, police had been going through it with a fine tooth and comb. She didn't know if they would still be there or how things would look, she only knew she didn't want her sons to see any of that.

"Don't worry, Ma," Yuri had said sarcastically. "It's not like I have any desire to be there right now anyway."

They'd hung up on bad terms. Yuri was justifiably angry and Galina could only fathom how her younger two would feel once they learned where she was. However, traumatizing her sons was hardly the most pressing concern in her mountain of problems. She was actually worried about having wasted her one phone call to speak to her son. Maybe she should have phoned Ganya and begged for his help, although she had a nagging suspicion that he had actually been expecting this to happen and that was the reason he had distanced himself from her recently. She didn't know what to do.

Galina could feel the fabric from her clothes sticking to her sweaty back and her stomach grumbled ominously in the quiet room. She hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning and according to the clock, it was nearly a quarter past six. She had told Vasily that she'd make him his favourite dinner tonight to celebrate his accomplishments at school. He'd been so worried when she'd left him at noon, and now she was here.

All she wanted was to move. She felt claustrophobic and was craving fresh air, but she couldn't even stand up. The handcuff that chained her to the table ensured that she wasn't going anywhere. She pulled her hand up and gave it a little shake, the rattle of the chain against the table demonstrating just how trapped she truly was.

"Mrs. Reznikov?"

The voice and the door opening at last took Galina by complete surprise. She'd been sitting there alone for hours. She'd stopped looking for someone to come. She'd been stuck in her own head, replaying the many regrets she'd accumulated over a lifetime. It was ironic how just one simple choice along the line somewhere could have prevented this now. If she'd never married Dmitri, for instance, she probably never would have heard of Ganya or even left Russia.

"I'm Detective Walsh," the man introduced himself. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

At the sight of this man entering into the room, Galina stopped fidgeting and dropped her hand flat onto the table. She said nothing but eyed him suspiciously, drinking in the sight of him. She wasn't at all sure what she had been expecting, but this man hadn't been it. He looked friendly and far less ominous than she would have expected. Mid-to-late forties, around her own age. Detective Walsh was tall and overweight, with a full head of auburn hair and a cleanly shaven face. His left hand holding a thick file folder had a platinum wedding band on his ring finger. Had it not been for the room they were in and the fact that she was shackled to the desk, Galina would not have felt intimidated by him.

"I know this must be scary," the detective said sympathetically. He dropped the file folder onto the table with a thud and then pulled out the chair across from her and sat down.

"I would have come speak to you sooner but I was waiting to make sure my guys had finished their search and had what we needed."

Detective Walsh cleared his throat as he shifted his chair closer to the table and tapped the top of the file folder meaningfully. "Quite a mess you've gotten yourself into. Isn't it?"

Galina balled her hands into fists and then released them. Shifting uneasily in her chair she tried to think back to every crime show she had ever watched on television or article she had read in the paper. She was trying to figure out how to respond or what was in her own best interests. Just because this detective wasn't snapping at her didn't mean that he was on her side. He was building the case against her.

"Listen, Mrs. Reznikov, I know you've got kids at home that need you," Detective Walsh said, folding his hands together on top of his papers. His blue eyes pierced into her own as Galina raised her head to look at him.

"I want to help you get back to them but that isn't going to happen unless you help me. We've been watching you for awhile. We've got footage from the bank, bad receipts, evidence of money laundering through your business. I've got enough to lock you away for ten years right here in this file-and that's before we even jump into what we found while raiding your place right now."

Galina's pale cheeks lost what little colour they had still been harbouring. If she hadn't already been sitting, she was pretty positive that she would have fainted. She sat weakly in her chair, as panic surged through her body. She needed help. She wasn't capable of doing this herself. She needed to speak to Dmitri, ask him to call a lawyer, or find someone who could tell her what she should do. Ganya wasn't going to help her now. He was complicit. He was the whole reason she was even there in the first place.

"None of this is looking good for you, Mrs. Reznikov," Detective Walsh proceeded. "We have records of all the unusual activity surrounding you and your business. When we searched your store today, we expected to find more proof and it delivered. What can you tell me about that?"

"I want to speak to my husband first," Galina said carefully.

"To Dmitri?" Detective Walsh verified. "Why do you want to speak to him? To get your stories straight? We've already talked to him and he was quite forthcoming."

"Did you arrest him?" Galina asked.

"No, we haven't," Detective Walsh replied. "At least not yet. Unless you tell us otherwise, that he forced you to act on his behalf, all the fraudulent documents we have are in your name. Dmitri was very cooperative. He allowed us into the shop without resistance and willingly came down to the station to answer a couple of questions…"

"What sort of questions?" Galina asked warily.

"Mrs. Reznikov, I want to get to the bottom of all of this," Detective Walsh said, with a bite of impatience. "To be frank, I'm not going to be very interested in the petty cash you've been banking fraudulently if you'll help me get to the bigger picture. I know you didn't get into all of this yourself. I'm more concerned about what we found in the store today. What can you tell me about that?"

Galina bit down on her lip and shook her head. "I don't know…"

"You don't know?" Detective Walsh raised his brows at her. "Mrs. Reznikov, I've got testimony from your husband stating that you work all day, everyday, in your store often late into the night after closing hours. You want me to believe that you don't know about everything that goes on in that place?"

"It wasn't all me…" Galina stammered. "There are things I'm not sure of...things I didn't want to know….:

"Well, if it's not you then somebody knows," Detective Walsh pressed. "And you know who they would be. Because you see, Mrs. Reznikov, we did a lot more than just search your office. We found the cash you've been harbouring in the safe, we found your record books...but we also searched the entire building, including the freezers. Do you want to hazard a guess as to what we found in there?"

Galina's eyes widened in horror and her legs and hands actually began to shake uncontrollably, making the metal handcuff jangle. Though she didn't know with absolute certainty, Galina certainly could hazard a guess as to what might have been in the freezer that the police had found so interesting. She wasn't involved in that and never had been. She'd trained herself not to look or question. She avoided the section of her freezer that Ganya used for his own purposes. She'd even given him and his goons their own keys to access the place without her needing to be present. Yet, she was still involved. She'd allowed this to go on and not done anything about it. That was a fact she would have to live with for the rest of her life.

Detective Walsh, growing impatient at the lack of forthcoming from her, flipped open the file folder. He made sure she got a look at the stilled-images of herself captured from the bank's video footage, of the endless pile of papers that held evidence of every illicit dealing they knew her to have been involved in. Then at the very bottom, Detective Walsh pulled out a stack of polaroids.

"We'll have more images developed and clearer for court, but maybe these will jostle your memory," Detective Walsh said.

As though he was a jack dealer, the detective began setting the polaroids flat down on the table facing her. One at a time he uncovered a new image. The bundled objects, similar to the ones Galina had gotten close to many years ago when Dmitri had permitted the Russian mafia to drop off their first set of "packages". They'd remained covered then, but the police had unwrapped these current bundles to reveal the horror within. Unsurprisingly, they were body parts. Pictures of an arm, a leg, a head...all frozen and terrifying were set in front of her. Galina stared at them for quite awhile and continued to shake, until she couldn't resist averting her eyes. She really felt like she was going to be sick now.

"We're waiting for the coroner's report," Detective Walsh said gravely, once he had finished uncovering all of his pictures. "However, we don't have to wait for that to see that these two men have been murdered. Hopefully we'll be able to identify them and give some closure to the families that must miss them."

"This man," Detective Walsh actually picked up a polaroid of a severed head and held it right in front of her eyes so she couldn't avoid staring at it. "I'd estimate him to be about fifty. He probably has a wife, a couple of kids…."

He let go of the image and allowed it to float back down to the table. Then he picked up the shot of the other severed head.

"This man...I don't even want to call him a man because he looks so young to me. What do you think, Mrs. Reznikov? He doesn't appear to be much older than your own sons. He must have a mother somewhere…"

"Stop!" Galina begged, her entire body quivering as the detective set the horrific image back down on the table. "Please...I don't know anything about them."

"You don't know who these men are?" Detective Walsh asked.

"No!" Galina exclaimed.

"What about your husband?"

"No!" Galina said again, with an equal amount of vigor. "Dmitri doesn't know a thing. He would never do such a thing. Neither of us would…"

"But obviously someone you know did," Detective Walsh pressed. "Somebody that you gave access to your store did this. I need names, Mrs. Reznikov. Give me that now and I'll have you home before your children go to sleep tonight. You'll be able to put this all behind you."

Galina shook her head immediately. There was no way. She wasn't an idiot. If she talked and named names, she'd be dead before she made it home and that was nothing compared to what could happen to her family if she betrayed Ganya or anybody connected to him.

"I understand that you are afraid," Detective Walsh said more gently. "But if you help me then I will help you…"

"You can't help me…" Galina whispered.

"I don't think you killed these men," Detective Walsh said.

"I didn't."

"But what else am I to assume when the bodies were found in your store and you won't tell me who put them there?"

Galina had no answer to this question, although the detective didn't seem to expect one from her. He slowly began to gather up his photographs, one by one, taking care to ensure that she got a glimpse of each one before he stacked them.

"We're aware of a lot of seedy activity happening in this city," Detective Walsh informed her. "These two men are not the only victims. I'm sure there are more, just like I am positive that these aren't the only bodies that were stored in your freezer at some point in time. The problem is, we've never been able to nail down the top guys responsible for all this. That's because they hide behind smaller people, like yourself."

"These bosses like to bully hardworking people for their last dime and get them to do the dirty work so they remain undetected and reap the benefits. I know you didn't want to do this. And if you'll just be honest with me then we will protect you, and your family. I'm giving you a chance to do the right thing here."

Galina's hands were gripping tight to the edge of the table and her lips were pressed tightly together as she'd listened to what the detective had to say. He made it sound so simple and she knew that was because they wanted their big fish. She could serve Ganya to them on a silver platter. She'd worked head to head with him for years. She knew how he schemed and scammed because he'd taught her how to do it, how to line his pocket and grow his wealth for him. She also knew that he was dangerous. That even if Ganya had never put a gun to someone's head or mutilated a corpse, it was under his command that these murders had taken place.

"This interview is over," a deep voice thundered through the room as the door swung open and revealed a tall man with a balding head and a small grey goatee.

"Who are you?" Detective Walsh asked with a frown.

"Mrs. Reznikov's attorney," he replied.

"What?" Galina asked in confusion. "Attorney...I didn't ask for a lawyer."

"It's been taken care of," he assured her. "My name is Nikolai Mikhailov."

"The Russian mob hired you to keep her quiet?" Detective Walsh asked angrily.

"How I was paid is none of your business," Nikolai replied. "Now if you'll give me a minute with my client...you never even should have begun speaking to her without legal representation present."

"She didn't ask," Detective Walsh retorted. He closed his file and stood up. He gave Galina a final meaningful look before huffing deeply and walking out of the room. Galina waited until the door had closed behind him before she turned her attention back onto her attorney.

"Did Ganya send you?" she asked breathlessly. The sight of him gave her a glimmer of hope. Perhaps she hadn't been abandoned. Ganya was an intelligent man and if he had foreseen her arrest, known she was being watched...perhaps he had also been devising a way to save her.

"Yes," Nikolai said simply, as he sat down in the detective's abandoned chair. "But maybe I was too late? What have you told them?"

"Nothing!" Galina assured him. "I haven't said a word. They already know about everything though…"

"No, they don't," Nikolai shook his head.

"They know all about the money," Galina insisted. "He said they have enough proof to send me to prison for ten years just for that, and they found two bodies! They know that two people were murdered."

Galina felt like an icy cold hand was wrapped around her heart as the photographs the detective had forced her to look at came back to the front of her mind. She knew she wouldn't forget those images for a very long time. Two victims, and the many others that had passed her way. Those men probably hadn't done anything besides be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or perhaps they had entered in willingly with Ganya until they'd gotten cold feet about what they were being asked to do and tried to get out. Guilty or innocent, likely a little of both-just like herself, Galina felt physically pained at the horrific sight of their mutilated bodies. They probably did have families, jobs, and lives that were about more than just involvement with the Russian Mafia. And now they were dead.

"They don't know who was responsible for the murders," Nikolai said indifferently. "The only way they would be able to find that out would be if you or your husband told them. And you're both smart enough not to do that, huh?"

"But they'll blame me for it…"

"They can't," Nikolai replied knowingly. "There's no murder weapon, you have no association or knowledge of who these men are, no fingerprints since you've never handled the bodies. All they've got is that they were found on your property…. you're not going to be charged with murder."

"But...something," Galina insisted, and she couldn't hold back a moment longer. She'd been strong for far too long. The tears she'd been holding back flowed down her cheeks like a waterfall and as she reached up to brush them away, her progress was halted as she pulled at the binding and remembered she was handcuffed. This only made her cry harder, her shoulders trembling as her lawyer sat across the table from her and calmly unsnapped his briefcase.

"I need you to calm down and listen to me, Galina," Nikolai said, not even bothering to look at her, as he scribbled something down on a legal pad he had pulled out of his briefcase.

"I realize that you're scared, but that's because the detective was trying to scare you with a worse case scenario so that you would talk," he said, finally looking up at her. The black eyes that pierced her seemed cold and threatening.

"The prosecution is going to tell you that if you give them names, they will let you go, but that isn't what will happen. Naming other people is just going to help you convict yourself because you are complicit. Not to mention, doing that will make a lot of powerful people very angry."

"I wasn't going to…" Galina shook her head. She wanted her loyalty very clear so that when this lawyer reported back to Ganya he would understand that she was still trustworthy. She wasn't going to get on his bad side for anything. She knew better.

"You don't speak to anybody without me there from now on, understood?" Nikolai said sternly.

"Yes," Galina nodded.

"You might think that you have valuable information to give to the police about Ganya, but just remember that he has people stationed everywhere. Even working here right now. Everything you do will get back to him. And Ganya is not a man that you want to make angry...at least not if those three precious boys of yours mean as much to you as they seem to."

She looked up at him through her red rimmed and bloodshot eyes. This was not a game and this lawyer was even more of a threat to her than the authorities that had threatened to lock her up in prison for years. She'd made the choices that had led her to here, but her hands had always seemed tied down with the impossible. Now she really was shackled down in the literal sense and there was no choice in the matter. There was only survival and doing what she had to do to take care of her boys.

"Ganya knows he can trust me," Galina said softly.